Platts - Thursday, November 03, 2005 http://www.platts.com ------------ Following US, Russia aiming for more nuclear commerce with India New Delhi (Platts)--3Nov2005 In the wake of the July 18 agreement between India and the US for future nuclear cooperation, calling for compromises to exempt India from some domestic and global nonproliferation restrictions, the Russian Federation is likewise preparing to intensify nuclear cooperation with India, Indian and Russian officials said. Natwar Singh, India's minister for external affairs, met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow on Oct 28. According to an official statement issued by the Indian government after the meeting, "the Russian side indicated that cooperation between India and Russia could be expanded." Diplomatic sources in Vienna said that officials from India's Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) have discussed with counterparts from Russia's Federal Atomic Energy Agency a roadmap for extending future nuclear commerce, including more power reactor sales by Russian industry. A similar outline has been sketched out for bilateral nuclear trade between the DAE and Canadian industry, they said. During a meeting of the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) in Vienna two weeks ago, Russia made a statement firmly backing the position taken at that meeting by the US to grant an exception to India from NSG rules. Since 1992, these have barred nuclear trade by the NSG's 35 members, which include Russia, with states, including India, which are not parties to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty or which do not have full-scope IAEA safeguards in place. Since 1992, during NSG meetings Russia has argued that a bilateral protocol with India from the late 1980s over supply of VVERs should be fully grandfathered, allowing Russian industry to sell power reactors to India indefinitely. Other NSG members, including the US, have until now objected to any further Russian sales beyond two units now under construction at Kudankulam in Tamil Nadu state. According to NSG sources, when the US announced this summer it favored full-blown nuclear trade with India, the disagreement between Russia and other NSG members over future Russian-Indian reactor sales had not been formally resolved, and it was anticipated that Russia would renew efforts in the NSG to obtain support for sale of more VVERs to India. Indian and Russian officials said that future talks between the DAE and Russian industry could result in a memorandum of understanding for sale of two to four more VVER-1000s to India. The process may move forward, sources said, when Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visits Russia in early December. When the Indian cabinet on Sep 22 approved sites for eight new reactors, that plan expressly included room for two more 1,000-MW PWRs at Kudankulam and two more at a new site in Maharashtra state. According to diplomatic sources, during meetings in Moscow last week, Lavrov urged Singh to support Russian efforts to delay reporting by the IAEA Board of Governors of Iran's safeguards violations to the United Nations Security Council. Both Russia and India are members of the IAEA board. Sources said the prospect of bilateral nuclear commerce with Russian industry, as well as desire for natural gas from Iran, may prompt India to support the Russian position; however, India will remain under pressure from politicians in the US to support US efforts to have the IAEA report Iran to the Security Council. The text of the Indian communique on this point did not exclude the possibility of a future Security Council referral: "On the Iran nuclear issue, the two sides agreed that this matter should be discussed within the IAEA and that the situation should not be allowed to escalate to a point where the process of dialogue is stopped." Sunil Saraf, New Delhi; Mark Hibbs, Bonn ------------ Dominion's third-quarter nuclear capacity factor at 98.5% Washington (Platts)--3Nov2005 The seven-unit Dominion nuclear fleet's 98.5% capacity factor in the third quarter was "at or near company records," Dominion President and Chief Operating Officer Thomas Farrell said today during a conference call with analysts to discuss quarterly earnings. Millstone-3 and North Anna-2 each refueled in 28 days during the quarter, he said. The Millstone-3 outage was a unit record for short duration and the North Anna-2 outage was completed "well ahead of schedule," Farrell said. Dominion Generation, which includes all of parent Dominion's generating assets, reported third quarter earnings of $204-million, down $7-million from a year ago. Dominion's earnings were $373-million, down $27-million from a year ago, primarily because of higher Virginia fuel expenses and the effects of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the company said. ------------ Sweden to delay decision on nuclear tax hike until Dec 10 London (Platts)--3Nov2005 Sweden's Social Democrat-led government is scheduled to make a decision Dec 10 on a proposed hike in nuclear tax for 2006, a spokesman for Svensk Energi the Swedish energy industry's representative body, said Thursday. This date is later than had been expected. The new Swedish budget, which proposes an 85% increase in nuclear tax, will bring in an additional SKr1.39-bil ($170-mil) next year, based on current installed capacity, bringing the expected total to around SKr3-bil, according to recent government estimates. The Swedish government was due to approve the proposal early October. The profit tax charged to hydro power producers will also increase sharply should the proposal go through. The property tax on hydro companies will increase from SKr750-mil this year to SKr2.75-bil in 2006. These will slice