Platts - Thursday, September 20, 2007 http://www.platts.com ------------ Baltics to plug nuclear loss with fossil fuels after 2010: Etso Brussels (Platts)--20Sep2007 The Baltic countries are still facing a power generation squeeze in 2010, according to an update to the European Transmission System Operators' 2008- 2015 generation adequacy report Thursday. Etso notes that the planned decommissioning of Lithuania's 1.3-GW Ignalina-2 nuclear plant in 2009 would leave Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania with generation capacity margins below Etso's recommended levels for system stability in 2010. But the planned expansion of fossil fuel generation in all Baltic countries from 2010-2015 would bring them back above the recommended levels, said Etso. Etso published its first annual generation adequacy report in 2005 for 2007-2015, based on data and forecasts from grid associations UCTE (mainland Europe), Nordel (Nordic countries), ATSOI (Ireland) and UKTSOA (UK). Data from the Baltic TSOs was included in 2006 for the 2008-2015 report, and this latest update is based on the Baltic TSOs' August 2007 Baltic Grid 2025 study, said Etso. Etso is a trade association for Europe's power TSOs. ------------ Constellation to seek Nine Mile Point-2 uprate Washington (Platts)--19Sep2007 Constellation Energy will request a power uprate for Nine Mile Point-2 in an application it plans to submit to NRC in 2008, Constellation Energy spokeswoman Maria Hudson said September 19. Nine Mile Point-2 is a 1,205-MW BWR. The uprate could add as much as 158 MW to the unit, said GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy. The company said in a September 19 statement that it has been awarded a $50 million contract by Constellation to provide equipment and services in support of the uprate. Under the contract, GE-Hitachi said it will perform engineering evaluations and help prepare the uprate request submittal. Completion of the uprate is targeted for 2012, GE-Hitachi said. Hudson said "many modifications" needed for the uprate will be performed during the unit's spring 2010 refueling outage. ------------ High nuclear plant capital costs may discourage new plant builds London (Platts)--19Sep2007 High nuclear plant capital costs may discourage even developed countries from building new plants, the head of the China Atomic Energy Authority, Sun Qin, told an IAEA-organized meeting in Vienna September 18. Sun said that based on China's experience, a 1,000-MW "Generation II" nuclear power unit -- of the type China has built at Daya Bay and Ling Ao -- has a total capital cost of $1.5 billion to $2 billion, or $1,500 to $2,000 per installed kilowatt. "The figures are even higher for Generation III" plants that were the subject of a bid won by Westinghouse early this year, he said. He said CAEA believes that "the cost of a nuclear power plant should be about $1,500/kW" and the cost of power should be 5 US cents per kWh. He said that once a plant is operating, the power is competitive, but "we must resolve the problem of initial investment." The Chinese government has used a variety of tax breaks, preferential credits and other incentives to encourage nuclear power plant construction, he told the IAEA's Scientific Forum in Vienna. ------------ Wisconsin PSC OKs $998-mil Point Beach nuclear plant sale to FPL Portland, Maine (Platts)--18Sep2007 The Wisconsin Public Service Commission on Tuesday approved the sale of Wisconsin Energy's 1,036-MW Point Beach nuclear power plant to FPL Energy for nearly $1 billion. Wisconsin Energy's We Energies subsidiary will receive about $998 million for the plant. Not counting fuel, inventory and other items, Juno Beach, Florida-based FPL is paying $783 million, or $758/kW, for the plant. The US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission have approved the sale. The Michigan PSC must still vote on the transaction. We Energies expects the deal to close by the end of September. PSC Chairman Dan Ebert said the sale price compared favorably to other recent nuclear power plant sales. It made sense for the Milwaukee utility to sell its plant in Two Creeks, Wisconsin, in part because the nuclear generating business is consolidating, Ebert said. We Energies launched a bidding process for the plant in mid-2006 to see if it made sense to sell it. The utility will buy the plant's output under a power purchase agreement with FPL. A key area of discussion among the three-member PSC was how potential "green" credits would be handled by the plant's owner. If federal regulators decide to regulate carbon emissions from power plants, credits from the