Balance of Power
Jul 08 - Nuclear Engineering International
A review of the main events in the nuclear industry worldwide since mid-2003.
In Japan, Tepco is making progress in regaining public trust in the aftermath
of the crack inspection scandal. However, a more recent setback came at the end
of 2003 when Tohuku abandoned plans for its 825MWe BWR at Maki.
Weapons proliferation concerns are continuing to get widespread coverage in
the international media, hampering attempts to persuade the general public of
the advantages of nuclear power. Along with this media coverage, the
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has remained very much in the
limelight due to its role as the world's nuclear watchdog.
A significant milestone will be reached later this month with the 50th
anniversary of the world's first nuclear power reactor - the 5MWe unit at
Obninsk in Russia (sec page 14 of this issue). Elsewhere in Europe, ten
countries joined the European Union (EU) on 1 May, bringing 19 reactors into the
EU (seepage 18).
The restart of Ontario Power Generation's Pickering unit 4 in September 2003
came under fierce criticism for being more than two years late at almost treble
the initial cost estimates
Radioactive waste management continues to move up the agenda, as both the
industry and opposition groups realise how important it is for the nuclear
industry to prove it can deal with its waste. Some countries, notably Sweden and
Finland, are progressing well with their plans for deep repositories. Others
have suffered setbacks in the past year, in particular the Czech Republic, South
Korea and, in spectacular fashion, Italy.
CANADA
Bruce A units 3 and 4 and Pickering A unit 4 have returned to service within
the last year. Cost and schedule overruns in the case of Ontario Power
Generation's (OPG's) Pickering A4 restart have provoked a number of critical
studies. The Pickering A Review Panel said "a catalogue of problems"
resulted in the unit's return to service being more than two years late at
almost treble the initial cost estimates. Despite the panel's claim that
"failure was pervasive, from board, management and shareholder
levels," the OPG Review Committee, chaired by the former deputy prime
minister of Canada, John Manley, recommended proceeding with the restart of
Pickering Al. The committee stressed the need for dramatic investment in
infrastructure to head off a generation shortfall that could leave Ontario
importing as much as half its electricity by 2015. Restart work on units 2 and 3
at Pickering A was suspended earlier this year.
On 9 January this year, the Electricity Conservation & Supply Task Force
published its report on recommendations to avoid a shortfall in electricity in
Ontario. The main concern is that coal- fired plants, representing 23% of
generation, are set to be closed by 2007. The task force recommended a three
plank strategy, suggesting that the embrace of conservation, development of
hydro and other renewables, and expansion in either nuclear or gas generation
could fill the gap.
Other discouraging news for the Canadian nuclear industry came when NB
Power's Point Lepreau plant did not get the go-ahead to carry out a $830 million
maintenance and upgrade programme to allow the plant to operate until 2032,
instead of the pending 2006 closure date. A report looking into the alternatives
was recently released (see page 7).
CHINA
Closer tics with the USA have been forged over the last year. China Atomic
Energy Authority chairman, Zhang Huazhu, signed a statement of intent on the
exchange of nuclear technology with US energy secretary, Spencer Abraham,
establishing a broad process for collaboration between the USA, China and the
IAEA on a range of nuclear non-proliferation and security activities. Zhang and
Abraham also signed a statement of intent to enable US firms to provide
technology and services to the Chinese nuclear power programme. When nuclear
technology proposed for transfer is determined to require non-proliferation
assurances, the government of the recipient country will pledge that the
technology will be used exclusively for peaceful purposes.
The second 600MWe unit of Qinshan Phase II began generating power on 11 March
2004 and was formally put into commercial operation on 3 May. This is the
country's ninth unit to commence operations, with the two VVER-1000 units at
Tianwan still under construction (the first of which is scheduled for completion
soon). Regarding the next steps in the Chinese nuclear power programme, two new
projects have got internal approval from the central government: two more 600MWe
PWR units at the Qinshan Phase II site and two 1000MWe at the Ling Ao site,
which is also referred to as the Ling Dong project. These four units are
modelled on the units at the sites respectively with the addition of some
modifications for enhancing safety performance.
A strategic plan for developing nuclear power in China up to 2020 was set up
last September. As per this plan, 32,000-40,000MWe of nuclear capacity is to be
built, and tentative sites have been selected. Apart from for the four units
mentioned above, the new projects will be of the so-called third generation of
nuclear power technology.
The Guangdong Nuclear Power Group Corporation is currently working on the
construction preparation for the two units at Ling Ao and the site preparation
for six third-generation units at Yangjiang which is located in the west of
Guangdong. The China Nuclear Industry Company is working on the two units at
Qinshan II and the site preparations for six third generation units at Jiangmen,
Zhejiang province.
