Platts - Thursday, September 06, 2007 http://www.platts.com ------------ French nuclear vendor Areva says UK nuclear relaunch 'essential' London (Platts)--6Sep2007 French nuclear vendor Areva NP says that the revival of a nuclear power program in the UK is "absolutely essential." CEO Luc Oursel, speaking at a conference in London Thursday, said that the UK would be the first in Europe to relaunch on a large scale a nuclear power effort. Therefore, he said, it has to be successful. Success in the UK could lead other European countries planning to exit nuclear power to reconsider their plans. Also significant is that the UK is one of the most competitive markets in Europe, so a successful relaunch here would demonstrate that nuclear power is competitive with other energy sources. ------------ DOE picks Savannah River for plutonium consolidation Washington (Platts)--5Sep2007 The Savannah River Site is where DOE will consolidate its non-pit plutonium, the department said September 5. In a press statement, DOE said most of the material collected at the South Carolina site would come from the Hanford Site in Washington state, with the rest coming from two national laboratories, Lawrence Livermore in California and Los Alamos in New Mexico. During a conference call with reporters, DOE Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management James Rispoli declined to give specifics on the amounts of plutonium involved. He said there was a "suite of reasons" for consolidating the material, which comes from sources other than nuclear weapons triggers, or pits. The move will reduce security and environmental risks, as well as costs to the individual sites for storing plutonium, he said. The shipments are to begin "no sooner than 30 days" from September 5 and end by 2010, DOE said. ------------ German deputy faction leader calls for nuclear lifetime extension London (Platts)--5Sep2007 A lifetime extension of Germany's 17 remaining nuclear power plants is essential, the deputy head of the ruling CDU/CSU faction in parliament, Katherina Reiche, said Wednesday. And she warned that plant safety issues should not be misused for ideological reasons Germany's previous government passed a nuclear phase-out law in 2002, forbidding the construction of new nuclear plants and limiting existing ones to an average life-span of 32 years, based on remaining allocated capacity. To date, two German nuclear power plants have been permanently closed under this law. Biblis A (1,225 MW), Biblis B (1,300 MW), Neckarwestheim I (840 MW) and Brunsbuttel (806 MW) are expected to close by 2009 should they continue to be used at full capacity. "Without longer lifespans for our nuclear power plants, Germany is unlikely to achieve its ambitious climate protection goals and a phase-out reduces our security of supply," Reiche said in a statement and added: "Nuclear energy is an important transition [technology] until renewable energies are economically available in sufficient volumes." Reiche also said nuclear safety should not be used as a tool for "ideological warfare" and that "we cannot lead a serious dialog with blunt accusations and through scaremongering." The CDU/CSU under chancellor Angela Merkel is currently the leading coalition party together with the anti-nuclear SPD, and the conservatives are--for the time being--keeping to the nuclear phase-out plans. Merkel said during Germany's energy summit in Berlin on July 3 that an exit from Germany's nuclear-phase-out plan "is not going to happen" as it is part of the coalition treaty with the CDU's junior governing party SPD. However, Merkel's words and the fact that most senior party members publicly advocate a lifetime extension for nuclear power plants in Germany, are widely interpreted as a signal towards a new nuclear policy should the CDU/CSU win the country's next general election--scheduled for 2009--with enough votes to rule alone or, more likely, together with the pro-nuclear FDP, the CDU's traditional coalition partner. ------------ Areva, MHI begin marketing new PWR venture Paris (Platts)--4Sep2007 Areva and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries began to market their 1,100-class PWR, Atmea 1, Areva's CEO Anne Lauvergeon said at a September 3 press conference in Paris called to unveil the product and Atmea, a 50/50 joint venture that Areva and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries plan to establish by next month. Atmea 1 is a three-loop PWR of evolutionary design capable of net outputs between 1,000 and 1,150 MW. It is destined for markets where the companies' 1,600- to 1,700-MW-class PWRs, EPR and APWR, are too big for the grid, said Lauvergeon and MHI President Kazuo Tsukuda. Areva NP's Stefan vom Scheidt, 54, will be the joint venture's CEO; MHI's Makoto Kanda, 47, will be his deputy, and Atmea will have a staff of about 20 at the outset. ------------ Uranium spot price falls to $85/pound on US DOE auction results Washington (Platts)--4Sep2007 The spot market price of uranium continued its downward plunge to $85 a pound U3O8, price reporting company TradeTech said in its latest market review. TradeTech's price at the end of July was $123/lb. The decline was due primarily to reports of various winning bids in a recent auction of eight lots of uranium by the US Department of Energy. It its believed that one winning bid -- by US utility Exelon for a small lot of some 20,000 lb U3O8 equivalent -- went for a price that analysts evaluated as being around $60/pound. DOE, which has declined to release