Platts - Friday, October 05, 2007 http://www.platts.com ------------ Pickering-4 returns from outage Toronto (Platts)--4Oct2007 Pickering-4 was at about 50% power the afternoon of October 4 after returning to service that morning, said Ontario Power Generation spokesman John Earl. The unit is expected to ramp up to 100% power over the next few days, he said. Both Pickering-4 and -1 have been offline since early June because of a problem with the availability of backup power to the two reactors. OPG has strengthened an inter-station transfer bus from the Pickering B station (units 5-8) to provide a secure, reliable backup power system for units 1 and 4, Earl said. OPG will be designing some more permanent changes to the backup power system, but that work won?t require that the units be shut down, he said. Earl said Pickering-1 will be returned to service soon, but declined to give specifics, citing commercial reasons. Pickering-1 and -4 are the only operating units at the Pickering A station. ------------ Exelon, Entergy sign "non-binding letter of intent" London (Platts)--4Oct2007 Exelon and Entergy have signed a "non-binding letter of intent to contract for uranium enrichment services" from GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy, GEH said October 3. The utilities "also may provide GEH with facility licensing and public acceptance support needed for development of a commercial-scale, [Global Laser Enrichment, or GLE] production facility," which would have a "target capacity" of between 3.5 and 6 million separative work units, or SWU, GEH said. The company said it has begun preparing a GLE test loop at Global Nuclear Fuel's Wilmington, North Carolina fuel fabrication facility. GNF is a partnership of GE, Toshiba, and Hitachi. GE signed an agreement in May 2006 with Australia's Silex Systems Ltd., allowing GE to develop the laser enrichment process in the US. "Before moving ahead with full-scale production plans, GEH will first evaluate results of the testing, select a location for the proposed facility, and obtain an NRC license to build and operate the commercial plant," with a projected start-up date of 2012, GEH said. ------------ EDF could build new UK nuclear plant by 2017 London (Platts)--4Oct2007 A new nuclear power station could be up and running by 2017, EDF Energy's chief executive said Wednesday. Speaking at the Institute for Economic Affairs 8th annual conference, EDF Energy CEO Vincent de Rivaz said that if planning rules were eased a new nuclear plant could be producing power within ten years. "We are confident a first nuclear plant can be operational in the UK by the end of 2017," he said. "This question is not about technical constraints. It is about whether the UK's planning system is fit for this 21st Century challenge. At present, it is not." De Rivaz noted that the UK Government?s Planning White Paper will address some issues of concern--namely providing a clear framework of National Policy Statements on projects of national significance; ensuring strict timescales for each stage of the planning process and; merging the various consents required for an energy infrastructure project into a single consent application. De Rivaz also outlined his views on the concerns raised at the recent government consultation day on nuclear new build, saying the government must take long term responsibility for ensuring nuclear waste is stored and disposed of safely. "But we--the investors operating new nuclear plants--must take responsibility for paying for this. The incremental cost of handling future waste from new nuclear plants will not be borne by the taxpayer--it will be paid by the private companies that produce it. We are working with the government now to help them (sic) establish a robust mechanism which will ensure the taxpayer does not pay the costs of dealing with future waste from new nuclear build." He also said that long-term carbon price signal was essential for financing new build and stressed that new nuclear power would not stop investment in renewable energy but could slow down the rush to build more gas-fired power stations. Some 20 GW of gas-fired power plant is being planned according to the latest tracker in Platts Power UK, published September. "If nuclear can pre-empt some investment in gas, the UK will benefit from greater diversity, greater security and--above all--lower carbon emissions," de Rivaz said In response to the UK government's public consultations in September, de Rivaz said there was still unease that "the private sector could put profits before safety." GREENPEACE URGES ACTION AGAINST NUCLEAR But environmental groups continue to oppose nuclear power and were not swayed by the government's consultation. Environmental campaign group Greenpeace launched a campaign Wednesday urging the public to write to their local MPs and say that they "want a cleaner, cheaper, more efficient energy system than nuclear power." In a statement on its website, Greenpeace said: "To stop climate change, we need to stop