EUROPE
The 'nuclear package', originally intended to harmonise European safety and
radioactive waste disposal standards, has taken quite a battering this last
year. The proposals have faeed an uphill struggle since November 2002 when the
EC's DirectorateGeneral for Transport and Energy issued the draft directives.
Germany's 662MWe Stade nuclear plant, commissioned in 1972, was shut down on
14 November 2003
Laurence Williams, chairman of the IAEA Commission on Safety Standards and
head of the UK nuclear regulator, has argued against the introduction of EU-widc
safety standards. he told a press conference: "We believe nuclear safety
should be a national responsibility. I think a European directive would be
counterproductive." He pointed out that the IAEA has a comprehensive set of
safety standards, so a set of European standards would only serve to complicate
matters. This point was also made by Finnish member of European Parliament Esko
Olavi Seppanen in a report to the European Parliament.
UK prime minister Tony Blair and German chancellor Gerhard Schroder also
criticised the proposals in a letter to the then EC president Romano Prodi.
Other countries opposed to the proposals are Sweden and Finland. Faced with such
a 'blocking minority' the EG decided to redraft the draft directives earlier
this year. With an expanded EU membership, these four countries alone would no
longer represent a blocking minority. However, it would appear that the new EU
members are not as supportive of the proposals as the EC had hoped. The 13 May
2004 Goreper (Committee of Permanent EU Representatives) failed to make any
progress and proposals were not voted on. Apart from France and Spain, all
member states were against binding legislation.
Last year, the EC adopted a directive for the liberalisation of gas and
energy supplies in lhe EU, which should enter into force on 1 july 2004 for
business customers and in 2007 for households and others.
FINLAND
We all know the story, but here it is in brief for posterity. Finnish utility
Teollisuuden Voima Oy (TVO) signed a contract on 18 December 2003 with Framatome
ANP to construct Finland's fifth nuclear reactor at the Olkiluoto site in
Eurajoki. Framatome ANP will be responsible for the nuclear island, and Siemens
will provide the turbine components. The euro3 billion deal should result in a
160OMWe European Pressurized Water Reactor (EPR) in early 2009.
FRANCE
The Phenix prototype fast breeder reactor recommenced operation a year ago,
after being offline for five years. The cost of the upgrade work carried out
during the extended outage came to euro250 million.
Following a nationwide public energy debate, the then junior minister for
industry Nicole Fontaine issued a 'white book' containing proposals for an
Orientation law' on energy strategies for France for the next 30 years. It
recommended that a new nuclear reactor be built by 2012, and Fontaine called for
the construction of a demonstration EPR. East month, the Council of Ministers
adopted an energy strategy bill, which proposes construction of a demonstration
EPR. The bill was being debated in parliament as t\his issue of NEI went to
press. Eater this month the board of directors of Electricite de France (EdF)
are due to be selecting a possible site (or sites) to build a demonstration EPR.
GERMANY
The industry continues to be plagued by the minority ruling Greens, with
environment minister jurgen Trittin making the most out of every opportunity to
score points. This year two reactors received special attention from Trittin.
Following routine inspection and repair work at Biblis A, it was discovered that
the sump in the emergency coolant pumps had a lower cross-sectional area than
was allowed by German reactor safety codes. Although the enlargement of the sump
strainer was a relatively simple operation, Trittin interrupted the licensing
procedure, arguing that the safety examination carried out by the Hesse Ministry
of Environmental, Rural and Consumer Affairs was 'entirely insufficient'.
Operators RWE did not receive approval to restart the reactor until 30 December
2003, some nine months after it was taken offline.
On 14 November 2003, Trittin literally had a party as he made the most of the
closure of E.ON's Stade plant. Whereas E. ON claimed that the decision to close
Stade was taken in 2000 for economic reasons alone, Trittin chose to see the
shutdown as the first step in Germany's nuclear power phase-out programme. Under
this programme, Stade would have exhausted its quota for electricity around the
end of this year. The remainder of its generation quota is transferable to
another nuclear plant.
More recently, Trittin's plan to build a single repository for radioactive
waste - which involves scrapping the Gorleben salt dome excavations and halting
the conversion of the former iron mine at Konrad into a low- and
intermediate-level repository - is causing more dismay for the industry. The
national general accounting office has projected a euro10 billion bill for the
plan.
HUNGARY
Inquiries into the 10 April 2003 fuel cleaning incident at Paks 2 left all
parties involved with egg on their faces. The Hungarian Atomic Energy Authority
(HAEA) criticised a Paks investigation for passing most of the blame onto
Framatome ANP staff, and was particularly scathing of the Paks safety culture.
Later, an IAEA mission said that, though the HAEA and Paks were committed to
improving the safety of the plant, they did not use conservative decision-making
in safety assessments for the "unproven fuel cleaning system" designed
by Framatome ANP. Paks struck a compensation deal with Framatome ANP, rumoured
to be of the order of $48 million.
