Platts - Friday, April 11, 2008 http://www.platts.com ------------ NRC wants to fine FPL $130,000 for Turkey Point violations Washington (Platts)--10Apr2008 The NRC proposed a $130,000 civil penalty against Florida Power & Light for security violations involving sleeping guards at the utility's Turkey Point nuclear power plant. In a statement April 10, the NRC said the fine was being proposed because a 2006 investigation found that plant secuity officers employed by Wackenhut Nuclear Services were "willfully inattentive," or sleeping, on multiple occasions from 2004 through 2006, or acted as lookouts so other guards could sleep on duty. NRC said it concluded that the incidents were willful and caused FPL to be in violation of NRC security requirements because the officers were not capable of maintaining continuous communication with an individual in each continuously manned alarm station. In an April 9 letter to the company, NRC's Victor McCree said the agency "considers this matter to be a significant security concern." McCree is acting administrator of NRC's Region II office in Atlanta. ------------ US DOE to seek industry interest in building next generation nuke Washington (Platts)--10Apr2008 The US Department of Energy plans to issue shortly a request to industry for expressions of interest in building the Next Generation Nuclear Plant, Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy Dennis Spurgeon said Thursday. The RFI will be the next-step in developing a cost-sharing arrangement to build the reactor, Spurgeon told the House Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee. In comments to reporters during a break in the committee's hearing, he declined to estimate when the RFI would be issued, but he said it would be "very soon." Under the program, DOE is hoping to join with industry to build a demonstration high-temperature reactor at the Idaho National Laboratory that will begin operating by about 2018. The prototype plant is expected to both generate electricity and produce hydrogen. ------------ US NRC proposes FPL pay $130,000 fine for Turkey Point violations Washington (Platts)--10Apr2008 The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has proposed a $130,000 civil penalty against Florida Power & Light for security violations involving sleeping guards at the utility's Turkey Point nuclear power plant. In a statement Wednesday, the NRC said the fine was being proposed because a 2006 investigation found that security officers employed by Wackenhut Nuclear Services were "willfully inattentive" or sleeping on multiple occasions from 2004 through 2006, or acted as lookouts so other guards could sleep on duty. NRC said it concluded that the incidents were willful and caused FPL to be in violation of NRC security requirements because the officers were not capable of maintaining continuous communication with an individual in each continuously manned alarm station. In a letter to the company on Wednesday, Victor McCree, the acting administrator of NRC's Region II office in Atlanta, said the agency "considers this matter to be a significant security concern." Earlier this year, FPL agreed to pay a $208,000 fine that NRC imposed for separate security violations at Turkey Point involving Wackenhut guards, including tampering with security weapons. NRC also issued Wackenhut a confirmatory order, which spelled out corrective actions that the company agreed to take related to those incidents. NRC said it also issued a confirmatory order Wednesday to Wackenhut confirming agreements the company made to NRC in January during a mediation session. The agreed-upon actions include initiatives to ensure security guard attentiveness, NRC said. NRC has identified instances of inattentiveness by Wackenhut security guards at other nuclear power plants, including Exelon Nuclear's Peach Bottom. Wackenhut said last year that it is shifting its nuclear security business to a newly formed company, G4S Risk Management Solutions. --Tom Harrison, tom_harrison@platts.com ------------ GE-Hitachi withdraws from new Ontario reactor competition Washington (Platts)--9Apr2008 GE-Hitachi Nuclear Energy has withdrawn from the competition to construct new reactors at the Darlington or Bruce sites in Ontario, Infrastructure Canada announced April 8. Infrastructure Canada is the government procurement department managing the development of new nuclear construction in the province. The department said that the three other vendors that were invited to present proposals -- AREVA NP, Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. and Westinghouse Electric -- remain in the competition and it will be meeting with them between April 7 and 15. Formal submissions are expected from the three by May 9. According to the department, GE-Hitachi made a "business decision" to withdraw and concentrate on efforts to license its ESBWR design in the US. However, GE-Hitachi is also a member of