Platts - Thursday, March 15, 2007 http://www.platts.com ------------ European nuclear experts split on technical staff shortage impact Paris (Platts)--15Mar2007 European utility nuclear chiefs and industry experts were split over the effect of a potential "squeeze" on technical staff in the event of a nuclear renaissance, when they spoke at the European Nuclear Forum in Paris March 13-14. Some speakers felt a lack of experienced nuclear staff could delay plant built in the event of high demand. The construction of Finland's Olkiluoto-3 nuclear power plant marks the first of a new generation of plants in Europe. "We don't have enough technical staff," said Rosario Arroyo Brotons, head of nuclear energy at Spanish utility Union Fenosa. "Also, we have lost a lot knowledge that we had some years ago," she said. "The young generation are going to study other skills, not nuclear technology," Ales John, vice president of Czech power group CEZ' generation division said. Currently, two new nuclear power plants are planned in Europe. The 1,600 MW Olkiluoto-3 plant in Finland is due online at start of 2011 and the 1,630 MW Flamanville-3 plant in France is due online in 2012. Worldwide, around 30 plants are under construction. Many countries are also debating new nuclear build. In Europe, a tightening of CO2 emissions controls and a push towards power supply security has concentrated the debate over the relevance of nuclear power. Several European nuclear power plants are due to be phased out and nuclear power supply will decrease unless new plants are built. Dieter Helm, Professor of Energy Policy at Oxford University, was more sceptical about the effect of a tight supply market for nuclear technicians. "There have been lots of episodes in the last 50 years in which particular technologies have needed to ramp up their investment quickly without the skills. The North Sea [gas] development was done extremely fast in an industry where most people didn't know how to drill in those waters yet it was successfully exercised, pretty quickly," Helm said. The speed in which the Internet moved forward in the 1990s without institutional teaching of the technology was another example, he said. STRAIN ON SUPPLY Demands for labor in other sectors out to 2020 could however put a strain on the supply of labour for nuclear build, Helm said. "The scale of general construction in the power sector across a range of technologies and, in some European countries, particularly the UK, the scale of construction activity for roads, houses, new sewers, water systems, the Olympics etc-these are going to be pretty demanding. General engineering pressure will be large." "One of the great challenges we see in the deployment of new plants is the availability of skilled resource," said Nils Breckenridge, Commercial Director of International Business Development at US nuclear plant vendor Westinghouse. Training skilled resources around the world was "a major challenge," he said. Westinghouse hired around 800 engineers in 2006 and expected to hire 500 or 600 in 2007, Breckenridge said. Project managers for nuclear build projects were in particularly high demand, Breckenridge added. "To find these skills will be more of a challenge than the others," he said. Given its importance, French nuclear plant builder Areva was aiming for project management of nuclear plant projects to become "a normal management process within the company," Frank Apel, Vice President of Sales Development and Marketing at Areva said. Knowledge would be transferred from experienced project managers down to the "next-generation", he said. Bearing in mind the recruiting Areva has done in the last few years, Apel said he was "not really concerned regarding human resources." ---Robin Sayles, robin_sayles@platts.com ------------ MHI says its US-APWR reactor design picked by TXU Washington (Platts)--14Mar2007 TXU has picked Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.'s US-APWR reactor technology for potential new nuclear generation, MHI announced March 14. TXU told NRC early this year it was looking at possibly building two or more reactors at its existing two-unit Comanche Peak site and at unspecified greenfield sites. TXU has said it expects to submit a combined construction permit-operating license application for the Comanche Peak site between December 2007 and October 2008. The applications for the greenfield sites are to be submitted by October 2008. ------------ Sweden's parliament remains open to uranium mining New York (Platts)--13Mar2007 Uranium mining should not be forbidden in Sweden, a key committee in the Riksdag, or parliament, decided March 13. A majority of the Standing Committee on Industry and Trade said that the law as it now stands is sufficient to ensure that mining would have proper oversight. But the members added that they do not expect mining operations to start up, although several companies are interested in tapping Sweden's uranium reserves. The committee's recommendation is unlikely to be overridden by