into windfall profits made by carbon-free power producers since the introduction of carbon emissions trading. Meanwhile carbon tax on heat production will be reduced to zero from January 2006. For more nuclear news, request a free trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/ ------------ UniStar plans submittals in 2007/08 for potential new EPRs Washington (Platts)--2Nov2005 UniStar Nuclear partners intend to submit a design certification application in December 2007 to the NRC and a combined construction permit-operating license application in June 2008, Constellation Energy and Framatome ANP officials said today. Representatives of the two companies, which created the joint venture UniStar in September, met with agency staff at NRC headquarters to clarify their plans to develop, license, and deploy a fleet of Evolutionary Power Reactors (EPRs). The UniStar business plan envisions Constellation as the principal owner and operator of the EPRs built in the U.S. Under the plan, the EPRs would be standardized from construction to operation, company officials said. ------------ NRC to issue rule revising core cooling requirements Washington (Platts)--2Nov2005 The NRC will soon issue a long-awaited rule to risk-inform emergency core cooling regulations, the agency said in a Nov. 1 press release. The rule proposes "the voluntary use of risk information in refining requirements for how nuclear power plants must safely handle loss-of-coolant accidents (LOCAs) of various sizes," the NRC said. "The proposed rule would divide all coolant piping breaks currently considered in emergency core cooling requirements into two size groups: breaks up to and including a 'transition' size, and breaks larger than the transition size up to the largest pipe in the reactor coolant system," it said. "The transition size was determined through input from an expert panel as well as consideration of uncertainties in established pipe-break frequencies." "Break sizes for each reactor type (PWR and BWR) were selected that corresponded to a break frequency of 1.0E-05 per reactor year," resulting in a range of values for the transition break size (TBS) "from approximately 6 inches to 10 inches equivalent diameter for PWRs and from approximately 13 inches to 20 inches equivalent diameter for BWRs," staff said in a March 29 paper (Secy-05-52) proposing the new rule. Determination of the TBS has been the most controversial element of the rulemaking, so these ranges may well be revised in the final rule. An NRC staffer told Nucleonics Week that the rule would likely be published in the Federal Register in "a matter of days." In a statement, NRC's Jim Dyer said, "All the possible pipe breaks would still be covered under this rule change." Dyer, director of the NRC's Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, said, "Breaks in the smaller group are considered more likely, and they'd be analyzed using existing criteria for ensuring the reactor core stays cool during and after an accident. Breaks in the larger group are considered less likely and would be analyzed with less-stringent methods, but plants would still have to show us they can mitigate the effects of those breaks and maintain core cooling." Under the rule, such LOCAs would be considered beyond-design-basis accidents and subject to probabilistic risk assessments modeled on RG 1.174, the NRC's regulatory guide for risk-informed decision-making at nuclear plants. Determining a TBS that is acceptable to both NRC staff and industry has been the most contested element of the new rule, which the NRC staff has been developing for more than four years. Currently, federal regulations (10 CFR 50.46) require analysis of emergency core cooling system response to large-break LOCAs involving a double-ended guillotine break of the largest pipe in the reactor coolant system. Industry has pushed for a smaller TBS, which it says would maximize both safety and economic benefits. The industry contends that delaying activation of emergency diesel generators in a worst-case small break LOCA might be possible under the proposed rule without significant increased risk, reducing wear and tear on the generators and improving reliability. Additionally, activation of containment sprays during a LOCA could potentially be delayed on the order of hours, which could conserve spray-water inventories and improve containment sump recirculation performance. The new rule could enable plants to make these and other changes?primarily power uprates for PWRs -- that would have a net present value of $1.5- to $12.9-bil (assuming a discount rate of 3%), according to NRC staff's regulatory analysis released in April along with the proposed rule changes. Steven Dolley, Washington For more information, take a trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://nucweek.platts.com. ------------ Progress Energy seeks NRC approval for 2 dual-unit COLs Washington (Platts)--1Nov2005 Progress Energy plans to seek approval of two dual-unit COLs, the company announced today. Progress Energy officials told NRC staffers at a packed meeting at agency headquarters in Rockville, Md. that they expected to file the combined construction permit-operating license (COL) applications in late 2007 and hoped to have the new units on line by late 2015 or early 2016, assuming the company eventually moves ahead with construction. Progress Energy officials said they have not yet chosen the reactor technology or the locations for the new units. Both decisions are expected to be made by early 2006. The company is considering Westinghouse Electric Co.'s AP1000, GE Energy's ESBWR, and Areva Inc.'s U.S. Evolutionary Power Reactor. It will choose one site in the Carolinas and another in Florida, company officials said. ------------