INTERNATIONAL
There were two big recurring news stories in the international press that
helped the nuclear industry's cause, even though they are not directly related
to the industry. Firstly, whether global warming and carbon dioxide emissions
are connected or not, many people have come to believe the link between the two
is obvious and proven. The hot summer in much of Europe and elsewhere, with
stories of thousands of people dying from the heat for once the nuclear industry
was glad of sensational media reporting! - has done much to focus policymakers'
minds on reducing carbon emissions.
Meanwhile, the Kyoto Protocol has still not come into force, and now depends
on whether Russia ratifies it. The treaty requires backing by nations accounting
for 55% of the Earth's carbon dioxide emissions. The 44% mark has been reached,
and so it is critical that Russia's 17% be included. The COP9 (Conference of the
Parties) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ended
inconclusively in December as a result of Russia continually shifting its
position, along with a dispute over aid to OPEC slates.
Also to many people's detriment, but to the nuclear industry's advantage,
were a number of blackouts. The most dramatic of these occurred in the USA and
Canada on 14 August 2003 when three high- voltage transmission lines operated by
FirstEnergy short-circuited and went out of service. FirstEnergy's control room
alarm system was not working properly, so the control room operators were
unaware of the problem and consequently took no action. At the same time, there
were problems at the Midwest Independent System Operator, which coordinates
power transmission in that region. US and Canadian nuclear plants were cleared
of any blame whatsoever, and were found to have responded as anticipated. The 14
August blackout, and other blackouts in the UK, Sweden and Italy all helped to
focus the thoughts of policymakers worldwide on how to strengthen their national
grids - a situation that does no harm to the nuclear industry.
IRAN
For those who believed that Iran was secretly developing nuclear weapons,
2003 was a watershed year. Taking the lead from the National Council of
Resistance of Iran, an opposition group who exposed new construction sites in
Iran, inspectors from the IAEA made several visits to suspected Iranian
facilities and discovered that there was, in fact, more going on than Iran had
disclosed in its safeguards declarations. Although progress has been made,
inspectors are still investigating new facilities and finding information that
will help to piece together the Iranian nuclear puzzle.
Replacement of seawater cooling pipework at Heysham 1 contributed to larger
than expected losses at British Energy
Replacement of seawater cooling pipework at Heysham 1 contributed to larger
than expected losses at British Energy
The construction of a VVER-1000 reactor at Bushehr is proceeding to the 2005
schedule. There is still uncertainty surrounding an agreement reached between
Russia and Tehran requiring that all spent fuel from the first decade of the
reactor's operation be returned to Russia. In june 2003, Alexander Rumyantsev,
head of the Russian atomic energy agency, stated that Russia would withhold
fresh fuel from Iran until such an agreement is formalised.
ITALY
The Italian government performed a spectacular U-turn over its announcement
of the site of the country's national repository for radioactive waste, almost
certainly setting a new 'decide-announce- defend' record. On 13 November 2003,
in an emergency decree on waste storage, the centre-right coalition government
named the small town of Scanzano Jonico in the southern region of Basilicata as
the country's final radwaste repository, effective immediately. Following two
weeks of protests, on 27 November, the cabinet removed the name of the town from
the decree and asked a 14-member 'scientific-technical' panel to investigate all
possible sites. Under the amended decree the panel has 12 months to find an
appropriate site. The original decree stated the country's waste - some
55,000m^sup 3^ of very low-, low- and intermediate-level waste, and around
8500m^sup 3^ of high-level waste - was to be brought, along with around 350t
spent fuel from the country's four shutdown reactors, to Scanzano Jonico
immediately.
JAPAN
Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) has gradually been restarting its reactors over
the last year, after the scandal over the falsification of inspection records
prompted the company to take its 17 units offline for safety checks. By April
this year, eight units were back online. The move has made a huge dent in
worldwide generation figures for BWRs, with this type of reactor achieving an
annual load factor of 68.5% in 2003, down from 79.5% the previous year. Nine of
the 29 BWRs operating in Japan were not online during 2003, and all but eight
had load factors under 50%.
A few of the country's programmes have also progressed. The Nuclear and
Industrial Safety Agency has approved modifications to the Monju prototype fast
reactor, which has been offline following a sodium leak four months after it
first supplied electricity in August 1995; the national government is expected
to seek intervention from the supreme court to overturn a high court ruling
against the restart of the reactor.
A new reactor started up: Chubu Electric Power's Hamaoka 5, a 1380MWe
Japanese Advanced Boiling Water Reactor, achieved criticality on 23 March.
Meanwhile, Tohuku Electric Power abandoned its plans to build a 825MWe BWR at
Maki.
