Platts - Monday, March 13, 2006 http://www.platts.com ------------ DOE secretary, Pakistan minister discuss energy cooperation Washington (Platts)--13Mar2006 Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman and Pakistan's foreign minister, Kurshid Mahmud Kasuri, Monday discussed the potential for expanded cooperation on energy issues between the US and Pakistan, the US Dept of Energy said. Their talks included a number of topics, among them clean coal technology, renewable energy and energy efficiency. Nuclear energy, however, was not discussed. "Secretary Bodman and Foreign Minister Kasuri discussed key issues and the next steps for collaboration in the energy sector," DOE said. "The Pakistan side briefed the US delegation on the country's energy needs and possible alternative sources, including [hydropower], gas, coal, nuclear and renewables. The US private sector will be important to helping Pakistan achieve its energy objectives, and the United States will consult with its energy sector on Pakistan's energy needs." The visit to Pakistan, part of a four-country trip for Bodman this week, followed one President George W. Bush made to Islamabad earlier this month. Bush and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf signed a joint statement launching a US-Pakistan Strategic Partnership to promote stability in South Asia. As part of that agreement, Bush and Musharraf said they would explore ways to meet Pakistan's growing energy needs, including establishing an energy working group. Bush went to Pakistan after visiting India and signing an agreement to help India expand its civilian nuclear energy sector. The US and Pakistan have an uneasy relationship on nuclear issues in light of Pakistan's reputation on nonproliferation. Pakistan's leading nuclear engineer, Abdul Qadeer Khan, has admitted selling nuclear technology to Iran, Libya and North Korea. Bodman also is scheduled this week to travel to Kazakhstan and Russia -- where he will lead the US delegation to the G8 Energy Ministerial -- as well as Hungary. For more information, take a trial to Platts Inside Energy at http://insideenergy.platts.com. ------------ Iran nuclear dispute must be resolved 'by peaceful means': Straw London (Platts)--13Mar2006 The escalating dispute between Iran and the international community over Tehran's nuclear program must be resolved peacefully, Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Monday, stressing that military action against the Islamic Republic was inconceivable. In an interview with BBC Radio Four's Today program, Straw said it was "still not too late" for Iran to return to negotiations on its nuclear program which the West suspects of being aimed at acquiring nuclear weapons but which Tehran insists is for electricity generation. Asked whether military action against Iran was inconceivable, Straw said: "Yes, it is." "This is an issue which has to be resolved ... by peaceful means," the Foreign Secretary insisted. He said the cases of Iraq and Iran were different, the former having launched attacks on other countries and having had a nuclear weapons program. "Iran is not in that situation," he said. "We don't know for certain that they're moving towards weapons systems," Straw said. But he noted that Iran had failed to disclose to the International Atomic Energy, the UN's nuclear watchdog, certain aspects of its nuclear program. "If Iran is ... developing a nuclear weapons capability, it would very seriously destabilize the Middle East," he said. The IAEA last week handed over the Iranian nuclear dossier to the UN Security Council which could impose sanctions on Tehran. For more, request a free trial to Platts Oilgram News at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/ ------------ Review board concerned about DOE safety assessment process Washington (Platts)--10Mar2006 A review board has voiced concern about the technical credibility of some aspects of a computer modeling process that the Department of Energy uses to assess the safety performance of a repository planned for Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board stated in a March 6 letter to DOE that the Total System Performance Assessment, for example, allows for combinations of various physical parameters that can produce a range of groundwater travel times not considered technically credible. In another example, the board said, "peak-dose sensitivity analyses indicate that seepage of water into the drifts is significant to dose but that percolation of the water that produces the seepage is not a significant parameter--a decoupling not well explained." The TSPA produces dose versus time curve that indicates what the radiation doses from a repository would be and when they would occur. The letter is posted on the board's web site, www.nwtrb.gov. For more information, take a trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://nucweek.platts.com. ------------ Administration proposes legislation for nuclear trade with India Washington (Platts)--10Mar2006 The Bush administration proposed legislation to allow nuclear trade with India. The proposal was sent to Congress late yesterday. It would create an exception for India from the requirements under current law for congressional review procedures of an agreement for peaceful nuclear cooperation with a state that does not accept IAEA safeguards on all its nuclear facilities. Under the proposed legislation, an agreement with India, which does not accept such safeguards, would be subject to the less rigorous procedures that the law puts in place for states that do have such safeguards--the basic standard, set by the 1978 Nuclear Nonproliferation Act, for US nuclear exports. The legislation also would require the president to make certain determinations on India's nonproliferation efforts. In a press release, Representative Edward Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, said the proposal would "gut congressional oversight." ------------ UK Anglesey County Council backs new nuclear plant to secure jobs London (Platts)--10Mar2006 The UK's Anglesey County Council supports the idea of building a new nuclear power plant in Anglesey to replace the existing 1,000 MW Wylfa plant, due to close in 2010. The council said that a new plant would provide a boost to the island's economy and support continued aluminum production. "The Isle of Anglesey County Council will support any future plans to build a new nuclear power station on the island--if the government's energy review gives nuclear