Platts - Thursday, March 17, 2005 http://www.platts.com ------------ USGS employees say Yucca Mt. project procedures were violated Washington (Platts)--16Mar2005 "Serious questions" have been raised about possible quality assurance (QA) improprieties by a handful of U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) employees working on the DOE repository project between 1988 and 2000, USGS Director Chip Groat said today. The alleged improprieties involved procedural violations related to computer modeling involving water infiltration and climate at the proposed repository site at Yucca Mountain, Nev. One violation, a DOE official said today, involved a USGS employee's failure to properly document what computer software was being used. All of the alleged improprieties were software-related, the official said. Whether such QA violations could affect the validity of the DOE data has yet to be determined, he added. Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said in a press statement today that any work found to be deficient would be replaced or supplemented with work that meets QA requirements. At USGS, Groat said the issue has been referred to the Inspector General and that an internal review of the allegations has been initiated. ------------ Vattenfall's Lindfors to talk nuke compensation with Swedish govt London (Platts)--16Mar2005 Vattenfall's head of Nordic generation Alf Lindfors is to represent the company in talks with the government about compensation for the closure of the 600MW Barseback-2 reactor at the end of May, he said Wednesday. The talks will begin late March or early April, according to the government's envoy Yvonne Gustafsson. The government and Vattenfall, through nuclear holding company Ringhalsgruppen, have a framework compensation agreement from the closure of Barseback-1 in Nov 1999, and the parameters for compensation for closure of Barseback-2. Lindfors expects the two main issues in the negotiations to be compensation for the loss of shares in Ringhalsgruppen and projected power prices up to 2017, when Barseback would have been running for forty years. The government said in October last year that Eon-controlled Sydkraft, the other owner of Barseback, would be compensated with shares in Ringhals, decreasing Vattenfall's stake. Both parties want talks to be completed by the end of May. This story was first published in Platts real-time news and market reporting service European Power Alert - http://www.europeanpoweralert.platts.com ------------ EIS finds no environmental impacts for Farley license renewal Washington (Platts)--15Mar2005 There are no environmental impacts from Farley operating for 20 additional years, the NRC said in its final environmental impact statement (EIS) on the proposed license renewal for the two-PWR plant. The 874-MW unit 1's current license expires in 2017 and 881-MW unit 2's in 2021. NRC's decision on whether to grant Southern Nuclear Operating Co.'s license renewal request is expected in mid-July. The final EIS is on NRC's Web site (http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc- collections/nuregs/staff/sr1437/supplement18/index.html). ------------ World energy ministers meet in London for climate change summit London (Platts)--15Mar2005 Energy and environment ministers from twenty countries met in London Tuesday for a two-day summit exploring how to combine global energy needs with the challenges of climate change. UK finance minister Gordon Brown, in a keynote speech, said that finance ministers now had to consider the environment alongside their economic policies. Environmental care had to join high growth and high employment as the aim of economic policy, said Brown. But that did not mean economies had to suffer. The UK had shown it was possible to combine climate change policy with strong economic performance. Since 1997 the British economy had grown an average of 2.8%/year, he said, and in the same period carbon dioxide emissions were stable, meaning that carbon emissions per unit of GDP had fallen by nearly 15%. "Well designed policies can actually stimulate innovation and improve productivity," said Brown. International cooperation would be key, he added. Brown stressed the importance of energy efficiency. He said there had been a "market failure" in energy efficiency in the UK. Claude Mandil, head of the International Energy Agency, was among other speakers picking up the importance of efficiency. Mandil said that efficiency might offer some 58% of the global potential for carbon dioxide emission cuts between 2002 and 2030. Speakers also agreed that no one technology could provide the answer to the challenge of climate change. All options, including nuclear, renewables and carbon capture, had to be considered. Mandil estimated switching from fossil fuel generation to renewables could make up 20% of carbon reductions potential, and switching to nuclear 10% of the potential. Liu Jiang, vice- chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission of China, meanwhile stressed that developing countries including China were as concerned about climate change as other nations. Brown stressed the importance of energy efficiency. He said there had been a "market failure" in energy efficiency in the UK. Claude Mandil, head of the International Energy Agency, was among other speakers picking up the importance of efficiency. Mandil said that efficiency might offer some 58% of the global potential for carbon dioxide emission cuts between 2002 and 2030. Speakers also agreed that no one technology could provide the answer to the challenge of climate change. All options, including nuclear, renewables and carbon capture, had to be considered. Mandil estimated switching from fossil fuel generation to renewables could make up 20% of carbon reductions potential, and switching to nuclear 10% of the potential. Liu Jiang, vice- chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission of China, meanwhile stressed that developing countries including China were as concerned about climate change as other nations. This story was originally published in Platts Petrochemical Alert http://www.petrochemcialalert.platts.com ------------ Russian Senate approves nuclear liability treaty Paris (Platts)--14Mar2005 Russia's Federation Council ratified the 1963 Vienna Convention March 11. The action by the council (Russia's Senate) came a little more than a week after the state Duma (the lower house of parliament) approved the treaty governing liability for third-party nuclear damage in several parts of the world. Russia signed the convention in 1996, but the parliament had resisted ratifying it for nearly a decade. Experts said the move marked progress because Russia now officially recognizes the principles of international nuclear liability regime. However, they said they regretted that Russia had ratified the original convention, instead of the 1997 revised version, which sets much higher limits of liability and broadens the scope of coverage. Patrick Reyners, head of legal affairs at the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency, said that for the new regime to apply fully, President Vladimir Putin must sign the treaty into law, and the parliament must pass a specific nuclear liability law. ------------