Platts - Friday, September 08, 2006 http://www.platts.com ------------ German environment minister rejects Brunsbuttel nuke switch-off Freiburg (Platts)--8Sep2006 German environment minister Sigmar Gabriel has rejected calls by environmental groups for the Brunsbuttel nuclear power plant to be switched off while its operator Vattenfall Europe seeks to prove that the emergency power supply system is safe. The Brunsbuttel unit came under the spotlight following a safety incident at Vattenfall's Swedish Forsmark-1 reactor. In a debate in the lower house of parliament Thursday, Gabriel said the unit's emergency power supply was secure although there was no proof as yet that the incident of Forsmark-1 would not be repeated at Brunsbuttel. Vattenfall Europe has said it wants to add one part to the emergency power supply system, but stressed this was merely an additional safety measure and not a technical necessity. The watchdog of the German state of Schleswig-Holstein on August 6 gave Vattenfall Europe until September 20 to prove the plant is safe. ------------ Toshiba expected to finalize purchase of Westinghouse by year-end Washington (Platts)--7Sep2006 Finalization of Toshiba's purchase of Westinghouse is expected by year-end, and perhaps earlier, Westinghouse President/CEO Steve Tritch said September 7 at a reception during the World Nuclear Association symposium in London. There was no Toshiba representative on the symposium's attendance list. Observers said the pre-closure phase is legally delicate and that Toshiba may have preferred to sit out the industry meeting until it has actually acquired the US company from British Nuclear Fuels plc. Toshiba won the bidding for Westinghouse early this year with an offer of $5.4 billion. Tritch told Platts that Westinghouse and Toshiba are not allowed to exchange any strategic ideas until after the close. ------------ Domenici to introduce nuclear waste bill by end of September Washington (Platts)--7Sep2006 US Senator Pete Domenici expects to introduce nuclear waste legislation later in September, he said. The New Mexico Republican, who chairs the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, doesn't expect the bill to pass before the end of the year, but said that introducing it now would open it for discussion before the new Congress convenes in 2007. The bill would be aimed at fixing what Domenici described in a late Wednesday statement as "problems" facing the Department of Energy's proposed repository project at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. No additional information was available about the bill immediately. Domenici told reporters in August that interim storage would not be included in his waste legislation. ------------ E.On might invest in new Lithuanian reactor Washington (Platts)--6Sep2006 E.On is interested in investing in a new Lithuanian nuclear reactor, E.On Nordic Chief Executive Lars Frithiof said in a press release issued September 6 by the Lithuanian government. Frithiof met with Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas. In the release, Kirkilas said that a working group would be set up with E.On, and that it will also look at E.On's possible investment in a 1,000-MW transmission line between Lithuania and Sweden. ------------ Russia reaffirms 1993 HEU agreement with US Washington (Platts)--5Sep2006 Russia will honor its commitments under the US-Russia HEU agreement until the agreement ends in 2013, a spokesman for the head of Russia's Federal Atomic Energy Agency, Sergey Kiriyenko, said September 4. On the eve of the annual symposium of the World Nuclear Association in London, there were rumors in the nuclear fuel market that Russia would announce at the symposium that it was pulling out of the 1993 agreement under which Russia is downblending 500 metric tons of high-enriched uranium for reactor fuel. Kiriyenko also said a meeting with the US Department of Commerce is set for October 25 to discuss Russia's desire to sell more enrichment services in the US than currently allowed under an antidumping suspension agreement. The spokesman said if Russia decided to terminate the suspension agreement, it would give the US six months' notice. ------------ EDF awards Flamanville-3 civil works contract to Bouygues London (Platts)--4Sep2006 EDf awarded the Flamanville-3 civil works contract to Bouygues, choosing the big French construction company over its domestic rivals Eiffage and Vinci and Germany's Bilfinger group. Electricite de France said in a press release that the contract, worth more than Eur 300 million (US$385 million), covers engineering and main civil works for construction of all industrial buildings on the site, notably the containment building and the turbine building. Construction will involve about 1,000 people and nearly 400,000 cubic meters of concrete, EDF said. Although construction at Flamanville-3 won't begin until late 2007, after the utility obtains a nuclear construction-operating license and a main civil construction permit, EDF said it had to award the contract now to allow vendors to meet the project timeline of 54 months from first concrete to startup. EDF said the nuclear island and instrumentation and control for the Flamanville-3 EPR unit had been "entrusted to the Areva group." The reactor contract was not put out to open tender. EDF's own engineering division will be the EPR architect-engineer. EDF confirmed its earlier estimate that Flamanville-3 will cost Eur 3.3 billion. ------------ Uranium spot prices break through the $50/pound mark: TradeTech Washington (Platts)--1Sep2006 The price of uranium hit all-time high this week, crashing through the $50/pound-U3O8 level. According to the price-reporting firm TradeTech, the spot price on September 1 was $52/lb, a rise of $4.50/lb from the price at the end of July. TradeTech apparently based its price, at least in part, on the results of a sale by the US Department of Energy of 700 metric tons of uranium as uranium hexafluoride (UF6), or about 1.8 million lb U3O8-equivalent. DOE, which announced the sale results August 31, said two companies will pay a total of $99.97 million for the UF6. Canadian uranium producer Cameco will buy four 100-mt lots for $57.87 million, and Lido Park LLC, a Delaware company, will pay $42.106 million for three 100-mt lots. Cameco agreed to pay $147.60/kilogram uranium as UF6 for lot 7. The equivalent U3O8 price for lot 7 was $52/lb U3O8 (assuming a price of $11.75/kgU for the services needed to convert the U3O8 to UF6.) The price of uranium has fluctuated over the past 36 years. In late 1970, the price, according to TradeTech data, was $6.15/lb U3O8. By July 1978, the price had risen to $43.40/lb, but by the end of 2000, the price had dropped to $6.40/lb. The rapid rise in the price has raised some concern that today's high prices for uranium might have some impact on utility decisions on whether to build new plants. But speaking at a Platts Energy Podium press event August 30 in Washington, NRC Chairman Dale Klein said that as the price of uranium rises, more people will begin uranium exploration, and more will be found. Also, given that nuclear generating costs are "not as dependent on fuel prices" as fossil-fired capacity, the price of uranium could double without significantly increasing the price of electricity from nuclear power compared to that generated with natural gas, Klein said. This renewed interest in US uranium properties was confirmed at an NRC Fuel Cycle Information Exchange August 30. Joseph Giitter of the Office of Nuclear Material Safety and Safeguards said eight companies have expressed interest in submitting applications for mining and milling operations, and three restarts have been proposed. --Michael Knapik, mike_knapik@platts.com ------------