Platts - Friday, August 29, 2008 http://www.platts.com ------------ Obama pledges $150 bil for renewables; pushes gas, nuclear, coal Washington (Platts)--29Aug2008 In a speech before 80,000 people in a packed football stadium in Denver, Barack Obama accepted the Democratic nomination for president of the United States, saying he will tap domestic natural gas reserves, invest in "clean coal" technology and harness nuclear power. "I'll invest $150 billion over the next decade in affordable, renewable sources of energy - wind power and solar power and the next generation of biofuels," he said, pledging to create 5 million new jobs along the way. The junior senator from Illinois criticized his Republican opponent Senator John McCain of Arizona for his positions on energy, saying the US imports three times more oil than it did 30 years ago. Obama tied US reliance on foreign oil to the nation's economic, security and environmental problems. "For the sake of our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, I will set a clear goal as president: in 10 years, we will finally end our dependence on oil from the Middle East," said Obama, who capped the four-day Democratic National Convention. The speech responded to GOP assertions that Obama's opposition to broadly lifting a moratorium on offshore oil and natural drilling on most of the Outer Continental Shelf is contributing to high gasoline prices. "Washington's been talking about our oil addiction for the last 30 years, and by the way John McCain has been there for 26 of them," Obama said. "Now is the time to end this addition, and to understand that drilling is a stop-gap measure, not a long term solution," he said. "Not even close." Echoing comments by Democratic Party leaders over the course of convention week, Obama criticized McCain for not supporting measures raising fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks and for not supporting efforts to invest in renewable energy. Obama vowed to help US auto companies "re-tool" to build affordable fuel-efficient vehicles. McCain has said he supports the development of renewable energy such as wind and solar power, and in recent years he has championed legislation to combat climate change. But McCain came under fire earlier this year after he missed a vote to extend production tax credits for renewable projects beyond this year. For his part, McCain will travel to the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, next week to accept his party's nomination. Earlier in the day, McCain congratulated Obama on his nomination, but after the speech his campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds blasted Obama for giving a "misleading speech." "When the temple comes down, the fireworks end, and the words are over, the facts remain," Bounds said. "Senator Obama still has no record of bipartisanship, still opposes offshore drilling, still voted to raise taxes on those making just $42,000 per year, and still voted against funds for American troops in harm's way. The fact remains: Barack Obama is still not ready to be President." --Joel Kirkland, joel_kirkland@platts.com ------------ Europe's three isotope production reactors down Paris (Platts)--28Aug2008 Europe's three isotope production reactors are all down, as is a production facility operated by Institut des Radioelements, or IRE, in Fleurus, Belgium, creating what IRE's former director general, Henri Bonet, called a "crisis" in the European radioisotope sector. Belgium's Federal Agency for Nuclear Control, or FANC, ordered the Fleurus facility to stop production August 26 following an uncontrolled release since August 23 of iodine-131 into the atmosphere estimated at 45 gigabecquerels. Bonet said August 28 that it would take at least two weeks to modify piping and ventilation to preclude such a release in the future, but FANC Director General Willy De Roovere said he was also looking for evidence that IRE had improved its safety culture. The High Flux Reactor at Petten in the Netherlands is down because of a yet-unresolved problem involving gas bubbles in its cooling system and will be offline for at least another three weeks. The BR2 reactor at Mol in Belgium and France's Osiris are down for scheduled maintenance and inspection and are not expected to restart for several weeks. According to the Brussels-based Association of Imaging Producers and Equipment Suppliers, or Aipes, European producers have only enough isotopes to last until September 8. Bonet said South Africa's Safari reactor, which completed a scheduled outage this week, will be able to supply "small quantities" of isotopes to Europe. The NRU reactor operated by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. at Chalk River is expected to restart August 29, but does not regularly supply Europe. ------------ Areva takes new provision for Finnish nuclear plant losses:report Paris (Platts)--28Aug2008 French nuclear group Areva has registered a further provision for liabilities associated with its turnkey construction of the Olkiluoto-3 nuclear power plant in Finland for Teollisuuden Voima Oy, financial daily Les Echos reported Thursday. Areva will announce the provision when it publishes its second-half 2008 results Friday after closure of the Paris bourse, according to Les Echos. Areva has written two previous provisions to cover potential losses on the Olkiluoto-3 reactor project, in March 2007 and in September 2007. The company has not revealed the size of the provisions, citing discussions under way with TVO, but financial analysts have estimated them at between Eur700 million