Platts - Friday, May 04, 2007 http://www.platts.com ------------ E.ON's plan to buy land, build 6th Finnish reactor raises concern London (Platts)--4May2007 E.ON's plan to buy a plot of land and build a sixth Finnish reactor has raised concerns among public officials in the Valko section of Loviisa. The officials released statements about their concerns May 3, the day after a public meeting with E.ON Finland management. The 100-hectare (247-acre) plot is adjacent to Fortum's Loviisa plant. The officials said they are worried that residents in the area would be exposed to unnecessary radiation if E.ON builds the reactor because they would be within the 5-kilometer (3.1-mile) safety zone that now separates them from Loviisa. ------------ Nuclear life extensions could dent power by Eur5/MWh: consultant Prague (Platts)--4May2007 Central European power prices could be around Eur5/MWh higher in 2020 if the lifespans of nuclear reactors are not extended beyond then, Guy Doyle, chief energy economist at Mott Macdonald consultancy said Thursday. Having more nuclear power available "dampened" power prices, Doyle said, and also lowered CO2 emissions and thus the price of carbon, a driver of power prices. For many of Europe's nuclear power plants, built in the 70s and 80s, a 30 year life span was originally planned, but most European nuclear countries have agreed to extend plant lives, some to 60 years, Doyle said. Those which have not, which include Belgium, Germany, Sweden and the UK, were likely to do so, Doyle said. "The industry's views and regulators' views have changed on what is a reasonable life of plant," Doyle said. Improved monitoring of plants and the ability to retrofit parts have contributed to this, he said. The costs of extending existing plant running times were somewhere between 25 to 40% of the cost of new plant, making life extensions an attractive option for operators, he said. By extending plant life, decommissioning costs could also be put back and the extension option was also much less politically sensitive than new build, Doyle said. Building a new plant on an existing site "probably opens up more cans of worms than re-licensing an existing plant," he said. ---Robin Sayles, robin_sayles@platts.com ------------ TVA's Browns Ferry-1 moves closer to restart approval Washington (Platts)--3May2007 Browns Ferry-1 is moving closer to NRC approval for restart. Two NRC panels held public meetings at the Tennessee Valley Authority plant site May 3, said NRC Region II spokesman Ken Clark. An operational readiness assessment team concluded that the unit is essentially ready to restart, he said. The second panel, the restart oversight panel, concluded that the unit will be ready after some minor requirements are met, Clark said. The oversight panel is expected to make a recommendation on restart to the regional administrator "in the near future," he said. ------------ Hunterston B, Hinkley Point have NII's ok to run 10 more years London (Platts)--3May2007 Hunterston B and Hinkley Point B have NII's go-ahead to run 10 more years, subject to completion of an agreed work program of technical reviews and upgrades, station owner British Energy said May 1. BE said it would cost 4.5 million pounds (US$9 million) to carry out the tasks identified during the periodic safety reviews, or PSRs, it has been undertaking for regulator Nuclear Installations Inspectorate. An NII spokesman said May 2 that the two PSRs won't be completed "until the work programs are completed." The twin advanced gas-cooled reactor stations started electricity production within a day of each other 31 years ago. ------------ South Texas Project-2 returns from outage with higher capacity Washington (Platts)--2May2007 South Texas Project-2 resumed full power operation May 1 with a 1,400-MW generating capacity after three low-pressure turbines and the main generator rotor were replaced during a refueling outage, STP Nuclear Operating Co. said in a May 2 statement. The unit's gross generating capacity was 1,333 MW before the 34-day outage. The reactor was reconnected to the grid April 28 and power was incrementally increased until the unit reached full power, STP said. ------------ Talks on US-India nuclear cooperation agreement were "positive" London (Platts)--2May2007 Talks on a US-India nuclear cooperation agreement were "positive", US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said May 1. McCormack issued the statement after talks took place in Washington April 30 and May 1 between Indian Foreign Secretary Shivshanker Menon and US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs R. Nicholas Burns. "We look forward to resolving the outstanding issues in the weeks ahead," McCormack said, adding that Burns "will visit India in the second half of May to reach a final agreement." In recent weeks, US officials have expressed frustration with the pace of the talks, which deal with an agreement that would allow the US to make major nuclear