Platts - Monday, February 05, 2007 http://www.platts.com ------------ Bush FY-08 budget earmarks $494.5 mil for nuclear waste program Washington (Platts)--5Feb2007 Funding for the US Department of Energy's civilian nuclear waste program would total roughly $494.5 million under the Bush administration's fiscal-year 2008 request. The total includes a DOE defense waste fee payment of $292 million and $202.45 million from the Nuclear Waste Fund. The White House Office of Management and Budget said the FY-08 request includes $4 million that would be divided among local governments affected by the department's planned repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada; $2.5 million in oversight funds for the state of Nevada; and $1.2 million for oversight work by Nye County, Nevada, where Yucca Mountain is located. An OMB budget document called 2008 a "critical juncture" in the Yucca Mountain project and said that investments in four areas are needed to move the program forward. OMB said work in those areas includes the development of a repository license application, which reflects the planned used of a cradle-to-grave canister system, that will be submitted to NRC by June 30, 2008; development of a transportation infrastructure to move spent fuel from reactor sites to a federal facility; improvement of the aging infrastructure at Yucca Mountain; and development of a culture expected of an NRC licensee that is consistent with Institute of Nuclear Power Operations and NRC guidance. --Elaine Hiruo, elaine_hiruo@platts.com ------------ US NRC seeks public comment through March 5 on free-recovery rule Washington (Platts)--2Feb2007 The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission published Friday its proposed schedule of fees charged to licensees and applicants to recover 90% of the agency's fiscal-year 2007 budget. The public comment period on the proposed fee-recovery rule runs through March 5, the NRC said. Under the proposed fee-recovery rule, annual fees charged to each operating power reactor would be $4.088 million, up from $3.704 million in FY 2006. One rate of $256/hour would be charged for NRC staff activities in both the Nuclear Reactor Safety Program and the Nuclear Materials and Waste Safety Program, up from $217 for the reactor program and $214 for the materials program in FY-06. "The increase reflects a revised estimate of staff hours spent on specific activities, such as licensing actions, inspections and regulatory development," NRC said Friday in a statement. --Steven Dolley, steven_dolley@platts.com ------------ New York county appeals NRC decision on relicensing rules request Birmingham, Alabama (Platts)--2Feb2007 New York's Westchester County on Thursday asked the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to review the Nuclear Regulator Commission's rejection of the county's request that the standards for relicensing nuclear plants be toughened up, documents show. County Executive Andrew Spano asked the NRC to consider broader criteria when considering the relicensing of Entergy's Indian Point-2 reactor. "I don't think the NRC ever met a nuclear plant it didn't like," Spano said. Under current relicensing guidelines the NRC considers such issues as the age of nuclear plants, but Spano wants changes in the demographics of the area taken into consideration as well, he said. "We insist that the NRC consider the appropriateness of existing sites, not just take such sites as givens," Spano said. The county wants the NRC to consider the difficulties of an emergency evacuation in a dense, congested population center with limited roadways, Spano said. The county asked that the NRC consider whether the same plant would be licensed at the site at present. The NRC prefers to deal with security issues on an ongoing basis rather than on a "snapshot of time" during the 22 to 30 months of relicensing, an NRC spokesman said. The agency is in the process of formalizing rules to bolster security, he added. The original license for Indian Point-2 will expire in 2013. Entergy expects to file its relicensing request in March. ------------ DOE to award $5.7 million in nuclear research grants Washington (Platts)--2Feb2007 DOE will award nuclear energy research grants totaling $5.7 million to nine universities, the department said February 2. The grants will be for research pertaining to DOE's Generation IV reactor program and its Nuclear Hydrogen Initiative. The Gen IV program involves next-generation advanced reactor concepts being developed; the hydrogen initiative is aimed at using a Gen IV reactor to produce commercial quantities of liquid hydrogen for use as fuel. The grants are administered under DOE's Nuclear Energy Research Initiative, bringing the total funding for 70 NERI projects since 2005 to $38.6 million, DOE said. It added that DOE's fiscal 2008 budget proposal, which the department plans to unveil February 5, includes a $35.6 million request for NERI research grants for work associated with the Gen IV program, the Nuclear Hydrogen Initiative, and the Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative. NERI research projects are aimed, in part, at reducing the country's reliance on fossil fuels. DOE said that the actual grant amount each university will receive is subject to negotiation and that it expects to announce the grant amounts in May. ------------ Areva to supply EPRs to Guandong's nuclear utility company London (Platts)--2Feb2007 Areva would supply two EPRs to Guandong's nuclear utility company, under a memorandum of understanding signed late last week in China by Areva CEO Anne Lauvergeon, sources said February 1. Areva declined comment on the deal, but an informed source confirmed a report of it in the Paris daily Le