Platts - Friday, June 03, 2005 http://www.platts.com ------------ Browns Ferry-1 restart on schedule, TVA says Washington DC (Platts)--2Jun2005 The Browns Ferry-1 restart project remains on schedule for completion, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) said in its fiscal 2005 second quarter financial report, released this week. As of March 31, the end of the quarter, Browns Ferry-1 was about 59% complete, TVA said. Expenditures through the second quarter totaled about $1.1-billion, it said. TVA plans to restart the unit in May 2007 at a cost of $1.8-billion. Browns Ferry-1 has been shut since 1985. For the second quarter, TVA reported a net loss of $24-million, compared to net income of $118-million in second quarter 2004. Increased fuel expenses and purchased power costs and milder weather accounted for most of the difference, TVA said. ------------ Nuclear power 'too dangerous' to be used, Swedish minister says Stockholm (Platts)--2Jun2005 Nuclear power, with its associated handling of spent fuel, is "extremely dangerous technology" that cannot be used to solve Sweden's greenhouse gas emissions problems, Environment Minister Lena Sommestad told members of the Riksdag (parliament) during a debate May 24. Her comments came just a few days before Barsebaeck-2 was permanently shut by government order, at midnight May 31. The government is officially committed to a nuclear phase-out, although it has signaled it will approve operating licenses for reactors at higher power, after modernization that is beginning. Sommestad did not comment on the uprate projects during the debate. In response to a question from Liberal lawmaker Marie Wahlgren, Sommestad also defended the minority Social Democratic government's emissions reduction and climate strategy. "I don't think there's any other country in the world which has such an ambitious climate policy," she said. "There are other countries in the world which have set targets greater than those in the Kyoto Protocol, but we have also said that our goal is to reach those targets without carbon sinks and flexible mechanisms. "Many are watching what Sweden does. That means that we have a great responsibility to succeed with this challenge." The Liberals want new nuclear reactors built in Sweden. But Sommestad said, "I am absolutely convinced that we can manage over the long term" without nuclear power. She also noted that a Swedish Environment Court recently expressed concerns about the safety of nuclear power and handling of spent fuel in reviewing Ringhals' application for operation under Sweden's new environment law. "The court [said] that nuclear ... is not compatible with a modern, environmentally friendly society," Sommestad said. The court referred the Ringhals case to the government, rather than ruling itself. But Wahlgren charged that, instead of nuclear being replaced by renewables in Sweden, "we see very clearly that it is being replaced by gas-fired power and also Danish and German coal-fired power." Sweden imports electricity from both countries. She added that Sweden might manage to use hydropower generation to replace the 50% of electricity that comes from nuclear, if restrictions on hydro development on four major rivers were lifted. But she said the Liberals are opposed to that. Sommestad countered that Sweden is in a much better position when it comes to cutting greenhouse gas emissions, even if reactors are taken off line, than many other countries, because about 50% of its electricity generation comes from hydro, even given the protected rivers. This story was originally published in Platts Nucleonics Week http://nucweek.platts.com ------------ PG&E didn't find spent fuel rods, it tells NRC New York (Platts)--2Jun2005 Pacific Gas & Electric has not found used nuclear fuel material from a California-based nuclear power plant after a yearlong investigation, the utility said in a final report to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. PG&E's said its probe on the location of pieces of a used nuclear fuel rod from the Humboldt plant located near Eureka, Calif., started last June when the utility told the NRC that there were conflicting accounts on the location of three 18-inch nuclear fuel segments. The utility's "exhaustive" investigation points to two possible locations for the used nuclear material--they were either stored in Humboldt's used fuel pool in 1968 or were shipped to an out-of-state nuclear waste facility the following year. It is likely that the nuclear material remains in disintegrated form in the used fuel pool, said Greg Rueger, PG&E's senior vice president for generation and chief nuclear officer. "Unfortunately, the condition of the apparently cut fuel rod fragments--after nearly 40 years of storage in a container within the used fuel pool under other irradiated material--makes conclusive positive identification very difficult," said Rueger in a statement. Though there is no physical evidence to support it, the utility said it cannot rule out the possibility the rods were shipped to one of three other facilities?the New York-based Nuclear Fuel Services fuel reprocessing facility, the Barnwell, SC, low-level radioactive waste facility or the Hanford, Wash., licensed low-level radioactive facility. PG&E has "established two reasonable possibilities for the location of the used fuel," said a spokesman. The utility should have not misplaced the spent nuclear fuel but "it's a sin of the past," said David Lochbaum, nuclear safety engineer for the Union of Concerned Scientists. The NRC has required all plants with spent nuclear fuel to upgrade their tracking systems for these materials. The missing fuel segments pose no safety risk, added Lochbaum. This story was originally published in Platts Electric Power Daily http://electricpowerdaily.platts.com ------------ NRC has requested $20-mil for 2006 to prepare for new reactor New York (Platts)--1Jun2005 NRC has requested $20-mil for fiscal 2006 to prepare for new reactor licensing applications and expects to seek a similar amount for FY-07, the agency said in response to a senator's question. Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) asked NRC in follow-up questions to an Apr 26 hearing on DOE's Nuclear Power 2010 initiative whether the agency had the resources it needs to review the early site permits, design certifications, and combined construction permit-operating license requests the industry anticipates filing. NRC said in May 17 correspondence, posted on May 31 on its document system Adams, that it will need to significantly increase the size of the staff beginning in FY-08 if the industry applications materialize. It also anticipates having to expand office space and has begun working with the General Services Administration, which is the federal government's leasing and purchasing agent. This story was originally published in Nuclear News Flashes http://www.nuclearnews.platts.com ------------ DOE, Air Force discuss Yucca Mt. restricted fly zone Washington DC (Platts)--1Jun2005 DOE and the Air Force are negotiating a restricted fly zone over Yucca Mountain, Nev., site of DOE's planned repository, DOE officials told NRC today. A memorandum of understanding that DOE hopes to sign with the Air Force, which has a large base north of Yucca Mountain, would not allow any military flights lower than 10,000 feet above the top of Yucca Mountain within a 5.5-mile radius from the repository surface facilities, DOE said. Military flights above the 10,000-foot level, however, would not be restricted, DOE said. It said any problems with a plane that developed at that level over Yucca Mountain would not affect the site. Because of the glide factor, the plane would not touch ground until it was well beyond the site, DOE said. ------------ France considering nuclear cooperation with Libya Paris (Platts)--31May2005 France will cooperate with Libya in the civilian nuclear area, the French government confirmed, but the contents of that cooperation are not yet defined. A spokesman for the French Foreign Affairs Ministry said today that Libya had presented a formal request for cooperation in civilian nuclear energy, and in light of Libya's "strategic decision to renounce weapons of mass destruction" and its actions to dismantle "proliferating facilities" and sign the IAEA Additional Protocol for safeguards, France had decided to respond positively to the Libyan request. "We are at an exploratory stage," he said, adding that the French side would "soon propose an agreement to the Libyans on what could be done. We have to take advantage of existing capacities in light of Libya's needs." The spokesman said a French delegation had visited Libya recently to assess the situation. Libya's previous nuclear energy facilities were mainly supplied by the former Soviet Union. ------------ NRC issues safety analysis of LES enrichment project Washington (Platts)--27May2005 LES appears pleased with a draft safety evaluation report (SER) on its planned enrichment facility in Lea County, N.M. NRC released a nonproprietary version of the draft SER yesterday on its Adams record-keeping system. In comments to the agency, released today on Adams, LES said it found some minor inaccuracies it wants NRC to correct, but called the NRC analysis "a comprehensive and objective assessment of the safety and safeguards impacts of the National Enrichment Facility." A final SER is to be issued June 15. Among its findings, NRC said LES' estimates of the costs of disposing of depleted uranium hexafluoride--$4.68 per kilogram uranium--were reasonable. Over 30 years of operation, the plant would generate about 132,000 metric tons of depleted uranium. ------------ US climate change bill modified with new technology provisions Washington (Platts)--27May2005 A modified climate change bill with new provisions to promote the development and deployment of technologies to reduce or eliminate emissions of greenhouse gases has been introduced by senators John McCain (Republican-Arizona) and Joe Lieberman (Democrat-Connecticut). The legislation, introduced Thursday, modifies a bill they introduced in February that would require a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions to 2000 levels by 2010, and includes an emissions trading program. The new provisions would use revenues generated by the trading program to provide incentives for the development of alternatives to conventional fossil fuels, including solar, nuclear, integrated coal gasification combined cycle technologies, as well as more efficient products and vehicles. Legislation introduced earlier this year by Sen. Chuck Hagel (Republican-Nebraska) includes provisions to spur development and deployment of low emitting technologies, but does not set any emission reduction target or timetable. This story was originally published in Platts Global Alert http://www.globalalert.platts.com ------------