Platts - Monday, March 14, 2005 http://www.platts.com ------------ South Africa, China to cooperate on PBMR technology Washington (Platts)--11Mar2005 South Africa and China will cooperate on pebble bed modular reactor (PBMR) technology development under a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed this week. The MOU was signed by PBMR (Pty) Ltd. of South Africa, which has been developing PBMR technology since 1993, and Beijing's Chinergy Co. Ltd., whose pebble bed concept is based on a 10-MW research reactor started up at the Institute of new Energy Technology (INET) at Tsinghua University in December 2000, PBMR Ltd. said. Both companies aim to build high-temperature reactor (HTR) demonstration plants based on pebble-bed technology by 2010. The Chinese design will use an indirect power cycle, the South African one a direct-cycle gas turbine. PBMR Ltd. said the "main objective of the agreement is to pursue the potential benefits which could be realized through cooperation" for the HTR demonstration projects, "as well as for the commercialization of these reactor systems thereafter." Chinergy is a consortium whose members include Huaneng, China's largest electric utility group. ------------ OECD study says nuclear competitive with gas Paris (Platts)--10Mar2005 A new study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD) finds nuclear power competitive with natural gas-fired power in most OECD countries, OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) Director General Luis Echavarri said today. Echavarri said the study comparing the projected costs of generating electricity using different fuels, the first such study the OECD has done in several years, shows that "nuclear is much more competitive now than it was four or five years ago," partly because nuclear plants are operating more efficiently and partly because natural gas prices have risen sharply. "Nuclear power is not an economic problem," Echavarri declared. The study is to be released next week, in advance of the IAEA's international ministerial conference on "Nuclear Energy for the 21st Century" in Paris March 21-22. ------------ NRC extends Nine Mile Point license renewal review Washington DC (Platts)--9Mar2005 NRC is extending the review schedule for Nine Mile Point's license renewal request, citing quality issues with information in Constellation Energy's application. Constellation submitted the application May 26, 2004 seeking to renew the operating licenses for Nine Mile Point-1 and -2 for 20 years. The standard review schedule is 22 months, but NRC said the review period will be extended "as appropriate." On March 3, Constellation requested a "grace period" of up to 90 days to "recover the quality" of its license renewal project, NRC announced yesterday. In a March 7 letter to Constellation, NRC said it has stopped its review in response to the company's request. "Since the NRC is committed to public health and safety, we must have complete and up-to-date information on Nine Mile Point before we can reach a decision on whether the operating license can be renewed," NRC's David Matthews said in a statement. Matthews is director of the Division of Regulatory Improvement Programs in NRC's Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. ------------ Bush urges energy bill's passage, says high prices hurting US Washington (Platts)--9Mar2005 President Bush, saying rising energy costs are serving as a drag on the US economy, Wednesday again called on Congress to pass a comprehensive energy bill that he said would rely heavily on new techologies to reduce US dependence on foreign sources of oil while protecting the environment. In remarks to the Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio, Bush said that although his administration had taken important first steps to improve US energy security since it came into office in 2001, more gains will be difficult to achieve without legislation. Bush, whose energy legislation repeatedly stalled in Congress in his first term, said US energy consumption over the past three years has increased by more than 3%, while domestic energy production has fallen by 2%. In addition to increasing its reliance on imported oil, the US has also become more reliant on imported natural gas, a situation that the president said presents both national and economic security issues. Bush, repeating elements of his earlier failed legislation, said any bill passed by Congress must promote conservation and efficiency, increase domestic production, encourage the development of alternative energy sources, and modernize the US energy delivery infrastructure. He reiterated his call for increased domestic natural gas and oil production, largely through opening access to lands, including the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, to development. "Too many in Washington think we need to pick between environmental protection and energy and between growing our economy and environental protection. That's a false choice," he said. The president also told the audience that coal should be "at the heart" of the country's energy policy and said it is "time to start building nuclear plants again." Technological advancements, he added, promise to make it possible to burn coal to generate power with no harmful air emissions and said new nuclear plant designs have resolved earlier concerns over the technology's safety. Bush also said the country's electric transmission, pipeline and power plants are "deteriorating." Strains on the power grid, he said, are leading to higher prices and bottlenecks. On several occasions, Bush reminded his Ohio audience of the August 2003 blackout and said legislation is needed to ensure mandatory reliability rules, repeal the Public Utility Holding Company Act and give the federal government siting authority for new transmission lines. This story was originally published in Platts Electricity Alert http://www.electricityalert.platts.com ------------