Platts - Wednesday, December 06, 2006 http://www.platts.com ------------ Bruce Power asks Canadian regulator for export license Boston (Platts)--6Dec2006 Bruce Power has asked Canada's National Energy Board to approve a plan to export up to 2,000 MW at any one time and up to 7 million MWh/year to the US from its Bruce nuclear station near Kincardine, Ontario, it said Wednesday. A spokesman said the generator's export-license application to the NEB was "part of our long-term planning process. A lot of other major generators in [Ontario] have export licenses." Bruce Power had applied for such a license "to keep [its] options open" for the "shoulder months" when in-province demand was low and excess power would be available, he said. "We can't store power," he said, adding that during low-demand periods there was ample transmission capacity available to send power to New York and Michigan. Quebec would also be a potential market, he said, adding that no export license was needed to send power there. According to its export-license application, Bruce Power would cap its monthly exports at 1 million MWh. Bruce Power has not yet contacted potential power buyers in New York and Michigan, the spokesman said, adding that it was "early in the process" and that Bruce Power would seek out buyers once its export license was in hand. Bruce Power is a partnership that leases Ontario Power Generation's Bruce station. A partnership of Cameco, TransCanada, the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, and two unions representing workers at the station leases and operates the four nuclear units at the Bruce B portion of the facility. ------------ European utilities say new nuclear in UK a "tough proposition" Amsterdam (Platts)--6Dec2006 Two European energy producers Wednesday cast doubt on construction of a new generation of nuclear plants in the UK even if a pro-nuclear government eases the way for new projects. "It looks to us a very tough proposition even if planning is fixed," Gearoid Lane, director of gas and electricity procurement at UK utility Centrica, said at International Center for Business Information's Sparks and Flames conference in Amsterdam. The UK's Labor-led government has outlined a long-term energy strategy that calls for replacement of the current, ageing fleet of reactors. But a lack of certainty - about European-wide carbon prices and the bureaucratic process to win approval for new construction - are major impediments. The carbon prices will affect the cost of producing power with other fuels, such as coal, and the planning process will affect the time and expense of developing nuclear projects. Lane said that even with greater certainty, new construction remained more costly and required more time to build than other technologies, making investment a difficult sell to the corporate boards that would approve such projects. He did not say Centrica had dismissed nuclear build, and acknowledged that the company, formerly British Gas, was a nuclear "rookie." "We are trying to wrap our minds around the issues," Lane said. But Lane was not the only nuclear skeptic. Marc Hall, vice president of corporate strategy at Germany's RWE Energy, said companies also had to consider the vagaries of electoral politics when planning long-term projects. "Even if you have a government that who is pro-nuclear power, I think long-term investors and producers will take into account that governments change," Hall said. Not all assessments were pessimistic, however. Sonia Brown, director of wholesale markets at the UK Office of Gas and Electricity Markets, said investors may decide in favor of nuclear investment if the planning process is improved and barriers to new construction are removed. "I think nuclear is a viable technology," Brown said. ------------ EnergySolutions completes its first UK acquisition London (Platts)--6Dec2006 EnergySolutions has completed its first UK acquisition, demonstrating the group's commitment to work in the UK and grow its business there, said EnergySolutions International Group president Philip Strawbridge, December 4. A company statement said EnergySolutions EU Ltd. had acquired Safeguard International Solutions Ltd., which provides turnkey services for the disposition of radioactive materials, including waste, from non-nuclear power generating facilities such as universities, hospitals, industry and government. The UK firm is based in Oxfordshire. Strawbridge said his company believed that Safeguard's expertise would be valuable to both nuclear and non-nuclear customers. EnergySolutions, formerly Envirocare of Utah, acquired BNG America and Duratek this year. As part of its growth strategy, EnergySolutions has teamed with British Nuclear Group, Jacobs Babtie and Fluor Ltd., the UK operating arm of Fluor Corp., to bid for the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority's 200 million pounds-plus (roughly US$395 million-plus at current exchange rates) contract to manage the UK's low-level radwaste facility near Drigg, close to the Sellafield reprocessing complex. ------------ Alternate Energy Holdings announces plan to build reactor Washington (Platts)--5Dec2006 Alternate Energy Holdings Inc. announced December 5 it plans to build, own and operate a 1,500-MW reactor near Bruneau, Idaho. AEHI said the reactor would provide electricity for local farm cooperative irrigation, while most of the power produced would be sold in the national energy market. The reactor would be Idaho's first large commercial nuclear power plant, it said. AEHI, which is traded over-the-counter, was founded by former senior executives in the utility and finance industries. ------------ DOE official touts interim nuclear storage; seeks new waste laws Washington (Platts)--5Dec2006 The US is facing a "new reality" in addressing nuclear waste, and with Yucca Mountain potentially "decades" away, the country must employ interim storage and reprocessing before shipping most civilian waste to the Nevada repository, an official with the Department of Energy said Tuesday. Speaking at a nuclear power conference hosted by Exchange Monitor Publications, Deputy Energy Secretary Clay Sell said that the Nuclear Waste Policy Act "obligates" DOE to push ahead with Yucca Mountain, largely to the exclusion of interim storage. He said, however, that new legislation is needed to set a policy based on recycling, rather than once-through spent fuel. That legislation would, in part, allow interim storage. "We are confident that a good facility, an adequate facility, can be built [at Yucca Mountain] to store the residue of recycled waste or defense waste or other elements of spent fuel that cannot be recycled in