Platts - Thursday, March 23, 2006 http://www.platts.com ------------ Jaczko asks the NRC to put hold on Vermont Yankee uprate approval Washington (Platts)--23Mar2006 NRC Commissioner Gregory Jaczko is asking other commissioners to join him in ordering a temporary hold on a 20% power uprate at Vermont Yankee. He said he has deep misgivings about the agency approving the increase going into effect before the conclusion of a hearing on the license amendment request. In a March 8 memo, publicly released last week on NRC's document system Adams, Jaczko said his objection to the plant's extended power uprate centered on the staff's "no significant hazards consideration" (NSHC), which he believes had not been properly executed. The memo is on NRC's web site (http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/commission/comm-secy/2006/2006 -0002comgbj.pdf). Uprate requests are reviewed by the staff and NRC's Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards. The commissioners do not normally weigh in on final decisions. NRC regulations allow for the agency to make an uprate amendment immediately effective, even if there is a hearing pending, if it has determined that the amendment involves no significant hazards. "At first blush, the instance of the extended power uprate application does not appear unusual in this respect," Jaczko wrote in his March 8 memo. But upon further examination, he said, the agency might have "misapplied the implementation of the NSHC determination." He said the staff's NSHC determination was not made after Entergy filed its uprate request, "as you would expect with such routine amendments," but came after the staff issued its safety evaluation. "A no significant hazards consideration determination that could not be finalized without the staff's safety evaluation report appears to meet none of the standards set by Congress or the Commission," Jaczko concluded after reviewing the history of NSHC determinations. "Rather than making the determinations that the amendment did raise considerations of significant hazards, the NRC appears to have analyzed those hazards away through its safety analysis," Jaczko said. "I believe that the Commission owes itself and its external stakeholders to stay the effectiveness of the requested license amendment until the outcome of the pending adjudication on this amendment," he said. Two days after receiving the staff's March 2 approval of the uprate request, Entergy Nuclear began power ascension at Vermont Yankee (Inside NRC, 6 March, 1). One of the conditions attached to the uprate amendment?as volunteered by Entergy?is to have hold points at 105%, 110%, and 115% power in order to collect data, conduct plant inspections, and evaluate steam dryer performance as part of a test program. The company also agreed not to move to the next power level until 96 hours after an NRC project manager confirms the receipt of Entergy's analysis. But on its own volition, Entergy halted the increase after the first of the four incremental increases to raise the plant's power level to 1,912 megawatts (thermal) from 1,593 MW(t). It has been holding at 105% power since the first week of March to examine in more detail "acoustical noise" in the steamlines, said plant spokesman Larry Smith. Smith said the company is awaiting data from a General Electric analysis and a supercomputer in Belgium. "It'll be a while...it won't be this week" to move to the next level, Smith said March 16. "We want to be thorough and not make any missteps." At the current level, the plant is generating an additional 26 MW (electric), Entergy said. Of the total 106 MW (electric) anticipated from the uprate, 10 MW are contracted to the Vermont Electric Cooperative, another plant spokesman said. All other generation will be sold in the open market. For more information, take a trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://nucweek.platts.com. ------------ EC President urges decision by states on stance toward nuclear Brussels (Platts)--23Mar2006 Ahead of EU summit talks in Brussels on energy issues, European Commission President Jose Barroso March 23 underscored that states must decide where they stand on nuclear power in determining a coherent EU energy policy. In an eve-of-summit statement to the European Parliament, Barroso insisted that the EU executive is not "advocating" recourse to nuclear power in order to ease Europe's growing dependence on energy imports. But while each EU state remains free to formulate its own national energy mix, he said, "We can't avoid the (nuclear) issue; it's on the agenda, and we have to talk about it." Referring to his March 17 talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Barroso told lawmakers, "President Putin said that, despite the great wealth of oil and gas that Russia has, the development of nuclear power is a great priority for Russia." For more news, request a free trial to Platts Power in Europe at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/ ------------ Lithuania's EU emissions allowance reserve falls short London (Platts)--23Mar2006 Closing Ignalina-1 has contributed to a serious shortfall in Lithuania's European Union emission allowance reserve, Jolanta Zaltkauskiene, director of the Green House Gas Registry and Joint Implementation Projects Administration Division at the Lithuanian Environmental Investment Fund, told Platts today. She said that because the country's economy is growing so fast, electricity demand is greater than anticipated and more of it is being produced by fossil fuel since Ignalina-1 shut down at the end of 2004. Zaltkauskiene said that Lithuania's reserve for 2005-2007 is 1.8 million allowances but that almost double that is needed. The European Commission, however, will not allow Lithuania to increase the size of the reserve. Ignalina-2 is scheduled to be closed at the end of 2009. For more news, request a free trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/ ------------ EC President urges decision by states on stance toward nuclear Brussels (Platts)--22Mar2006 Ahead of EU summit talks in Brussels on energy issues, European Commission President Jose Barroso March 23 underscored that states must decide where they stand on nuclear power in determining a coherent EU energy policy. In an eve-of-summit statement to the European Parliament, Barroso insisted that the EU executive is not "advocating" recourse to nuclear power in order to ease Europe's growing dependence on energy imports. But while each EU state remains free to formulate its own national energy mix, he said, "We can't avoid the (nuclear) issue; it's on the agenda, and we have to talk about it." Referring to his March 17 talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Barroso told lawmakers, "President Putin said that, despite the great wealth of oil and gas that Russia has, the development of nuclear power is a great priority for Russia." For more information, take a trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://nucweek.platts.com. ------------ Nevada sues DOE, Energy Secretary Bodman over Yucca Mountain Washington (Platts)--22Mar2006 Nevada has sued DOE and Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman in an effort to obtain two versions of the department's draft license application for a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The lawsuit, filed today in US District Court for the northern district of Nevada, said that DOE has no legal basis for withholding that information. Robert Loux, executive director of the state's nuclear waste office, said, "We want to see this document because we believe it will show that the repository is unsafe after 10,000 years, if not before. There isn't a privilege in the world that should shield this from Nevada's citizens." Nevada, which opposes the repository, went to court after failing to obtain the document through other avenues, including two requests to DOE from Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn, a Republican, and a follow-up request from him to President George W. Bush; a Freedom of Information Act request filed with DOE; and litigation before a special NRC licensing board. DOE has maintained the information is subject to various legal privileges and does not have to be released. ------------ South Africa mulls building conventional nuclear plant London (Platts)--22Mar2006 South Africa is talking about building a conventional nuclear plant, separate from the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor project, Alec Erwin, South Africa's minister for public enterprise said today in London at a TopNux conference on new reactor systems. "We need to bring a baseload plant into the southern part of our grid," he said. Erwin told Platts that the reactor option was announced recently in South Africa but this was the first time it had been mentioned abroad. The feasibility study started last fall, he said, and would take about two years. But South African utility Eskom is starting "to fast track it now," he said. He said South Africa was not yet talking to international vendors but plans to after the study is completed. For more news, request a free trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/ ------------ Exelon's Clinton down today after yesterday's scram Washington (Platts)--21Mar2006 Clinton is out of service today after a reactor scram yesterday caused by a main turbine trip, Exelon Nuclear said in an event report to NRC. Repair plans are being developed and "[t]roubleshooting is underway to determine the cause," Exelon spokesman Adam Slahor said in an e-mail today. Exelon has "no estimate" of when Clinton will return to service, Slahor said. ------------