Platts - Thursday, June 08, 2006 http://www.platts.com ------------ US nuclear fleet enters summer at high capacity level: NRC data Washington (Platts)--7Jun2006 Almost all US nuclear power plants are operating at a very high capacity levels as summer approaches, with only four off-line, according to data from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Besides the four plants shut down, there is only one plant--Xcel Energy's 543-MW Prairie Island 1 unit in Minnesota--that is operating at below 96% capacity, and that unit is exiting a refueling outage and could be at full power by the end of the week. While operators of nuclear plants usually try to minimize maintenance or outages during the peak demand periods, they may have an even greater economic incentive to do so this year. In many regions of the country, high-priced natural gas-fired generation is setting the spot market price for electricity, allowing sellers of relatively low-cost nuclear generation to earn good returns. Last year at this time, there were 10 nuclear plants shut down, including several that were down for scheduled refueling or maintenance, according to the NRC data. On June 7, 2004, there were only three plants down, but many more were at reduced operating levels, and on the same date in 2003, nine plants were shut down. The four nuclear units shut down right now are Duke Energy's Catawba-1, a 1,145-MW unit in York, South Carolina, that has been down since May 20 following a loss of power at the dual-unit plant; FP&L's 839-MW Saint Lucie-2 unit in Florida that has been down since early April for maintenance; TVA's 1,160-MW Watts Bar unit near Spring City, Tennessee, that has been shut down since May 30 for maintenance following turbine vibrations; and APS' Palo Verde-1 unit, a 1,249-MW unit in Arizona that has been down for maintenance following a pipe vibration problem. APS said it hopes to return the Palo Verde unit to operation sometime in July. ---Tom Tiernan, tom_tiernan@platts.com For similar news, take a trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://nucweek.platts.com. ------------ TVA, Southern extend talks on Alabama nuclear power plant JV Birmingham, Alabama (Platts)--7Jun2006 The Tennessee Valley Authority and Southern Company have extended an agreement to explore the construction of a nuclear generator at a TVA site in Alabama, TVA said. The memorandum of intent, which expired June 1, has been extended by six months. The MOI allows the two to explore the possibility and benefits of building a new plant through a partnership, a TVA spokesman said. The agreement does not obligate either party to enter into a contract. The two are looking at building a next-generation plant at the TVA's Bellefonte site near Scottsboro, Alabama. Southern has already announced intention to file for a combined construction and operating license for a proposed unit at its Plant Vogtle site in Georgia in 2008. The agreement with Southern is TVA's first attempt to develop a power plant with a utility partner, the TVA spokesman said. The federal power company is taking a new approach toward plant development by looking at a different design and licensing approach and different partnerships, he said. TVA also is talking to its distributors about sharing the ownership of a nuclear plant at Bellefonte. "If we proceed with a nuclear plant we prefer to do it with others," the spokesman said. Bellefonte is one of two sites chosen by NuStart Energy, a consortium of utilities, TVA and vendors, to apply for a streamlined construction and operating license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. For similar news, take a trial to Platts Electric Power Daily at http://electricpowerdaily.platts.com. ------------ EnergySolutions' purchase of Duratek complete Washington (Platts)--7Jun2006 Duratek said today its acquisition by EnergySolutions is complete. Duratek's stockholders approved the sale of the low-level radwaste services company to EnergySolutions (formerly Envirocare of Utah) at a special meeting held yesterday, Duratek said. Duratek common stock will cease trading on the Nasdaq National Market at market close today and will be delisted, the company said. The privately held EnergySolutions announced in February that it would buy Duratek for about $396 million. ------------ Toshiba's Westinghouse purchase clears regulatory hurdle Washington (Platts)--6Jun2006 Toshiba Corp.'s purchase of Westinghouse Electric Co. has cleared a major regulatory hurdle with a positive review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. The committee has completed its review and has no objections to the deal going forward, Brookly McLaughlin, a Treasury Department spokeswoman, told Platts today. "There was a thorough interagency investigation," she said. "At the end, there were no unresolved issues." The committee is an interagency group headed by the Treasury Department that scrutinizes sales of US-registered corporations to foreign entities. Westinghouse is currently part of British Nuclear Fuels plc. The proposed sale of Westinghouse to Toshiba was announced in January. Toshiba plans to resell a 49% stake in Westinghouse and is looking for buyers. ------------ Indian Point shutdown would strain New York power supply: Report Washington (Platts)--6Jun2006 While shutting down Entergy's two-unit Indian Point nuclear plant is technically feasible, the loss of the facility's generating capacity would strain electricity supplies in southeastern New York, the National Academies' National Research Council said in a report Tuesday. The NRC study, which was by New York Democratic Representative Nita Lowey, did not make any recommendations as to whether the plant should be closed, as called for by some advocacy groups and politicians, who worry about risks the plant poses to the heavily