Team Candu, the five-member partnership promoting AECL's ACR-1000 design in Canada. ------------ Georgia Power signs EPC contract for two AP1000s at Vogtle Washington (Platts)--8Apr2008 Georgia Power signed an engineering, procurement and construction, or EPC, contract for two AP1000s at the Vogtle site, the company announced April 8. The Southern Co. subsidiary said it entered into the EPC contract on behalf of the other plant co-owners -- Oglethorpe Power, Municipal Electric Authority of Georgia, and Dalton Utilities. The terms of the contract, signed with the vendor Westinghouse Electric Co. and its partner, The Shaw Group Inc.'s Power Group, were not disclosed. But Georgia Power said it expects to submit the EPC contract to the Georgia Public Service Commission on May 1. Westinghouse President/CEO Steve Tritch said the contract is the first to be announced in the US in more than 30 years. ------------ Atomic Energy drops out of UK nuclear licensing race London (Platts)--8Apr2008 Atomic Energy of Canada has announced that it has dropped out of the race to build a new nuclear plant in the UK and is instead focusing its marketing and licensing resources on the Canadian domestic market place. In a statement issued Friday, AECL, which has developed the Advanced CANDU Reactor (ACR-1000), said that it had notified the UK's Health and Safety Executive and the Environment Agency that it would suspend participation of its ACR design in step three of the UK's new build reactor generic design assessment, but may re-enter at a later date. The UK regulators had announced in March that the ACR and AECL's design program had passed the step two assessment of stringent safety, security and environmental criteria and was eligible to proceed to step three. AECL's president and CEO Hugh MacDiarmid said in a statement: "We want to dedicate our resources for the ACR to the markets in Canada. By taking this action now we are well positioned to meet our customers' expectations for product performance, as well as on time and on budget project delivery." "The nuclear renaissance has taken hold in Canada as several Canadian provinces are currently considering the ACR as the technology-of-choice for the next generation nuclear technology," he added. "We believe very strongly that our best course of action to ensure the ACR-1000 is successful in the global market place is to focus first and foremost on establishing it here at home." Atomic Energy's UK representative Keith Bradley said late Monday the company had pulled out because "the schedule for plant commitments in Canada was slipping." When asked whether EDF/RWE/Centrica's reported interest in British Energy had been a factor in the decision to withdraw, Bradley said "it wasn't a consideration at all." He added however that Areva and EDF's design bid was "now the favorite." ------------ US reactors eight or more years away from coming online: NEI CNO Washington (Platts)--8Apr2008 New nuclear power plants are more likely to come online in the US in the 2016-2017 timeframe than around 2015, a senior industry representative said Monday. Utilities have been talking about bringing reactors into service within the next seven or eight years, but Marvin Fertel, chief nuclear officer at the Nuclear Energy Institute, said he believes that projects under development are now closer to eight or nine years away from completion. Fertel told an audience at the American Bar Association's spring meeting in Washington that he hopes the nuclear industry could work on a limited number of projects, somewhere between four and eight plants, for the "first wave" of new construction. If those projects are successful, he said, the "pipeline will be pretty full" for the next round of construction around 2020. Companies have estimated the cost of building new reactors at between $12 billion and $24 billion, Fertel said. NEI believes the cost is about $7-$8 billion per reactor, he said, assuming the unit comes online in 2016-2017. Securing loan guarantees for new plant construction, particularly for projects in restructured electricity markets, or receiving fair treatment of costs by regulators in traditional rate-based markets could lower overall costs, he said. The cost alone for obtaining a combined construction permit-operating license, or COL, from the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission is between $50 million and $100 million, Fertel said. But a COL is a "bankable" asset for companies considering building new nuclear plants, he said. According to its latest projection, NRC anticipates receiving 22 applications for up to 33 units through 2010. But budget restraints might force the agency to delay reviews for six applications expected to be filed in fiscal 2009, said David Matthews, director of NRC's new reactor licensing division. --Jenny Weil, jenny_weil@platts.com ------------ NEI CNO: New reactors eight or more years away from coming online