Platts - Friday, April 18, 2008 http://www.platts.com ------------ FirstEnergy's Perry plant is ramped up to full power, US NRC says Washington (Platts)--18Apr2008 FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co.'s 1,231-MW Perry plant in Ohio is operating at 100% capacity, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Friday in its reactor status report. The 1,231-MW plant near Cleveland was at 82% capacity on Thursday. It has been exiting a maintenance outage this week and was up to 91% capacity early Tuesday. It was shut down for the maintenance outage April 3 and was at 68% capacity on Monday. ------------ DOE seeks public, industry input on next-generation nuclear plant Washington (Platts)--17Apr2008 The US Department of Energy on Thursday said it is seeking input from industry groups and interested parties on a prototype, low-emission nuclear plant at its Idaho National Laboratory. DOE issued a Request for Information and Expressions of Interest for a next-generation nuclear plant that aims to use high-temperature, gas-reactor technology to produce less greenhouse gas emissions than other reactors. The DOE wants information on research, development and operation of the plant and the structure of the public-private, cost-share agreements. Dennis Spurgeon, DOE's assistant secretary for nuclear energy, said the call for input will help the agency finalize design plans for the plant as well as the estimated cost and schedule for its construction and operation. Expressions of interest are due June 10. DOE said it would use the responses to develop a final strategy by this fall and to complete the design and construction of a plant prototype by 2021. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 called on DOE to build the plant at the Idaho National Laboratory. The plant was to include the high temperature reactor capable of producing hydrogen, electricity and/or process heat. The project is a part of DOE's Generation IV nuclear program, which focuses on high-temperature reactor technologies. The program supports President Bush's Advanced Energy Initiative, which advocates the use of nuclear energy to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, DOE added. --Dipka Bhambhani, dipka_bhambhani@platts.com ------------ Entergy pushes back date for COL submittal at River Bend Washington (Platts)--17Apr2008 Entergy is delaying its submittal date for an application for a combined construction permit-operating license, or COL, for a potential new reactor at the River Bend site, the company told NRC late last month in a letter that was released April 17. Entergy had planned to file a COL application for a new unit at the single-reactor site in Louisiana in May, but now anticipates delivering it on September 30. Entergy previously has said the River Bend application would follow several months after the COL request for a GE Hitachi ESBWR reactor at the Grand Gulf site in Mississippi, which Entergy filed on February 27. In the letter, Entergy said it has not decided whether it will construct a new reactor at River Bend. Among the reasons for pushing back the filing date were unanticipated additional site characterization work that had to be done and ongoing internal business considerations, it said. ------------ Belgian Tihange nuclear plant back to full capacity 'within days' London (Platts)--17Apr2008 Belgian nuclear plant Tihange is expected to be back at full capacity in the next few days following maintenance work, operator Electrabel said Thursday. Unit 2 of the station, which is around 1,000 MW in capacity, was turned off for maintenance February 11 as part of a planned outage. A spokesman for the Belgian utility said that the plan Wednesday was to have the nuclear plant online "in the coming days" but could not immediately confirm whether the unit was on or off Thursday. Total capacity at Tihange is just below 3,000 MW. Unit 4 of the Doel plant, another Belgian nuclear plant operated by Electrabel, was switched off for maintenance March 28. Unit 4 of Doel also has a capacity of around 1,000 MW. ------------ Belgian Tihange nuclear plant back to full capacity 'within days' London (Platts)--17Apr2008 Belgian nuclear plant Tihange is expected to be back at full capacity in the next few days following maintenance work, operator Electrabel said Thursday. Unit 2 of the station, which is around 1,000 MW in capacity, was turned off for maintenance February 11 as part of a planned outage. A spokesman for the Belgian utility said that the plan Wednesday was to have the nuclear plant online "in the coming days" but could not immediately confirm whether the unit was on or off Thursday. Total capacity at Tihange is just below 3,000 MW. Unit 4 of the Doel plant, another Belgian nuclear plant operated by Electrabel, was switched off for maintenance March 28. Unit 4 of Doel also has a capacity of around 1,000 MW. ------------ EC to update EU nuclear sector analysis by