the full Riksdag. Separately, in Finland, a group of property owners filed a police complaint March 13 against Namura Finland Oy, alleging illegal uranium mining activity on land adjacent to theirs. ------------ NRC chief calls for 'command' school for nuclear executives Washington (Platts)--13Mar2007 A "command school" for grooming nuclear industry executives would greatly benefit the sector, US Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Dale Klein said Tuesday. Speaking at NRC's annual Regulatory Information Conference, Klein said he envisioned a school modeled after the one the military uses to develop its senior officer corps. He said the industry could develop a curriculum much like that of the National Defense University. On the sidelines of the conference, Klein said he did not believe NRC should license or certify graduates of such a nuclear executive school. --Tom Harrison, tom_harrison@platts.com ------------ POGO urges NRC to adopt final fitness-for-duty rule Washington (Platts)--12Mar2007 The Project On Government Oversight, or POGO, is urging NRC to adopt a final rule for fitness-for-duty programs. Danielle Brian, executive director of POGO, said in a March 9 letter that was just released that it was time for the agency to take action. The rule would bring the NRC's regulations in line with other federal rules and guidelines on drug and alcohol testing programs, establish enforceable requirements for the management of worker fatigue, and revise NRC's access authorization requirements for nuclear power plants. Brian said that the draft final rule would not go as far as her organization had hoped it would, but that it was a "significant improvement over the current situation." She said POGO believes the rule would address some concerns about excessive overtime and fatigue at nuclear plants. ------------ NRC and industry reach agreement on inspection of welds london (Platts)--12Mar2007 THE NRC AND INDUSTRY HAVE REACHED AGREEMENT ON INSPECTION OF WELDS between dissimilar metals in reactor coolant piping, NRC officials said late this week. An industry plan -- developed by the Electric Power Research Institute's Materials Reliability Program and the Nuclear Energy Institute -- had set the end of 2007 as the deadline for inspections of welds in the pressurizer. Because of its high temperature, the pressurizer is the area of the plant considered mostly likely to produce cracking in the metal alloys used in the welds. But under the industry's self-policing regime, about 10 units had applied for and received permission to defer the inspections until their scheduled refueling outages in 2008. NRC, however, balked at that plan amid concerns raised by the discovery last fall of unexpectedly large cracks in pressurizer welds at Wolf Creek. Under the NRC-industry agreement, the plants seeking deferral can wait until 2008 if they put in place enhanced leakage monitoring in the interim, and if a pending study by industry demonstrates that the NRC analyses that led to some of the agency's concerns were overly conservative. A key NRC concern was that flaws such as the ones discovered at Wolf Creek might have little time between leakage and rupture, reducing the warning time for operators. An NRC official said the agency would issue confirmatory action letters to the affected operators but did not plan to issue a generic communication. ------------ ASE, Iran at odds on funding for Bushehr Paris (Platts)--9Mar2007 Atomstroyexport and Iranian negotiators failed to agree on how to resolve a funding problem that has brought the Bushehr nuclear power plant project in Iran to a halt. In a statement following negotiations in Moscow March 9, ASE said that if Iran fails to resume payments, the schedule for completing the 1,000-MW VVER will be further delayed. The Russian vendor said it has not been able to fund the project since September 2006. Mohamad Saiedi of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran separately told Russian wire services that Iran was ready to pay more than foreseen under the contract terms in order to get the plant finished. AEOI has insisted it did not suspend payments to ASE, but ASE has said the payments were not credited to its account since Iran started sending them in euros, instead of dollars. Under the September agreement, fresh fuel for Bushehr was supposed to be delivered this month, and the plant started up in the fall. The two sides could not agree on a joint statement after the meeting, and ASE said negotiations will continue next week in Teheran. ------------ Suez-Electrabel reaffirms its aim to invest in new nuke capacity London (Platts)--9Mar2007 Suez-Electrabel reaffirmed its intention to invest in new nuclear capacity in the timeframe 2015-2020, focusing on "third-generation reactors of the EPR type." Chairman/CEO Gerard Mestrallet told a press conference March 8 in Paris that decisions would be made between 2007 and 2009. He said Suez would adapt its strategy to "market requirements," notably to determine how much new