Washington (Platts)--7Apr2008 New nuclear power plants are more likely to come online in the US in the 016-2017 timeframe than around 2015, a senior industry representative said April 7. Utilities have been talking about bringing reactors into service within the next seven or eight years, but Marvin Fertel, chief nuclear officer at the Nuclear Energy Institute, said he believes that projects under development are now closer to eight or nine years away from completion. Fertel told an audience at the American Bar Association's spring meeting in Washington that he hopes the nuclear industry could work on a limited number of projects, somewhere between four and eight plants, for the "first wave" of new construction. ------------ US NRC monitoring 'unusual event' at Connecticut nuclear plant Washington (Platts)--7Apr2008 The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it is monitoring an "unusual event" declared early Sunday at the Millstone 2 nuclear power plant in Waterford, Connecticut, that led to the "likely" release of some low-level radioactive gas. The agency said an unusual event is the lowest of four levels of emergency classification it used. The NRC on Sunday said the plant's owner and operator Dominion made the declaration at 1:17 pm (EDT) after it detected an increase in unidentified leakage at the plant. Millstone 2, a pressurized-water reactor, was shut down at the time for a scheduled refueling and maintenance outage. The agency said that when "operators placed a system into service to further cool down the plant, they observed increased reactor coolant system leakage and an increasing level in an on-site water-storage tank." The agency added that the "leakage between the reactor coolant system and the storage tank was captured by the tank and therefore there was no liquid release to the environment." The leakage to the tank has since been halted, NRC said. The storage tank has a vent to the atmosphere, the NRC said, adding that "some low-level radioactive gas was likely released through the tank vent." The agency said it is independently evaluating any potential release and radiological consequence. The agency said it began formally monitoring the event at 2:30 pm Sunday. Millstone 3, an adjoining pressurized-water reactor operated by Dominion, was not affected by the event and continues to operate at 100% power. Federal and state officials have been notified regarding the event. ------------ Tri-State to seek partners for southeast Colorado nuclear plant Portland, Maine (Platts)--7Apr2008 Tri-State Generation & Transmission plans to start exploring the possibility of building a nuclear power plant in southeastern Colorado, Jim Van Someren, a spokesman for the wholesale cooperative, said Monday. The board of the Westminster, Colorado-based cooperative last week told its staff to "seriously pursue potential partnerships" for a nuclear plant, Van Someren said. The decision to consider nuclear is based partly on strong opposition the co-op has encountered to plans to build coal-fired capacity, he said. Tri-State is developing two 700-MW coal-fired units with Sunflower Electric. However, Kansas regulators denied an air permit for the proposed units in Holcomb, Kansas, in October. Tri-State and Sunflower Electric are trying to reverse the decision in court and in the Kansas legislature. The decision on building a nuclear plant will in part depend whether the proposed Kansas units get built, Van Someren said. Tri-State has the rights to land and water near Holly, Colorado, where it had planned on building a roughly 600-MW plant to come online around 2020. That site could host a nuclear plant, Van Someren said. Tri-State does not have a timetable for making a decision on building a nuclear plant, he added. ------------ Canada's Atomic Energy drops out of UK nuclear licensing race London (Platts)--7Apr2008 Atomic Energy of Canada has announced that it has dropped out of the race to build a new nuclear plant in the UK and is instead focusing its marketing and licensing resources on the Canadian domestic marketplace. In a statement issued Friday, AECL, which has developed the Advanced CANDU Reactor (ACR-1000), said that it had notified the UK's Health and Safety Executive and the Environment Agency that it will suspend participation of its ACR design in step three of the UK's new build reactor generic design assessment, but may re-enter at a later date. The UK regulators had announced in March that the ACR and AECL's design program had passed the step two assessment of stringent safety, security and environmental criteria and was eligible to proceed to step three. AECL's president and CEO Hugh MacDiarmid said in a statement: "We want to dedicate our resources for the ACR to the markets in Canada. By taking this action now we are well positioned to meet our customers' expectations for product performance, as well as on time and on budget project delivery." "The