and Eur1 billion (about $1-1.5 billion). TVO continues to say it expects Areva to stick to the initial contract budget of Eur3.2 billion. Les Echos said Thursday several sources had confirmed that the total amount of charges on Areva's books linked to the Finnish project now exceeds Eur 1 billion. Germany's Siemens and Areva's reactor-building subsidiary Areva NP, which is 34% owned by Siemens, signed the contract to build the 1,600 MW Olkiluoto-3 EPR, or European pressurized water reactor, unit with TVO in December 2003. The deal was Areva's first contract for an EPR, a so-called third-generation nuclear plant designed to have enhanced safety, longer life and better operational characteristics than second-generation reactors. The Olkiluoto-3 project has been plagued by quality control problems, notably on the civil engineering side, and Areva last year replaced the original Finnish concrete subcontractor with French construction giant Bouygues. The previous financial provisions Areva had written were attributed to delays in the project due to the concrete quality assurance problem, which led to a four-month suspension of concrete pouring on the nuclear island. Les Echos reported Friday that there are fresh problems with civil engineering, but gave no details. The new provisions, however, are also due to rising costs of construction materials as well as higher personnel costs linked to the need for closer project control. The Olkiluoto-3 project is now two years behind schedule, with commercial operation expected in 2011 instead of the original contract date of May 2009. ------------ TVA wants Bellefonte-1, -2 construction permits reinstated Washington (Platts)--27Aug2008 The Tennessee Valley Authority, or TVA, has asked NRC to reinstate the construction permits for Bellefonte-1 and -2, the partially completed reactors near Scottsboro, Alabama. In an August 27 statement, the Tennessee Valley Authority said reinstating the permits was part of its effort to evaluate the feasibility of completing them to meet future power needs. Each Bellefonte unit was to have been a 1,263-MW Babcock & Wilcox PWR. The units have been in deferred status since the late 1980s. NRC approved TVA's request to cancel the Bellefonte construction permits in 2006. According to an August 26 letter to NRC, TVA did not see completing the two units as a cost-effective generating option at that time. However, TVA's letter said power generation economics have changed since 2005, and the units should again be seen as a potential baseload generating option. In its August 27 statement, TVA said its Bellefonte project with industry consortium NuStart Energy is still the federal utility's "primary option" for providing future needed generating capacity. TVA filed an application in October 2007 with NRC for a combined construction permit-operating license for two Westinghouse AP1000s, to be called Bellefonte-3 and -4. ------------ French EDF denies Flamanville nuclear plant is behind schedule London (Platts)--27Aug2008 Electricite de France dismissed Wednesday a news report that its new nuclear power plant at Flamanville is nine months behind schedule, saying the plant would start up as planned in 2012. The 1,650 MW European Pressurized Reactor plant will be the first of its kind in France. In July, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said a second EPR would be built in France, but did not say whether state-controlled EDF would be involved. "Despite the ups and downs of a construction work of this size, EDF confirms that the objective for the startup of the EPR in 2012 is maintained," said company spokesman Robin Devogelaere. According to press reports citing the Le Canard Enchaine paper, the building of the reactor is already "at least nine months behind" schedule. EDF had to suspend concrete pouring at the Flamanville work site on May 26, after France's nuclear regulator ASN said EDF was not being thorough enough in its building process. Anomalies included a missing or misplaced steel reinforcing bar and a crack in the concrete foundation for the reactor building. A month later, the ASN said EDF could resume the work after the company made improvements in its work practices. Le Canard Enchaine also reported sources as saying that French construction company Bouygues was having problems with steel welding work, and that this work was progressing very slowly. A spokesman for Bouygues was not immediately available for comment. The first ever EPR is being built by Areva and Siemens under a turnkey contract at Olkiluoto in Finland, and is two years behind schedule. Areva is also a building partner in the Flamanville reactor. Environmental group Greenpeace said the reported delays at Flamanville echo problems at Areva's site in Olkiluoto which, it said, is more than Eur2 billion over budget and "beset with safety problems." "Clearly Areva has learnt nothing from the ongoing problems at Olkiluoto," said Jan Beranek of Greenpeace International. "Construction at Flamanville should be abandoned... France would be better served with investments in safe, clean renewable energy and energy efficiency," Beranek said. ------------ Construction workers at Olkiluoto-3 may go on strike September 10 Stockholm (Platts)--26Aug2008 More than 1,000 construction workers will strike at Olkiluoto-3 on September 10, unless they are told what has happened to money withheld from Polish workers' pay, the Finnish Construction Trade Union said in a statement August 26. As required by Finnish law, about a third of the money earned by 300 Polish workers was withheld by Rimec, the