Platts - Thursday, May 04, 2006 http://www.platts.com ------------ New plant tax credit guidance posted on IRS web site Washington (Platts)--3May2006 Guidance on the allocation of production tax credits for new advanced nuclear power plants has been posted on the IRS web site. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 authorized the credits as an investment stimulus. The Internal Revenue Service guidance sets out the process for distributing a 1.8 cents per kilowatt-hour tax credit for 6,000 MW of new nuclear generating capacity that comes on line before 2021. The notice (2006-40) is at: www.irs.gov/pub/irs-irbs/irb06-18.pdf. ------------ Brush Wellman gets $7 million beryllium order for fusion reactor New York (Platts)--3May2006 Brush Wellman's Beryllium Products business unit has received a $7 million order to provide beryllium metal for the Joint European Torus, the largest experimental nuclear fusion reactor in the world. JET is located in England. The order calls for delivery of 4.4 mt of beryllium beginning late in the third quarter of 2006 and is expected to be completed in the first half of 2007. The order is from the European Fusion Development Agreement, the agency that provides funding to JET. The beryllium will be used for inner wall plasma facing components that will line the inside of the reactor as part of a major recommissioning project to prepare JET for fusion reaction testing. An earlier generation of beryllium replacement tiles, also from Brush Wellman materials, serviced the reactor beginning in the late 1980s. "The beryllium specified for the JET application is our high-purity S65 grade material," said Michael D. Anderson, president of Beryllium Products. "Representatives of our Elmore, Ohio, manufacturing facility have been working closely with JET scientists in the United Kingdom, and we are prepared to begin production of the material immediately." JET produces a 100,000,000 degrees C reaction by fusing deuterium and tritium in an intense magnetic field. The reactor is a precursor for a planned larger, even more sophisticated facility called ITER, which is scheduled to be built in France. It is hoped that ITER will provide critical data to support the technological feasibility of a full-scale fusion power plant in 30 to 50 years. Scientists see fusion as a practical source of future power needs due to its low production of nuclear waste and high amount of energy produced. Since no actual combustion occurs during the reaction, fusion will not produce air pollution. Also, deuterium, one of the fuel sources, can be extracted from seawater, while tritium can be produced in the fusion reactor itself from lithium. Brush Wellman, the world's only fully integrated producer of beryllium, beryllium-containing alloys and beryllia ceramic, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Brush Engineered Materials. Brush Engineered Materials is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. For more information, take a trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://nucweek.platts.com. ------------ UK health watchdog to prosecute Sellafield nuclear site London (Platts)--3May2006 The UK's Health and Safety Executive is to bring a criminal prosecution against British Nuclear Group Sellafield in connection with an incident at the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing site, the HSE said Wednesday. The prosecution follows a detailed investigation by HSE's Nuclear Installations Inspectorate into a leak of radioactive liquor inside a heavily shielded facility at the Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (Thorp). HSE was notified of the incident on April 20, 2005. HSE has applied to the courts for summonses alleging that the company breached three conditions attached to the Sellafield site license. An initial hearing is scheduled for June 8, 2006 at Whitehaven Magistrates Court, Cumbria. Thorp reprocesses nuclear fuel from overseas and UK second-generation commercial reactors. The plant has been shut since April 2005. The liquor leaked into a stainless steel-lined cell with 1.5m thick concrete walls. There is no evidence of any harm to workers or the public, the HSE said. For more information, take a trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://nucweek.platts.com. ------------ Browns Ferry nuclear plant to get 20-year license extension Houston (Platts)--2May2006 The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday will extend by 20 years the operating license for the Tennessee Valley Authority's Browns Ferry nuclear plant, a TVA spokesman said Tuesday. Under the new license, Browns Ferry will be able to operate until as late as July 2036. The decision on re-licensing will be announced on Thursday when NRC Chairman Nils Diaz visits the nuclear plant, said Frank Rapley, a spokesman for TVA. Located on the north shore of Wheeler Reservoir in north Alabama, Browns Ferry was TVA's first nuclear power plant. The Browns Ferry site has three reactors. Unit 1, which has been closed since 1985, is expected to return to service in 2007, following $1.8 billion in renovations, with a capacity of up to 1,200 MW. Unit 1's license was set to expire December 20, 2013. The licenses of units 2 and 3, each with a capacity of 1,113 MW, were set to expire on June 28, 2014, and July 2, 2016, respectively. For more information, take a trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://nucweek.platts.com. ------------ EPA hopes to issue final Yucca rule by end 2006 Washington (Platts)--2May2006 The Environmental Protection Agency hopes to issue a final Yucca Mountain standard by the end of calendar year 2006, the director of EPA's Office of Radiation and Indoor Air, said May 1. Speaking at an international high-level waste conference in Las Vegas, Elizabeth Cotsworth said the agency is trying to determine what changes, if any, are needed in its proposed 1-million-year radiation protection standard for a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. If changes are made, a new proposed rule would have to be issued for public comment, she said. EPA received roughly 2,550 public comments, about 2,350 of which were the result of mass mailings, on the proposed 1-million-year standard that amount to about 3,000 pages of comments and 1,000 pages of attachments, she said. The agency, she said, is compiling the comments in a document to accompany the final standard. ------------