Platts - Tuesday, November 07, 2006 http://www.platts.com ------------ Mitsui Babcock to be acquired by Doosan subsidiary Washington (Platts)--6Nov2006 Mitsui Babcock will be sold to a Doosan Heavy Industries subsidiary for 20 billion yen (US$170 million) under an agreement announced November 6. Mitsui Babcock said the deal between its parent, Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding, and Doosan Heavy Industries (UK) Ltd. is expected to be completed by January. Mitsui Babcock will then be known as Doosan Babcock and will remain an independent, UK-based company, Mitsui Babcock said. Mitsui Babcock provides nuclear industry research and development, and specialist products and services. It says it is the largest supplier of operational support for the nuclear power generation sector in the UK. ------------ German environment minister rejects call for more nuclear plants London (Platts)--6Nov2006 German environment minister Siegmar Gabriel of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) has rejected the demand of the International Energy Agency (IEA) to build nuclear power plants, the BBC Monitoring Service reported Monday. Looking to the world climate summit in Nairobi that starts November 6, the IEA had called on industrialized countries to build new nuclear power plants to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide and thereby get control over the problem of global warming. Nuclear power has virtually no effect on climate policy, Gabriel said November 5 on German radio "Deutschlandfunk." Gabriel argued that nuclear power plants generate power but not heat. The result is that in the vicinity of a nuclear power plant many thermal power stations are needed that all emit carbon dioxide. "The sensible alternative is combined heat and power plants," Gabriel said. These generate electricity and heat with an efficiency of 90% and as a result produce less carbon dioxide than nuclear power plants plus thermal plants. He feels the choice between the dangers of radioactivity and those of carbon dioxide is one between cholera and the plague. Intelligent policy does not consist of choosing between two evils. If an effort is made in the direction of more energy efficiency, of renewable energies, but also of modern coal technologies, then neither a power shortage nor problems with carbon dioxide need be feared, he said. The greatest task of the upcoming climate conference in Nairobi is to help the developing countries adapt to the climate change already occurring, Gabriel said. Only then would they be willing to talk with the industrialized countries about reducing greenhouse gases. Nonetheless, the medium-term goal of the next 10 to 20 years must be to sharply cut greenhouse gases. "We are assuming that in Germany we will reach the goal of a 21% reduction by 2012. In the period after that, by 2020, we want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30% in the EU. But since these are always average figures and there are countries that are just beginning their economic development, as in Eastern Europe, Germany will have to achieve 40%," the environment minister said. Greenhouse gases worldwide must be reduced by 60% to 80% by 2050. This could only be achieved through new technologies and greater energy efficiency, he added. ------------ EIA reports Q3 uranium production up 63% over 2005's Washington (Platts)--3Nov2006 US uranium concentrate production was 63% higher in the third quarter this year than it was in third-quarter 2005, DOE's Energy Information Administration said in a report released November 2. Third quarter production was 1.08 million pounds of uranium oxide, 21% above second-quarter 2006 output, EIA said. In the nine months through September 30, EIA said, US uranium concentrate production totaled 2.9 million pounds, 45% above the 2 million pounds produced in the same period in 2005, marking the highest nine-month production level since 2000. The report is available online (www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/nuclear/dupr/qupd.html). ------------ NRC commissioners reject staff recommendations London (Platts)--3Nov2006 NRC commissioners rejected the staff's recommendation to streamline the oversight process for DOE laboratory agreements and commercial procurements valued at between $1 million and $3 million. In a November 2 directive, the commissioners said they agreed the staff should make greater use of electronic transmittals to streamline its process for preparing documentation. But they said an accelerated process "should not come to the detriment of providing the [NRC] chairman with sufficient time and adequate information to carry out his responsibilities in reviewing these contracts." They also said the process should provide the commissioners with enough time to provide their advice on the contracts, and said the review process should be "relatively routine." They want the staff to take another look at ways to improve the quality of the contract review packages sent to the commission. ------------ Japan's Rokkasho produces first MOX Washington (Platts)--2Nov2006 Japan's Rokkasho reprocessing plant has produced its first MOX, a mix of uranium and plutonium oxide, recovered from spent fuel during commissioning tests, the Japan Atomic Industrial Forum said November 2. The amount of MOX produced was not specified; the plant is designed to avoid proliferation issues by producing MOX rather than pure plutonium. Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd., which owns and operates the plant, plans to start producing MOX in powder form in mid-November, JAIF said. Rokkasho, with an annual design capacity of 800 metric tons heavy metal, is scheduled to begin commercial operation in mid-2007. The plant is operated for Japan's nuclear-owning electric utilities. ------------ Sweden's SKI recommends government increases waste fund fees London (Platts)--2Nov2006 Sweden's SKI is recommending the government increase waste fund fees that nuclear operators pay to an average 1.73 oere (0.24 US cents) per kilowatt-hour produced in 2007, from 0.83 oere/kWh currently, the Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate, SKI, said November 1. The fund covers handling of nuclear waste and spent fuel, including building a final spent fuel repository. The utilities are also required to post guarantees to cover any shortfall in financing the repository. SKI said it wants the increase because the real interest rate earned on the fund is expected to decline until 2020, lowering the fund's rate of return. ------------ PaR Nuclear awarded KHNP contract for Ulchin Washington (Platts)--1Nov2006 Westinghouse subsidiary PaR Nuclear received a contract from Korea Hydro and Nuclear Power Co. Ltd. for refueling equipment upgrades at Ulchin-3 and -4 in South Korea, Westinghouse said November 1. Plant owner KHNP awarded the contract for modifications to the refueling machine, fuel transfer system, and spent fuel machine, a Westinghouse press statement said. It said that PaR would begin work on the engineering design immediately and that the manufacturing phase would get under way in early 2007. "The first sets of equipment will be delivered in mid-2007 with field installation scheduled to start in the early fall of 2007," it said. No information was available at press time on the value of the contract. ------------ USEC signs $200 million uranium enrichment contract Washington (Platts)--31Oct2006 USEC Inc. has signed a contract worth more than $200 million to supply uranium enrichment for the Susquehanna power reactor in Pennsylvania. USEC announced the contract with PPL Susquehanna, LLC on October 31, saying it builds on their long-standing business relationship. "This innovative market-based agreement is also a great example of utility support for both the Megatons to Megawatts program and USEC's transition to the next-generation American Centrifuge uranium enrichment plant to be built in Piketon, Ohio," said John Donelson, USEC vice president of marketing and sales. The Megatons to Megawatts program represents a 1993 agreement between the US and Russia to convert high-enriched uranium from dismantled warheads to low-enriched fuel. As the program's US executive agent, USEC buys the fuel for its customers' reactors. Separately, USEC is demonstrating and deploying the new centrifuge enrichment technology that will replace its existing gaseous diffusion technology. The contract covers the period 2009-2013, a USEC spokeswoman said. ------------