Platts - Friday, August 26, 2005 http://www.platts.com ------------ Iran to make new proposals for EU nuclear talks within a month London (Platts)--26Aug2005 Iran will present new proposals for nuclear talks with the European Union within a month, Tehran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said Friday after talks in Vienna with the head of the UN's atomic energy watchdog. Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will need "about a month to elaborate new proposals," AFP quoted Larijani as telling a news conference after his meeting with Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, in the Austrian capital. Britain, France and Germany last week called off a planned Aug 31 meeting with the Iranians after Iran resumed uranium conversion work at Isfahan. The EU troika insists that conversion, the precursor to enrichment, violates last November's Paris agreement under which Iran suspended fuel cycle work pending negotiations. The Iranians insist it does not. The US believes Iran is working covertly to build nuclear weapons, a charge Tehran rebuts. Before leaving Tehran for Vienna Thursday, Larijani was quoted in various Iranian media reports as questioning the role of Britain, France and Germany as negotiators on the nuclear issues and suggesting that other countries should be involved. "We consider the negotiations with the Europeans positive and still believe they can be positive," Larijani said, quoted by AFP, after his meeting with ElBaradei. However, these negotiations should not be "exclusive," he said, adding that other countries could be brought into the talks. But he reiterated that Iran had no intention of suspending its uranium conversion activities. Nor was Tehran concerned about the possibility of being referred to the UN Security Council, which could impose sanctions. Such a move, AFP quoted him as saying, would be a mistake given the "power that Iran enjoys in the region." For more information, take a trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://nucweek.platts.com. ------------ Sixth Finnish reactor 'question of when, not if': report London (Platts)--26Aug2005 A sixth Finnish nuclear reactor is a "question of when rather than if," Jukka Harmala, chief executive of forest products company Stora-Enso, said in an interview Thursday, Finnish news agency STT reported. A fifth reactor is being built in Finland and there has been public discussion about a sixth. Executives at the Finnish-Swedish company have said they might move production to Finland from Sweden because the fifth reactor would provide inexpensive, secure electricity, while Sweden is officially committed to shutting down its reactors. For more nuclear stories, request a free trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/ ------------ Vandellos-2's restart delayed Stockholm (Platts)--25Aug2005 Vandellos-2's restart has been delayed by a technical problem linked to replacement of main steam isolation valves (MSIVs) during the Spanish PWR's five-month outage, which ended officially with regulatory permission to restart given Aug. 12. The unit had been expected back on the grid this week, but Vandellos spokesman Eugeni Vives said today that problems had appeared during functional tests, begun Aug. 22, of the newly installed MSIVs. He said plant operator ANAV does not yet have a new scheduled date for grid synchronization; it depends on resolution of the problems with the MSIVs, which are being investigated with the valve supplier. ------------ German nuclear reactors produce 6% more power in July than June London (Platts)--25Aug2005 Output at Germany's 17 working nuclear power reactors was 12.048635TWh in July, up 6% from the 11.414945TWh produced in June, the latest figures from producers' association VGB showed. The biggest producer was RWE's 1,400 MW Emsland reactor, which generated 1.027832TWh, up from 0.369929TWh in June. Eon's Unterweser reactor had no output again last month because it had planned maintenance work. HEW's 806 MW Brunsbuttel plant produced the least amount of power at 0.25661TWh, which was down from 0.503059TWh level with June. The average load factor of the 17 reactors in July was 73.33%, up from 72.38% in June. For more information, take a trial to Platts European Power Daily at http://europeanpowerdaily.platts.com. ------------ TVA says Browns Ferry-1 restart on schedule for 2007 Washington (Platts)--24Aug2005 The Browns Ferry-1 restart project was 65% complete as of June 30 and on schedule for completion in 2007, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) said in a report on third quarter fiscal 2005 financial results. Expenditures on the project through third quarter FY-05 (ended June 30) were about $1.2-billion, the planned amount for the period, TVA said. TVA expects to spend $1.8-billion to restart the unit, which has been shut since 1985. SCE&G, Santee Cooper mull possibility of co-developing nuke plant Philadelphia (Platts)--24Aug2005 South Carolina Electric & Gas and Santee Cooper plan to study the possibility of adding new nuclear generating capacity at the site of their jointly owned, 900-MW V.C. Summer nuclear plant near Jenkinsville, South Carolina, the utilities said Wednesday morning. SCE&G said in a statement that it could take eight to 10 years to develop baseload capacity, and that it makes sense to consider developing new nuclear capacity with state-owned Santee Cooper, its partner in the V.C. Summer plant. Columbia-based SCE&G added that it and Santee Cooper also will study the possibility of adding new coal- or gas-fired capacity to help them meet their need for new capacity by the middle of the next decade. For more information, take a trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://nucweek.platts.com. ------------ Iran blames EU for troubled nuke diplomacy after EU cancels talks London (Platts)--24Aug2005 Iran Wednesday accused the European Union, which a day earlier said it had canceled talks scheduled for August 31, of damaging diplomatic efforts to resolve a crisis over its nuclear program. A French foreign ministry spokesman said Tuesday that Iran's decision to resume work on nuclear fuel processing