Platts - Monday, May 09, 2005 http://www.platts.com ------------ Italian utility Enel welcomes France's market opening decision London (Platts)--9May2005 Italy's Enel said Saturday it received the news of Electricite de France's intentions to allow the Italian company access to the French market "with satisfaction." The Italian utility went on to say that "the agreement...will allow Enel to rebuild its competitiveness in nuclear technology, by participating in the program of latest generation EPR." The agreement still need's EU approval, which may take several months. Enel is interested in entering France's nuclear market with a Eur3-bil investment in the country's new 1.5 GW EPR reactor in Flamande and buying a 35% stake in Snet, France's second largest electricity producer, with a view to building two new turbo-gas plants on EDF sites and selling the power produced in the French market. These two investments would allow Enel to acquire a significant industrial position in the transalpine market, the company said. In return for Enel's participation in France, EDF has had a 2% voting cap in its Italian holdings tentatively lifted by the Italian government. This story was originally published in Platts European Power Alert http://www.europeanpoweralert.platts.com ------------ NuStart, DOE sign cost-sharing agreement for design work Washington (Platts)--6May2005 NuStart Energy development LLC signed a cost-sharing agreement with DOE yesterday to split the expenses for completing two reactor designs that are expected to be part of combined construction permit-licensing applications, a major step toward potentially building a new nuclear plant. The cooperative agreement covers the estimated $520-million project by having DOE and NuStart members each contribute $260-million. NuStart is made up of nine energy companies--Constellation Energy, Duke Energy, EDF International North America, Entergy Nuclear, Exelon Generation, Florida Power & Light Co., Progress Energy, Southern Co., and Tennessee Valley Authority--and reactor vendors GE Energy and Westinghouse. NuStart separately signed formal agreements this week with GE and Westinghouse for the detailed engineering and licensing work on their ESBWR (Economic Simplified BWR) and AP1000 designs, respectively. NuStart anticipates selecting by October two plant sites, one for each design, and is targeting 2008 for filing license requests. ------------ UK energy industry must wait until summer for new policies London (Platts)--6May2005 The third-term victory of UK Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour party in the general election Thursday will make no immediate difference to energy policies. Labour has shown itself determined to press on with its aims of steering energy policy in a low carbon direction, based on renewables, gas-fired generation and possibly nuclear, and a solid majority for Labour means the party can continue on this path. The opposition Conservatives, who picked up seats, in any case also back low carbon energy policies. Energy did not feature greatly during the election campaign. Many hints have been dropped, including by the government's chief scientific adviser, David King, that new nuclear build may be considered in the future, but no party saw it as a vote winner to talk about that in the run up to polling. The issue will hit the agenda this summer, however, as the government carries out a review of its climate change program. A more immediate change for the energy industry may come from an expected cabinet reshuffle Friday. Energy minister Mike O'Brien, trade and industry secretary Patricia Hewitt and environment secretary Margaret Beckett could all be in line for a move. Some reports have said that Hewitt and Beckett in particular are anti-nuclear and may need to be moved on before Blair can make the difficult decision of launching a new nuclear build program. New nuclear is seen by many as the only way to safeguard UK electricity supplies while avoiding greenhouse gas emissions, especially as the country becomes a net importer of gas with its own production in decline, and as gas prices soar. The price of an annual gas contract in the forward market is now about 45p/th, double what it was a year or so ago. This story was originally published in Platts European Power Alert http://www.europeanpoweralert.platts.com ------------ Quad Cities -1, -2 to shut this month to replace steam dryers Washington (Platts)--5May2005 Quad Cities-2 will shut down May 9 for about 10 days to replace its steam dryer, Exelon Nuclear officials told NRC at a meeting yesterday. Quad Cities-1 will replace its steam dryer during a six-day outage beginning May 28, Exelon said. Each unit will then begin gradual ascension to full power at its 17.8% uprated level. The Quad Cities dryers were severely damaged by vibration attributable to higher-power operation in 2002 and 2003, and both units have been operating at their original licensed power levels since then. German cabinet changes regulations for nuke waste storage Freiburg (Platts)--5May2005 The German cabinet on Wednesday changed the regulations on the salt formation Gorleben in northern Germany so that the location can be considered as a final nuclear waste storage facility, the environment ministry said. Under Germany's nuclear decommissioning agreement of Jun 14, 2000, the government obliged itself to keep the salt rock protected and unharmed for at least three to a maximum of ten years. The regulation, which yet needs the agreement of Germany's upper house of parliament, forbids the recovery of salt at Gorleben. A mining company has been trying to recover salt there for years. Germany is to hold a national selection process of where it will keep the waste of its nuclear reactors, 18 of which are currently in operation. For now, the majority of German nuclear plants have intermediate storage locations for waste on local sites, avoiding transports of the waste. This story was originally published in Platts European Power Alert http://www.europeanpoweralert.platts.com ------------ DOE's repository license submittal date not expected before 2006 Washington (Platts)--4May2005 It could be early 2006 before DOE sends a repository license application to NRC, according to projections by attorneys for the DOE nuclear waste program. During a session today before a special NRC licensing board, attorney Donald Irwin didn't dispute the board's projection today that DOE would certify in late July or August that all repository-relevant documents were publicly available through a Web-based databank. DOE will submit an application to NRC at least six months later, Irwin said. But he added that some of the factors that would influence the submittal date, such as when a new Environmental Protection Agency standard would be available for the nuclear waste disposal facility planned for Yucca Mountain, Nev., were out of DOE's control. DOE announced late last year it could not meet its self-imposed December 2004 deadline for sending an application to NRC, but it has not yet officially announced a new target date. US DOE revises timeline to submit repository application to NRC Washington (Platts)--4May2005 The US Dept of Energy Wednesday said it could be early 2006 before it will be able to submit a high-level nuclear waste repository license application to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Attorneys for the DOE waste program told a special NRC licensing board that the agency expects to certify in late July or August that all repository-related documents are publicly available through a web-based databank. An application will be submitted a minimum of six months after certification, said DOE Attorney Donald Irwin. This story was originally published in Platts Electricity Alert http://www.electricityalert.platts.com ------------ GAO critical of DOE's progress on nuclear smuggling at ports Washington (Platts)--3May2005 DOE has made "limited progress" installing seaport radiation detectors to combat nuclear smuggling, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report released today. DOE's Megaports Initiative has completed work at two ports, signed agreements with five other ports, and is negotiating agreements with 18 additional countries, but lacks "a comprehensive long-term plan to guide the Initiative's efforts," GAO said. The report is at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d05375.pdf. ------------