Platts - Thursday, August 09, 2007 http://www.platts.com ------------ Cernavoda-2 generates first electricity Washington (Platts)--8Aug2007 Cernavoda-2 generated its first electricity August 7, Romanian national utility Nuclearelectrica said. The 700-MW pressurized heavy water reactor, built by a consortium of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. and Italy's Ansaldo, has been under active construction since 2003. It went critical in May, and is slated to complete precommercial testing and enter commercial service by October. The Cernavoda site was planned for five PHWRs but construction was interrupted by the fall of the Ceausescu regime in 1989, and until now, only unit 1 was completed, in 1996. The utility says the two units will produce up to 18% of the country's power. On August 6, Nuclearelectrica issued a tender for investors to join in construction of Cernavoda-3 and -4, which is intended to draw offers from major vendors. ------------ Accord Alliance gives design support on how to retrieve,treat ILW London (Platts)--8Aug2007 The Accord Alliance is providing design support on how to retrieve and treat intermediate level waste (ILW) from a 1950s storage facility at the UK's Sellafield reprocessing complex, the Accord Alliance said in an August 2 press release. The ILW storage facility forms part of the historic "ponds and silos" area of Sellafield. ILW was taken to a "transfer tunnel" at the top of the building and tipped through "chargeholes" into one of six separate compartments up until 1965. In 2002, the facility was inerted with argon gas to help ensure safety. The recently formed Accord Alliance is led by Amec plc, though for the just-won design support project, International Nuclear Solutions is filling the lead role, supported by Amec and by DGP International, which is now part of the Scott Wilson Group. The contract is of short duration but "is important because it allows the Accord Alliance to position itself in readiness for the actual decommissioning phase," said Amec project manager Alan Williams. ------------ NRC site visits available for new reactor applicants Washington (Platts)--7Aug2007 Some of the 250 slots that NRC staff set aside for site visits are still available to companies that decide to participate in pre-application reviews for potential new power reactors, said Jim Lyons, director of NRC's siting and environmental review division. Lyons said August 7 that the staff had established "pre-application opportunities" to help better focus the content for potential combined construction permit-operating license applications. Lyons said that four teams are available to make two site visits per week through January 2009. Speaking at a technical session at the American Nuclear Society's utility working conference in Amelia Island, Florida, Lyons cautioned that applicants who engage the NRC staff early on environmental or site-related work should not consider the discussions to be a collaborative effort. "It's not an inspection," he said, "but it's also not a consulting visit." ------------ GAO says DOE quality assurance improved at Yucca Mountain Washington (Platts)--6Aug2007 DOE has improved the quality assurance program at its Yucca Mountain repository site in Nevada, but it's too early to tell whether the department will produce a high-quality repository license application, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released August 6. The finding is more positive than reports GAO issued last year and in 2004. GAO said in its 2004 report that the program still had "lingering problems" and "continuing management weaknesses." However, in the latest report, the federal auditors said that DOE has made progress in implementing recommendations and resolving some problems identified in GAO's March 2006 report. A high-quality license application is crucial to NRC's ability to reach a licensing decision on DOE's license application within the three- to four-year period required by law, GAO said. If licensed by NRC, Yucca Mountain would be used to dispose of utility spent nuclear fuel and defense high-level radioactive waste and would be required to meet federal regulations for one million years. ------------ US GAO unsure Yucca Mountain improvements enough for application Washington (Platts)--6Aug2007 The US Department of Energy has improved the quality assurance program at its Yucca Mountain repository site in Nevada, but it's too early to tell whether the turnaround is robust enough to produce a high-quality repository license application, the Government Accountability Office said Monday. The finding is more positive than one GAO issued three years ago, when it said the program still has "lingering problems with data, models and software, and continuing management weaknesses." Federal auditors expressed similar concerns in a 2006 report. In the report released Monday, however, federal auditors said DOE has made progress in implementing recommendations in GAO's March 2006 report and in resolving some problems that GAO had identified. A high-quality license application is crucial to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's ability to reach a decision on a DOE licensing application within the three- to four-year period that the law requires, GAO said. "Specifically, NRC has stated that a high-quality license application would be complete, technically adequate, transparent--clearly justifying and explaining any underlying assumptions and conclusions--and traceable to original source materials," the report said. If NRC grants the license, Yucca Mountain--roughly 100 miles outside Las Vegas--would be used to dispose of utility spent nuclear fuel and defense high-level radioactive waste and would be required to meet federal regulations for 1 million years. --Elaine Hiruo, elaine_hiruo@platts.com ------------ Nukem, CF Industries considering new uranium recovery facility London (Platts)--6Aug2007 Nukem and CF Industries Holding are trying to determine if there is enough interest in their potential U3O8 supply contracts to warrant constructing a uranium recovery facility at a CF Industries phosphate complex in Florida. The two companies are currently seeking long-term supply contracts from US nuclear utilities for a total of roughly 900,000 pounds U3O8 a year, they said in a joint press statement July 30. Brian Frame, Nukem director of special projects, declined to give specifics on the reception the companies were receiving from utilities. Nukem and CF Industries have been surveying the utility market for two to three months, he said in an interview, adding that it "looks pretty good." Nukem is one of the five top providers of uranium to nuclear power plants worldwide and is one of the major suppliers to the uranium spot market. CF Industries, a major producer and distributor of nitrogen and phosphate fertilizer, also has experience in uranium recovery operations. The company recovered roughly 1.2 million lbs U3O8 from the phosphate ore it mined in central Florida in the mid-1980s, said Charles Nekvasil, CF Industries director of public and investor relations. But when uranium prices plummeted, so did the company's interest