nuclear plant may become valuable. Under the proposed deal, We Energies would get all the "green" credits for the first seven years that FPL owns the plant and then the credits would be split between FPL and the utility. FPL plans to increase the plant's capacity by 134 MW and the PSC voted to give the parties the option of giving We Energies all the green credits for the plant's current capacity, but splitting credits connected to any capacity increase. The parties can also adopt their proposed plan, but they must return to the commission within six years to show that a 50/50 split of credits after seven years makes sense. If the commission found a split did not make sense, all the credits would go to the utility. ------------ Exelon investigating 'assertion' of lax security at Peach Botton Washington (Platts)--18Sep2007 Exelon Nuclear on Tuesday said it is investigating "an assertion" that one or more station security officers at its Peach Bottom nuclear plant in Pennsylvania were "inattentive to duties." The company would not say who made the allegation. Wackenhut, which provides security services to Exelon Nuclear, is "participating in the inquiry," Exelon Nuclear said. "We are investigating this fully," and "if we learn that there was inappropriate behavior, we will ensure the necessary corrective actions are taken," Ron DeGregorio, senior vice president for mid-Atlantic operations at Exelon, said in a statement. --Steven Dolley, steven_dolley@platts.com ------------ Worker seriously injured in fall from turbine platform Stockholm (Platts)--18Sep2007 A worker who fell eight meters from the Olkiluoto-3 turbine platform at the plant construction site September 17 is in serious condition, site manager Hannu-Heikki Manninen, said in a interview September 18. Teollisuuden Voima Oy, police and occupational safety authorities are investigating the accident. The cause has not yet been determined. The worker, who is English, was either cleaning the platform or removing concreting forms when he fell to the ground. Manninen said more information should become available after investigators talk with the worker's supervisor who saw the accident happen. The 1,600-MW EPR is being delivered to TVO under a turnkey contract with Areva and Siemens. ------------ Sixteen countries sign on to the founding principles of GNEP London (Platts)--18Sep2007 Sixteen countries signed on to the founding principles of the US-inspired Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, or GNEP, in Vienna September 16. They included the five original GNEP partners -- the US, France, Russia, Japan and China -- and 11 new members. The GNEP principles are meant to help expand use of nuclear energy, ensure reliable fuel supply and foster reprocessing and recycle with new technologies to minimize proliferation risks. Whereas the US originally saw GNEP as requiring non-fuel-cycle states to renounce enrichment and reprocessing, this week's statement sets no such prerequisite. US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, host of the GNEP Ministerial Conference, emphasized the "positive story" of GNEP at a press conference after the signing ceremony. The countries also agreed to a governance structure whereby decisions will be made by consensus. The new members are Australia, Bulgaria, Ghana, Hungary, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Ukraine. ------------ Vietnam's Dalat research reactor converts from HEU to LEU fuel London (Platts)--18Sep2007 Vietnam's Dalat research reactor has converted from HEU to LEU fuel, the US DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration announced September 17. Also, NNSA said, 10 pounds of fresh high-enriched uranium fuel was shipped from the reactor to Russia, which originally supplied the material. Russia will downblend the material into low-enriched uranium, DOE said. In its statement, NNSA said it is also providing physical protection upgrades at Dalat and other Vietnamese facilities with radiological sources. The conversion and fuel return are part of ongoing DOE efforts, in conjunction with other countries and the IAEA, to phase out the use of HEU in research reactors. ------------ FP&L seeks PSC approval for uprating Florida reactors Washington (Platts)--17Sep2007 Florida Power & Light Co. is seeking state regulators' approval for uprating St. Lucie-1 and -2 and Turkey Point-3 and -4 by 100 MW each. FP&L said it filed a determination of need petition September 17 with the Florida Public Service Commission. FP&L plans to perform the uprate work during scheduled refueling outages in 2011 for Turkey Point-4 and St. Lucie-1 