Platts - Wednesday, February 16, 2005 http://www.platts.com ------------ Despite $26-million in outage costs, Perry's 2004 income up Washington (Platts)--15Feb2005 Perry's outage earlier this year cost FirstEnergy about $26-million, Chief Financial Officer Richard Marsh estimated today. During a conference call dealing primarily with FirstEnergy Corp.'s 2004 earnings, Marsh said the "rule of thumb" for a plant of Perry's size is that the costs are about $1-million per day. The 1,311-MW BWR was out of service for 26 days after shutting down Jan. 6 because its reactor recirculation pumps unexpectedly slowed down. For 2004, FirstEnergy reported net income of $878.2-million, or $2.68 per share, compared with $422.8-million, or $1.39/share for 2003. Those figures include special items, including costs associated with the extended shutdown of Davis-Besse, which ended last spring. ------------ State regulators consider escrow accounts for nuclear waste fees Washington (Platts)--15Feb2005 The National Assn of Regulatory Utility Commissioners is considering establishing escrow accounts to hold money that utilities with nuclear power plants now pay into the US government's Nuclear Waste Fund, a NARUC official said Monday. NARUC Nuclear Programs Director Brian O'Connell said states have grown weary of waiting for DOE to take spent nuclear fuel from storage facilities at nuclear power plants around the US. Under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, utilities are contractually obligated to send one-tenth of 1 cts/kWh of nuclear power generation to NWF to pay for the cost of developing a a high-level waste repository. The law also obligated the US Dept of Energy to begin taking the waste in 1998, a deadline the agency has still not met. The fund now has a balance of $14-bil and the proposed repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada will not open until at least 2012, according to DOE. This story was originally published in Platts Natural Gas Alert http://www.naturalgasalert.platts.com ------------ White House formally nominates Lyons and Jaczko to NRC Washington (Platts)--14Feb2005 The White House formally nominated Pete Lyons and Gregory Jaczko to the NRC today. This is the third time Jaczko's nomination has been sent to the Senate. President George W. Bush sent Jaczko's name last February, but the nomination wasn't acted upon because the other pending NRC candidate, retired Vice Adm. John Grossenbacher, asked that his nomination be withdrawn. The two nominations were to have been considered together by the Senate. Jaczko's name was submitted Jan. 4 to the new 109th Congress, but this time paired with Albert Konetzni Jr., another retired Navy officer who turned down the post just days later. Bush made Jaczko and Lyons recess appointments to the NRC on Jan. 19, which means their nominations had to be submitted by March 1 for them to be paid and, if not confirmed, they can only serve until the end of the Senate session in 2006. Lyons was science advisor to Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) and Jaczko was a science policy advisor to Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.). ------------