Platts - Friday, May 18, 2007 http://www.platts.com Germany refuses permission for RWE to transfer nuclear capacity London (Platts)--18May2007 Germany's environment minister Sigmar Gabriel has rejected an application by Essen-based utility RWE to transfer remaining nuclear capacity from the decommissioned Mulheim-Karlich nuclear power plant to the Biblis-A nuclear reactor, the ministry said Friday in a statement. Gabriel said: "According to the nuclear law, electricity cannot be transfered from Muhlheim-Karlich to the nuclear power plant Biblis A. RWE's application also contradicts the agreement utilities signed with the federal government on June 14, 2000." RWE has taken the environment ministry to court over the matter, the statement said. In September 2006, RWE applied to transfer capacity from the decommissioned unit at Mulheim-Karlich, but in the event that this would not be permitted, it also applied to transfer capacity from its Emsland unit. According to the ministry, that application is still being investigated by the ministry. RWE based its application on a clause in the nuclear law which states a capacity transfer can be granted if the environment ministry, the chancellor's office and the economics ministry agree on the transfer from a new to an older unit if there are no safety concerns. But the ministry said this clause did not apply to Biblis-A, because the law states capacity transfers from Mulheim-Karlich are only allowed to nuclear units specifically named in the nuclear law. The plants named are Emsland, Neckarwestheim-2, Isar-2, Brokdorf and Grundremmingen-B and Grundremmingen-C and Biblis-B. Under the terms of lthe law, Biblis-B could receive a maximum transfer of 21.45TWh from Mulheim-Karlich. Germany's previous SPD/Green coalition government passed legislation that nuclear reactors should be retired and not replaced when they come to the end of their operational of an average of span of 32 years lives so that the country would phase out nuclear power. Biblis-A, commissioned in 1974, is Germany's oldest remaining nuclear power plant and has a capacity of 1,225 MW. ------------ Russia's ASE to build new nuclear research center in Myanmar Paris (Platts)--17May2007 Atomstroyexport is to build a nuclear research center in Myanmar under a cooperation agreement signed in Moscow May 16, the company announced May 17. The commercial agreement follows on a government-to-government agreement signed the previous day. The center, according to Rosatom (the Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency), will include a 10-MW (thermal) light water research reactor operating on 20%-enriched uranium. ASE did not mention the reactor but said the center would have various facilities for physics and biotechnology research as well as pharmaceutical applications. It said a contract would be prepared during the second half of this year. Rosatom emphasized that both Russia and Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) are signatories of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Tom Casey, deputy spokesman of the US State Department, said May 16 that the US "wouldn't like to see a project like this move forward" until Myanmar has an adequate nuclear regulatory and security infrastructure in place. ------------ US, Russian officials to meet May 28 to discuss PU disposition London (Platts)--17May2007 US, Russian officials to meet May 28 to discuss PU disposition in fast reactors, according to a senior Russian official. Oleg Saraev, deputy general director of nuclear utility Rosenergoatom, said Sergey Kirienko, head of the Federal Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom), had written to the US government to say Russia will recycle excess weapons plutonium in fast reactors only -- the BN600 and future BN800 power reactors, plus the BOR60 prototype -- but will not ask the US to pay for construction of BN800, as had once been its demand. Rosatom is proposing to abandon disposition of weapons Pu in Russian light water reactors, Saraev told Platts May 16 during the International Conference on Advanced Nuclear Power Plants in Nice, France. ------------ GE, Hitachi sign agreement to form global nuclear alliance Washington (Platts)--16May2007 form "cross-shareholding companies" in the US, Canada, and Japan, subject to government approvals, GE said. When these plans were first announced in November 2006, GE said that Hitachi would buy 40% of GE's existing nuclear business and GE would buy about 20% of Hitachi's existing nuclear business. GE said May 16 that it and Hitachi expect to close the transaction in second-quarter 2007. ------------ Japanese power companies use more oil, gas in Apr on nuke outage Tokyo (Platts)--16May2007 Crude, fuel oil and gas consumption by Japanese power companies went up in April amid strong industrial demand, coupled by lower nuclear power generation rates, data released Wednesday by the Federation of Electric Power companies showed. Consumption of crude and fuel oil by Japan's 10 power companies jumped 85% and 23.3%, respectively, to 827,684 kl (5.21 million barrels) and 676,111 kl in April compared with the same month last year. Consumption of liquefied natural gas also went up 16.5%, year on year, to 3.02 million mt, the FEPC data showed. The utilities bought more LNG in April, but its procurement of crude and fuel oil fell compared to a year ago. Their LNG purchases jumped 18.9% from a year ago to 2.9 million mt, while their crude oil and fuel oil procurement fell 2.8% and 15%, respectively, year on year, to 584,883 kl and 635,417 kl, the FEPC data showed. The 10 power companies generated 38,378 GWh of electricity from their thermal power plans in April, up 18.5% from a year ago. Meanwhile, nuclear power supply in the month slid 8.5% on the year to 22,072 GWh. Total power generation by the 10 utilities rose by 1.9%, year on year, to 75,046 GWh, the FEPC said. FUEL CONSUMPTION BY JAPAN'S 10 MAJOR POWER FIRMS (TABLE) Apr-07 Apr-06 % change LNG (mt) 3,022,435 2,595,028 16.5 Crude (kl) 827,684 447,359 85.0 Fuel oil (kl) 676,111 548,504 23.3 FUEL PROCUREMENT BY JAPAN'S 10 MAJOR POWER FIRMS (TABLE) Apr-07 Apr-06 % change LNG (mt) 2,899,289 2,439,164 18.9 Crude (kl) 584,883 601,873 -2.8 Fuel oil (kl) 635,417 747,886 -15.0 Source: the Federation of Electric Power companies ------------ Areva CEO unlikely to take ministerial position in French gov't London (Platts)--16May2007 Areva CEO Anne Lauvergeon will likely not take a ministerial position in the new French government, expected to be named this week, according to industry