Platts - Monday, May 08, 2006 http://www.platts.com ------------ Westinghouse to supply nuclear services to south Texas project London (Platts)--8May2006 Westinghouse will supply nuclear services to the two south Texas project units under a five-year alliance agreement, potentially worth more than $150 million, with STP Nuclear Operating Co. Under the agreement, which Westinghouse Electric Co. announced May 4, will be STPNOC's exclusive supplier for outage services, NSSS engineering services, spare parts, replacement equipment, major hardware upgrades, digital instrumentation and control upgrades, and alloy 600 programs beginning in March 2006. For more news, request a free trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/ ------------ UK nuke shut down Sunday due to pump problem: operator London (Platts)--8May2006 One of the two generators at British Energy's Hartlepool Power Station, representing 607 MW, was shut down manually Sunday, BE spokesman John McNamara said Monday. He said that all post-trip actions were completed and the reactor was shut down safely. McNamara added that the cause of the shutdown was a "pump problem on the turbine." Although BE could not confirm when the plant would be operational again, industry sources said it was not thought to a long-term problem. McNamara also confirmed that one of the generators at the Torness Power Station, representing 650 MW, came back online April 29, having been offline since April 13. More nuclear news is published in Platts Power in Europe. Request a free trial at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/ ------------ Vermont Yankee reaches full 20% power increase Washington (Platts)--5May2006 Entergy's Vermont Yankee today reached its full 20% power increase, the company said. Entergy has slowly been expanding the plant's output since NRC approved the uprate in early March. Vermont Yankee is now producing an additional 110 megwawatts, Entergy said. Crews will be conducting tests, and possibly shut down the plant, in the coming week "to confirm plant system response," it said. ------------ EDF board approves construction of EPR at Flamanville-3 Washington (Platts)--4May2006 Electricite de France's board approved construction of an EPR at Flamanville-3. Meeting today, EDF's board of directors decided to launch construction of the 1,600-MW advanced PWR next to the two 1,300-MW PWRs operating at the Normandy site. EDF said the investment cost is now projected at 3.3 billion euros (US$4.18 billion), due to inflation and increases in the cost of construction materials. The new projected cost of power from Flamanville-3 is also slightly higher than earlier estimates, at Eur 46 per megawatt-hour in 2005 euros (Eur 46 was worth US$58.34 today). Last year, in a report prepared in conjunction with the public debate on the Flamanville project, EDF projected the first-of-a-kind EPR's per-MWh cost at Eur 43. That cost, equivalent to US$52.46 at the time, was expressed in 2004 euros and included all EPR design and development costs, the utility said. The complete cost of a MWh for a series of 10 EPRs, including the first-of-a-kind, was projected in the report at Eur 35. EDF said it will submit a construction license application for Flamanville-3 within a few days. Completion of the unit is scheduled for 2012. ------------