the details of its auction, said on its web site that it expects to release information by September 28 identifying winning bidders, the amount of uranium purchased and the average price paid. TradeTech said it believes the largest DOE lot -- about 260,000 pounds of U3O8 equivalent -- went for an evaluated price just below $85/pound. But the company said that by the end of August, the price may have rebounded slightly with one deal reported involving 150,000 lb U3O8 at a price "very near" $85/lb. --Mike Knapik, newsdesk@platts.com ------------ US Nuclear Regulatory Commission member McGaffigan dies at 58 Washington (Platts)--4Sep2007 Edward McGaffigan, the longest serving member of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and a staunch defender of the agency's independence from commercial nuclear industry interests, died Sunday after an eight-year battle with cancer. The 58-year-old commissioner worked through bouts of illness and side effects from his chemotherapy and other treatments. McGaffigan never downplayed the seriousness of his illness, but he also preferred to keep it in the background to his contributions at the agency. He was known to have an encyclopedic memory of the agency's regulations, and his technical grasp of issues was considered unsurpassed by any other commissioner. He also was known for his outspokenness, giving voice to what others in the agency often thought, but were hesitant to speak. He was cheered by NRC staffers for taking on other federal agencies when regulatory differences arose, such as the long-running dispute with the Environmental Protection Agency over groundwater protection cleanup standards. He returned verbal jabs at advocacy groups that took shots at NRC and engaged in blunt exchanges with individuals who challenged the NRC's arm's-length stance from the industry it regulated. McGaffigan did not hide his distain for groups who called NRC "rubberstamp" for industry proposals. He is the only NRC commissioner ever to have been appointed to a third term. He was appointed to his first two terms by President Clinton in 1996 and 2000, and for his third term in 2005 by President Bush. He had a 103-day break between his second and third terms while awaiting Senate approval of his nomination. McGaffigan earned a physics degree summa cum laude from Harvard in 1970, a master's degree in physics from the California Institute of Technology in 1974, and a master's degree in public policy from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government in 1976. He was the first member of his family to attend college. He began his career at the Rand Corp. in 1974 and then became involved in strategic arms control issues at the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency in 1975. He joined the Foreign Service in 1976 and went on to serve as a senior policy analyst and then assistant director in White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He worked for 13 years for New Mexico Senator Jeff Bingaman before becoming an NRC commissioner. --Jenny Weil, jenny_weil@platts.com ------------ Areva's ownership structure debated in France Paris (Platts)--31Aug2007 Areva's ownership structure is being debated in France, following a statement August 30 by French President Nicolas Sarkozy that France's nuclear enterprises must be "given the resources to develop." On August 31, Areva CEO Anne Lauvergeon said that "Areva's development needs major resources, [and] a change in capital [equity structure] appears the best solution." She added, during a conference call with journalists and analysts, that Areva's future is up to the government, its majority shareholder. On the same day, the financial daily Les Echos published a confidential note to the government from Alain Bugat, head of the Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique, which owns almost 80% of Areva stock. The note outlined possible scenarios for the nuclear group's future ownership. The first scenario sees continuation as a "stand-alone" group, with Siemens being obliged to swap its 34% of Areva NP for 8% of the parent company Areva. The second sees Bouygues taking a 34% stake in Areva NP and several important energy companies -- including Siemens, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and Electricite de France -- taking shares in the parent company; the state would remain majority owner. The third scenario sees merger of Areva with Alstom, with the state retaining majority interest only in "strategic" activities (fuel cycle, mainly). In that case, Siemens would have to sell out, and would be replaced by MHI, according to Bugat's scenarios. Areva and Siemens have a "put and call" arrangement governing Siemens' divestiture of its 34% stake in Areva NP. That Siemens put is valued on Areva's books at 1.117 billion euros, unchanged since last year. ------------ Bruce-4 fuel channels to be replaced Ontario (Platts)--30Aug2007 All 480 fuel channels in Bruce-4 will be replaced, which will expand the scope of refurbishment plans for the unit, Bruce Power said August 29. The fuel channel replacement will extend the unit's operational life until 2036, the company said. Without the new fuel channels, unit 4 was expected to run only until 2017. The expansion will increase the overall refurbishment cost of the four Bruce A reactors by (Cdn)$1 billion, bringing the total to $5.25 billion, Bruce Power said. The company said it expects to complete work on units 3 and 4 by 2013. Work to restart Bruce-1 and -2 is continuing, it said. ------------