temporary employment agency that hired them, for taxes and social security payments. But the union ------------ Private equity backs veterans to form new nuclear fuel company Barcelona (Platts)--26Aug2008 Two uranium industry veterans, backed by private equity firm First Reserve Corp, are launching a new company focused on the front end of the nuclear fuel cycle--uranium mining, related services and trading. The company, Accord Nuclear Resources, is being billed as an integrated nuclear fuel supply company. Accord Nuclear Resources will be led by Charles Scorer, a former head of London-based uranium trading group Nufcor, who will be chief executive. David Sloan, former director of business development at Nukem Inc, will serve as executive vice president and chief marketing officer. With offices in London and Greenwich, Connecticut in the US, Accord plans to acquire and integrate key businesses that operate across the commercial nuclear power generation sector, with a particular focus on three different lines of business: uranium mining and production, related infrastructure operations and services. First Reserve said it is providing significant capital support for the newly formed company. "Our goal is to strategically collaborate with mutually aligned industry participants to identify market needs and invest in both existing and emerging opportunities in the nuclear fuel sector," Scorer said in a statement. "The combination of experience collectively held by First Reserve and the Accord management team will enable Accord to capitalize on synergies in the nuclear sector not yet realized due to a historical lack of capital and resource commitment to the industry," said Alex Krueger, managing director of First Reserve. "With significant resources in place, Accord offers the market a new alternative to sourcing material and services within the nuclear fuel cycle." --David Stellfox; david_stellfox@platts.com ------------ Vandellos-2 to stay shut for weeks to assess fire damage Barcelona (Platts)--25Aug2008 An August 24 fire at Spain's Vandellos-2 will keep the plant down for several weeks, operator Asociacion Nuclear Asco-Vandellos II, or ANAV, said August 25. The fire started by an electrical fault that occurred in a junction box to an electrical generator in the turbine hall, which is immediately below the main electrical generator, ANAV said. It burned for approximately 70 minutes and was extinguished by plant fire brigades. The reactor shut down automatically. There were no injuries and no release of radiation, ANAV said. The company said it was awaiting the arrival of contractors ABB and Siemens to help analyze the damage to electrical production equipment, and said it is not yet known if the main electrical generator suffered any damage. Vandellos-2 is 78% owned by Endesa and 28% owned by Iberdrola. The two companies also share ownership in ANAV, which runs Vandellos-2 as well as Asco-1 and -2. Spain's nuclear safety council said it will conduct an inspection and has called for a meeting of the liaison committee, which includes representatives of all nuclear plant owners in Spain. ------------ Yucca Mountain application rejection would be premature: US NRC Washington (Platts)--22Aug2008 US Nuclear Regulatory Commission Commissioners on Friday said it would be premature to reject a repository license application now, while agency staff are still weighing the document for a licensing review. The commission decision turned back petitions that the state of Nevada and a Nevada resident had filed in which they challenged DOE's plan to build a high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, roughly 95 miles outside Las Vegas. The petitioners claimed that DOE had not thoroughly considered all the risks associated with the disposal and transportation of radioactive waste at the site. But NRC responded that it would not be a "sensible use of commission resources" to evaluate those legal and factual challenges now. "These challenges are premature," the memorandum added. DOE presented an 8,600-page repository application to NRC on June 3; agency staff is expected to issue a determination in early September on whether the document is sufficiently complete to undergo a licensing review. NRC Commissioner Gregory Jaczko agreed with his fellow commissioners' decision to reject the petitions but said he did not believe the DOE application should be accepted for a licensing review before the US Environmental Protection Agency issues its final Yucca Mountain radiation standard, a yardstick against which the safety of the facility will be measured. The EPA draft standard has been bogged down in interagency review since 2006. ------------ New siren system to debut at Indian Point next week Washington (Platts)--22Aug2008 The new siren system at Indian Point will be placed in service next week, Entergy Nuclear announced August 22. The company said it just received final approvals from the NRC and Federal Emergency Management Agency. A new emergency siren system with a backup power supply was supposed to have been operating by January 31. But Entergy missed that deadline, and several others, as it worked to address various problems with the new siren and communications systems. Entergy said the new system has 172 sirens, or 16 more than the existing system, and expands by an additional 60 square miles the area for alerting the public to a plant emergency. Michael Balduzzi, Entergy Nuclear senior vice president and chief operating officer, called the new alert and notification system "one of the most advanced in the country." ------------