end-2008: official Brussels (Platts)--16Apr2008 The European Commission plans to update its January 2007 analysis of the EU's nuclear power sector by the end of the year, a senior EC official said Tuesday. The updated illustrative nuclear investment program, commonly known by its French acronym PINC, is to accompany the EC's second strategic EU energy review, the EC's director for nuclear energy, Christian Waeterloos, told the European Nuclear Assembly in Brussels. The updated program is to focus on investment, the role of public authorities and the conditions for gaining public acceptance, he said. About half of the EU's power generating capacity would have to be replaced by 2030, said Waeterloos. "We want a roadmap for replacing ageing plant," he said. EU energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs told the conference that "substantial investments" would be needed to replace plant. "In order to make the necessary investments possible, the EC is examining ways to address the difficulties related to licensing, financing and different nuclear liability regimes," he said. Nuclear made "an important contribution" to the EU's energy supply security and its fight against climate change, said Piebalgs, but he also stressed the need to strengthen EU countries' cooperation on nuclear safety, security and waste treatment. Waeterloos told the conference that the EC wanted to reopen the debate with national governments on increasing Euratom loans for new nuclear plant. The Euratom Treaty was originally set up to coordinate EU countries' nuclear energy research programs, and now helps pool knowledge, infrastructure and funding. A 2002 EC proposal to raise the Euratom loan program's borrowing limit from Eur4 billion to Eur6 billion ($6.3 billion to $9.5 billion) has so far failed to be approved by the EU Council of member states. ------------ License renewal application submitted for Prairie Island Washington (Platts)--15Apr2008 A license renewal application for the two Prairie Island units were submitted to the NRC April 15, Xcel Energy announced in a press release. The application would extend the life of each reactor by 20 years. The current license for unit 1 expires in 2013; unit 2's expires in 2014. The application was submitted to the NRC by Nuclear Management Co., which now operates the reactors for Xcel. Xcel is in the process of absorbing NMC. Xcel said it is also finalizing a request to be filed later this spring with the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission for an additional 35 casks that it says would be needed to store spent fuel generated during the additional 20-year license period. Xcel also said it would ask the PUC for approval to increase the combined generating capacity of the two units by about 80 MW. NRC also would have to approve the uprate; Xcel has not yet submitted the uprate application to NRC. Each of the two Prairie Island PWRs is currently rated at 560 MW. ------------ Spot uranium weakens again; Deutsche Bank may form uranium fund Washington (Platts)--15Apr2008 Defying some analysts' predictions, the uranium spot price has continued to weaken and is now below $70 a pound U3O8, price reporting firms TradeTech and Ux Consulting said. TradeTech late Friday published a spot price of $69/pound, while Ux Consulting late Tuesday said the price had fallen to $68. And some analysts are now predicting still more weakening. "I see the price continuing to decline," said one analyst. He said demand is still relatively thin and there are a number of active sellers. The question, he said, is whether a spot price of $65 will spark enough buying interest to reverse the downward trend. Some analysts said they were surprised last week by Taiwan Power?s rejection of bids it received April 8. That rejection suggested to some in the market that bids might have been higher than the then-consensus published price of $71/pound. But according to one source, Taipower set a ceiling price that was "aggressively below" $71 and was forced to reject all bids. The utility, which was looking to buy 300,000 pounds of U3O8 equivalent as either U3O8 or UF6, asked bidders to submit new proposals this week. One analyst said several sellers are anticipating that the US Department of Energy will sell several million pounds of uranium later this year and that that sale is likely to drive prices lower, perhaps well below $60. He added that many sellers are reasoning that it is better to sell now above $60 than to wait until the end of the year. But another analyst noted that $60/pound is near or even below the breakeven price for a number of fledgling uranium projects. If the price drops below $60 those projects would likely be delayed or even canceled, he said. There are, however, some indications that more demand may be in offing. Platts has learned that Deutsche Bank AG through a subsidiary called DB Commodity Services is working to create a fund that will buy