Platts - Friday, April 13, 2007 http://www.platts.com ------------ DOE to provide $8.2 million for hydrogen research over four years Washington (Platts)--12Apr2007 DOE will fund hydrogen storage research at $8.2 million over the next four years, Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said in an April 12 press statement. Various technologies, including the use of a next-generation reactor, are being looked at for the production of commercial quantities of hydrogen for use as fuel. Bodman said DOE is eager for the research into hydrogen's efficiency and capacity "to move us toward making hydrogen [powered] vehicles with a 300-mile plus driving range commercially available." DOE said United Technologies Research Center received two awards totaling $2.08 million; Sandia National Laboratories, $2 million; Argonne National Laboratory, $1.88 million; Miami University, $1.44 million; and University of Hawaii, $810,000. The development of a hydrogen storage system is integral to President George Bush's plan to move the US toward the use of hydrogen fuel and decrease its dependence on foreign oil. ------------ NRC approves revisions to new plant licensing regulations london (Platts)--12Apr2007 NRC commissioners approved revisions to the agency's new plant licensing regulations April 11. The rule revisions clarify requirements for the early site permit, or ESP, standard design approval, combined construction permit-operating license, or COL, and manufacturing license processes. In 1989, NRC established separate licensing processes under 10 CFR Part 52 in an effort to provide a more predictable process than the one used to license the existing US fleet. The NRC undertook the rule revisions in response to industry interest in potential new construction. While no company has yet gone through the entire plant licensing process, NRC has recently issued two ESPs. Two other ESP applications are under NRC staff review. The commissioners, in a staff requirements memorandum, said the ESPs under review do not have to be modified to meet the new rule revisions. NRC also said the revised rule specifies the extent of environmental information needed for a COL application that references an ESP, among other changes. ------------ Entergy, Consumers Energy close of sale of Palisades Washington (Platts)--11Apr2007 Entergy and Consumers Energy have closed on the sale of Palisades, the two companies announced in an April 11 press release. The $380 million deal follows two key regulatory approvals in recent weeks -- by the Michigan Public Service Commission at the end of March, and by the NRC last week. The two companies in July announced an agreement to sell the 845-MW PWR from Consumers to Entergy. ------------ France publishes decree to build EPR nuke pilot project Paris (Platts)--11Apr2007 France Wednesday published a decree authorizing state-run Electricite de France to build a Eur3 billion ($4 billion) pilot European Pressurized Reactor at Flamanville in Normandy, northern France. The move was immediately condemned by French anti-nuclear campaigners as an "anti-democratic act designed to short-cut debate by a government at the end of its reign." The decree, signed by prime minister Dominique de Villepin and economy minister Thierry Breton, fixes the technical framework for the construction of the 4,500 MW capacity reactor that the government hopes will be up and running by 2012. Economy minister Breton told French daily Les Echos Wednesday that EPR's could start replacing France's oldest nuclear power reactors by 2015. Meanwhile, campaign group "Sortir du nucleaire" said it was urging the two leading opposition candidates in France's forthcoming presidential elections to declare they would scrap the decree if they won power. Socialist candidate Segolene Royal has said she would suspend the project in order to extend the debate in France over nuclear power. ------------ NDA opens competition to manage five UK magnox sites London (Platts)--10Apr2007 The Nuclear Decommissioning Authority has launched a competition to manage five UK magnox sites, the third such site management competition to be offered to the international contractor community in just over a year, state cleanup body NDA said April 10. The initial two competitions are still underway and involve the Drigg low-level waste repository and the Sellafield reprocessing complex. Winners of the competition will manage Berkeley, Bradwell and Hinkley Point A, all magnox sites undergoing decommissioning, and the Dungeness A and Sizewell A magnox stations which ceased generating electricity at the end of December 2006. The NDA said it will hold a seminar June 14 to provide potential bidders with more details about the overall aim and scope of the management contract as well as the competition timetable. The competition winner, which will be announced in first-quarter 2009, will become a "parent body organization" and will own the shares in the magnox site license company employing the workforces at the five sites, for the duration of the contract. NDA said the anticipated spending by the five sites this fiscal year is expected to be around 230 million pounds (US$454 million). ------------ TVA seeking comments on SEIS for Watts Bar-2 Washington (Platts)--9Apr2007 The Tennessee Valley Authority is seeking comments on a draft supplemental environmental impact statement it prepared for Watts Bar-2. The draft SEIS updates environmental reports previously prepared for the unit's construction, TVA said in an April 6 statement. TVA is currently conducting a detailed cost and scheduling study on the feasibility of completing Watts Bar-2. The unit was more than half complete when construction was halted in 1985. Written comments are due by May 14 and may be submitted at www.tva.gov/environment/reports/comments.htm. The draft SEIS is on the TVA web site: http://www.tva.gov/environment/reports/wattsbar2/dseis_wbu2.pdf. ------------ Russia Rosatom, Rusal to build energy/metals complex in Far East Moscow (Platts)--9Apr2007 Russia's Federal Nuclear Power Agency and United Company RUSAL, the world's largest aluminium and alumina producer, have signed a memorandum to build jointly a nuclear power plant and an aluminium smelter in Russia's Far East, the two said Monday. The project is a part of the memorandum for joint implementation of long-term investment projects signed by the federal nuclear power agency Rosatom and Rusal, the parties said in a joint statement. Rosatom and Rusal plan to carry out a feasibility study of the project in the Far East by the end of 2007. After the approval of the feasibility study specifying parameters of the nuclear power plant and aluminium smelter, the parties will set up a detailed schedule for implementation of the project, the two said. Rusal considers the cooperation with Rosatom to be one of the key areas of its growth as an energy and metals corporation. "Our participation in the development of the Russian nuclear power industry will not only foster the implementation of Russia's energy security strategy but will also enable us to expand and diversify the company's energy base through using state-of-the-art international technologies," Rusal CEO Alexander Bulygin said in the statement, commenting on the agreement. Rosatom has an ambitious program of nuclear power development that includes modernization of the operating facilities as well as the construction of new nuclear power plants. "The form of partnership developed by us for such large-scale projects makes it possible for us to accomplish our tasks most effectively and in the shortest time," Rosatom head Sergei Kiriyenko said. The parties believe that the project should be carried out in the form of public private partnership to make it possible to raise funds for the project from the Russian Investment Fund or other centralised sources and invest them into the construction of infrastructure, such as transmission lines. The parties had agreed in August 2006 to coordinate activities to implement projects on the construction of a nuclear power station as well as production of nuclear equipment and the attraction of foreign suppliers of technologies and equipment. The United Company RUSAL, which was formed in March 2007, through a merger of Rusal, Sual and alumina assets of Glencore, accounts for some 12.5% and 16% of global production of aluminium and alumina, respectively. --Nadia Rodova, nadia_rodova@platts.com ------------