and in 2012 for Turkey Point-3 and St. Lucie-2. St. Lucie-1 is rated at 872 MW, and unit 2 at 882 MW; Turkey Point-3 and -4 are each rated at 760 MW. FP&L outlined the proposal for the uprates -- and for potentially two more reactors at Turkey Point -- during a PSC workshop last month. ------------ FP&L seeks PSC approval for uprating Florida reactors Washington (Platts)--17Sep2007 Florida Power & Light Co. is seeking state regulators' approval for uprating St. Lucie-1 and -2 and Turkey Point-3 and -4 by 100 MW each. FP&L said it filed a determination of need petition September 17 with the Florida Public Service Commission. FP&L plans to perform the uprate work during scheduled refueling outages in 2011 for Turkey Point-4 and St. Lucie-1 and in 2012 for Turkey Point-3 and St. Lucie-2. St. Lucie-1 is rated at 872 MW, and unit 2 at 882 MW; Turkey Point-3 and -4 are each rated at 760 MW. FP&L outlined the proposal for the uprates -- and for potentially two more reactors at Turkey Point -- during a PSC workshop last month. ------------ Major Chernobyl contracts to be signed September 17 London (Platts)--17Sep2007 Major Chernobyl contracts will be signed September 17 at the Ukranian president's office, not at the plant site as had been planned, the European Bank for Reconstruction & Development said September 14. The contracts are with the Novarka consortium (Vinci, Bouygues and associated companies) to build a "New Safe Confinement" over Chernobyl-4's existing "shelter," and with Holtec International to supply an interim spent fuel storage facility. The Ukrainian ministry responsible for Chernobyl had invited journalists to the Chernobyl site to witness the signing ceremony, but at the last minute President Viktor Yushchenko "changed the venue" to his office, according to a knowledgeable source. Yushchenko and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, who has authority over the ministry, will square off in national elections scheduled in two weeks, and the source said Yushchenko wanted to "be in the limelight" for the signature of the two major, long-awaited contracts for the Chernobyl work. The contracts are financed by international donors and managed by the EBRD's Nuclear Safety Department. ------------ Vermont Yankee repairs complete, to reach 100% Saturday: Entergy Washington (Platts)--14Sep2007 Repairs to a cooling tower at the 632-MW Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant have been completed and Entergy will begin increasing its power output late Friday, company spokesman Larry Smith said. The company expects the unit to return to 100% power sometime on Saturday, he said. Since the August 21 structural failure of one of 11 cells in the cooling tower, plant operators have had to continually adjust the power output of the plant, operating it at about 45% to 60% of capacity. Smith said the section of the tower that failed was caused by damaged timbers, which provide support for the structure. He said the problem is not safety-related, but that the company has been keeping the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission informed of its investigation and repairs. ------------ NRC issues annual security inspection report Washington (Platts)--14Sep2007 NRC conducted 298 security inspections at power reactors in 2006, the agency said September 14. Twenty-one of these were force-on-force inspections, pitting plant security against mock adversary forces, NRC said in its annual report to congress on security inspections. These reviews resulted in 73 inspection findings, details of which are "considered sensitive and not released to the public," NRC said. Sixty-seven findings were of "very low security significance" and six were of "low to moderate security significance," NRC said. "Any potentially significant deficiencies in the protective strategy of a plant are promptly fixed or compensatory measures put in place," the agency said. The report is online (http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/sr1885). ------------ Paris "will do everything" to keep Germany generating nuke power London (Platts)--14Sep2007 Paris "will do everything" to keep Germany generating nuclear power and Siemens as an Areva shareholder, a French financial analyst concluded in a study released September 13. Patrice Lambert de Diesbach, of CM-CIC Securities, argued that the French government needs Germany to keep operating nuclear power plants, and not phase them out, because France wants lower electricity prices on the main European deregulated market. He said Paris wants to preserve a place for Siemens in the "new" Areva, now being studied by