physical uranium through New York Nuclear Corp. and hold the uranium in storage accounts that Nynco has at uranium conversion facilities in North America and Europe. DB has been making presentation to investors about the fund. And utility demand may be more than some have anticipated later this year, an analyst said, given that utility long-term uranium contracts no longer contain the delivery flexibilities those contracts once had. This means that utilities may need to come to the spot market to buy lots of 25,000 to 100,000 pounds to meet actual nuclear fuel reload requirements, the analyst said. --Mike Knapick, newsdesk@platts.com ------------ Xcel Energy seeks to renew licenses for 1,076 MW nuclear plant Portland, Maine (Platts)--15Apr2008 Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy on Tuesday asked the US Nuclear Regulatory Agency to extend licenses for its 1,076 MW Prairie Island nuclear plant near Red Wing, Minnesota. Prairie Island's current 40-year licenses expire in 2013 and 2014. The application seeks license extensions of 20 years for each 538 MW reactor. Xcel, in the meantime, is finalizing a certificate of need application in Minnesota for the state to support the proposed license extensions. That application, which will be filed later this spring with the Public Utilities Commission, also will seek to increase the number of used fuel storage containers at Prairie Island. In addition, the PUC filing will include a CON application that seeks to raise the generating capacity of each Prairie Island reactor by about 80 MW. Xcel expects the NRC to decide on the license renewal in 2010. State regulators will conduct separate reviews of the requests for additional generating capacity and to increase the number of used fuel containers. If approved by regulators, the Minnesota Legislature would have an opportunity to review the storage increase request, likely during its 2010 session, Xcel said. ------------ British Energy denies Torness outage was unplanned London (Platts)--15Apr2008 British Energy planned to take its Torness reactor in Scotland offline over the weekend and was not forced to do so, chief executive Bill Coley told an investor day presentation at Heysham, Lancashire Tuesday. "The report in The Times newspaper this morning said BE was forced to shut Torness. This is not the case," Coley said. "There has been a minor leak in the hydrogen system in the generator, and we elected to take it off line now--it's a good time for it." Coley confirmed that boiler inspections at Hunterston B were now completed, and the reactor was expected to return to service "later this month." The company is looking at options to increase load at the reactor above 70%. Guidance on return to service at Hartlepool and Heysham 1, meanwhile, remains the same, with a phased ramp up scheduled "during quarter two and quarter three," Coley said. Some 32 Boiler Closure Unit radiographs have been completed, he said. Visual inspection of wire bundles at the reactors was now in progress. "The results so far confirm the integrity of the wire bundles and absence of corrosion," Coley said. The chief executive said the major outages at Hartlepool and Heysham caused by boiler closures masked the steady progress made by BE to reduce the level of minor losses. "A steady reduction in small losses has meant these are now at their lowest level ever, stabilizing the fleet," Coley said. "In the last three years we have spent over GBP1 [$1.97] billion in our plant and people. We have extended the lives of Hinkley Point and Hunterston to 2016, and will review a further extension before the end of 2013. We have completed Boiler Closure Unit inspections and regulatory approval has just been received for our plan. Nuclear reportable events are at their lowest level, and the level of unplanned trips have been maintained at last year's level." The company confirmed that negotiations were ongoing with various parties with regard to a possible participation or takeover. No further details were given. ------------ NRC extends petition deadline in Bellefonte COL proceeding Washington (Platts)--14Apr2008 NRC extended the time for filing petitions to intervene in the Bellefonte combined construction permit-operating license, or COL, application by 60 days. The original deadline for the public to submit hearing requests was April 8, but last week the date was pushed out to June 6. The Tennessee Valley Authority filed a COL application October 30, 2007 and supplemented its submittal on November 2, 2007 and this year on January 8 and 14. ------------ US Supreme Court to hear case on clean-water rule for generators Washington (Platts)--14Apr2008 The US Supreme Court on Monday said it will hear the electric power industry's lawsuit against a federal clean-water rule that the industry says could cost tens of billions of dollars if it is not modified or overturned. The case revolves around an Environmental Protection