Figaro. The source said the MOU foresees a partnership with China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corp. for construction of two 1,600-MW-class EPRs and supply of fuel cycle services, in particular uranium. Cgnpc oversees Guangdong province's nuclear power plants, supplied by Areva's Framatome ANP subsidiary (now called Areva NP). Framatome has built four 1,000-MW-class PWRs at Daya Bay and Ling Ao and is supplying main nuclear equipment for two more under construction as Ling Ao Phase II. No information has yet emerged about the timing of the new Cgnpc units or where the EPRs would be built. In December, China's State Nuclear Power Technology Co. chose Westinghouse over Areva to supply technology and equipment for four units in a deal made possible by a US-Chinese agreement on technology transfer. Those four AP1000s are in principle to be built at Sanmen in Zhejiang province and Yangjiang in Guangdong, but Yangjiang has room for six large units. ------------ DOE to seek $405 million for GNEP in FY-08 Washington (Platts)--1Feb2007 DOE will ask for $405 million for the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership program for fiscal 2008, Deputy Energy Secretary Clay Sell said February 1. (Fiscal 2008 begins October 1.) That funding figure is well above the $250 million the department requested for FY-07 for GNEP; Congress is currently considering a joint funding resolution that is expected to allow DOE to spend about $120 million in FY-07 on the program, which involves the development of "proliferation-resistant" spent fuel reprocessing and fast reactor technologies. Speaking at a Platts Energy Podium Event, Sell said an appropriation of $120 million probably would give DOE enough money to be able to issue a request for proposals on GNEP in FY-07, although he declined to make a definitive commitment on that point.A podcast of the event is at http://platts.com/energypodium/index.xml. ------------ FY 2007 spending bill shortchanges science, GNEP: White House Washington (Platts)--31Jan2007 The Bush administration on Wednesday took exception to a fiscal 2007 continuing resolution proposed by Democrats saying it shortchanged the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership and science programs and set unacceptable conditions on construction of a mixed oxide nuclear fuel fabrication facility in South Carolina. The House is set to vote on the $463.5 billion bill later Wednesday. The measure would provide funding to the federal government from February 15, when the current continuing resolution expires, until September 30, the end of the fiscal year. It includes substantial boosts compared with fiscal 2006 levels for science and energy efficiency and renewable energy. But the White House objected to some of the measure's provisions. In a statement of administration policy, the Office of Management and Budget said the resolution "allows continued funding of oil subsidies for oil and gas research and development but fails to fully fund the president's Global Nuclear Energy Partnership." The bill directs $120 million to GNEP, a nuclear waste recycling program intended to reduce the volume of spent fuel that would need to go to the Yucca Mountain repository, and reduce the risks of proliferation worldwide. The administration asked for $250 million for the program for fiscal 2007. The resolution also gives DOE $3.8 billion for science, which is a $200 million boost over fiscal 2006, but the administration lamented the fact that Congress did not provide the full $4.1 billion request. The MOX plant, which is being built at the Savannah River Site to convert weapons grade material into nuclear fuel, would see no money that could be used for construction until August. The SAP said "the administration opposes any language in the bill that prohibits, conditions or in any way restricts the use of funds...for construction." Several congressional Republicans have complained that they were not invited to participate in crafting the resolution. But Senator Pete Domenici, of New Mexico, the ranking Republican on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee and the Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development, said the resolution was "a huge win for clean energy. It's a win for nuclear power and it's an important victory in our push to maintain America's leading edge in science and technology." ------------ Areva's nuclear division revenues up in 2006 Paris (Platts)--31Jan2007 Areva announced a 2.9% increase in nuclear division revenues in 2006, to 2.919 billion euros (US$3.8 billion). High growth in front end sales (uranium, enrichment, fuel) offset a decrease in reactors and services business and stable revenue in back end areas, Areva said January 31. Areva's overall 2006 revenues were Eur 10.863 billion, up 7.3% from 2005, boosted by a 15.2% rise in sales for the Transmission & Distribution division acquired from Alstom two years ago. An 11.6% increase in Front End division sales was due notably to higher uranium prices, Areva said. Lower sales for the Reactors and Services division were due to lack of steam generator replacement operations in 2006 and a negative impact from the Olkiluoto-3 project in Finland, Areva said. That decrease was offset by "solid billings" associated with the Ling Ao project in China as well as preliminary studies for the Flamanville EPR in France, it said. Areva said it "anticipates a sharp increase in Reactors and Services sales revenue this year." Last month, Electricite de France announced it had approved a contract with Areva for manufacture of primary components for the Flamanville EPR. It is the largest single contract for that project and is reportedly valued at about Eur 700 million. ------------