burning fossil fuels. The government says we need nuclear power to do this, but their numbers don't add up. We say there's a more convenient solution, which can do far more to reduce our emissions than nuclear power--for less money and in the same time frame. The solution is a mix of renewables, efficiency and combined heat and power." Greenpeace wants 10,000 people to write letters, expressing this sentiment, to their MPs before the nuclear consultation closes on October 10. For simliar news, request a free trial to Power UK at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/index.xml?src=story or subscribe now at http://www.platts.com/infostore/product_info.php?cPath=2_31&products_id=57 ------------ EC to study nuclear liability coverage for states Brussels (Platts)--3Oct2007 The European Commission will study how to harmonize nuclear liability coverage across member states, EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said October 3. Speaking at the meeting of the International Nuclear Law Association conference in Brussels, Piebalgs said the European Commission intends to ask an ad hoc group to assess by the end of the year the diverse nuclear liability regimes governing European Union states and recommend ways to harmonize coverage. Different EU states belong to the Paris or Vienna liability conventions, or to neither. "We don't know the solution, but we know there is a problem," Piebalgs told Platts. ------------ NEK extends bid deadline for Belene `strategic investor' Paris (Platts)--2Oct2007 Bulgaria's National Electric Company, or NEK, extended the deadline for bids for a "strategic investor" in the Belene nuclear power plant project until October 15, NEK said October 1, the original deadline. Six bidders willing to take 49% of the project were shortlisted for the "strategic investor" role in July: CEZ, E.On, RWE, Electrabel, Electricite de France and Enel. Atel, EGL, Endesa and Bulgaria's Kumerio Med were willing to take only up to 25% of the project but could be included if the shortlisted bidders fail to reach an agreement on investment, according to NEK. ------------ NEK extends bid deadline for Belene `strategic investor' Paris (Platts)--2Oct2007 Bulgaria's National Electric Company, or NEK, extended the deadline for bids for a "strategic investor" in the Belene nuclear power plant project until October 15, NEK said October 1, the original deadline. Six bidders willing to take 49% of the project were shortlisted for the "strategic investor" role in July: CEZ, E.On, RWE, Electrabel, Electricite de France and Enel. Atel, EGL, Endesa and Bulgaria's Kumerio Med were willing to take only up to 25% of the project but could be included if the shortlisted bidders fail to reach an agreement on investment, according to NEK. ------------ US DOE turns down $9.5 billion offer to clean uranium facilities Washington (Platts)--2Oct2007 The US Department of Energy has rejected an Energy Solutions and USEC proposal for a $9.5 billion sole-source contract to decontaminate and decommission DOE's Portsmouth, Ohio, and Paducah, Kentucky, uranium enrichment plants, two lawmakers said Tuesday. The proposal also called for Energy Solutions to acquire USEC and invest in a $2 billion uranium enrichment plant at the Paducah site. "I commend the DOE general counsel and his legal staff for scrubbing and ultimately rejecting a proposal which is so plainly at odds with the public interest," House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell said in a statement with Representative Bart Stupak, chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee. Earlier this year, Dingell and Stupak -- both Michigan Democrats -- challenged the proposal, saying DOE should obtain the D&D work through an open solicitation for contract proposals. Dingell and Stupak also questioned whether the arrangement would constitute an indirect subsidy to Energy Solutions to finance its acquisition of USEC's stock. Energy Solutions is a Salt Lake City-based nuclear services company, while USEC, a uranium services company, is based in Bethesda, Maryland. "After 10 months of review, DOE agreed with our concerns that this sole-source contracting proposal was not in the taxpayer's best interest," Stupak said. "However, it is imperative, as a next step, that [Energy] Secretary [Samuel] Bodman protect taxpayer interests by soliciting bids from a wide array of qualified firms using full and open competition while ensuring that qualified workers at these sites are provided a seamless transition to decommissioning work." --Bill Loveless, bill_loveless@platts.com This is an excerpt. For more news, request a free trial to Platts Inside Energy at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/index.xml?src=story or subscribe now at http://www.platts.com/infostore/product_info.php?cPath=23_33&products_id=61 ------------ Uranium spot price falls $10 to $75/pound; analysts see bottom Washington (Platts)--2Oct2007 The spot price of uranium dropped $10 over the last week to $75/pound