Platts - Monday, November 14, 2005 http://www.platts.com ------------ Germany to stick to decommissioning of nukes by 2021 Freiburg (Platts)--14Nov2005 Germany plans to stick to its plan to decommission nuclear power plants by 2021, the so-called "grand coalition" partners, the SPD and CDU, said Saturday. The atom consensus agreed between the previous SPD-Green party government and industry plans for the last of the country's 17 reactors to go offline by that date. Media observers in Germany said the issue was not over, however, and that it was likely it would be taken up again during the government term. The incoming coalition plans no major organizational changes to the departments' steering energy policy, meaning it will be jointly designed by the economics and environment ministries. Following an inconclusive national election in September, the coalition between left-of-center SPD and conservative CDU/CSU is the first for 39 years and the second ever in Germany's history. German environment group Bund slammed the energy plans of the grand coalition, saying it "left out essential answers on environmental challenges." Bund welcomed the government limiting climate warming to two degrees within this century, but noted that concrete measures to reach that aim had not been detailed. For more nuclear news, request a free trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/ ------------ OPG nuclear generation increases in third quarter Washington (Platts)--11Nov2005 Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) nuclear generation in the third quarter increased to 11.9 terawatt-hours (TWH) from 11.5 TWH the same time last year. The average electricity sales price for nuclear generation, which is rate regulated, was 4.9 cents per kilowatt-hour (KWH), up from 4 cents/KWH in third quarter 2004, OPG said today. OPG reported third quarter net income of $181-million, up from a $15-million net loss the same time last year. Favorable impacts on earnings included an increase in gross margin from electricity sales, mainly due to higher average sales prices during the quarter, OPG said. ------------ European nuclear safety groups to form new technical association Brussels (Platts)--11Nov2005 European nuclear safety expert organizations will found a permanent association next year that will aim for "technical convergence of safety practices in Europe," the head of one of those organizations announced this week. The new body, provisionally called the Eurosafe Association, will seek to establish a common guide for analysis of safety files. It also aims to create a knowledge management philosophy and network at the EU level, he said. Jacques Repussard, general manager of France's Institute of Radiological Protection & Nuclear Safety (IRSN), said the new organization would also contribute to framing priorities for safety-related research sponsored by the European Union, by seeking convergence between research activities and the needs of technical safety organizations (TSOs) that support national nuclear regulatory authorities. At least initially, said Benoit de Boeck, deputy director general of Belgian safety expert organization AVN, the Eurosafe Association will be modeled on the club set up last decade by European regulators, the Western European Nuclear Regulators Association (Wenra). Repussard said several factors -- the "vital" importance of nuclear power for the European economy in meeting environmental and supply security goals, the need for public confidence in the safety of all the continent's nuclear power plants, and the contribution of nuclear technology to the competitiveness of European industry -- point to the "need for a European approach" to nuclear safety. But they also indicate the need for "an international safety policy" to complement international standards developed at the IAEA, Repussard said. The founding members of the new structure are safety organizations that comprise the existing Eurosafe Forum -- IRSN, Germany's Gesellschaft fuer Anlagen- und Reaktorsicherheit mbH (GRS), Belgium's AVN, Spain's Consejo de Seguridad Nuclear, the UK's Health & Safety Executive, the Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate, and the Technical Research Center of Finland. New members, Repussard said, would logically be "organizations which perform similar tasks" to those done by the founding members. Together, they would provide a "pool of experts" that could work on technical safety analyses in a "continent-wide business," Repussard said. He was addressing the opening of the Eurosafe 2005 conference hosted by AVN Nov 7 in Brussels. The annual Eurosafe conferences bring together safety experts from a growing number of organizations, most of them European. Logical candidates for membership in the Eurosafe Association, de Boeck said, are expert organizations in the new member states of the EU like Slovakia, the Czech Republic or Slovenia. While TSOs in Bulgaria, Romania, Russia and Ukraine could also eventually join, he told Nucleonics Week that wasn't a near-term goal. He said the founders first have to see how the association works with the original members. One central question that must be asked in each country, de Boeck said, is what organization is appropriate to join the Eurosafe Association. AVN Director General Jean-Jacques van Binnebeek told the Brussels forum that a technical safety organization in the sense of Eurosafe is a not-for-profit body with a broad view that works regularly for safety authorities on technical