Platts - Monday, December 11, 2006 http://www.platts.com ------------ Murchison to accelerate uranium exploration, drilling in W Africa London (Platts)--11Dec2006 Australian-based Murchison United NL plans to accelerate uranium exploration and drilling programs at two West African sites, the company said December 8. The company announced the market push at its annual general meeting in Perth, saying it aims "to commence drilling at two key prospects in the Republic of Guinea in early 2007, with detailed ground geophysics and trenching planned to commence around the same time at five priority targets within its extensive leases in Mauritania." Murchison's managing director, Mark Reilly, attributed the accelerated programs to market demands. "The uranium industry is currently experiencing one of the strongest growth markets seen in history, underpinned by strong demand and international supply shortages," he said in a press statement. "The price of U3O8 has gone from US$10.75/lb in April 2003 to more than US$60.00/lb this month, and further increases are expected." ------------ Hungarian gov't declares Bataapati site a signficant investment London (Platts)--11Dec2006 The Hungarian governement voted December 7 to declare the Bataapati site for low- and medium-level nuclear waste an "investment of extraordinary significance", paving the way for accelerated permitting and administrative procedures, according to a government statement December 8. The capacity for storing such waste at the Paks nuclear power plant will only be sufficient until the end of 2007, the government said. Residents of the town of Bataapati, in southern Hungary, voted overwhelmingly in favor of the investment in a local referendum in July. ------------ South Korea earmarks $31 bil for new power plants, to cut oil use Seoul (Platts)--11Dec2006 South Korea is to spend Won 29 trillion ($31.4 billion) by 2020 to build more power plants, including natural gas-fired plants, to meet rising domestic electricity demand and cut the country's reliance on oil, the energy ministry said Monday. Under the power supply plan, the country will construct 17 LNG-powered plants, 14 coal-fired plants and eight nuclear plants, according to the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy. With the new power plants, South Korea can secure an additional 34.42 GW of electricity by 2020. The country also will have the capacity to generate a combined 94.28 GW of electricity by then. The ministry estimates that the country's electricity demand will grow by 2.5%/year to reach 478.6 TWh in 2020 from 353.1 TWh in 2006. Electricity demand is forecast to expand 4.6% annually by 2010, but expected to slow to 1%/year for the following ten years. Ministry officials said the plan was also aimed at reducing the country's reliance on oil to produce electricity. South Korea should be able to cut electricity output from oil-fired power plants to 0.6% of the total by 2020 from 5.1% at the moment, they said. The plan is part of South Korea's long-term energy blueprint to reduce the country's oil dependence. The country is seeking to lower its energy dependence on crude oil to 35% by 2030 from 44.3% last year. Energy-poor South Korea, the world's fourth-largest crude importer, is vulnerable to rises in oil prices because it imports almost all of its crude requirements, more than 80% of which comes from the volatile Middle East. ------------ DOE, USEC sign lease deal for new uranium enrichment plant Washington (Platts)--8Dec2006 The US Department of Energy and USEC have signed a lease agreement providing USEC with use of DOE facilities in Piketon, Ohio, for a new uranium enrichment plant, officials said Friday. DOE also granted a non-exclusive patent license to USEC for use of technology that the corporation plans to employ in the American Centrifuge Plant. The agreement is scheduled to expire in June 2009, although it can be extended in five-year increments for up to 36 years once the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued a construction and operation license for the plant. USEC will pay DOE an average of $1.9 million annually for the lease and up to $100 million in royalties for the technology over the life of the agreement. The facilities include more than 1.7 million square feet of production and manufacturing buildings at the 300-acre site previously used by DOE to enrich uranium through a gaseous-diffusion process. USEC plans to deploy a 3.5 million separative work unit enrichment plant equipped with centrifuge technology developed by DOE and advanced by the corporation. The proposed plan could be expanded to 7 million SWU capacity. The agreement amends a previous lease at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant that was signed in 1993 when DOE's uranium enrichment program was transitioned to USEC, a government corporation, under the Energy Policy Act of 1992. The GDP lease was transferred to USEC in 1998 when USEC became a private corporation, under the USEC Privatization Act. USEC chose the Piketon site for the new plant in 2004. ------------ DOE grants USEC patent license for enrichment technology Washington (Platts)--8Dec2006 DOE has granted USEC Inc. a non-exclusive patent license to use centrifuge uranium enrichment technology at its American Centrifuge Plant. The action moves the project closer to being the first deployment of advanced domestic enrichment technology in the US in decades. DOE said December 8 in a press statement that the patent license entitles USEC to non-exclusive rights in the US to more than 100 government-owned inventions related to gas centrifuge enrichment technology that DOE developed during the 1970s and 1980s. USEC has been funding further improvements in the technology since 2002 and plans to use it at the new enrichment facility it plans to build at the enrichment facilities in Piketon, Ohio that it leases from DOE. "The patent license requires USEC to pay royalties to the US government on annual sales of enriched uranium from centrifuge plant production beginning in 2009 and [is] capped at $100 million over the life of the technology," DOE said. The press release also said that DOE and USEC have renewed USEC's existing lease for the Piketon site through June 2009. The lease then may be extended in five-year increments for up to 36 years after the NRC authorizes USEC to build and operate the new centrifuge enrichment plant. ------------ UK industry touts public support for nuclear London (Platts)--7Dec2006 The argument that nuclear should form part of a balanced energy mix has now been accepted by the British public, attendees at the UK's annual industry get-together in London were told December 7. Philip Dewhurst, chairman of the Nuclear Industry Association, or NIA, said the latest opinion poll -- released December 7 by Ipsos MORI -- showed that 72% of the British public agreed that the UK needs a mix of energy sources to ensure a reliable supply of electricity, including nuclear power and renewable energy sources. "That is progress, indeed," he said. "In Parliament, 61% of Members of Parliament now believe in and support new build, which is an all-time high. There has been a massive shift just in the last year alone." The poll, commissioned by the NIA and carried out in November, surveyed 1,999 people from across the country. When questioned about the possible construction of new nuclear power stations in the UK, assuming that the same overall proportion of nuclear energy is retained, 39% supported them while 29% opposed them, MORI found. ------------ The CEA names Thierry Massard as scientific director London (Platts)--7Dec2006 The CEA has named Thierry Massard as scientific director of its Military Applications Division effective December 1, the Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique announced December 6. Massard, an expert in composite materials, joined the CEA in 1975 and most recently was deputy director for the Megajoule laser device the CEA uses to simulate nuclear weapons tests. He succeeds Claude Guet, who was named chief of staff for the High Commissioner for Atomic Energy, Bernard Bigot. ------------ Indian Point -2, -3 license renewal submittals planned for March Washington (Platts)--6Dec2006 Entergy plans to submit a license renewal application for Indian Point-2 and -3 in March, the company told NRC in a November 21 letter just released on the agency's document system Adams. (Indian Point-1 is permanently shut down.) Entergy previously said it intended to file in March but had not identified which plant would be named in the application. The company already has received extended operating licenses for Arkansas Nuclear One-1 and -2 and is in the process of renewing the licenses for Pilgrim, Vermont Yankee, and FitzPatrick. It has reserved three other slots in NRC's review line: two in first-quarter 2009 and a third in January 2010. Those remaining spaces are for Grand Gulf, River Bend, and Waterford-3. ------------