sources and media reports. Lauvergeon, who once worked for former Socialist president Francois Mitterrand, had been courted by incoming conservative president Nicolas Sarkozy to be part of an "ecumenical" government that would include ministers from other parties, as well as at least seven women. But industry sources said this week that Lauvergeon was loath to leave her CEO job to take a ministry position, claiming it would disturb her family life. She has two young children. Others said a ministry position is not stable and that the pay is low compared to industry. The latest rumor is that Lauvergeon could take over from Pierre Gadonneix as chairman/CEO of Electricite de France. ------------ NRC okays restart of long-idled TVA nuclear unit Washington (Platts)--15May2007 The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission May 15 authorized the Tennessee Valley Authority to restart Browns Ferry-1, removing the last regulatory hurdle to the unit's return. In a May 15 letter, NRC Region II Administrator William Travers said, "Based on our extensive review of [the Tennessee Valley Authority's] activities, completion of necessary revisions to the licensing and design bases, satisfactory inspection results, and the recommendations of the NRC's Browns Ferry Restart Oversight Panel and consultation" with top NRC officials, "I authorize TVA to restart Browns Ferry Unit 1." All three Browns Ferry units were shut in March 1985 to address various performance and management deficiencies. Unit 2 went critical on May 24, 1991; unit 3 returned in November 1995. NRC's approval for restart of Browns Ferry-1 comes almost exactly five years after the TVA board's May 16, 2002 decision to spend some $1.8 billion to refurbish and restart the unit. ------------ Unistar Nuclear willing to pay more upront for an EPR London (Platts)--15May2007 Unistar Nuclear is willing to pay more upfront for an EPR because it expects payback in higher efficiency of the French-design nuclear power plant, said George Vanderheyden, president of the Constellation Energy-Areva joint venture, at the International Congress on Advances in Nuclear Power Plants meeting in Nice, France May 14. Vanderheyden said that UniStar "knew [EPR] would cost a little more in concrete and steel" than competing Generation III reactor models. But "we thought there were significant safety and security margins" in the Areva reactor that would pay off in the future, he said. Vanderheyden also reiterated recent statements that if the federal government doesn't provide sufficient loan guarantees for the first few new nuclear plants in the US, "we will have to slow down" and it will be hard to get a new plant online by the planned 2017 timeframe. He said his company believes that a "workable loan guarantee program" will be in place by the end of this year. ------------ NRC sends Fenoc `demand for information' on Davis-Besse report Washington (Platts)--14May2007 NRC sent FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co. a "demand for informaton" on a report the company recently submitted on the severe vessel head degradation discovered five years ago at Davis-Besse, the agency said in a May 14 press release. The report -- known as the "Exponent report," after the consulting firm that prepared it for Fenoc in connection with an insurance claim relating to the head degradation -- said the corrosion occurred much faster than Fenoc's root-cause report submitted to NRC and other analyses estimated. NRC spokesman Scott Burnell said the agency sees a "contradiction" between the Exponent report and the root-cause report. NRC had previously asked Fenoc for information on the Exponent report, but the company's response was insufficient, Burnell said. According to Burnell, a Demand for Information is a "prelude to a possible enforcement action." Fenoc's response is to be provided under oath. One particular concern, he said, is Fenoc's delay in submitting the report to NRC, given the potential implications for the safety of the US PWR fleet. Fenoc received the report in December 2006 but did not provide it to NRC until March, he said. ------------ British Energy brings online 610 MW unit at Hinkley Point nuke London (Platts)--14May2007 UK generator British Energy brought online Sunday afternoon one unit at its 1,220 MW Hinkley Point B nuclear power station, balancing mechanism data showed. Hinkley Point B unit 8 was generating 100 MW of power at 1200 BST (1100 GMT) Monday, the data showed. British Energy Friday said it received permission from the country's Nuclear Installations Inspectorate to restart one unit at its 1,220-MW Hinkley Point B nuclear power station. "The company expects to receive permission from the NII to restart the second unit at Hinkley Point B and two units at Hunterston B in sequence, as anticipated, over the next few weeks," the country's biggest generator said in a notice to the London Stock Exchange. Hinkley Point B and 1,190-MW Hunterston B nuclear power stations are expected to return at 70% of output. Hinkley Point B has been offline since autumn 2006--one of the station's units went offline in September and the other in October--for inspections and repairs on the cracked boiler tubes. Hunterston, which faces similar maintenance issues, has been completely offline since October. ------------ NRC's EDO upholds `white' finding at Vogtle plant Washington (Platts)--11May2007 NRC's executive director for operations, or EDO, has upheld a "white" finding at Vogtle related to an emergency preparedness exercise in March 2006. A white finding is the second-lowest level in NRC's four-category, color-coded safety classification system and denotes low to moderate safety significance. It is rare for a finding to be appealed to the EDO level; Vogtle operator Southern Nuclear Operating Co. had earlier appealed the NRC staff's finding to the Region II administrator, who upheld the staff decision. In a May 3 letter, released publicly May 11, EDO Luis Reyes said, "After careful consideration of all the available information, I have determined that the NRC staff's White finding regarding the post-exercise critique is appropriate." The finding has to do with the Vogtle emergency director's declaration of a site area emergency, or SAE, during the drill; NRC said an alert would have been the correct response. An SAE is a more serious emergency classification than an alert. Reyes' letter said, "Had this been an actual event, the SAE declaration could have resulted in unnecessary and inappropriate public protective actions." ------------