U3O8, according to both TradeTech and Ux Consulting. Some analysts believe the market may have now reached a bottom and that the spot price will now head back up as more buyers begin looking for material. But Ux Consulting said late Monday that if the long-term U3O8 price starts to weaken (it has stayed at $95/lb for a number of months), then it is likely that the spot price will fall further. If the long-term price doesn't decline, then more spot demand is likely as buyers look to buy and hold uranium, Ux Consulting said. The $10 decline over the week was the result of a September 24 auction of 100 metric tons uranium as either U3O8 or UF6 (about 260,000 pounds of U3O8 equivalent) by Nukem. Nukem is believed to have sold slightly more material to three companies, one of which is Uranium Participation Corp., a Canadian company that has been investing in uranium for the past several years, sources said. The US Department of Energy on Friday announced the results of its mid-August auction of 200 mt of UF6 (about 520,000 pounds of U3O8 equivalent). DOE said it sold the uranium in eight lots at an average price of $213.48/kgU. The successful buyers were Florida Power and Light, FPL Energy Seabrook, Exelon Generation, Progress Energy, and Piney Branch Park of New York, an investment company. The Platts NuclearFuel range for the week was $70-$80/pound U3O8. --Mike Knapik, newsdesk@platts.com For more news, request a free trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/index.xml?src=story or subscribe now at http://www.platts.com/infostore/product_info.php?cPath=22_41&products_id=67 ------------ WENRA to start working on new national requirements for reactors london (Platts)--2Oct2007 WENRA will soon start work on harmonizing national requirements for new reactors Andre-Claude Lacoste, chairman of France's Nuclear Safety Authority, said October 1. Speaking to the biennial meeting of the International Nuclear Law Association in Brussels, Lacoste said he expects the Western European Nuclear Regulators Association to launch the new "harmonization" work at its next meeting, this fall. Wenra's members are senior regulators from the 15 nuclear power countries in the European Union, plus Italy and Switzerland. In January, Wenra published final "safety reference levels" -- the group's term for requirements -- covering existing reactors, and working groups are currently working on harmonized requirements covering decommissioning and waste management. But up to now, the group has not tackled requirements for new reactors. Lacoste also said he thinks Wenra's technical work should be given "political coverage" by the EU's planned High-Level Group, or HLG, on nuclear safety, whose first meeting is scheduled October 12. One Brussels source said Lacoste could be chosen to chair the HLG, but there are other candidates. Lacoste was the first president of Wenra, from 1999 to 2003. The current president is Dana Drabova, head of the Czech Office of Nuclear Safety. ------------ Wepco, FPL Energy close on sale of Point Beach Washington (Platts)--1Oct2007 Wisconsin Electric Power Co. and FPL Energy closed on the sale of Point Beach, Wepco announced October 1. The sale closing and the transfer of the licenses of the station's two PWRs, which had been operated for Wepco by Nuclear Management Co., took place late September 28, said Barry McNulty, a spokesman for Wepco parent Wisconsin Energy Corp. The final sale price was $924 million, Wepco said. That is a drop from the $998 million price the two companies announced when they agreed on the deal in December. A large part of the difference was that the Internal Revenue Service allowed Wepco to keep more of the plant decommissioning funds -- those determined, under an NRC formula, to be in excess of the amount needed for actual decommissioning -- than had been expected, McNulty said. The amount FPL was asked to pay was reduced accordingly, he said. The excess decommissioning funds will be disbursed to ratepayers, he said. Overall, the final agreement returns about $57 million more to ratepayers than did the December version, with most of that amount coming from the extra decommissioning funds, he said. ------------ Bush backs nuclear power expansion to reduce emissions Washington (Platts)--28Sep2007 Expanding the use of nuclear power would further reduce greenhouse gas emissions, President George W. Bush said September 28 in a talk at a US-led climate change summit in Washington. Bush has frequently endorsed nuclear energy as a way to meet growing energy demands and cut the US' reliance on foreign oil. Nuclear also can "generate massive amounts of electricity" without any emissions, he said in urging the technology be made more widely available, particularly in developing countries. Bush's remarks were intended to motivate the 18 countries in attendance to set a long-term greenhouse gas target that can be the basis of an international agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. ------------ Japan's Kansai Electric to idle 1.18 