Platts - Tuesday, May 02, 2006 http://www.platts.com ------------ Spain shuts Zorita PWR due to political pressure Washington (Platts)--1May2006 Spain's Union Fenosa permanently shut the 160-MW Zorita PWR yesterday. It is the first nuclear plant in Spain to be closed prematurely under political pressure. The utility's nuclear generation director said the company is going ahead with plans for a 400-MW combined-cycle power plant at the Zorita site, southeast of Madrid, despite the recent hike in prices for natural gas. Zorita had one of its best operating years last year, with a record short refueling outage of 26 days and near-record production. ------------ Iran nuclear work 'classic threat' to peace, security: US' Bolton New York (Platts)--28Apr2006 Iran's failure to halt uranium enrichment in violation of 30-day UN Security Council deadline represents "a classic threat to international peace and security," the US' ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, said Friday. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN's nuclear watchdog, said in a report earlier Friday that Iran had failed to comply with Friday's non-binding deadline to stop enriching uranium, a process that could lead to the development of nuclear weapons. Bolton, speaking outside the Security Council chambers in remarks televised live, told reporters Iran's "defiance" was a "matter of urgency." The ambassador said the US, Great Britain and France, three of the five permanent members of the Security Council, and Germany would work to compose a so-called "Chapter 7" resolution for the Council. Such a measure would make mandatory the previous resolutions enacted by the Vienna-based IAEA. "The point, and there's no question about this in our mind, is to enhance international pressure on Iran to show just how isolated they are, to show just how unacceptable is their pursuit of nuclear weapons," Bolton said, adding "there was still time" for Tehran to reverse course and adhere to IAEA resolutions. For more information, take a trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://nucweek.platts.com. ------------ Crude prices push Taiwan's DPP to reconsider nuclear-free policy Singapore (Platts)--28Apr2006 Rising oil prices are undermining a cornerstone of the political platform that allowed Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party and its leader, Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian to end the Kuomintang party's 50-year rule of the island. In May 2000 Chen won the island-state's presidential election on a platform calling for promotion of environmental-friendly policies including an end to pursuit of nuclear energy on the island. To that end, only five months after taking office, Chen summarily halted work on the island's fourth nuclear power plant. Under pressure from opposition and business groups, however, work resumed on the plant in 2001 after the delay had cost an estimated $2.2 billion. But a number of factors have given the DPP pause, causing the party to re-examine its nuclear-free target. Foremost, Taiwan remains wholly lacking in domestic oil reserves and completely dependent on imports. Amid the drumbeat of ever rising global crude prices, costs to Taiwan consumers and business are likewise rising. Taiwan's two refiners, Chinese Petroleum Corp and Formosa Petrochemical Corp., raised products prices across the board April 17-18. But with state-run CPC having already lost an estimated $154 million in Q1, those higher prices did not appear likely to come down anytime soon. State-run Taiwan Power will also likely raise power prices, administration officials said recently through state media. Moreover, with the Chen administration's efforts to adhere to the Kyoto protocol on greenhouse gas emissions, nuclear power generation is looking more like "green energy" by the day. On Wednesday, Taiwan Vice-President Annette Lu told the DPP Central Standing Committee that the party should review its anti-nuclear policy given growing recognition of nuclear power as a "green energy," according to a report by Taiwan's state-run Central News Service. Though building a nuclear-free energy infrastructure for the island has been a cornerstone of the DPP platform, "we will have to face up to the problem [of possible energy shortage] sooner or later [and] we need to get more experts to study the issue across the board," she said. -Mike Kobal, michael_kobal@platts.com For more information, take a trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://nucweek.platts.com. ------------ UK government says Blair undecided on nuclear despite reports London (Platts)--28Apr2006 UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has not reached a firm decision to support a new generation of nuclear power plants, despite a newspaper report to the contrary Friday, Downing Street's senior press officer Brendan O'Grady said. According to the "Financial Times," Blair believes it will be impossible to make up for the shortfall produced by the decommissioning of the UK's nuclear plants through other clean technologies such as wind or clean coal. "We've not said that," O'Grady said, adding that Blair had not yet reached any firm decision on nuclear power. "The Energy Review process is still ongoing, and will report in the summer, although the consultation period is now over," he said. The newspaper said that although Blair expected most of the ruling Labour Party to support him in his decision, he is uncertain of the position towards nuclear of Chancellor Gordon Brown, his expected successor. Last year, the Treasury, which is Brown's department, began a study of the costs of clean coal. It remains unclear whether the department will use that study to propound clean coal as an alternative to nuclear or to impugn the technology's commercial viability. Nuclear power currently provides 20% of the country's electricity supply, but many of the plants will reach the end of their life within the next decade or so. For more information, take a trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://nucweek.platts.com. ------------ Bruce Power reports higher first quarter revenues Toronto (Platts)--28Apr2006 Bruce Power today reported first quarter revenue of (Cdn) $496 million, up $78 million from the same period last year. Generation increased to 9.1 terawatt-hours compared to 8.2 TWh in first quarter 2005. Company spokesman Steve Cannon said much of the gain in revenue and generation is because there were more outages last year. In the first quarter of this year, only unit 3 was offline for a month-long planned outage. ------------ Committee recommends two-stage plan to store UK radwaste London (Platts)--28Apr2006 A two-stage plan to store UK radwaste prior to its underground disposal was recommended Apr 27 by the country's Committee on Radioactive Waste Management, or Corwm. The government formed the committee in November 2003 to provide a solution to managing the country's eventual 470,000 cubic meters of high- and intermediate-level radioactive wastes. Corwm said it recognized the likely difficulty in reaching an early agreement to go ahead with deep geological disposal because of ethical and social concerns. Corwm Chairman Gordon MacKerron told a press conference in Brighton that it was likely to be "at least several decades" before such a facility could be developed and fully implemented. Such a timeframe could easily extend into future generations, he said, if further technical and community concerns emerge. "So, because of these kinds of uncertainties, we are also recommending robust interim storage, which will need to last for many decades," he said. "This would serve as a precursor to what we think is the best end point, which is deep disposal" several hundred meters underground, he said. Corwm's two-stage recommendation is still in draft form. Corwm intends to get the finalized version to the government by the end of July, it said. For more news, request a free trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/ ------------ Bush names nominee for NRC commission Washington (Platts)--27Apr2006 President Bush today nominated Dale Klein to the NRC and said he would designate him as chairman, if he is confirmed by the Senate. Klein is currently assistant to the Secretary of Defense for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs, and previously, as vice chancellor for special engineering programs for the University of Texas system, was influential in preserving the UT nuclear engineering program. He has been at his post at the Department of Defense since November 2001. Klein would fill the seat to be vacated June 30 by NRC Chairman Nils Diaz, who announced earlier this month that he had decided not seek a third term. A Senate staffer said today that Klein's nomination is likely to be voted on as a package with confirmations of Commissioners Peter Lyons and Gregory Jaczko, who are currently sitting as recess appointments. ------------