Platts - Wednesday, March 09, 2005 http://www.platts.com ------------ Areva operating income up in 2004 Paris (Platts)--8Mar2005 Areva's net income rose 10% in 2004 to 428-million euros (U.S.$569-million at current rates), largely due to a 79% hike in operating income, the Paris-based group reported today. Its operating margin stood at 5.5%, compared to 4.1% in 2003, exceeding analysts' expectations. Areva Chairman Anne Lauvergeon said the results reflect successful recovery of the troubled Connectors business and "good performance" of Areva's core nuclear business, which achieved a margin of 8.8% of sales, a full percentage point higher than in 2003. The group still has a net cash position of Eur 689-million after paying for its acquisition of Alstom's Transmission & Distribution (T&D) division last year. Net income and operating income are expected to decrease in 2005 due to restructuring expenses associated with the integration of T&D, she said. ------------ EU looks for political solution to ITER nuke fusion stalemate Brussels (Platts)--8Mar2005 The European Union is still in intense negotiations with Japan to agree the site of the next generation nuclear fusion project known as ITER, EU research commissioner Janez Potocnik said Monday at a meeting of the EU competitiveness council. "It is time we raised our debate to a political level as that is only way to get a quick solution," said Potocnik. "We still hope to receive a clear signal from Japan indicating a genuine willingness to reach a political agreement." A quick political agreement was possible, he believed, as all the technical details were now quite clear between the parties. The EU hopes to convince Japan to drop its rival bid to host ITER at Rokkashomura by offering it a "privileged role" in building and operating ITER at Cadarache in France. The EU wants a decision soon so that it can start work on the Cadarache site before end-2005. It also wants to keep on board all the other six partners--China, Russia, the US and South Korea. Potocnik is to give an update on progress at the next competitiveness council on Apr 18. This story was originally published in Platts European Power Alert http://www.europeanpoweralert.platts.com ------------ Brunswick-2 to complete uprate during outage Washington DC (Platts)--7Mar2005 Progress Energy plans to complete uprating Brunswick-2 during a refueling outage that began March 4. The outage work will include replacement of all three main power transformers and refurbishment of reactor feed pumps and condensate pumps, said plant spokesman Mike McCracken. Brunswick-2, now rated at 900 MW (net), is expected to gain 20-30 MW after the outage is completed. The unit gained about 90 MW during the first phase of the uprate project. Similar uprate work was completed at unit 1 last spring. ------------ Millstone license renewal request advances Washington (Platts)--4Mar2005 Millstone-2 and -3 can be safely operated for an additional 20 years, NRC said in its safety evaluation report, issued March 2. NRC's evaluation reviewed thousands of plant systems and components, as well as aging management programs required by regulations. Though a handful of open items must still be resolved, Dominion Nuclear Connecticut "has demonstrated that the effects of aging will be adequately managed," the NRC staff said in its evaluation. NRC plans to issue the final evaluation in August, and issue a decision on the plant's request for license renewal by July 2006. ------------ Point Beach, Perry to stay under increased NRC oversight Washington (Platts)--3Mar2005 Point Beach and Perry are the only plants on NRC's multiple/repetitive degraded cornerstone category in the five-column system. This classification is the second worst, indicating there is significant degradation in safety performance. The agency sent out its annual assessment letters to 102 operating reactors; Davis-Besse did not receive a letter because it is still being reviewed under a special NRC oversight process. There are currently no plants in the fourth, or degraded cornerstone, column. Twenty units were in the regulatory response column, meaning there is additional oversight to the baseline inspections. The other units will receive only routine baseline inspections. The annual assessment letters are posted on NRC's Web site at http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/OVERSIGHT/ASSESS/index.html. ------------