Platts - Thursday, August 03, 2006 http://www.platts.com ------------ Sweden's Green call for investigation into nuclear reactor safety London (Platts)--3Aug2006 Sweden's Greens called for an independent investigation August 2 into the safety of the country's nuclear reactors, following an incident at Forsmark-1 in which power supply was interrupted to two of four backup diesel generators. The Greens asserted there has not been a thorough nuclear safety review since 1979, despite work done by the Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate and various government commissions since then. Greenpeace also said August 2 that there should be a safety review. ------------ NRC panel aims to complete Grand Gulf ESP hearing in November Washington (Platts)--2Aug2006 An NRC three-judge licensing board is targeting mid-November to complete a mandatory hearing on System Energy Resources Inc.'s early site permit, or ESP, request for its Grand Gulf site. SERI is a subsidiary of Entergy. In a schedule released August 2, the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board said it was following the NRC commissioners' July 26 order to set a schedule that would provide enough time for a decision on the proceeding to be issued by November 30. The board said it still did not yet know whether it would seek oral or written testimony to help it reach a decision. ------------ UK's first nuclear doctorate center to be started in Manchester London (Platts)--2Aug2006 The UK's first nuclear doctorate center will be started by the University of Manchester's Dalton Nuclear Institute in partnership with London's Imperial College. Dalton Nuclear Institute's Director Richard Clegg said the center, along with other nuclear education initiatives at Manchester, should start to reverse the 20-year-long decline in the country's production of skilled nuclear engineers. "If new nuclear power stations are built then it will be courses like this which fill this skills gap," he said August 1. The center will be the only one of its kind in the UK to award an engineering doctorate in nuclear engineering. The center will train 50 nuclear engineers in areas such as waste management, reactor technology and safety systems. The nuclear engineers will be sponsored by the UK government and industry. ------------ UniStar, Areva and BWXT announce new joint venture Washington (Platts)--1Aug2006 UniStar Nuclear announced an agreement August 1 with Areva NP Inc. and BWX Technologies Inc. that will re-establish the manufacturing of commercial reactor components in the US. That includes BWXT's fabrication of steam generators, which have not been fabricated in the US since 1999. Metal forging operations on steam generators and some other components will continue to be done overseas; however, the companies will look at moving that capability to the US as the nuclear market grows. Areva will be responsible for the nuclear engineering and licensing. UniStar, a joint Areva-Constellation Energy business venture, wants to license, build, and operate a standardized fleet of advanced reactors known as Evolutionary Power Reactors, based on a Framatome design, in the US. Areva and BWXT officials said August 1 that nothing would preclude them from providing components to other customers but that a priority would be given to UniStar. The agreement comes as several utilities consider adding power reactors to their generating fleets, and others are looking to replace reactor components. ------------