Platts - Friday, December 01, 2006 http://www.platts.com ------------ Agreement signed for construction of VVERs in Bulgaria Paris (Platts)--30Nov2006 Bulgaria's NEK and Russia's Atomstroyexport signed an official agreement November 29 in Sofia on construction of two 1,000-MW VVERs at the Belene nuclear power plant, the companies announced November 30. They said the ceremony was attended by Bulgarian Economy and Energy Minister Rumen Ovcharov and officials and diplomats from Bulgaria, Russia and France. NEK CEO Lubomir Velkov led the Bulgarian delegation and Vladimir Travin, deputy head of the Russian federal atomic energy agency Rosatom, led the Russian side, according to company statements. The agreement provides for an initial stage of work lasting about a year, encompassing examination of existing equipment and structures at the site, elaboration of detailed design for a licensing application, and adaptation of the AES-92 design to the Danube River site, as well as procurement of major equipment. In parallel, a General Contract will be negotiated to cover the project's implementation and construction schedule, with signature expected in first-half 2007. Onsite work would begin after that, the companies said. ------------ Areva to supply MOX fuel for Ikata Paris (Platts)--29Nov2006 Areva will supply mixed-oxide fuel for Shikoku EPC's Ikata PWR plant under an agreement signed with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, or MHI, on November 28, the French company announced November 29. The agreement follows MOX fuel supply agreements signed with two other Japanese utilities, Chubu Electric Power Co. and Kyushu EPC, in March and September of this year, respectively. Areva said the contract was further evidence of "the restart of the Japanese utilities' recycling program," which had been suspended since the late 1990s. The MOX fuel will be made in Areva's Melox plant in southern France, which has a cumulative throughput of more than 1,000 metric tons heavy metal. ------------ NRC conducts special inspection at Catawba regarding water issues Washington (Platts)--29Nov2006 Inspectors from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Region II offices have begun a special inspection at Duke Energy's Catawba nuclear power plant to look into issues involving water flowing into underground electrical penetrations, the agency said. NRC said the special inspection would review the facts surrounding degraded penetration seals in some areas and the lack of seals in others, determine if there are any generic issues for other nuclear plants, and assess the company's overall response and investigation, including areas of the plant where the lack of watertight seals or degradation might be an issue. In May, water from the Catawba-2 reactor's cooling towers flowed into a diesel generator room, and plant employees decided that other electrical conduits and penetrations had degraded seals, NRC said. During a heavy rainstorm in late August, water entered the turbine building through unsealed electrical penetrations and the water accumulated around some electrical transformers, NRC said. An NRC inspection in early November determined that the standby shutdown facility was also susceptible to flooding from two possible sources, the agency said. The facility would be used as a command center if a plant had a severe nuclear accident. A Catawba spokeswoman said Duke immediately made repairs following each incident. The seal degradation was due to normal age and wear, she said. The diesel generator room remained available and there was no damage to equipment, she said. Duke had planned to conduct an inspection of the turbine building walls in early 2008 to look for areas of potential penetration, she said. Following the August incident, it moved up the inspection as a proactive measure, but no significant issues were found, she said. The sources of potential flooding of the safe shutdown facility--degraded cable trenches and a gap in the door to the building--were repaired. Engineering evaluations were under way to determine other measures to be taken, she said. --Tom Harrison, tom_harrison@platts.com ------------ First Franco-British Nuclear Forum to take place Nov 29 in Paris London (Platts)--29Nov2006 Leaders of the French and British nuclear communities will meet in Paris November 29 for the first Franco-British Nuclear Forum. The forum stems from a decision by the countries' leaders during the 28th Franco-British Summit on June 9 to pool French and British expertise and experience to examine how nuclear energy can contribute to sustainable development. The first forum will kick off the joint examination of three subjects: the political and institutional environment necessary for building a new nuclear facility, the needed skills, and the economic and financial environment of the nuclear industry, according to a fact sheet from the French ministry of industry. A seminar is already planned for London in spring 2007 to discuss the results of the work. The November 29 plenary session will be addressed by Lord Truscott, under secretary of state for energy at the UK Department of Trade and Industry, and Francois Loos, French junior minister for industry. ------------ Russia, China to become members of GIF at end November meeting London (Platts)--29Nov2006 Russia and China will become members of the Generation IV International Forum at a meeting of the GIF Policy Group in Paris, France November 30. GIF members will also sign two, and perhaps three, new "systems arrangements," covering collaboration on gas-cooled fast reactor systems, very-high-temperature gas-cooled reactor systems, and perhaps supercritical water-cooled reactor systems, according to officials familiar with the program. Also at the Paris meeting, Jacques Bouchard of France's Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique is to take over the chairmanship of the GIF Policy Group from the US DOE's Shane Johnson. ------------ DOE TAD canister specs to be issued by November 30 Washington (Platts)--28Nov2006 DOE specifications for a new cradle-to-grave canister system will be issued sometime before November 30, clearing the way for cask vendors to develop conceptual designs of the so-called TAD systems, the department said November 28. As envisioned by DOE, a TAD, with a change of overpacks, will be used to transport, age, and dispose of utility spent fuel, eliminating the need to repeatedly repackage the fuel as it moves through the federal waste management system to the repository planned for Yucca Mountain, Nevada. No information was available at press time on what incentives DOE might offer to cask vendors to develop the system and to utilities to use it. Separately, DOE will reference the canister-based system in a repository license application it plans to submit to NRC by June 30, 2008. DOE said November 28 that some TAD system components are not part of the specification and will be developed later, such as ancillary equipment, shielded transfer casks, and site transporters. DOE said that the TAD canister, transportation overpack and aging overpack will be addressed in the specification released this week. ------------ UK's NDA to launch competition for new Sellafield contractor London (Platts)--28Nov2006 The UK's NDA will launch the competition for a new Sellafield contractor November 28 at an industry seminar in Manchester. More than 200 attendees are expected from around the world, representing consortia, contractors, subcontractors and industry watchers, to learn more about the scope of the contract and the timetable leading up to the contract award in mid-2008. This is "one of the UK's largest ever public procurements," Nuclear Decommissioning Authority communications manager Brian Hough said in a statement November 24. The winning contractor will take over management of the Sellafield site from current manager British Nuclear Group. The contract on offer is likely to be for an initial five years with options to extend. Commercial operations at Sellafield produce revenues of about 1 billion pounds/year. The contractor will also direct cleanup operations at Sellafield, the closed Calder Hall magnox station, the Windscale site that holds the old reactors that produced plutonium for the UK weapons program, and the NDA-owned part of the Capenhurst uranium enrichment site. ------------ AECL, NESA sign nuclear cooperation agreement Washington (Platts)--27Nov2006 Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. has signed an agreement with utility Nucleoelectrica Argentina SA, or NESA, that specifies projects for joint cooperation, including refurbishment of the Embalse Candu-6 reactor, a feasibility study for building another Candu-6 in Argentina, and assistance to help complete Atucha-2, Natural Resources Canada announced November 27. Siemens signed an agreement with Argentinian industry for the Atucha-2 pressurized heavy water reactor in 1981. The project suffered chronic interruptions during the 1980s and is about 80% complete. The agreement will also create commercial opportunities for Argentina to supply services and heavy water to international Candu markets, the announcement said. ------------