nuclear capacity it will build and where. Suez is "absolutely open to sharing" one or more new nuclear plant projects with partners, he said. Mestrallet said Suez was focusing on Areva NP's EPR, rather than going out for bids, because EPR "is the technology that's available on the market" and the one closest to the know-how of its nuclear teams at Electrabel and Tractebel Engineering. Suez announced particularly good financial results for 2006, with record group profits of Eur 3.6 billion, growth in all its activities, and lower debt. The group plans Eur 15 billion in capital expenditures over the next three years, increasing its electric generating capacity by 50% to 75,000 MW worldwide by 2012. ------------ NRC approves early site permit for Clinton site Washington (Platts)--8Mar2007 NRC commissioners approved March 8 the issuance of a first-ever early site permit, which would allow Exelon Generation Co. to reserve for up to 20 years its Clinton site in Illinois for a potential new nuclear power plant. The ESP took more than 41 months for NRC to process. The ESP is considered a partial construction permit because it allows for limited construction activities, mostly site preparation work. Exelon was the first of three lead ESP applicants to file its submittal, and will be the first to receive the permit, possibly as early as next week, according to one NRC official. Exelon has not expressed an interest at this point in moving to the next licensing stage to construct and operate a new reactor at Clinton, where it operates a 1,077-MW BWR. However, Exelon recently announced plans to pursue possible construction of a new plant at an unspecified site in Texas, and expects to submit next year a combined construction permit-operating license application to the NRC. An Exelon spokesman said six sites are in the running, all of which fall within the region managed by the electric grid operator, Electric Reliability Council of Texas. ------------ Texas court ruling could affect stranded cost recovery, AEP says Washington (Platts)--8Mar2007 A Texas District Court this week reversed part of a judge's ruling that found state regulators erred when they calculated the stranded costs of American Electric Power subsidiary AEP Texas Central as a result of its sale of an interest in the South Texas nuclear power plant, AEP said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Texas 250th District Court Judge John Dietz in February ruled that AEP's stranded-cost case should be remanded to the Texas Public Utility Commission of Texas on two points -- the calculation of costs stemming from the plant sale and the carrying cost rate specified in the April 4, 2006, PUC order. In that order, the PUC authorized AEP Texas Central to recover $1.804 billion in stranded costs and regulatory assets. In May 2005, AEP Texas Central completed the sale of its 25.2% share of South Texas nuclear station to Texas Genco and CPS Energy--the municipal utility in San Antonio -- for about $314 million, and shortly thereafter filed with the PUC for a "true-up" of the difference between the book value and the market value of that share. Dietz ruled that the PUC erred in using the "sale of asset" method for determining stranded costs following AEP Texas Central's sale of its share of the South Texas plant rather than the "excess cost over market" method of valuation, and he scheduled a hearing for March 22 on the use of the "excess cost over market" method. However, on March 6 the District Court issued a letter reversing Dietz' ruling on the plant sale and upholding the decision on the carrying cost rate, AEP said in the March 7 SEC filing. As a result of the District Court ruling, the March 22 hearing has been cancelled, AEP said. Because the court's decision did not alter the finding that the PUC erred in calculating the carrying cost rate specified in its 2006 order, it "could result in a material adverse change" to AEP Texas Central's recoverable costs if they are lowered on remand by the PUC, the company said. --Tom Tiernan, tom_tiernan@platts.com ------------ Germany's Gabriel sticks to pro-coal, anti-nuclear stance Freiburg (Platts)--8Mar2007 German environment minister Sigmar Gabriel said the government was not doing enough to protect the climate. In an interview on German television Wednesday evening, the minister, who belongs to the anti-nuclear SPD coalition party, said he continued to support coal as a source for power generation. "The anti-coal ideology will only bring us back to nuclear power, and I don't want that," he said. "The concurrent exit from coal and nuclear plants to be replaced with renewables by 2020 is utopian. Our aim is to replace old coal units with an efficiency rate below 30% with newer technology of 45% efficiency." The SPD argues the long-term use of nuclear power plants was higher in emissions than brown coal units when the whole chain of their use and waste processing was taken into consideration. In its previous coalition with the Green Party, the SPD reached agreement