Platts - Friday, November 16, 2007 http://www.platts.com ------------ Dec.'08 targeted for state approval for new Calvert Cliffs unit Washington (Platts)--15Nov2007 Unistar Nuclear Energy is seeking approval from Maryland regulators by December 2008 to move ahead with plans to potentially construct a third unit at the Calvert Cliffs site in southern Maryland. UNE, a Constellation Energy-Electricite de France Group joint venture, said November 15 that it had submitted an application for a "certificate of public convenience and necessity" to the Maryland Public Service Commission. A certificate must be issued for construction of new generating stations or transmission lines of a certain capacity in the state. Michael Wallace, executive vice president of Constellation Energy and chairman of UNE, said in a statement that the final decision on whether to build will be made at a later date, after the project's economics and risks are better defined. Other factors that will be considered, he said, include state and local policies impacting the tax treatment of the plant and the availability and credit subsidy cost of federal loan guarantees. ------------ Lithuania aims to sign Ignalina pact before Christmas Stockholm (Platts)--14Nov2007 Lithuania hopes to sign an agreement on partnership in a new Ignalina plant before Christmas, the Baltic country's president, Valdas Adamkus, said at a press conference in Stockholm November 14. Negotiations among Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Poland have been stalled over ownership percentages in the plant and signing ceremonies have been twice postponed. Adamkus said "we are ironing out the issues," and added that he is confident the project will proceed. ------------ Senator Domenici calls for near-term nuclear reprocessing in US Washington (Platts)--14Nov2007 The US needs to build a current-generation nuclear reprocessing plant to handle spent fuel because the Department of Energy's current plan is "a 50-year program, and we can't wait 50 years for what we need," Senator Pete Domenici said Wednesday. Domenici, the top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, made the comment at a hearing of the panel on DOE's Global Nuclear Energy Partnership. GNEP "will take way too long" and has elements that are too controversial, Domenici, who represents New Mexico, said. The US needs to move ahead with reprocessing because the proposed Yucca Mountain spent fuel repository in Nevada has "less and less credibility," he said. But Peter Orszag, the director of the Congressional Budget Office, said at the hearing that reprocessing is more expensive than direct disposal of spent fuel "across a wide range of plausible assumptions." --Daniel Horner, daniel_horner@platts.com ------------ Uranium players see spot prices moving more gradually upward London (Platts)--14Nov2007 Uranium players expect the upward movement of the commodity's spot price to be more gradual over the next few months after strong gains this past summer, according to observers. TradeTech earlier this month kept its spot price at $93/lb U3O8. The price-reporting company said that while some sellers continued to raise their offer prices, other sellers "seized the opportunity to place material and generate revenue" before the end of 2007. Ux Consulting, in a report released late November 12, raised its price $2/lb, to $92/lb, from the price it published a week earlier. A number of utilities have apparently backed away from concluding deals after the price moved from $75/lb in October to over $90/lb, market sources said. Texas- based Mestena Uranium apparently concluded a deal after getting bids November 6 in its auction of 100,000 lb U3O8. It appears, though, that the winning bid did not accelerate the upward movement of the price the way the company's auctions did earlier in the year. Those earlier Mestena auctions could move the spot price by $10/lb or more. The Platts NuclearFuel range for the week is $93-$100/lb U3O8. ------------ Italy becomes 17th member of GNEP Washington (Platts)--13Nov2007 Italy became the 17th member of the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, the US DOE announced November 13. In addition to signing the GNEP statement of principles, Italian Minister of Economic Development Pier Luigi Bersani signed a broad bilateral agreement with US Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman on cooperation in energy research and development, DOE said. Bodman was in Rome to deliver remarks at the World Energy Congress Ministerial Forum. GNEP is a US-led initiative to promote the global use of nuclear power and develop new types of reprocessing plants and fast reactors. ------------ EC backs most of the EP's proposed changes to the ESA London (Platts)--13Nov2007 Most of the European Parliament's proposed changes to the Euratom Supply Agency are supported by the European Commission, said EC Vice President Franco Frattini. During a debate in the EP November 12, Frattini said the EC would support most of the changes - contained in new statutes for the agency -- "during final discussions with the [EU] Council." The council has the final say. The EP has called for the ESA to produce analyses and studies on the nuclear fuel market more frequently than annually, as is the current practice, and would create a "bureau" within the ESA's advisory committee to shepherd such efforts. The EP will vote on new statutes November 13. Only Green Party members of parliament spoke against the new statutes during the EP debate November 12. The EC had previously expressed a reservation against giving the advisory committee a say in who is appointed director general of the ESA. ------------ GE's ESBWR receives 'ecomagination' certification Washington (Platts)--12Nov2007 General Electric's ESBWR has been certified as the company's 52nd "ecomagination" product, GE Co. Chairman/CEO Jeffrey Immelt said November 12. He told attendees at the joint American Nuclear Society/European Nuclear Society International Meeting in Washington, DC that the reactor technology joins a broad portfolio of products and services deemed to be ecologically and economically sound, including wind, solar, coal gasification technologies. "We think nuclear fits into our ecomagination strategy," Immelt said. Each of the "green" technologies was analyzed for its environmental and technical benefits by GreenOrder, an environmental consulting firm based in New York City that specializes in sustainable business practices. GE established ecomagination in 2005 as an investment initiative in cleaner energy technologies. The ESBWR is the first nuclear product to be included in the portfolio, and certification had been in the works for two years, a company spokesman said. ------------ Exelon Nuclear to use GE Hitachi reactor if it is to build nuke Washington (Platts)--12Nov2007 Exelon Nuclear on Monday said it will use GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy's new generation of reactor technology if it decides to build a new nuclear plant in Texas. The GE Hitachi reactor, called the Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor, operates by relying more on natural forces -- such as gravity and convection -- to operate passive safety systems rather than the large numbers of active pumps and valves used in existing technology. Exelon Nuclear, a unit of Chicago-based Exelon Corp., said it is considering locations in Matagorda and Victoria counties in Texas as potential reactor sites. The company said that while the selection of a technology does not mean it intends to build a nuclear power plant, it is a necessary step in preparing a combined construction and operating license application for the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The GE Hitachi system is one of the two technologies sponsored by NuStart and the US Department of Energy's Nuclear Power 2010 Program. "After months of rigorous investigation, we selected GEH's ESBWR because the design is complementary to Exelon's mission of providing the highest standards of safety and environmental accountability," Tom O'Neill, Exelon Nuclear's vice president of new plant development, said in a statement. "When we looked at the choices for reactor technology, we had two priorities: safety and minimizing our environmental footprint. The ESBWR meets those criteria, plus GEH has a proven track record of designing reliable plants," O'Neill said. Exelon Nuclear said it expects to submit the combined construction and operating license application, known as a COL, to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission in November 2008. The company said that, even with a license, it would not commit to build a new plant before it could satisfy a series of conditions, including a solution to used-fuel disposal and community acceptance. ------------