Platts - Thursday, March 03, 2005 http://www.platts.com ------------ Russia could withhold majority of AAUs from market Amsterdam (Platts Emissions Daily)--3Mar2005 Russia's excess availability of carbon emissions allowances is unlikely to be made available to the world market in its entirety, and in fact the available pool of Assigned Allowance Units from Russia may be as little as 2-3% of the total, according to the World Wildlife Fund's Alexei Kokorin. Speaking in Amsterdam, Kokorin said the draft Plan for implemtnation of the Kyoto Protocol had been submitted to the prime minister on Feb 15, and did not make any specific mention of a total amount of allowances to be made available. However, the plan did offer some alternative ideas as to how an emission strading scheme might be structured, Kokorin said. Kokorin was speaking in place of Oleg Pluzhnikov from the Ministry of Trade and Industry. One alternative would be to base a scheme on the federal budget, but there would be no national allocation of credits on the same liners as the European system. The most interesting idea, according to Kokorin, would be a tender system by which companies would propose projects to the ministry in the hope of winning a percentage of the AAUs from that project. Kokorin said: "The flow of AAUs to the free market coulod be limited to 2-3% of the total", but he said that figure was not detailed in the Plan, and it was simply an idea that had been floated by the Russian trade and industry ministry. The Plan could be approved as soon as March or April: "There's a good chance we will see a Russian document, even within a few days", Kokorin said. He envisaged a Russian system for handling Joint Implementation projects could be in place by the end of 2005, but not before, and this system would be "a window onto the European Trading System." A Russian system for international trading of emissions permits could be in place by mid-2006. Some felt that the restrictions in availablility of Russian AAUs could the precursor to the Russian government exerting market power. The sheer weight of the balance of Russian allowances could exert a massive influence on worldwide carbon prices, one delegate felt, but Kokorin underlined that the 2-3% figure was not specified in any official document. This story was originally published in Platts Emissions Daily http://www.platts.com/Electric%20Power/Newsletters%20&%20Reports/Emissions%20 Daily/ ------------ McGuire-2 runs for unit-record 512 days Washington (Platts)--2Mar2005 McGuire-2 ran for a unit-record 512 consecutive days before it was manually tripped yesterday, Duke Power spokesman Tom Shiel said. The previous longest continuous run ended in September 2000 after 413 days, he said. The unit was taken down to repair a steam leak, but the company decided to keep it down and begin a planned refueling outage early, he said. The standard refueling outage, expected to last about a month, was scheduled to begin at the end of this week, he said. ------------ NRC grants FPL Energy's request to uprate Seabrook Washington (Platts)--1Mar2005 FPL Energy's request to uprate Seabrook by 5.2% has been approved, NRC said today. The approval means the plant can increase its generating capacity from about 1,115 MW to 1,173 MW, or a boost of about 58 MW. FPL Energy submitted its application in March 2004. The company plans to start operating the unit at the higher power level following its spring refueling. ------------ Areva submits bid to supply China with four new reactors Washington (Platts)--28Feb2005 Areva today submitted a formal bid to supply four EPR nuclear islands and the associated transfer of technology for the Yangjiang and Sanmen sites in China, the group announced in a press release. It said the EPR PWR model is "the most powerful and most advanced in terms of competitiveness, safety and environmental friendliness," and stressed the reactor's "`evolutionary' nature." It also benefits from the experience feedback of the 98 nuclear reactors supplied by Framatome and Siemens worldwide, the company said. Areva also underlined its experience with transfer of PWR technology to China and what Bernard Esteve, senior executive vice president of Framatome ANP, called "a long history of cooperation" with Chinese design institutes and manufacturers. Esteve said Areva was "determined" to work with its Chinese partners and customers in "other fields of the nuclear fuel cycle." The group provided no further information on what had been bid or on what terms. Areva/Framatome is competing against Westinghouse and Atomstroyexport for the Chinese reactor business. The EPR, the first unit of which is under construction in Finland, is rated at about 1,600 MW, while the Westinghouse and Atomstroyexport PWRs are closer to 1,100 MW. ------------ Westinghouse receives NRC approval to export PWRs to China Washington (Platts)--25Feb2005 Westinghouse has received NRC approval to export four PWRs to China, the agency said today in a press release. NRC approved a license authorizing Westinghouse Electric Co. to export "reactor systems, components and associated equipment and engineering services" to construct two units at Sanmen and two at Yangjiang. Westinghouse also received a license to export low-enriched uranium fuel for an initial core and one refuel for each reactor. Bids for the project are due Feb. 28. If Westinghouse receives the Chinese contract, "shipments of the reactor systems and components are expected to begin around mid-2007," NRC said. ------------