in uranium recovery, according to Nekvasil. The U308 facility was shut down and decommissioned. With the spot U3O8 price now over $100/lb, CF Industries is hoping to get back into the uranium market. The company now mines roughly 3.5 million tons of phosphate rock a year and has enough reserves to last 15 to 20 years, Nekvasil said. A feasibility study showed there is uranium in that rock, Frame said. If enough supply contracts can be obtained to "support the project economics," the companies plan to obtain project financing and permits and proceed with work on detailed engineering on the uranium recovery facility planned for a CF Industries site in Plant City, Florida, the companies said in their joint statement. Asked whether the falling spot market price for U3O8 was making it difficult to find utilities willing to make long-term supply commitments now, Frame said only that he thought "utilities are interested in getting long-term supply." The companies said that if they decide to undertake the project, production of U3O8 could begin within three to four years. ------------ "Some" of Belgium's nuclear plants may escape nuclear phase-out London (Platts)--6Aug2007 "Some" of Belgium's nuclear plants may escape the country's nuclear phase-out law, according to an agreement reached between the ruling Christian Democratic and Liberal parties forming a new government coalition in Belgium. The statement by the "formation group" issued August 2 does not specify how many or which reactors. A Christian Democrat spokeswoman, Miet Deckers, said August 3 that reports that as many as five of Belgium's seven reactors may be exempted from the phase-out law's 40-year limitation are only speculation. Deckers is a spokesman for Yves Leterme, leader of the Christian Democrats and widely expected to be the new prime minister. She acknowledged that some party members are saying only Doel-1 and -2 will be forced to close, but she emphasized that the parties have reach no agreement on such details. Doel-1 and -2 reach 40 years' operation in 2015. The joint statement by the formation group is seen as the first move toward negotiation between the new government and Suez-Electrabel over reversing the nuclear phase-out law in exchange for investment from the nuclear operators in alternative energy projects, such as renewables and carbon sequestration, one Belgian nuclear industry source said August 3. The official August 2 statement cites security of supply, CO2 emission worries and the prospects of using low-cost nuclear energy to fund renewables, as the reason for the decision. ------------ US-India bilateral cooperation agreement posted Aug 3 London (Platts)--6Aug2007 The US-India bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement was posted August 3 on the Department of State web site (www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2007/aug/90050.htm). In an August 2 interview with the Council on Foreign Relations, Nicholas Burns, the chief US negotiator for the agreement, said claims that the US would be obligated under the agreement to help India obtain nuclear fuel even if India conducts another nuclear test are "absolutely false." Burns, under secretary of state for political affairs, said that the president's "right to ask for the return of the nuclear fuel or nuclear technologies that have been transferred by American firms" if India tests again is "preserved wholly in the agreement." Also, the agreement "allows" India "to put 14 of its 22 power reactors under safeguards," as well as "all future breeder reactors," Burns said. He added that he thinks that within 25 years, 90% to 95% of India's entire nuclear establishment "will be fully safeguarded." The interview is at www.cfr.org/publication/13975/capital_interview.html?breadcrumb=%2Fissue%2F. ------------ NRC sends special inspection team to Brunswick Washington (Platts)--3Aug2007 NRC has sent a special inspection team to Brunswick to assess the July 26 failure of a valve in the cooling water system for one of the redundant loops of the unit 1 residual heat removal, or RHR, system, the agency said in an August 3 statement. On July 26, two RHR service water pumps tripped on low suction pressure and plant operator Progress Energy declared that loop of the system inoperable, NRC said. Plant employees repaired the valve, and that loop of the RHR system was declared operable again, NRC said. There was no threat to public health and safety at any time, NRC said. The two-person NRC inspection team arrived at the site August 2 and is reviewing the company's response to earlier information NRC issued on the valves. It is also assessing the plant staff's corrective actions on the valves and is identifying any generic issues for Brunswick or other nuclear plants, the agency said. The special inspection is expected to take about a week, NRC said. NRC issued an information notice in August 2005 to tell licensees about degradation of butterfly valves, the same type that failed at Brunswick. ------------ Lower availability of nuke units due to "maintenance programs" London (Platts)--3Aug2007 Lower availability of nuclear units due to "major maintenance programs" reduced the volume of Electricite de France's first-half 2007 electricity sales in France, which represents 54% of the EDF Group's sales, the company said August 2. Nevertheless, first-half 2007 domestic sales grew by 0.3% to 16.5 billion euros (US $22.6 billion) thanks to "a positive price effect" on one-year forward wholesale market sales contracted in 2006 and a tariff hike in August 2006, it said. Worldwide sales in first-half 2007 stood at Eur 30.3 billion, 0.2% below those of the same period in 2006. But correcting the group's scope for its sale of the Brazilian company Light in the second half of last year, sales in first-half 2007 grew by 2.2%. EDF's results outside France showed sharp contrasts, with strong growth in Germany and central Europe and much lower sales in Italy. EDF explained the slow growth in France and Italy by "mild weather conditions which weighed particularly on sales volumes." ------------ USEC to start operating lead cascade in "coming weeks" Washington (Platts)--2Aug2007 USEC expects to begin operating its lead cascade "in the coming weeks" with "fewer than 20" prototype centrifuge machines, the company said August 1. The lead cascade will test the design of centrifuges that are to be used in the commercial American Centrifuge Plant, a uranium enrichment facility USEC is building at its Portsmouth site in Ohio. USEC said it plans to finalize the design of the AC100, the first series of plant production centrifuges, in 2008. Some observers August 2 questioned whether the limited number of centrifuges in the lead cascade and the relatively short testing time would give investors enough confidence to put money into the commercial plant. But USEC said in its press release that the initial cascade was "intentionally limited to fewer than 20 machines." That arrangement will demonstrate the design's reliability while reducing costs, USEC said. The press release was issued late August 1 in conjunction with USEC's second-quarter earnings release. ------------