Platts - Monday, January 24, 2005 http://www.platts.com ------------ Prime minister says Italy should reconsider nuclear option Paris (Platts)--21Jan2005 Speaking yesterday at the inauguration of a new transmission line, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Italian companies are "penalized because energy in Italy costs 20% to 30% more" than in neighboring European countries. Italy also is "doubly penalized," Berlusconi said, because it doesn't have its own nuclear power plants but is surrounded by countries that do, so that "if something negative happened, the damage would come to us." He announced the launch of a government study on future energy strategy, but said the problem required "a government that lasts longer than a single legislature," because that is too little time to implement a new energy policy. All of Italy's nuclear plants were closed after a 1987 referendum. Politicians from the opposition parties criticized the premier's proposal. Ermete Realacci from Margherita said power from nuclear was only competitive "if you don't take into account the costs (to build) the plant and the burden of managing the waste." ------------ Repository needed for growth of nuclear, Bodman says Washington (Platts)--20Jan2005 DOE's repository project must move forward in order to have new nuclear power plants in this country, Energy Secretary designate Samuel Bodman said in response to a question during his confirmation hearing Jan. 19. Bodman told the Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee that he supported the growth of nuclear power and that DOE has several nuclear initiatives that "make sense," pointing to the department's Generation IV and Nuclear Power 2010 programs, which are aimed at the construction of new power reactors. Senators didn't voice any concern about Bodman during the hearing. Committee members will vote on his nomination Jan. 26. ------------ Bush makes two recess appointments to NRC Washington (Platts)--19Jan2005 President George W. Bush made two recess appointments to the NRC today, filling seats that had been open on the commission since April and July 2003. As expected, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid's (D-Nev.) science policy adviser Gregory Jaczko was named to one of the positions. But the appointment of Pete Lyons, the nuclear policy adviser to Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-N.M.), was made after the White House scrambled to find a replacement to retired Vice Adm. Albert Konetzni Jr., who reportedly withdrew his name because of concerns about the temporary nature of the position and questions over when he would be tapped for the NRC chairmanship. Jaczko and Konetzni were nominated Jan. 4 and expected to be appointed as a pair. The nuclear industry has opposed Jaczko's appointment, but Bush was upholding a deal he made with Reid in November to put Jaczko on the commission in exchange for Reid lifting his hold on more than 100 presidential appointees. The recess appointments expire at the end of the Senate's next session in 2006. ------------ BE mulls five-year plant life extension for 1,110-MW Dungeness B Washington (Platts)--19Jan2005 British Energy might seek to run its 1,110MW Dungeness B nuclear power plant an extra five years beyond the station's estimated closure date of 2008, BE said Tuesday. BE's oldest and worst-performing advanced gas-cooled reactor plant underwent a massive maintenance and improvement program in 2000/2001 "which has since paid dividends in output," BE spokesman John McNamara said. In 2004, it cleared its costs and ended up GBP34-mil ($64-mil cash positive, he said. Its output reached 6.66TWh, an increase of more than 35% than it averaged over the previous few years. BE started its technical evaluation of the station's life extension before the company's financial collapse in early fall 2002. BE completed its financial restructuring Jan 14. McNamara said the life extension work, "especially the financial implications of the project," has now restarted. BE will make a decision on life extension in the "second half of 2005," he said. Construction of Dungeness B started in 1965, but commercial operations did not begin until 1983. This story was originally published in Platts European Power Alert http://www.europeanpoweralert.platts.com ------------ NRC rules depleted uranium can be considered low-level waste Washington (Platts)--18Jan2005 The NRC commission today handed LES a victory when it ruled that depleted uranium produced at the Urenco-led enrichment consortium's proposed New Mexico enrichment plant can be considered low-level waste. This means that DOE, if requested, would have a legal obligation under the 1996 USEC Privatization Act to accept the depleted uranium for disposal. This would constitute a "plausible strategy" for disposing of depleted uranium and undercut a key challenge to the construction of the New Mexico plant. Intervenors Public Citizen and the Nuclear Information & Resource Service had argued that depleted uranium was radioactive enough to require burial in a deep geologic repository. Even if that were true, the commission said, depleted uranium would still be considered low-level waste, thus triggering DOE's obligations. LES has said, however, that it is pursuing a private-sector solution and does not anticipate making any disposal requests to DOE. The plausibility of LES' private disposal option is still before a licensing board. ------------