energy the go-ahead," the council said following a council vote on the subject in early March. The local council has also supported an extension to Wylfa's current lifespan, should that be proposed. Council leader William Williams said that "this County Council has now sent out a clear message to both the UK government and the Welsh Assembly government that it supports the principle of a new nuclear power station for Anglesey and wants to see Wylfa remain open beyond 2010." An independent study published in February revealed that one in 10 island jobs could disappear if both Wylfa, and Anglesey Aluminium, which is heavily dependent on Wylfa, were allowed to close. Anglesey Aluminium uses around 250 MW of power, or 12% of Welsh power demand. The company depends on Wylfa because it has a fixed price power supply contract lasting until September 30, 2009. When that expires it would be too expensive--at current market levels--for Anglesey Aluminium to buy power from the wholesale market to replace that long-term deal. And at the moment Anglesey Aluminium also avoids transmission system user charges of over GBP4 million/year ($7 million/year) for its electricity because it has a direct connection with Wylfa. The study, by Tribal HCH, says that it assumes production of aluminum will stop in 2009 when Anglesey Aluminium's current power contract expires. Altogether, the study says, some 1,500 jobs could be lost from 2010 to 2013 from the decommissioning of Wylfa and the closure of Anglesey Aluminium. The government is consulting on UK energy policy and is expected to decide by the end of summer whether to approve a new nationwide nuclear power program. But even if government backs such an idea, it would be up to private companies to propose where and when to build. There might be alternative generation opportunities apart from nuclear for Anglesey, which lies off the north coast of Wales. The transmission lines in place from the Wylfa site could also be used to transport power from a different type of power plant to the mainland. US developer Canatxx has proposed building a liquefied natural gas import terminal at Anglesey on a site it owns there. The company has in the past said it could consider building a gas-fired power plant on Anglesey too if the LNG project went ahead. Canatxx's LNG venture might provide 50 to 60 jobs for Anglesey and a power plant would provide more, but no formal planning application has yet been submitted. For more information, take a trial to Nuclear Fuel at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/ ------------ NRC observing investigation of tritium at Palo Verde-3 Washington (Platts)--6Mar2006 The NRC sent a health physicst to Palo Verde today to observe Arizona Public Service Co.'s investigation into tritium-laced water found near Palo Verde-3, NRC spokesman Victor Dricks said. There has not been any indication that the radioactive material moved offsite, Dricks said. APS notified NRC of its finding last week after it alerted the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality. The tritium content of water found in a 13-foot-deep hole near unit 3 was about 71,400 picocuries per liter, APS spokesman James McDonald said. The level is low but above what's permitted under regulation, he said. APS has not yet determined the source of the tritium--whether it came from an underground pipe leak, the plant's NRC-permitted releases of tritium into the air, or occurred naturally, McDonald said. No leaks have been found, he said, adding that the tainted water is more than 200 feet above an aquifer with potable water. Tritium is a byproduct of fission. ------------ DOE evaluating need for second repository Washington (Platts)--9Mar2006 DOE has begun its evaluation of whether a second repository is needed and already is examining states, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman told the House Energy & Commerce Committee today. By law, the department must report to Congress between January 2007 and January 2010 whether a second facility is needed to dispose of utilities' spent nuclear fuel. The planned repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada now has a 70,000 metric ton limit on the amount of spent fuel that can be disposed of there. ------------ Barton set to complain to Bush about administration energy plans Washington (Platts)--9Mar2006 House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton Thursday said he planned to complain to President George W. Bush later in the day that the administration is shortchanging programs authorized by the Energy Policy Act of 2005 while proposing costly new initiatives like the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership. The Texas Republican said he also would use the meeting with Bush, which was expected to be attended by other Republican and Democratic House members, to urge the president to redouble his commitment to the proposed nuclear waste repository in Nevada. "The Department of Energy has basically, I think, dropped the ball on everything in the Energy Policy Act," Barton said to reporters outside a hearing on the department's fiscal-year 2007 budget proposal. He said DOE had met only three of 30 deadlines set for the department in the energy bill. A DOE spokeswoman said, however, that the department had met the "vast majority" of the law's deadlines. "Here's this probably $100 billion program that they want us to authorize, and they're not doing any of the things that we've already authorized," Barton said of GNEP. "I don't think there is a member of the committee on either side of the aisle that is satisfied with the budget priorities in the Department of Energy budget." Barton expressed particular concern over the administration's planned budget cuts for clean coal, weatherization and ultra-deep-drilling programs. At the hearing, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman reiterated his earlier statements that legitimate energy programs were cut or left out of the new budget in the interests of fiscal restraint. Representative David Hobson, Republican-Ohio, chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on energy and water development, which decides on DOE funding, Wednesday challenged the administration's plans for GNEP, for which Bush sought $250 million in FY 2007. Bodman has said the program's total costs could ultimately reach $60 billion. ---Daniel Whitten, daniel_whitten@platts.com For more information, take a trial to Platts Inside Energy at http://insideenergy.platts.com. ------------