Platts - Wednesday, March 15, 2006 http://www.platts.com ------------ Bodman to promote energy security during G8 meeting in Moscow Washington (Platts)--15Mar2006 US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman plans to use a G8 ministerial meeting in Moscow Thursday to promote advanced energy technologies, stable investment climates and increased reliance on conservation as a means of improving energy security. Bodman, who arrived in Moscow Wednesday, also intends to meet separately with Russian officials to discuss nuclear security, natural gas and oil, the Department of Energy said. "As economies around the world grow, we will all need more safe, affordable and dependable supplies of energy," Bodman said in a statement. "The United States and our G8 partners must expand and strengthen our relationship to mitigate the effects of energy supply disruptions, promote a market-based investment approach and advance clean energy technologies, including renewable energy, clean coal and emissions-free nuclear energy." Bodman, who will lead the US delegation to the G8 ministerial meeting, will discuss market-oriented approaches to energy that encourage investment, competition, transparency and reliability, DOE said. In addition, Bodman intends to highlight at the meeting strategies for mitigating energy supply disruptions, including maintaining emergency stockpiles, diversifying global transit routes, and strengthening infrastructure security, DOE said. On Wednesday, Bodman is scheduled to address the Carnegie Moscow Center on the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, a Bush administration initiative meant to demonstrate new technologies to recycle spent nuclear fuel, minimize waste and keep nuclear materials out of the hands of terrorists. DOE said Bodman would meet with Russian officials to build up cooperation between the US and Russia on nuclear security, encourage approval of an expansion of the Caspian Pipeline, and welcome Russia's efforts to develop a liquefied natural gas business. "The secretary will discuss adoption of an international standard of transparency and corporate governance [for] state-owned companies and promote stable and transparent market practices to promote foreign investment," DOE said. Bodman's visit will include talks with First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Head of Presidential Administration Igor Sechin, Minister of Industry and Energy Viktor Khristenko and new RosAtom Director Sergey Kiriyenko. For more information, take a trial to Platts Inside Energy at http://insideenergy.platts.com. ------------ Germany E.ON calls for doubling reactor running times Freiburg (Platts)--15Mar2006 The chief executive of German energy group E.ON, said the life times for nuclear power plant of 60 years, as is the case in the United States or Sweden, should be taken as a basis for Germany also, Wulf Bernotat said in an interview with German paper 'Rheinische Post' published Wednesday. This would mean nuclear units could run until 2050, not until 2020 as planned under Germany's so-called atom consensus agreed between the previous, SPD-Green party coalition government and industry in 2001. That plan aims for an average life time of 32 years for nuclear units in operation. The current CDU-SPD government has said it would not change the decommissioning plans, but pressure from industry and members of the CDU party is growing ahead of Germany's energy summit on April 3. Bernotat also called for a clear date on the end to state subsidies for local hard coal. Bernotat said hard coal could not be generated at competitive prices, but if an exit was carried out too fast, tens of thousands of jobs could be lost. For more information, take a trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/ ------------ MEPs call for separate legislation on nuclear power accidents Strasbourg (Platts)--14Mar2006 Voting on new funding arrangements for tackling disasters in the European Union, MEPs insisted March 14 that the new system should not apply to the atomic energy sector. The European Parliament wants nuclear accidents to be covered by separate legislation and have approved an indicative budget of Eur278 million ($331 million) for 2007-2013. MEPs hope more money can be earmarked once the EU institutions have settled ongoing differences over future budgets. However the EP agreed that the new Rapid Response and Preparedness Instrument (RRPI), necessitated by the expiry at the end of this year of current EU arrangements on civil emergencies, should explicitly apply to maritime accidents. MEPs said the Erika and Prestige tanker disasters in 1999 and 2002 respectively had shown that "an individual coastal state cannot cope with a large scale oil spill without assistance from other states." For more information, take a trial to Nuclear Fuel at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/ ------------ Russia risks missing nuclear power target: president London (Platts)--14Mar2006 Russian President Vladimir Putin said he is concerned about the state of affairs in Russia's nuclear industry and has warned that its share in the energy balance could fall, Russian news agency Itar-Tass said Tuesday, as monitored by the BBC. The report said it was the first time the head of state had convened a special meeting in the Kremlin to discuss the sector's development and that the main part of the meeting was held behind closed doors. Opening the meeting, the president repeated the aim of increasing the share of nuclear energy in the country's energy output to at least 20%. "Not only do we have to preserve this [current] share but we also have to raise it at least to the level of some European countries, where it is 20% or more," the president said. According to the president's forecast, unless new nuclear power stations are built, the nuclear sector's share in national energy output will fall to 13%. "The share of production at nuclear power stations in 2006 will be about 16%, but if the state of the sector remains what we know it to be, then the share of nuclear energy in the country's overall generation will fall to 13% in a few years," Putin said. The president invited Rosatom -- Russian federal agency for atomic energy -- head Sergey Kiriyenko to present his report on the prospects for the development of the sector. At present ten Russian nuclear power stations -- 31 generating units -- produce about 16% of Russia's electricity. The most recent generating unit, at the Kalininskaya nuclear power station, became operational in December, 2004. "The mainstay of the Russian nuclear energy sector are 1,000-MW VVER water-cooled reactors," the report said. "Rosatom, however, has already set out technical requirements for the creation of a VVER-1000+ reactor with a capacity exceeding 1,000MW." The world market price for the construction of one generating unit for a nuclear power station is about $1.5-2.5 billion, according to the report, which added that budget funds alone are not enough to build nuclear power stations in Russia. One way to earn this money is to build nuclear power stations in other countries, it said. "Over 25 years, we would like to build facilities abroad with a total capacity of 60GW, which means 60 stations," Rosatom's Kiriyenko said. He added that Russia would be looking above all to "the South-East Asian markets because this region is developing fast and needs ever more electricity every year." Russia is building three nuclear power stations abroad, in Iran, China and India. On February 1, the Russian Federation submitted papers to take part in a tender for the construction of a nuclear power station in Bulgaria. At the beginning of March, Atomstroyeksport -- the organization that builds nuclear power stations abroad -- became fully state-controlled. For more information, take a trial to Nuclear Fuel at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/ ------------ Raytheon Canada awarded Russian nonproliferation contract Washington (Platts)--14Mar2006 Raytheon Canada won a contract for nonproliferation work in Russia, the company announced today. The contract from the Canadian government runs through March 2007 and has three one-year options for renewal, the company said in a statement. The maximum potential value of the contract is (US)$5.7 million, the company said. The contract covers project management and advisory and monitoring services for nuclear security projects as part of the Canadian government's participation in an international effort that was launched at the 2002 Group of Eight summit in Alberta. ------------ Areva to supply mixed-oxide fuel for Japanese plant Washington (Platts)--13Mar2006 Areva will supply MOX fuel for Chubu's Hamaoka plant in Japan, Areva said today. The fuel will be fabricated in six production runs through 2020 and will utilize all the plutonium recovered from Hamaoka's spent fuel at the La Hague reprocessing plant, the company said. The monetary value of the contract and the amount of mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel to be produced were not disclosed. The agreement is pursuant to the Commox joint venture of Areva NC (60%) and Belgonucleaire (40%) to market MOX fuel. ------------