meant Tehran had broken the terms of an agreement signed with Britain, France and Germany in Paris last November under which Tehran voluntarily suspended the work pending the finalization of a long-term agreement. The EU through the three countries recently offered Iran nuclear technology, including access to nuclear fuel, increased trade and help with Tehran's regional security concerns. But Tehran rejected it because the European proposal was conditional on Iran's ceasing uranium enrichment, which can lead to the production of weapons-grade material. Iran resumed uranium conversion, the precursor to enrichment. "Despite the claims of the Europeans, it was not Iran that violated the Paris Agreement," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told state news agency IRNA Wednesday. "Isfahan has nothing to do with the enrichment," he argued. "Activities in Isfahan are not a breach [of] the agreement." Iran has been emboldened by reports that both UN and US experts had found no evidence of clandestine atomic weapons activities. The Washington Post reported Tuesday that a group of US government experts and other international scientists had determined that traces of bomb-grade uranium found two years ago in Iran came from contaminated Pakistani equipment and were not evidence of a clandestine nuclear weapons program. The French foreign ministry spokesman, meanwhile, said that while the August 31 meeting had been canceled, "this does not mean that there will not be any contacts with the Iranians." French foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said Aug 12 that France was waiting for a report from the International Atomic Energy Agency on September 3 before deciding how to proceed. Failure to agree could lead the Europeans to seek UN Security Council sanctions against Iran. The US accuses Iran of secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons under cover of its civilian atomic energy program. More nuclear stories are published in Nucleonics Week. Request your free trial at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/ ------------ Uranium spot price jumps to over $30 a pound U308 Washington (Platts)--23Aug2005 The spot price of uranium has jumped to at least $30 a pound U3O8 and appears to be moving higher. TradeTech reported late Aug. 19 that the price was $30/lb, up 50 cents from the price it reported the week before. And late last night, the Ux Consulting Co. reported its latest price for spot U3O8 as $30.20/lb, a jump of 35 cents over the price the company reported Aug. 15. FP&L agrees to hiatus in collecting decommissioning funds Washington (Platts)--23Aug2005 A four-year hiatus in collecting decommissioning funds for St. Lucie and Turkey Point is among the provisions in a settlement reached between Florida Power & Light Co. (FP&L) and intervenors in the utility's rate proceeding, Fitch Ratings said today. The settlement period begins Jan. 1, 2006. To date, FP&L has collected the decommissioning monies from ratepayers as part of its base rates. Some parties in the case had wanted the decommissioning fund money returned to ratepayers. Among other settlement provisions, the parties agreed not to appeal FP&L's recovery of storm damage costs associated with the three hurricanes in 2004. Fitch said it viewed the net effect of the various provisions in the rate case as "constructive and neutral for credit quality." Intervenors included the Office of the Attorney General, the Florida Retail Federation, the Florida Industrial Power Users Group. For more information, take a trial to Nuclear News Flashes at http://www.nuclearnews.platts.com. ------------ EPA seeks public comment on proposed Nevada nuclear waste plan Washington (Platts)--22Aug2005 Groups on both sides of the debate over the planned nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada will have until Oct 21 to comment on a proposed US Environmental Protection Agency standard for radiation levels outside the facility, documents showed. EPA formally published its proposals, including the deadline, on Monday. Nevada has threatened to sue the federal government over the standard if the proposal is adopted as now written. EPA developed the rule because the US Appeals Court for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected a previous standard governing radiation levels for 10,000 years. The court said the earlier proposal did not address potential radiation during a peak dose period, which could occur a million years from now. The latest EPA proposal would retain the court-rejected standard of 15 millirems for 10,000 years, then raise it to 350 millirems for the next 990,000 years. The agency said a 350-millrem standard would allow for radiation levels comparable to background radiation levels now in existence in large cities. An Energy Dept spokesman said earlier in August that DOE could meet the proposed standard. Repository foes said that engineering measures to prevent radiation outside the repository are inadequate. Nevada Gov Kenny Guinn, a Republican, said the EPA standard was based on "junk science." For more information, take a trial to Nuclear Fuel at http://www.nuclearfuel.platts.com. ------------ Decommissioning funds included in FP&L settlement Washington (Platts)--22Aug2005 A four-year hiatus in collecting decommissioning funds for St. Lucie and Turkey Point is among the provisions in a settlement reached between Florida Power & Light Co. (FP&L) and intervenors in the utility's rate proceeding, Fitch Ratings said today. The settlement period begins Jan. 1, 2006. To date, FP&L has collected the decommissioning monies from ratepayers as part of its base rates. Some parties in the case had wanted the decommissioning fund money returned to ratepayers. Among other settlement provisions, the parties agreed not to appeal FP&L's recovery of storm damage costs associated with the three hurricanes in 2004. Fitch said it viewed the net effect of the various provisions in the rate case as "constructive and neutral for credit quality." Intervenors included the Office of the Attorney General, the Florida Retail Federation, the Florida Industrial Power Users Group. ------------