Platts - Friday, November 02, 2007 http://www.platts.com ------------ Sweden's governement requests catalogue of radioactive material London (Platts)--2Nov2007 Sweden's government has asked nuclear authorities to catalogue radioactive material in the country, it said in a statement November 1, including "material which could be suitable for reprocessing abroad." The government said it also wants the Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate and the Swedish Radiation Protection Authority to provide a list of radioactive material which cannot be handled through the country's program for nuclear waste and spent fuel and outline what will be done instead. The government recently came under strong criticism for sending research reactor fuel to Sellafield for reprocessing, and promised that no other reprocessing would be done. The agencies' report is scheduled to be delivered by January 1. ------------ NRC to increase oversight at Farley-2 Washington (Platts)--1Nov2007 NRC issued a yellow finding at Farley related to failures of residual heat removal system containment sump suction valves at unit 2 during surveillance testing in April 2006 and January 2007. The NRC said November 1 that the yellow finding, which means the issue has substantial safety significance, will result in additional NRC inspections and potentially other agency actions. NRC said its inspection in May found that Southern Nuclear Operating Co. failed to promptly identify and correct the failures. The finding moves Farley-2 into the degraded cornerstone column of the action matrix in NRC's reactor oversight process, resulting in more NRC scrutiny. There are 10 other reactors in that column. In a statement, NRC Region II Administrator William Travers said he wanted to reassure Alabama residents near Farley that the plant continues to operate safely. ------------ NRC to conduct special inspection at Arkansas Nuclear One Washington (Platts)--31Oct2007 NRC will conduct a special inspection at Arkansas Nuclear One in response to a fire that led to a declaration of an alert at the two-unit Entergy plant on October 23, NRC's Region IV office said October 31. An alert is the second lowest of NRC?s four categories of emergency classification. A two-person team "will review the circumstances related to electrical breaker problems that affected a piece of safety equipment," as well as "a similar electrical fire in October 2006 that also led to an alert," it said. The inspectors "will evaluate the licensee's response to both events, the cause of the problems and corrective actions," the agency said. The inspection will begin November 1 and take "several days," and a report will be filed about 30-45 days after the inspection is completed, NRC said. ------------ Tepco to up LNG purchase by 1 mil mt to 20 mil mt in 2007-08 Tokyo (Platts)--31Oct2007 Tokyo Electric Power Co. will increase its LNG procurement by 1 million mt to 20 million mt for the fiscal year 2007-2008, after it revised its fuel requirements following a July 16 earthquake that forced it to shut its largest nuclear power plant, Tokyo Electric Power president Tsunehisa Katsumata said Wednesday. He also said Tepco would procure little more than 10 million kiloliters (62.90 million barrels) for the 2007-08 fiscal year (April-March), slightly revising the earlier estimate. Katsumata's statement came as Tepco reviewed its estimates for additional fuel as its nuclear power generation capacity has more than halved, falling to 6.44 gigawatt from just seven units compared with normal nuclear generation capacity of 17.31 GW from 17 units across Japan, after it shut the 8.21 GW Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in northwestern Japan. The drop in its nuclear power generation had forced Tepco, Japan's biggest power 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. In July, Katsumata had said the company expected to double its oil procurement to about 10 million kiloliters for the 2007-08 fiscal year (April-March). He had also said LNG procurement would likely increase by 1 million mt to 19 million mt over the same period. ------------ TVA submits new Bellefonte nuke operating license request to NRC Washington (Platts)--30Oct2007 The Tennessee Valley Authority said Tuesday it submitted an application to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a combined construction permit-operating license for two potential new reactors at the federal utility's Bellefonte site in Alabama. TVA said the application was developed by the NuStart Energy consortium, of which TVA is a member. NRC's review of the license application for two Westinghouse AP1000 reactors is expected to take about four years, TVA said. TVA said its board of directors would decide later whether to actually build new reactors at the site. TVA said obtaining the license would give it more certainty about the cost and schedule of new nuclear generation for future decisions. ------------ Aggressive buying pushes spot uranium price to $84-$85/pound U3O8 Washington (Platts)--30Oct2007 More aggressive buyers are accelerating the current rise of the spot uranium price, according to price-reporting companies TradeTech and Ux Consulting. TradeTech late Friday said the spot price had jumped to $84 a pound U3O8, from $80 the previous week. Ux Consulting late Monday put the price at $85/pound, up $5 over the prior week. TradeTech said "renewed buying interest on the part of speculators and hedge funds is contributing to the upward price pressure." Ux Consulting suggested that the spot price "is not likely to rest" at the $85 level, "as the more aggressive buyers have already moved their bids to $85/lb in an attempt to secure supply." Given the continued upward pressure on the price, there now is a greater likelihood that the year will end with the price in triple digits, said one analyst. The Platts NuclearFuel range for the current week is $80-$86/lb U3O8. --Mike Knapik, newsdek@platts.com ------------ TVA submits COL application for two reactors at Bellefonte Washington (Platts)--30Oct2007 The Tennessee Valley Authority submitted an application to NRC October 30 for a combined construction-operating license, or COL, for two new reactors at its Bellefonte site in Alabama. TVA said the application was developed by the NuStart Energy consortium, of which TVA is a member. NRC's review of the license application for two Westinghouse AP1000 reactors is expected to take about four years, TVA said. TVA said its board of directors would decide later whether to actually build new reactors at the site. TVA said obtaining the license would give it more certainty about the cost and schedule of new nuclear generation for future decisions. ------------ OMZ to double production of large, super large forginfs at Izhora London (Platts)--30Oct2007 OMZ will double production of large and super large forgings at its Izhora Production Complex and produce other nuclear-related equipment for at least three or more reactors/year by 2011, the Russian heavy industry enterprise said in an October 29 press statement. OMZ, otherwise known as the Uralmash-Izhora Group, said its board of directors approved the conceptual plan October 24. The detailed implementation plan to radically modernize the production site is scheduled for completion by June 2008, it said. OMZ said the modernization should increase efficiency and enhance OMZ's competitiveness. The plans include updating existing equipment and constructing "new advanced technology facilities." OMZ specializes in engineering, production, sales and maintenance of equipment for the oil, gas, petrochemicals and mining sectors as well as the nuclear industry. It produces various special steels and owns Czech Republic subsidiaries Pilsen Steel and Skoda JS. Gazprombank CJSC is OMZ's strategic financial partner. ------------ NuStart and TVA expected to seek new nuclear plant license Washington (Platts)--29Oct2007 NuStart and Tennessee Valley Authority called a Capitol Hill briefing for October 30 and are expected to announce the timing of their joint application for an NRC combined construction permit-operating license for a new reactor at TVA's Bellefonte site, near Scottsboro, Alabama. NuStart Energy and TVA said they would be joined in the US Capitol by US Senator Pete Domenici, a New Mexico Republican and senior minority member of the Senate energy committee, and Deputy Secretary of Energy Clay Sell. The NuStart-TVA application, which has been expected this month, will propose building up to two Westinghouse AP1000s on the Bellefonte site. That design is to produce about 1,100 MW net. TVA began building two 1,200-MW reactors of a Babcock & Wilcox design at the site in the early 1980s but stopped in 1985 and scrapped the project in 1994, citing falling power demand. TVA has begun a project to complete another unfinished reactor, a 1,200-MW Westinghouse design at Watts Bar-2, a five-year project, and does not plan to build at Bellefonte unless new capacity is needed to meet demand. The license being requested from NRC is good for 15 years and the NuStart partners will share with TVA the costs of the application, which are estimated to run between $30 million and $50 million. Members of the NuStart consortium include Constellation Energy, Duke Energy, EDF International North America, Entergy Nuclear, Exelon and FPLGroup. ------------ Japanese court dismisses lawsuit over Hamaoka Paris (Platts)--26Oct2007 A Japanese court refused to order Hamaoka shut indefinitely and dismissed a lawsuit claiming the site's five BWRs are inadequately protected against earthquakes, participants in the case said. According to these sources, Hamaoka owner Chubu Electric Power Co. convinced the District Court of Shizuoka that the plant conforms to current Japanese government guidelines, regulations, and standards concerning seismic safety. In their verdict issued October 26, judges rejected the argument of local plaintiffs who asserted that a major earthquake in July which caused some damage to the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear station, had underscored that Hamaoka could suffer a more severe earthquake than anticipated by Japanese guidelines. Japanese seismic standards were recently revised and their sufficiency is now under examination for each site by utilities and regulators, a review accelerated after the July quake. The judges ruled that their court could not pre-empt the ongoing nationwide seismic examination. ------------ UK nuclear regulator NII remains chronically understaffed London (Platts)--26Oct2007 UK nuclear regulator NII remains chronically understaffed, with only 164 inspectors, according to the Nuclear Installations Inspectorate's umbrella organization, the Health and Safety Executive, October 25. According to recent comments from NII chief inspector Mike Weightman, NII needs 192 inspectors for work currently planned over the next few years, plus up to 40 more in late 2008/early 2009 for the final phases of new reactor design assessments, should the UK government permit new nuclear construction. An HSE spokesman said talks are ongoing with the Treasury on better compensation packages to boost inspector numbers. He said NII now has "12 nuclear specialists of inspector grade" in the new division carrying out the fundamental safety overview of the ACR 1000, the EPR, the GE ESBWR and the AP1000, to identify any fundamental issues that could prevent the eventual UK licensing of any of the four designs. ------------ Energoatom signs nuclear safety agreement with SKI Washington (Platts)--25Oct2007 Ukrainian nuclear operator Energoatom has signed an agreement on nuclear safety improvement with the Swedish Nuclear Power Inspectorate, or SKI, Energoatom management said in a statement October 25. SKI will help to develop a periodic safety review program for Energoatom's reactors, beginning with a pilot project at the South Ukraine plant. ------------