Agency rule that requires coal and nuclear power plants to retrofit their cooling-water intake systems to protect fish and other aquatic organisms. Specifically, the rule requires plants to upgrade the systems using the "best technology available for minimizing adverse environmental impact." Several electric utilities, led by Entergy, say the rule goes far beyond Clean Water Act requirements. The utilities say the power sector would have to shell out as much as $66 billion to comply with the rule and power plants also would have to shut down for long periods while upgrading their water-intake systems, they said. Entergy and other utilities asked the Supreme Court to review the rule after the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the measure's main provisions. The Supreme Court said it would review the decision regarding whether EPA can take costs and benefits into account when determining what type of technology electric utilities need to install on their cooling-water intake systems to protect fish and other aquatic organisms. The utilities argued that EPA must be required to conduct a cost-benefit analysis, or power plants could be forced to spend billions of dollars to keep just a single fish larvae from being killed in their water-intake systems. They also asked the court to consider other aspects of the rule, such as whether they could restock the fish supply to make up for harm that their water-intake systems caused, but the court said it only would consider the cost-benefit question. The US Department of Justice, which represents EPA in the case, urged the Supreme Court not to hear the industry lawsuit, but in a motion filed earlier this month, DOJ said it would side with the industry on the cost-benefit question if the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. Riverkeeper, a New York-based environmental group that Robert Kennedy Jr. heads, also is a party to the case. The group is expected to argue that the environmental effectiveness of power-plant water-intake systems should not be based on a government cost-benefit analysis. The Supreme Court will hear the power-sector case as part of its term that begins October 6. --Brian Hansen, brian_hansen@platts.com ------------ Analysts believe spot price of uranium may be poised for rebound Washington (Platts)--11Apr2008 The spot price of uranium may be poised to rise, several analysts said this week after Taiwan Power was said to have rejected all the bids it received on April 8. There were late reports of a deal done within the past several days at a price believed to be about $69 a pound U3O8. That deal may be an outlier, one analyst said, but it also could suggest there still are sellers who are willing to be aggressive to complete a transaction. It was not immediately clear why Taipower rejected the bids. The utility was seeking up to 300,000 pounds U3O8 equivalent as either U3O8 or UF6 for delivery later this year. In the past, such a rejection by the Asian utility has meant that offer prices were above the current market price. In their latest reports, price-reporting firms TradeTech and Ux Consulting said the spot price was $71 a pound U3O8. Before the bidding, some market analysts suggested that the Asian utility could see some material priced slightly under $70/pound, but said most offers would be at or above $70. That level seems to be a "friction point" that most sellers don't seem ready to drop below, said one trader. Platts' assessment, based on discussions with market sources, suggestes that spot U3O8 transactions over the next week will likely occur within the range of $69-$76/pound U3O8, up from this week's range of $68-$75. Some analysts attending a fuel cycle conference in Miami said they believe many published supply-and-demand projections may underestimate how tight supply could be in the next decade. If that perspective takes hold among uranium investment funds, there could be "a noticeable uplift in the spot price," said one analyst. He added, however, that some investors seem comfortable not buying immediately after the market starts to turn upward. "They want to make sure the trend is right," he said. But once they are convinced that it is on a firm upward trend, then there could be "significant buying." --Mike Knapick, newsdesk@platts.com ------------ NEI study: North Anna benefits to Virginia exceed $710 million Washington (Platts)--11Apr2008 Dominion's North Anna generates more than $710 million in economic benefits annually to the state of Virginia, according to a Nuclear Energy Institute report released April 10. The two-unit plant employs 960 people, who are paid 12% more on average than most workers in the northern Piedmont region of the state, and it generates 20% of Virginia's electricity, NEI said. The report, and 11 previous NEI economic impact analyses of US nuclear power plants, are online at http://www.nei.org/financialcenter/economic_benefits_studies. ------------