a government-appointed committee, in order to support German nuclear power. Siemens and Alstom could co-exist within Areva if they concluded a "non-aggression pact" to share world markets for their competing products in rail transport and power engineering, he said. A partial privatization of Areva involving Alstom, Bouygues and Electricite de France would be favorable to the stock prices of all but Areva, whose stock price would likely lose value, he added. German nuclear utilities like E.On, RWE and EnBW would also gain value, Lambert predicted, since extension of reactor lifetimes would delay the need to dip into their large decommissioning funds. He changed his rating of Areva from "accumulate" to "keep," reflecting lower anticipated gains, but still predicted Areva's share price would rise from Eur 702.01 (US$974.69) (September 12 close) to Eur 796.10. ------------ Congress could "deny, delay or condition" US-India cooperation London (Platts)--14Sep2007 Congress could "deny, delay or condition" the US-India nuclear cooperation agreement if President George W. Bush's administration does not give lawmakers good answers to outstanding questions on the pact, Representative Edward Markey said September 13. As a precedent, the Massachusetts Democrat cited the US-China nuclear agreement, which Congress modified by adding nonproliferation conditions. Congress could use "similar mechanisms" for the India agreement, Markey said in remarks at a luncheon hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. The China agreement was negotiated by Ronald Reagan's administration and reviewed by Congress in the mid-1980s, but, because of the congressional conditions, the pact was not fully implemented until years later. Markey also appealed to members of the 45-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group to press for stronger nonproliferation provisions. NSG export guidelines currently prohibit major nuclear trade with countries such as India that do not accept IAEA safeguards on all their nuclear facilities. The NSG is to meet to consider making an exception to those guidelines for India, before Congress votes on the bilateral agreement. Markey told the audience, which was largely made up of diplomats from NSG countries, that the NSG has an "enormous opportunity and responsibility" to ask questions about the deal and seek changes in it. ------------ Tepco to restart mothballed gas-fired unit at Goi plant in H2 Dec Tokyo (Platts)--14Sep2007 Tokyo Electric Power Co plans to restart a mothballed 265 megawatt No.4 gas-fired generation unit at its Goi thermal power plant in eastern Japan in the second half of December, in order to meet winter power demand, Tepco's president Tsunehisa Katsumata said Friday. The restart of the mothballed unit is part of Tepco's plan to make up for the shortfall in its nuclear power generation, Katsumata told reporters. Japan's winter power demand season typically runs from December through March. Japan's largest power utility was forced to review its thermal power generation plans after an earthquake on July 16 shut the 8.21 GW Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in northwestern Japan. Tepco's nuclear power generation capacity has been more than halved from its normal 17.31 GW from 17 units across the country. Tepco's six mothballed oil and gas thermal power generation units have a combined capacity of 1.84 GW. Five of the six are at the Yokosuka and Goi thermal plants. The Yokosuka plant has four mothballed oil-fired thermal power generation units with a capacity of 350 MW each, while the Goi plant has the 265 MW gas-fired generation unit, which was last started up in December 2006. Tepco can also produce 175 MW of power from the mothballed 350 MW oil-fired unit at the Kashima Kyodo thermal power plant, which is equally owned by Tepco and Sumitomo Metal Industries. It remained unclear which other mothballed units would be restarted and when. ------------ Atlantic Group awarded services contract for Cooper Washington (Platts)--13Sep2007 The Nebraska Public Power District's board of directors has approved awarding a Cooper refueling outage and maintenance support services contract to the Atlantic Group for a base amount of $16 million, NPPD said September 13. At its September 12-13 meeting, the board also approved a contract awarded to Carolina Energy Solutions Inc., valued at roughly $2.1 million, for welding and rigging services for the feedwater heaters at Cooper. The board also approved one capital project, involving a $200,000 purchase of a spare turbine generator moisture separator valve for Cooper. ------------