a safe way for as long as the country needs it," Sell said. He added that the ascension of Nevada Democrat Harry Reid to Senate majority leader, and the fact that DOE is eight years past its NWPA 1998 obligation to take spent fuel, necessitates a different approach to handling nuclear waste. "There are many ways that we can seek to compromise with the congressional leadership in dealing with the question and potential uncertainty of spent fuel management over the next few decades before Yucca Mountain comes online," Sell said. "We do think that it makes a lot of sense as we think about moving towards a nuclear fuel cycle that is closed rather than once through that ... some type of temporary consolidation of and storage of spent nuclear fuel at recycling locations could possibly be a wise path forward." He added that opening Yucca Mountain by 2017 or 2020 would only occur if DOE is "wildly successful." Last week Edward Sproat, director of DOE's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management, said 2020 is a "more probable" timeframe than the 2017 date DOE had mapped out earlier this year under a best-case scenario. --Daniel Whitten, daniel_whitten@platts.com ------------ US court awards SMUD $39 million for nuclear storage costs San Francisco (Platts)--5Dec2006 The US Court of Federal Claims has awarded the Sacramento Municipal Utility District $39.8 million in a breach of contract lawsuit against the US Department of Energy, the utility said late Monday. SMUD said the award comes after two related trials on the storage of spent nuclear fuel from the utility's closed Rancho Seco Generating Station. SMUD had contracted with DOE to collect and permanently dispose of its spent nuclear fuel as required by federal law. But SMUD said the federal government did not follow through on its obligation to collect and dispose of SMUD's spent fuel due to delays in opening the Yucca Mountain storage facility in Nevada. In 1998, SMUD filed a lawsuit with the Court of Federal Claims in Washington to recover the cost of building and operating a dry cask storage system because the federal government was not making progress on the Yucca Mountain disposal site. "This is a major victory as it substantially mitigates the costs SMUD has incurred due to the lack of a federal repository," said Steve Cohn, SMUD chief assistant general counsel. ------------ TVO's Olkiluoto-3's commercial operation delayed to 2010, 2011 London (Platts)--5Dec2006 TVO's Olkiluoto-3 won't be in commercial operation before late 2010 or early 2011, Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima Oy announced December 4, referring to a new estimate by turnkey supplier Areva NP. Martin Landtman, TVO senior vice president and director of the Olkiluoto-3 project for the utility, told Platts that Areva had notified TVO of the new schedule. Areva concluded that it has to recast some of the pipe forgings for the main coolant line hot legs so as to meet inspectability requirements for the metal over the plant's 60-year lifetime, Landtman said. He said that the new schedule should be the final one, although other risk factors remain. In July, the companies announced that commercial service of the 1,600-MW EPR would be delayed from the original date of May 1, 2009 to second-quarter 2010. The first-of-a-kind project, by a consortium of Areva and Siemens AG, has encountered several difficulties associated with specifications for heavy components and concrete. Landtman said TVO and Areva would continue to evaluate the schedule as work proceeds. For more news, request a free trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/index.xml?story or subscribe now at http://www.platts.com/infostore/product_info.php?cPath=22_41&products_id=67 ------------ Point Beach to return to routine NRC oversight Washington (Platts)--4Dec2006 Point Beach will return to routine NRC oversight in January, the agency announced December 4. The two-unit PWR station, which is operated by Nuclear Management Co., had been under increased NRC scrutiny since early 2003 as a result of design problems in the auxiliary feedwater system. On January 1, the plant will move from column 4 in the action matrix of NRC's reactor oversight process to column 1, the NRC said. Column 4 is the highest level of NRC oversight short of required shutdown; column 1 corresponds to NRC's baseline inspections. ------------ EDF's share price gained 5.27% on the Paris Exchange Dec 1 London (Platts)--4Dec2006 EDF's share price gained 5.27% on the Paris Exchange December 1, on the combined effect of a legal decision against regulated tariffs and rumors that Electricite de France could be interested in buying Scottish Power. In a ruling November 30 regarding privatization of Gaz de France, France's Constitutional Council said that maintaining regulated electricity and gas rates, as stipulated by France's 2000 electricity act, is "obviously incompatible with the goals" of market liberalization as set by European Commission legislation that France must adopt. Analysts saw the prospect of fully deregulated electricity rates as highly favorable for EDF, whose regulated rates are much lower than the current market. In addition, the suggestion that EDF could opt to outbid Iberdrola for Scottish Power caused CM-CIC Securities to raise its target share price for EDF, saying EDF could take advantage of deregulated tariffs in the UK market and could also "bring nuclear expertise to Scottish Power" on the eve of an anticipated "major revival of nuclear in the UK." EDF's share price has gained more than 60% since its introduction a year ago. Meanwhile, the overall Paris CAC 40 index, which includes EDF, shed 1.38% on December 1. For more news, request a free trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/index.xml?story or subscribe now at http://www.platts.com/infostore/product_info.php?cPath=22_41&products_id=67 ------------ CNSC grants license extension to SRB Technologies Toronto (Platts)--1Dec2006 The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission said November 30 it granted a two-month license extension to tritium light source manufacturer SRB Technologies of Pembroke, Ontario. The CNSC shut the company down in August on the eve of license renewal hearings after tritium levels far exceeding guidelines were detected in the ground in close proximity to the plant. The company was later permitted to resume operations in dry periods when there is no precipitation to spread the tritium contamination. Licensing hearings were subsequently held October 25 and November 27. The CNSC decided that it needed more time to consider renewal of the license, which expired November 30. ------------