GW nuclear unit for 3 months Tokyo (Platts)--28Sep2007 Japan's Kansai Electric plans to idle the 1.175 GW No.2 reactor at its Ooi nuclear power plant in western Japan on September 30 for a three-month scheduled maintenance, the company said Friday. As a result, Kansai Electric will have eight nuclear units operating with a combined capacity of 7.267 GW, representing 74.4% of its total capacity of 9.768 GW across 11 units. News of nuclear power plant outages in Japan are closely watched as they can lead to increased demand for power generation feedstocks such as fuel oil, crude and LNG. For more news, request a free trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/index.xml?story or subscribe now at http://www.platts.com/infostore/product_info.php?cPath=22_41&products_id=67 ------------ LEU exports to the US should not be subject to US import duties London (Platts)--28Sep2007 Exports of LEU to the US should not be covered under a Commerce Department- imposed restriction on Russian "uranium products" sent to the US, the Court of International Trade said September 26. In its opinion, the CIT -- a US court based in New York -- cited a series of cases involving LEU exports to the US by French enricher Eurodif. According to the decisions in those cases, enrichment is a service, rather than a good, and therefore not subject to the relevant US import duties. The US government, joined by USEC, had initially argued that those decisions did not apply to the restriction on Russian material. But, as the court decision put it, the government now "does not oppose a remand" -- a directive to Commerce to rewrite the restriction -- to exclude LEU from the scope of its review. In issuing its remand for "re-determination," the CIT said the government's acknowledgment was "well-founded, because Commerce must abide by the Eurodif decisions." For more news, request a free trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/index.xml?story or subscribe now at http://www.platts.com/infostore/product_info.php?cPath=22_41&products_id=67 ------------ TVA board OKs plan to submit Bellefonte nuke application Washington (Platts)--27Sep2007 The Tennessee Valley Authority's board of directors on Thursday approved a plan to allow the federal utility to submit a combined construction permit-operating license application to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission for two reactors at TVA's unfinished Bellefonte project in Alabama. TVA is a member of the NuStart consortium, which comprises 10 electric companies and two reactor vendors, that is developing the COL application for Bellefonte. The application is scheduled to be submitted to NRC this fall, with a license decision expected in 2011, TVA's Ashok Bhatnagar said at the board meeting. If a license is granted, TVA has several options, including doing nothing, he said. However, TVA could also decide to construct the units, either alone or with other companies, or it could sell the license, said Bhatnagar, TVA's senior vice president of nuclear generation development and construction. If TVA does pursue building units or selling the license, it would have to repay the consortium members for what they had invested, he said. The license is expected to cost about $50 million, but the consortium members' expenses will be shared 50-50 with the Department of Energy under a program aimed at demonstrating that NRC's new plant licensing process works. --Tom Harrison, tom_harrison@platts.com For more news, request a free trial to Platts Nucleonics Week at http://www.platts.com/Request%20More%20Information/index.xml?src=story or subscribe now at http://www.platts.com/infostore/product_info.php?cPath=22_41&products_id=67 ------------ Utility awarded $116.5 million in spent fuel case Washington (Platts)--27Sep2007 A Minnesota utility has been awarded roughly $116.5 million in damages for costs it incurred after DOE failed to begin disposing of utility spent nuclear fuel by a 1998 contract date. Northern States Power Co., now Xcel Energy, had sought roughly $172.2 million from the federal government for costs associated with storing spent fuel at its two Prairie Island reactors and its Monticello unit from January 31, 1998 through December 31, 2004. The award the US Court of Federal Claims issued September 26 includes the full amount the utility spent -- $24.7 million -- on the development and licensing of the Private Fuel Storage away-from-reactor spent fuel storage facility in Utah, as well as the $23.1 million it spent to develop biomass energy production. The Minnesota legislature had required Northern States Power to develop and construct alternative energy generation in exchange for authorization for additional spent fuel storage casks. The court, however, excluded the $54.5 million the utility had sought as the cost of capital and its $280,000 request for security upgrades. Justice Department officials weren't available at press time to comment on whether the federal government would appeal the decision. ------------