Platts - Friday, May 25, 2007 http://www.platts.com ------------ Nuclear debate is "unavoidable": EC officials London (Platts)--25May2007 EC officials said May 24 nuclear debate is "unavoidable", and nuclear power is "necessary." Speaking separately, EC President Jose Manuel Barroso and Matthias Ruete, director of the European Commission's directorate general for energy and transport, both endorsed discussions on nuclear power's role in the European Union. EC President Barroso said he believed that EU "member states cannot avoid the question of nuclear power. There has to be a full and frank debate about the issue," Barroso said, according to a copy of his speech before a meeting of the Paris-based Institut Francais de Relations Internationales, released by the commission. Separately, Ruete said, "Nuclear power is necessary for European climate targets. The answer is simply a question of cost: are we prepared to compensate for the exit from nuclear power by paying more for generation through more expensive renewables?" Ruete was speaking May 24 in Berlin at the annual conference of the German power suppliers' lobby, VDEW. ------------ Quad Cities-1 sets station record for quick refueling Washington (Platts)--24May2007 Quad Cities-1's 19-day refueling outage set a station record as the shortest such outage in the plant's history, Exelon Nuclear said May 24. The unit returned to service the evening of May 23, the company said. Quad Cities-1 was at 20% power the morning of May 24, NRC said in its daily reactor status report. ------------ Two House panels approve bills to establish nuclear fuel bank london (Platts)--24May2007 TWO HOUSE PANELS APPROVED BILLS MAY 23 TO ESTABLISH A NUCLEAR FUEL BANK. The House Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee spending bill for fiscal 2008 includes $100 million, while the House Foreign Affairs Committee bill authorizes $50 million. The international bank, which would be administered by the IAEA, is a key part of various nonproliferation schemes. Countries that do not pursue uranium enrichment and spent-fuel reprocessing would be eligibleto receive fuel from the bank, if conventional fuel-supply mechanisms fail. The foreign affairs bill is a revised version of legislation introduced earlier this year by the panel's chairman, California Democrat Tom Lantos. Key changes include a tightening of the eligibility requirements for potential recipients of the bank's fuel. ------------ Browns Ferry-1 restarting after being idle for 22 years Washington (Platts)--22May2007 Browns Ferry-1 achieved criticality at 12:28 am local time May 22, the Tennessee Valley Authority said. Operators will gradually increase power over the next several days and will test secondary plant systems to ensure they operate as designed, TVA said in a statement. TVA said it would continue to conduct tests during the next several weeks, including some brief connections to the grid followed by automatic shutdowns, before reconnecting for routine operation. 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. For more details, see the May 24 Nucleonics Week issue. ------------ Areva to build uranium hexafluoride conversion complex Paris (Platts)--21May2007 Areva will invest 610 million euros to build a new uranium hexafluoride conversion complex at Malvesi and Pierrelatte, company officials said May 21. Christian Barandas, director of the Chemistry business unit of Areva NC (the former Cogema), said the new complex would be capable of converting 15,000 metric tons uranium a year by 2012, up from 14,000 mtU/year for the existing complex. He said the complex could ramp up to 21,000 mtU/year, depending on demand, possibly by around 2015. Sight preparatory work will begin this summer and work on the nuclear facilities is expected to start in early 2009, he said. ------------ US Homeland Security panel presses NRC on cybersecurity policies Washington (Platts)--21May2007 The chairman of the US House Committee on Homeland Security is asking the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission to move quickly to ensure nuclear power plant operators put comprehensive cybersecurity policies in place. In a May 15 letter made public on Friday, committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, Democrat-Mississippi, and Representative James Langevin, a Rhode Island Democrat, who leads the panel's Science and Technology subcommittee, asked NRC Chairman Dale Klein to "move with all deliberate speed in ensuring that nuclear plant licensees institute comprehensive cybersecurity policies and procedures on safety and non-safety systems alike." The letter was prompted by an information notice NRC issued April 17 describing an August 19, 2006, shutdown of Tennessee Valley Authority's Browns Ferry-3 nuclear plant. According to the letter, TVA blamed the shutdown on the malfunction of the variable frequency driver controller due to excessive traffic on the plant's computer network. TVA's corrective actions included placing a firewall that limits connections and traffic to any devices on the plant's integrated computer system network, it said. The congressmen said NRC staff decided against investigating the failure as a cybersecurity incident, saying the failing system was a non-safety system and that TVA had determined the incident did not involve an external cyber attack on the system. Thompson and Langevin told Klein they have "deep reservations about the NRC's hesitation to conduct a special investigation into the incident." Noting that NRC is engaged in a rulemaking that will include regulations for cybersecurity, they said they hoped the new regulations "will reach beyond safety systems and underscore the impact that disruptions of non-safety systems can have on the operation of a plant." They asked that NRC answer seven questions, including whether the agency has conclusively determined the source of the "data storm" related to the Browns Ferry-3 incident, whether it plans to investigate the incident and how future regulations will address the cybersecurity interdependence of safety systems and non-safety systems. --Tom Harrison, tom_harrison@platts.com ------------ UK planning, energy white papers to prepare way for new nuclear London (Platts)--21May2007 The UK government will publish planning and energy white papers this week in a combined effort seen by many as a move to prepare the way for a new generation of nuclear power plants. The planning white paper is expected to be announced to the House of Commons at 1530 BST (1430 GMT) Monday by Communities minister Ruth Kelly. The energy white paper is expected to be announced to the Commons at 1230 BST (1130 GMT) Wednesday by Trade and Industry minister Alistair Darling. The planning white paper is expected to set out plans for a new independent body that would take planning decisions on projects of major national importance, speeding up the decision-making process. That could help new nuclear power plants and gas pipelines and gas storage. At the moment projects such as gas storage often run into fierce local opposition. The energy white paper will set out the government's plans for reducing carbon dioxide emissions and for replacing aging coal and nuclear plants that are due to be decommissioned over the next two decades. The government may publish a new consultation document on nuclear power at the same time. The UK wants to cut CO2 emissions by 60% by 2050. Over the next two decades the UK needs around 25 GW of new electricity generation capacity as existing plant closes. Without new nuclear much of that could be high-carbon coal power plants or gas-fired plants. The UK is becoming increasingly dependent on imported gas. In 2003 the UK was self-sufficient in gas. By 2020 the UK could be importing 90% of its gas as the North Sea declines. ------------ Pickering outages push down OPG's quarterly earnings Ottawa (Platts)--18May2007 Increased outages at the Pickering reactors pushed down Ontario Power Generation's first-quarter earnings, the utility reported May 18. OPG said net earnings in the first quarter dropped to (Cdn)$171 million from $199 million for the same period last year. Hydroelectric output also slipped, due to lower water levels in northwestern Ontario. At OPG's 10 operating reactors (units 1 and 4 at Pickering A, units 5-8 at Pickering B, and units 1-4 at Darlington), total production was down 1.1 terawatt-hours in the quarter from the 12.7 TWh in first-quarter 2006. OPG also reported higher nuclear maintenance and repair costs compared to the same period last year. ------------