with industry to phase out all nuclear power by 2020. Its current coalition partner, the CDU, has said that if Germany wants to meet its Kyoto targets, then cancelling this agreement--the "exit from the exit"--was unavoidable. ------------ ICRP main commission to ok radiation protection recommendations London (Platts)--8Mar2007 The ICRP main commission will approve new radiation protection recommendations at a meeting scheduled March 19-21, according to a member of the commission, Annie Sugier of the French Institute of Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety. The new recommendations come 17 years after the International Commission on Radiological Protection's last general recommendations, issued as Publication 60 in 1990. They have been in gestation for eight years including, for the first time at the ICRP, two rounds of full-fledged public consultation that the ICRP Secretariat said had led to "substantial" modifications in the original document. Sugier, who is also a member of the European Commission's rad protection expert group, said at a March 6 briefing that the new ICRP recommendations would likely lead to revision of Euratom's "basic safety standards" directive next year. The new recommendations do not change numerical exposure limits, but change the approach to rad protection to emphasize situations rather than processes. ICRP's recommendations are at www.icrp.org/docs/ICRP_Draft_Recommendations_12_January_2007.pdf. ------------ NRC approves Browns Ferry-1 uprate Washington (Platts)--7Mar2007 NRC has approved uprating Browns Ferry-1 by about 55 MW once the unit restarts, which operator Tennessee Valley Authority has scheduled for May. In a March 7 statement, NRC said the staff's review of TVA's uprate request concluded that, as long as all other issues related to restart were resolved, TVA could operate Browns Ferry-1 at the higher level. The uprate would bring Browns Ferry-1's capacity to 1,155 MW, the same as Browns Ferry-2 and -3, which are already operating. TVA eventually plans to uprate all three units to 1,260 MW. ------------ French regulators approve EDF's license to build EPR Paris (Platts)--6Mar2007 French regulators have approved Electricite de France's license to build an EPR at Flamanville-3 and sent it to the government for final endorsement, the Nuclear Safety Authority, ASN, said March 7. The draft license was approved February 16 by the five-member ASN but sent to the prime minister and ministers of industry and environment March 7, ASN chairman Andre-Claude Lacoste told journalists. ASN did not follow its custom of appending the draft license decree to its approval letter. Lacoste said that document was considered to be "in preparation" and the commission decided to leave its publication to the government. The text must be given a final legal review by the Conseil d'Etat, France's supreme court, before being signed by the three ministers and published in the Official Journal. Its publication will allow EDF to proceed with nuclear construction of the 1,650-MW EPR advanced PWR. Flamanville-3 will be the first EPR built by Areva in France; a maiden EPR is under construction at Olkiluoto-3 in Finland. ------------ Waste storage plan not legal without US NRC Yucca nod: Bodman Washington (Platts)--6Mar2007 US Department of Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman Tuesday said that, under law, the agency cannot make plans to store nuclear waste at a centralized facility unless the Nuclear Regulatory Commission approves DOE's license application to build and operate the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada. Testifying on DOE's fiscal-year 2008 budget request before the House Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee, Bodman said if NRC approves the license application, the department can then begin evaluating interim storage, even if construction of the Yucca Mountain site does not begin. He rebuffed, however, calls for a DOE interim storage plan, saying he was not legally authorized to craft such a plan before NRC approves the license application. "I cannot propose anything under law," Bodman said. "Under the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1992, I am precluded from having anything to do with interim storage until such time as I get the Yucca Mountain license." The department plans to submit a license application to NRC in June 2008, but it faces strong opposition to building the repository and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Democrat-Nevada, has said he would block the proposal DOE sent to Congress to remove barriers to the repository. DOE resubmitted the proposal Tuesday after a virtually identical plan went nowhere in Congress last year. Bodman said just getting NRC approval of the license application could jumpstart consideration of a plan to send the nation's waste to one or more central interim storage facilities. Waste currently is stored at 103 reactor sites in more than 30 states. --Dan Whitten, dan_whitten@platts.com ------------