exports to India. ------------ Entergy files license renewal application for Indian Point-2, -3 Washington (Platts)--1May2007 Entergy said it filed a license renewal application for Indian Point-2 and -3 on April 30. The original operating licenses expire for unit 2 in September 2013 and for unit 3 in December 2015. Unit 1 permanently shut down in 1974. Entergy has received 20-year license extensions for Arkansas Nuclear One-1 and -2 and Palisades, and it has applications under NRC review for Vermont Yankee, Pilgrim and FitzPatrick. ------------ Bush picks Senate staffer to be NRC commissioner Washington (Platts)--30Apr2007 President Bush said April 30 he has nominated Kristine Svinicki, a staffer on the Senate Armed Services Committee, to the NRC. Svinicki previously was senior policy adviser to Senator Larry Craig, an Idaho Republican, and before that was a nuclear engineer in DOE's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management. Craig sent Svinicki's name to the White House for consideration in 2003 when two commissioner positions were opening, but she was not chosen as a nominee at the time. If confirmed by the Senate, Svinicki would replace two-term NRC Commissioner Jeffrey Merrifield, who is leaving the agency at the end of June. ------------ US DOE moves 2.1 mil repository-related documents to database Washington (Platts)--30Apr2007 The US Department of Energy has filed another 2.1 million documents on a Nuclear Regulatory Commission electronic database. The addition puts the total number of documents on the system pertaining to the DOE repository project at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, at 3.4 million, DOE said Monday in a statement. DOE's document collection on the database, called the Licensing Support Network, now exceeds 30 million pages, the department said. DOE must certify at least six months before it sends a repository license application to NRC that all relevant documents are publicly available on the LSN, which will be used as tool for legal discovery during a repository licensing proceeding. DOE plans to certify its LSN collection no later than December 21 and intends to submit an application by June 30, 2008. --Elaine Hiruo, elaine_hiruo@platts.com ------------ US nuclear plant safety improved in 2006, WANO data says: NEI Washington (Platts)--30Apr2007 US nuclear power plants achieved high safety levels in 2006, the Nuclear Energy Institute said Monday in a statement, citing data compiled by the World Association of Nuclear Operators. The 103 operating power reactors in the US met or exceeded historical record performance in the areas of unplanned automatic reactor shutdowns (median industry value of 0.42 per plant, matching the 2002 record) and industrial safety (0.12 accidents per 200,000 worker hours, a new record). Collective radiation exposure fell 9.6% in 2006 for employees at boiling water reactors and declined 2.9% for employees at pressurized water reactors, NEI said. --Steven Dolley, steven_dolley@platts.com ------------ "No change" in the planned commercial service date of Olkiluoto-3 London (Platts)--30Apr2007 There is " no change in the projected commercial service date of Olkiluoto-3, Areva Project Director Philippe Knoche said April 27. He said Areva, Siemens and their customer for the 1,600-MW EPR unit, Teollisuuden Voima Oy, had no reason to change the targets set in December -- transfer of the unit to TVO at the turn of 2010-2011, following criticality, tests and electricity production. The project is acknowledged to be about 18 months behind the original, ambitious schedule that would have seen commercial operation in May 2009, some 48 months after construction start. Knoche said, however, that the project team is currently focused on "moving the project forward, step by step," rather than on the contractual target date for commercial operation. ------------ NEI official says nuclear and coal building costs `comparable' Washington (Platts)--27Apr2007 Nuclear and coal building costs are now "comparable," Nuclear Energy Institute Senior Vice President Alex Flint told an Energy Daily briefing April 27. Flint refused to give specific numbers, saying those were confidential to NEI's utility members, and cautioned "comparable" did not mean "identical." He said there were large variables in any project, nuclear or coal, including how much infrastructure was already on-site and whether transmission systems had to be upgraded to handle the new capacity. But, Flint said, major US nuclear operators are now "24 to 30 months" into serious talks with vendors to hammer out contracts for new nuclear units, and more "rigor is being applied" to cost analyses. New coal plant costs have been rising, both with stiff requirements for pollution controls and with new technologies designed to abate carbon emissions, and costs of all new heavy construction are rising because of increasing prices worldwide for steel, cement and other basic components. ------------