populated region. Shutting the station, located about 40 miles from New York City, would require the region to obtain replace the facility's 2,132 MW of baseload capacity in addition to the generation lost from other plant retirements, the report said. The NRC committee concluded there would be significant political, regulatory, and financial problems with replacing the Indian Point capacity. The report examined two possible timeframes for the plant closure -- in 2013 and 2015, when unit 2's and unit 3's licenses expire, respectively, and between 2008 and 2010. The earlier shutdown could have potentially negative impacts if there were not replacement capacity available, presenting the risk that reserve margins would fall below recommended levels and putting pressure on operating plants to run overtime, NRC said. ---Jenny Weil, jenny_weil@platts.com For similar news, take a trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://nucweek.platts.com. ------------ EU needs more nuclear power to reduce oil dependency London (Platts)--6Jun2006 The European Union needs more nuclear power to reduce dependency on oil, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said June 5 in Helsinki at a press conference that was broadcast by Finnish Radio. He also visited the construction site of the 1,600-MW Olkiluoto-3 EPR which is being supplied by Framatome ANP and Siemens. Work on the unit is eight to nine months behind schedule because of quality control problems. De Villepin was in Finland to discuss the reactor, other energy issues and Finland's EU presidency which starts July 1. During Villepin's visit to the Eduskunta (parliament), Greenpeace protested outside, raising an inflatable reactor with a banner reading "EPR: A French Nuclear Disaster." For similar stories, request a free trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/ ------------ Bush visits Limerick, continues promoting nuclear expansion Washington (Platts)--5Jun2006 President George W. Bush visited Exelon Nuclear's two-unit Limerick station May 24 and in a speech to plant employees continued pushing nuclear power as "a really important way to meet our goals" of "abundant, affordable, clean, and safe sources of energy." "For the sake of economic security and national security," and "to maintain our economic leadership," the US "must aggressively move forward with the construction of nuclear power plants," Bush said. "Once you get the plant up and running, the operating costs of these [nuclear] plants are significantly lower than other forms of electricity plants, which means the energy is affordable," Bush said. Bush said nuclear power is safe "because of advances in science and engineering and plant design," and "because the workers and managers of our nuclear power plants are incredibly skilled people who know what they're doing." Bush described nuclear power as "an overregulated industry," a situation which makes investment in new plants "highly risky, because of the regulations to try to build a plant. People don't know this, but you get yourself a design for a nuclear power plant, you start spending money for plans and engineering plants and everything, you get building, and all of sudden, somebody can shut you down. And that makes it awfully difficult to take risk if a lawsuit can cause you to spend enormous sums of money and have no productive use of the money spent." Provisions in the 2005 Energy Policy Act are designed to reduce that risk, Bush said. Loan guarantees "give investors confidence that this government is committed to the construction of nuclear power plants," he said. Production tax credits "will reward investments in the latest advanced nuclear power generation," and federal risk insurance "helps protect builders of the [first six new nuclear power] plants against lawsuits, or bureaucratic obstacles and other delays beyond their control," he said. Bush said, "We've got to do something about" the issue of nuclear waste. He said he is "a believer that Yucca Mountain is a scientifically sound place to send the waste, and I would hope the United States Congress would recognize that as well." The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership to develop advanced spent fuel reprocessing and recycling technologies "will reduce the amount of the toxicity of the fuel and reduce the amount we have to store," Bush said. GNEP is "a smart way to combine with other [nations] to reduce storage requirements for nuclear waste by up to 90 percent," he said. After his speech at the plant in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, he spoke at a dinner for the Pennsylvania Congressional Victory Committee fundraiser for Republican candidates. Bush's speech is on the White House web site at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/05/20060524-5.html. For similar news, take a trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://nucweek.platts.com. ------------ Nine Mile Point relicensing application review advances Washington (Platts)--5Jun2006 There is "reasonable assurance" that Nine Mile Point has satisfied the requirements for a renewed license and all previous open items have been resolved, NRC staff concluded in a safety evaluation report (SER) recently released. The SER is now available on NRC's document database Adams, accession number ML061460313. Constellation filed a license renewal application in May 2004, but NRC staff's review was suspended in March 2005 because of quality-related problems. The company submitted an amended application in July 2005. It is seeking renewed licenses for up to an additional 20 years beyond August 22, 2009 for unit 1 and October 31, 2026 for unit 2. The staff issued a final supplemental environmental impact statement in late May 2006, and a decision on the application is anticipated in October. ------------