nuclear renaissance has taken hold in Canada as several Canadian provinces are currently considering the ACR as the technology-of-choice for the next generation nuclear technology," he added. "We believe very strongly that our best course of action to ensure the ACR-1000 is successful in the global market place is to focus first and foremost on establishing it here at home." ------------ UK nuclear decommissioning funding is 'unsustainable': MPs London (Platts)--7Apr2008 The UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority's current funding model is "unsustainable," according to a report published Monday by a cross-party committee of members of parliament. "Public funding for the NDA will almost certainly have to increase significantly in the coming years over and above current plans," the House of Commons Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Committee said. The committee scrutinizes the work of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. BERR already spends over 40% of its departmental expenditure limit on the NDA, according to the report, but this seems not to be enough. The MPs say that they are skeptical about how "watertight" the funding for the NDA is given the "volatile and declining" nature of its commercial income. "Nuclear decommissioning is too important to be left to the mercy of changing priorities in the Treasury and uncertain commercial income... a new system of funding is needed, and work on this needs to begin urgently," the MPs said. The NDA is funded by a combination of commercial income and grant-in-aid. For 2007/08 its budget is set at GBP2.79 billion. Of this, GBP1.42 billion was intended to be ring-fenced grant-in-aid and GBP1.37 billion commercial income, chiefly from reprocessing but also including income from waste substitution. ------------ AECL withdraws from design assessment process Washington (Platts)--4Apr2008 Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. has pulled its ACR-1000 reactor out of the UK's competition to concentrate on the major new nuclear construction opportunities in Canada, AECL said in a press statement April 4. AECL said it has "deferred further participation" of its ACR-1000 design in the UK's current 3.5-year generic design assessment, or GDA, process, in which it has already completed the initial six-month phase. The UK's nuclear regulators reported March 18 that they had found "no fundamental design aspects or shortfalls" in terms of safety, security or the environment that would prevent the ACR-1000, or designs from three other vendors, from being constructed on UK-licensed sites. AECL said that it will wait for the UK regulators' future "second wave" of reactors to go through the GDA process before it resubmits the ACR-1000. AECL said it was focusing on potential opportunities in Alberta, Ontario and New Brunswick. ------------ US-Russian nuclear cooperation pact won't be signed at Sochi Washington (Platts)--4Apr2008 A US-Russian agreement for civil nuclear cooperation won't be signed during a meeting between US President Bush and Russia's President Putin this weekend, but representatives of the two countries are likely to sign it in the next month or so, according to current and former US government officials. The two leaders may issue a statement referring to the pact, one of the sources said. Bush and Putin are scheduled to meet in the Russian city of Sochi and discuss a range of issues. There had been some speculation that the two leaders would oversee the signing of the nuclear accord during what is expected to be their last meeting before stepping down from their respective presidencies. The text of the agreement was initialed in summer 2007, but the Bush administration only recently launched the interagency process that is required by US law before such nuclear agreements can be signed and then submitted to Congress for review. The interagency process has not been completed, the current and former officials said. Sources have said in the past that the administration held back because of differences with Russia over policy toward Iran. Also cited were concerns about a potential negative congressional reception because of the Putin government's domestic policies and its differences with the US on a number of international issues, including Iran. US law requires the country to have such bilateral cooperation agreements in place before it engages in major nuclear trade with other countries. One result of having such an agreement with Russia is that Washington and Moscow would be able to expand certain parts of their cooperation under the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership, a Bush administration initiative to develop new kinds of fast-neutron reactors and spent-fuel reprocessing plants. The agreement also would open the door for Russia to expand its nuclear cooperation with other countries. --Daniel Horner, daniel_horner@platts.com ------------