safety analyses. That would exclude from TSO status, and thus from the new association, consultants or research organizations that are contracted by regulators to work on specific, bounded safety topics in a limited time frame. But de Boeck said it's not always obvious which organizations are TSOs. Some countries, like France and Germany, have formal TSOs separate from regulatory bodies, while in others, like Spain, the regulatory body itself has technical safety analysis expertise, even though it contracts out specific research topics. In other countries, regulators have a list of contractors with which they work regularly, but no single central TSO. "We will have to establish criteria for who can join" the Eurosafe Association, he said. Repussard said the new association would interact with the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency, the IAEA, "and other organizations that might need" European safety expertise and advice. He said it could provide safety assessment for nuclear plants in countries that aren't represented on the group "without bias of information" because all the association's members would share the same assessment technology. As Europe's TSOs ponder their own future, the issue of technical safety expertise is attracting interest internationally as well. The IAEA will hold an international conference, hosted by France, about technical safety organizations in 2007, Repussard noted. He said it was hoped the U.S. NRC would join GRS, Japanese safety expert bodies and others in helping organize the conference. --Ann MacLachlan, Brussels For more information, take a trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://nucweek.platts.com. ------------ Barsebaeck-2 owners to get $689-million for early shutdown Stockholm (Platts)--11Nov2005 To compensate for Barsebaeck-2's early shutdown, the government will pay the reactor's owners 5.6-billion kronor (U.S.$689-million), the government and the utilities involved agreed today. The 600-MW BWR was closed by government order in May. It is owned by state-owned utility Vattenfall and E.On Sweden (formerly Sydkraft), through Ringhals AB. Under the terms of the Barsebaeck-2 agreement, Vattenfall will get 4.1-billion kronor in direct compensation, paid over four years. In addition, the state will pay 1.5-billion kronor from 2005-2017 to compensate for shutdown and maintenance costs before the unit is dismantled. E.On Sweden will get an additional 3.76% in Ringhals AB, bringing its stake in the company to 29.56%. E.On Sweden CEO Lars Frithiof said "the premature and expensive closure of Barsebaeck is unsatisfactory for all parties. ... No winners emerged from (these) negotiations." ------------ Thorp reprocessing plant may restart in May 2006 London (Platts)--9Nov2005 Sellafield's Thorp plant could start reprocessing again in May 2006, site manager British Nuclear Group said today. It said it has "a firm plan" for restart that takes into account the extensive work required. Some 83,000 liters (about 21,933 gallons) of dissolved liquid spent fuel spilled unheeded from a broken pipe onto the floor of one of Thorp's shielded cells over at least eight months before it was discovered in April this year. The spilled liquid was recovered in June and is in storage tanks prior to being processed. BNFL's restart plan entails bypassing the ruptured pipework by using a second, parallel pipework and tank system. "Following completion of the repair work and processing of the recovered liquor through the chemical separation process, shearing of fuel is programmed to commence in May 2006," the company said. It cautioned, however, that the restart plan would be kept under constant review in case of any additional regulatory requirements. ------------ Lithuania looks at Ignalina for site for radwaste repository Stockholm (Platts)--9Nov2005 A third site for a low- and medium-level radwaste repository, closer to the Ignalina nuclear plant than other candidates, is being considered in the hope of winning greater public acceptance for the project, an official responsible for the repository told Nucleonics Week. Algirdas Vaidotas, deputy director of the Radioactive Waste Management Agency (RATA), said that the Lithuanian Environment Ministry asked the agency to prepare an environmental impact assessment of a site located in the Visaginas region, where the plant is located. "They know people there are more favorable to nuclear," he said. "It's easier to get public approval." The two other sites selected by RATA are in the Ignalina region, which is between Visaginas and Vilnius. Local officials and residents have objected to the repository. In addition, neighboring Latvia and especially Belarus have objected to the repository, which would be close to their borders. Vaidotas said the Visaginas site would also be near the two countries. Despite the additional assessment work, Vaidotas said he expects the project to proceed on schedule, with a repository ready to open in late 2011 or early 2012. The repository will be designed to hold 100,000 cubic meters (328,080 cubic feet) of waste, and will be modular so that it could be expanded if a new reactor is built in Lithuania. A international peer review of the environmental assessment to date, and of RATA's work, is planned for December, Vaidotas said. RATA hopes the government will approve a site in first-half 2006, he said. For more information, take a trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://nucweek.platts.com. ------------