Platts - Tuesday, January 18, 2005 

http://www.platts.com

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Dominion switches to GE for COL license application help

Washington (Platts)--14Jan2005

Dominion has dropped Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. (AECL) and Hitachi America
and picked up General Electric (GE) as a partner to help develop a combined
construction permit-operating license (COL) application, a Dominion spokesman
said today. The consortium that Dominion established last year had included
AECL subsidiary AECL Technologies Inc., Hitachi America, and Bechtel Power
Corp. Dominion decided to switch vendors because NRC staff had indicated that
it would take significant time and resources to complete the design
certification review for AECL's Advanced Candu reactor, the ACR-700, which
uses both LWR and heavy-water technologies, said spokesman Rick Zuercher.
Although GE's Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor is only starting the
design certification process, the reactor uses LWR technology that NRC is
familiar with, Zuercher said. Bechtel will remain a partner in the
Dominion-led consortium.

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State regulators agree to review Dominion's Kewaunee bid

Washington (Platts)--13Jan2005

State regulators have agreed to review Dominion's revised bid for Kewaunee,
after rejecting the original $220-million deal last month. The Public Service
Commission of Wisconsin said today that it "plans to issue an order that will
establish the issues in the case" and schedule briefings and oral arguments.
In a Dec. 16 decision, the commission voted 2-1 to bar two Wisconsin utilities
from selling Kewaunee to Dominion. Today's decision to reconsider the sale was
unanimous. Dominion and the utilities requested reconsideration last month,
offering additional stipulations to the sale to address commission concerns.

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Contract signed for Ignalina spent fuel storage

Stockholm (Platts)--12Jan2005

Management at Lithuania's Ignalina signed a contract today worth 92.7-million
litas (U.S.$31-million) with Gesellschaft fuer Nuklear-Service and RWE Nukem
for the first phase of a three-stage spent fuel storage program. The project
is being financed by the decommissioning fund for Ignalina administered by the
European Bank for Reconstruction & Development. The 1,500-MW RBMK was
permanently shut Dec. 31. Fuel will remain in the reactor's core until 2008
when storage is scheduled to be ready.

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Exelon names new chief operating officer

Washington (Platts)--11Jan2005

Charles "Chip" Pardee has been named chief operating officer of Exelon
Nuclear, the company announced today. Pardee was formerly Exelon's senior vice
president of engineering and technical services. Exelon executives promoted to
senior vice president today include: Richard Lopriore, who will be responsible
for Peach Bottom, Limerick, and Three Mile Island; Michael Pacilio, who will
oversee Braidwood, Byron, LaSalle, Clinton, Quad Cities, and Dresden; and
Robert Hovey, who will be responsible for Exelon nuclear fleet operations such
as outage management, radiation protection, maintenance, and security. Bob
Svaleson will be director of nuclear oversight. Plant managers Keith Polson
and Susan Landahl will be promoted to site vice presidents at Braidwood and
LaSalle, respectively.

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