Platts - Thursday, July 26, 2007 http://www.platts.com ------------ France, Libya sign MOU on nuclear cooperation London (Platts)--26Jul2007 France and Libya signed a memorandum of understanding on nuclear cooperation during the visit of French President Nicolas Sarkozy to Tripoli July 25. Sarkozy's chief of staff, Claude Geant, told journalists accompanying the president that the goal was to build a reactor for desalinization of seawater. Areva's Technicatome subsidiary, now known as Areva TA, has a design for a medium-size PWR that can be used for desalinization. The design has never been built. Areva has said no reactor would be sold to Libya without a bilateral agreement for nuclear cooperation and appropriate international agreements. The antinuclear group Sortir du Nucleaire issued a statement late July 25 asserting that the nuclear MOU was the price of the liberation July 23 of six foreign medics held prisoner in Libya for eight years. Their extradition to Bulgaria was mediated in part by Sarkozy's wife, Cecilia, and they were repatriated in a French presidential airplane. ------------ Idaho nuclear plant developer to use UniStar reactor design Washington (Platts)--25Jul2007 Alternate Energy Holdings, which wants to build a combined nuclear and biofuel power plant in Idaho, said Wednesday had signed up to use Constellation-Areva joint-venture Unistar Nuclear's US Evolutionary Power Reactor design for its proposed reactor. "We are proud to be working with AEHI as a partner in the licensing, construction, and operation of potentially the first green field US EPR advanced nuclear power plant in North America," said UniStar Nuclear co-CEO Michael Wallace. "AEHI is a leading edge company in the advancement of the renaissance of the US nuclear industry and will be a tremendous asset to the UniStar Nuclear team as we move forward," he added. ------------ Brunsbuettel to be offline for maintenance Paris (Platts)--25Jul2007 Vattenfall's Brunsbuettel BWR will be offline for at least 14 days to carry out maintenance during a current forced outage that began July 19 after discovery of some defective support anchors inside the reactor building. According to a statement from Vattenfall July 25, during the coming 14 days a defective fuel assembly will be replaced. Vattenfall said that it has detected early stages of cladding degradation in the fuel assembly. Vattenfall's other German BWR, Kruemmel, remains offline and subject to a regulatory investigation related to an electrical transient and transformer fire that occurred June 28. Brunsbuettel likewise had an electrical transient that day but was restarted shortly thereafter. ------------ Areva acknowledges "preliminary contacts" with Libya for reactor London (Platts)--25Jul2007 Areva acknowledged "preliminary contacts" with Libya for a power reactor, but denied any connection between those talks and the July 24 liberation of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who had been held in a Libyan prison for more than eight years. The medics had been sentenced to execution, later changed to life imprisonment, on what European officials saw as trumped-up charges of inoculating over 400 Libyan children with the AIDS virus. After announcement that the medics had been repatriated to Bulgaria, pardoned and freed, the French antinuclear network Sortir du Nucleaire issued a press statement denouncing what it called an "irresponsible...nuclear bargain" under which French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was instrumental in the nurses' liberation, had allegedly promised nuclear technology cooperation to Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi. An Areva spokesman said July 24 that Libya "did contact us" in 2006 about various areas including nuclear power, and that there had been "exploratory discussions" about cooperation, including in management of Libyan uranium stocks. But he said the European Commission/French mission to rescue the medics had nothing to do with that issue. Sarkozy is expected in Tripoli for a state visit July 25. ------------ Areva: Heavy forgings ordered for second US-EPR Washington (Platts)--24Jul2007 A contract for heavy forgings for a second US-EPR is in place, Areva Inc. confirmed July 24. In a prepared statement, Areva said the 45 heavy forgings ordered from Japan Steel Works will be reserved for AmerenUE, if it decides to build a new plant. AmerenUE has said it will likely need additional baseload generation around 2017 or 2018. It is looking at expanding at its Callaway station in Missouri and plans to submit a combined construction permit-operating license application to the NRC around third-quarter 2008. AmerenUE signed a contract with Areva in May for the forgings, which will be fabricated into major components for a 1,600-MW unit. The forgings are to be delivered in late 2010 and early 2011, according to information provided to NRC by UniStar Nuclear, the joint Areva-Constellation venture that is developing the US-EPR. ------------ Westinghouse, Shaw Group sign deal on four nuke plants in China Washington (Platts)--24Jul2007 Westinghouse Electric and its consortium partner The Shaw Group on Tuesday signed multi-billion-dollar contracts to provide four AP1000 nuclear power plants in China, Westinghouse said. "The definitive contracts signed today will result in the first-ever deployment of advanced US nuclear power technology in China," said Westinghouse President and CEO Steve Tritch. The contracts followed years of negotiating and bidding by Westinghouse, Shaw and government officials, Westinghouse said. Terms of the contracts were not disclosed. They are with State Nuclear Power Technology, Sanmen Nuclear Power, Shandong Nuclear Power and China National Technical Import & Export. The four plants are to be constructed in pairs at Sanmen and Haiyang sites in China. Construction is expected to begin in 2009, with the first plant becoming operational in late 2013. The remaining three plants are expected to begin operating in 2014 and 2015. ------------ Tepco requests METI delaying two nuclear maintenance in Jul-Aug Tokyo (Platts)--24Jul2007 Tokyo Electric Power Co. has requested the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry consider delaying its two scheduled maintenance programs at its Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant in northeastern Japan after the shutdown of its largest nuclear power plant July 16 following a major earthquake, a company official said Tuesday. In addition to Tepco's initial request to delay its scheduled extra safety check at the 0.78 GW No. 3 nuclear reactor from the end of July, the largest Japanese utility also asked METI