Platts - Thursday, April 27, 2006 http://www.platts.com ------------ Toshiba absent from Japan's Atomic Industrial Forum annual meet London (Platts)--27Apr2006 Toshiba Corp executives will not attend Japan Atomic Industrial Forum's annual conference, said Japanese industry officials at the JAIF meeting, which started Apr 26 in Yokohama. The Japanese government has issued to Toshiba a 30-day ban on nuclear business activity, they said. The ban is related to violations of regulations, and alleged falsifications of reports to regulators by Toshiba personnel at several Japanese nuclear power plants, according to Japanese industry officials at the meeting. Revelations of the irregularities appeared in the Japanese media during the last few days. According to Japanese industry sources at the conference, the Japanese government applied the ban on Toshiba's nuclear business activity a few weeks ago. They said the ban would expire at the end of the day April 28, the last day of the JAIF meeting. Executives at companies doing business with Toshiba told Platts that, since the 30-day ban was imposed, their firms have not been allowed to meet with Toshiba personnel. For more news, request a free trial to Platts Nucleonics Weeks at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/ ------------ Exelon's nuclear production, capacity factor up in first quarter Washington (Platts)--26Apr2006 Exelon's nuclear fleet produced 33,491 gigawatt-hours in the first quarter, up from 32,780 GWh the same time last year, the company said today in releasing earnings results. The generation total includes the output from Exelon's 42.59% share in the two-unit, 2,324-MW Salem station, which is operated by Public Service Enterprise Group. The capacity factor for the 17 units Exelon operates was 91% during the just-ended quarter, up from 89.9% in first quarter 2005. There were 79 refueling outage days in first quarter 2006, down from 92 a year ago, Exelon said. The company reported earnings of $400 million, down from $521 million a year ago. Factors affecting earnings included mild weather and higher operating and maintenance expenses, Exelon said. ------------ Tokyo Electric to begin Fukushima-1 nuke unit maintenance Apr 29 Tokyo (Platts)--26Apr2006 Tokyo Electric Power Co will start a 76-day maintenance program of the 784 MW No 3 reactor at its Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan on April 29, a company spokesman said Wednesday. The unit has already been shut since February 22 to replace stickers attached to pumps, the spokesman said. Tepco has 11 nuclear units with a total capacity of 11.340 GW, or 65.5% of its total nuclear power generation capacity of 17.308 GW, in operation. Sources estimate a 30-day shutdown of a 1.1 GW nuclear unit could cost Tepco 174,000 kl (163,386 mt, 1.09 million barrels) in additional crude and fuel oil consumption. Tepco normally makes up for a shortfall in nuclear power generation with thermal power generation using low sulfur fuel oil, crude, LNG and coal. For more news, request a free trial to Platts Power in Asia at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/ ------------ Criminal investigation closed in USGS e-mail case Washington (Platts)--25Apr2006 The US Attorney's Office has declined to pursue criminal prosecution in a case involving US Geological Survey e-mails that suggested some documents associated with DOE's repository project at Yucca Mountain, Nevada may have been falsified. The DOE Office of Inspector General, which made public the US Attorney's Office decision, also reported in a memorandum it sent today to Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman that OIG will be closing its criminal investigation into the case. OIG said it was taking that action, in part, because of the decision by the US Attorney's Office and the absence of additional information on any criminal behavior. The e-mails, which were written between 1998 and 2000 and made public in March 2005, suggested that some quality assurance documents associated with USGS work at Yucca Mountain may have been falsified. The OIG memorandum this week questioned why the e-mails were not recognized as being problematic years earlier. OIG noted that at least one USGS supervisor and one QA official had seen some of the e-mails at the time they were written. ------------