consider delaying its scheduled maintenance of the 1.10 GW No.6 nuclear reactor from early August at the plant, the official said. Tepco's extra safety check at the No. 3 unit was imposed by the ministry in April following a series of undisclosed problems at various nuclear plants. The utility was also scheduled to start the maintenance program at the No.6 reactor in early August for two-to-three months, the official said. While METI has still to agree, Tepco has made clear its preference to start the maintenance programs after September amid its electricity supply concerns after it shut the 8.21 GW Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in northwestern Japan following the major earthquake, the official added. Japan's summer power demand normally peaks between July and September. Without permission to postpone, Tepco will be obliged to start the scheduled maintenance programs at the height of the season although its nuclear generation capacity has been more than halved, falling to 6.44 GW from just seven units compared with normal nuclear capacity of 17.31 GW from 17 units across Japan. The drop in nuclear power generation has forced Japan's biggest utility to boost its thermal power generation using feedstocks such as direct-burning crudes, low sulfur waxy residue, low sulfur fuel oil, LNG and coal. Tepco is in the process of calculating a definitive revised estimate of fuel demand and costs as a result of nuclear outage, which it will announce July 31 when it presents its results for the April-June period. --Takeo Kumagai, takeo_kumagai@platts.com ------------ EIB to provide loans for new nuclear plant construction London (Platts)--24Jul2007 The European Investment Bank will provide loans for new nuclear plant construction, after a review of bank lending policy, the bank said in a July 19 briefing note published on its web site July 23. Conditions for obtaining EIB loans for nuclear projects include that the project is notified to the European Commission under the Euratom Treaty and that the EC issue a favorable opinion on the project. The EIB said that issues including the future costs of radioactive waste disposal and nuclear decommissioning "will constitute an integral part of the bank's own assessment of the proposed investment." The EIB noted that a number of new nuclear plants are under consideration in various EU states, but said that only one has been formally notified to the EC and that no request for EIB funding has been made. That plant was the Belene nuclear plant in Bulgaria. ------------ EIB to provide loans for new nuclear plant construction London (Platts)--24Jul2007 The European Investment Bank will provide loans for new nuclear plant construction, after a review of bank lending policy, the bank said in a July 19 briefing note published on its web site July 23. Conditions for obtaining EIB loans for nuclear projects include that the project is notified to the European Commission under the Euratom Treaty and that the EC issue a favorable opinion on the project. The EIB said that issues including the future costs of radioactive waste disposal and nuclear decommissioning "will constitute an integral part of the bank's own assessment of the proposed investment." The EIB noted that a number of new nuclear plants are under consideration in various EU states, but said that only one has been formally notified to the EC and that no request for EIB funding has been made. That plant was the Belene nuclear plant in Bulgaria. ------------ DOE takes another step in the next generation nuclear plant London (Platts)--24Jul2007 DOE is taking another step in the next generation nuclear plant, or NGNP, project by seeking expressions of interest from industry teams willing to work on the conceptual design of the plant. The NGNP is a research and development project to construct by 2021 a prototype plant at DOE's Idaho National Laboratory that can both generate electricity and produce hydrogen. DOE said in a July 23 announcement that the expressions of interest, which are due by August 20, will build on the pre-conceptual design work developed by three separate design teams, led by Westinghouse, Areva and General Atomics under a total of $8 million awarded in September 2006. The next stage, the conceptual design work, will support the selection of design and operational requirements. DOE said the expressions of interest "will be used to identify a qualified pool of candidates to provide future engineering and design services." ------------ EIB to provide loans for new nuclear plant construction Brussels (Platts)--23Jul2007 The European Investment Bank will provide loans for new nuclear plant construction, after a review of bank lending policy, the bank said in a July 19 briefing note published on its web site July 23. Conditions for obtaining EIB loans for nuclear projects include that the project is notified to the European Commission under the Euratom Treaty and that the EC issue a favorable opinion on the project. The EIB said that issues including the future costs of radioactive waste disposal and nuclear decommissioning "will constitute an integral part of the bank's own assessment of the proposed investment." The EIB noted that a number of new nuclear plants are under consideration in various EU states, but said that only one has been formally notified to the EC and that no request for EIB funding has been made. That plant was the Belene nuclear plant in Bulgaria. ------------ Constellation and EDF partner to build new nuclear in US Washington (Platts)--20Jul2007 Constellation and Electricite de France have agreed to a 50-50 joint venture to develop, deploy, own and operate nuclear power plants in the US, the companies announced July 20. In separate press releases, Constellation Energy and EDF Group said the French company was making an initial investment of $350 million and could invest up to $275 million more, subject to certain milestones. In an interview, Michael Wallace -- Constellation's executive vice president and the president of the company's Generation Group -- said $175 million was tied to the filing of applications with the NRC for combined construction permit-operating licenses. The first filing, which will be for a possible new reactor at Calvert Cliffs, would trigger a $100 million payment, he said. Another $75 million would come with the second filing, for the Nine Mile Point site. The final $100 million would be paid when NRC issued the licenses, in 2010 or 2011, Wallace said. The Constellation-EDF alliance builds on the UniStar joint enterprise, launched by Constellation and Areva in 2005, to deploy a fleet of Areva-designed reactors in the US. ------------