Plans to load mixed oxide (MOX) fuel at Kansai Electric Power's Takahama
plant, which were abandoned in 1999 following BNFE's inspection data
Falsification scandal, were back on track after receiving approval from the
governor of Fukui prefecture. Kansai is expected to sign a new contract with
Cogema to fabricate the fuel, which is now set to be loaded in 2007. In
addition, Kyushu Electric Power has announced plans to use MOX fuel by 2010,
most probably at its Genkai plant in Saga prefecture.
THE NETHERLANDS
The new Dutch government has confirmed that it would allow the country's
449MWe PWR at Borssele to operate until it reaches the end of its 40-year design
life in 2013. The previous government had threatened to shut clown the unit by
2003.
NORTH KOREA
Once again, the future of the Korean Peninsular Energy Development
Organisation (KEDO) project to build two nuclear power reactors m North Korea is
uncertain. It looked like the US would pull out of the programme following the
North Korean announcement last year that it had a nuclear weapons programme - a
blatant breach of the agreement under which the two PWRs are being built.
However, the KEDO consortium decided to suspend the project for a year. KEDO
spokesman Roland Tricot said: "The executive board of KEDO, given that the
conditions necessary for continuing the light water reactor project have not
been met by North Korea, has decided to suspend the project for one year,
beginning 1 December 2003."
ROMANIA
The European Commission has approved a euro223.5 million Euratom loan to the
Romanian National Nuclear Power Company (SNN) for the completion and safety
upgrade of the Cernavoda 2 reactor. Construction of the Candu 6 reactor is over
50% complete and it is due to start commercial operation in 2007.
RUSSIA
No more Minatom! The Russian Federal Ato\mic Energy Agency was formally
established in March this year, and later confirmed as the successor to the
former Ministry of Atomic Energy (Minatom) by a government decree. The decree
states that the new agency - which is reportedly to be known as Rosatom - will
be responsible for the "development and safe operation of the nuclear power
industry, nuclear defence complex, nuclear fuel cycle, atomic science and
engineering, and for international cooperation in this area." Rosatom is
headed by former Minatom minister Alexander Rumyantscv and four deputies, and
will continue to operate from the former Minatom headquarters.
The Russian federal nuclear safety inspectorate said construction of a $70
million nuclear waste storage facility on the island of Novaya Zemlya in the
Arctic Ocean should not proceed. Analysis of potential climate change in the
region led scientists and geologists to conclude that rising temperatures over
the next 150 to 200 years are threatening to thaw the region's permafrost, which
could lead to leakage of radioactive materials. The project had been approved by
experts from Finland, France, Germany, Norway and the UK and had undergone a
government environmental analysis. The Russian Research Institute of Industrial
Technology spent 10 years and $2 million to develop the design of the future
storage facility. Attention has now turned to the Kola Peninsula as an
alternative site.
SOUTH AFRICA
The city of Cape Town council, amongst others, has appealed against the South
African Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism decision to issue a
positive record of decision (RoD) for a demonstration Pebble Bed Modular Reactor
(PBMR) at Koeberg near Cape Town. The RoD for the PBMR, along with a RoD for an
associated fuel plant at Pelindaba, was awarded following the environmental
impact assessments for the projects. The appeals are still being reviewed by the
department.
Funding for the PBMR project has been a cause for concern since Exelon's
withdrawal from the consortium in 2002. A delegation was sent to France earlier
this year in an attempt to persuade Areva to take a shareholding in the PBMR
company, but no announcement has yet been made. In addition, although the PBMR
board of directors has requested 'unconditional commitment' from the government
to fund the next phase of the project, no such commitment has been forthcoming.
Moreover, towards the end of last year, the South African Cape Chamber of
Commerce called for a re-evaluation of the economics of the PBMR, due to
different economic circumstances resulting from a large gas discovery off the
west coast.
SOUTH KOREA
The 1000MWe Ulchin 5 (Korean Standard Nuclear Plant design) reached
criticality in December 2003, was connected to the grid in January and is
expected to commence commercial operation this month. But while South Korea's
reactor programme advances, its radioactive waste disposal programme suffered a
big setback.
After buying British Energy's 50% stake in AmerGen, Exelon is now the sole
owner of the AmerCen plants - Clinton, Three Mile Island 1 and Oyster Creek
(pictured)
The island of Wido, with a population of around 1470 and situated in the
county of Buan, was chosen as the site for the country's permanent repository.
The majority of the islanders had approved the facility in return for a huge
financial aid package, but faced protests from Buan county residents. Commerce,
industry and energy minister Yoon Jin-Shik has resigned over the affair,
conceding mistakes were made in the initial decision to choose the site. he
said: "When Wido was designated as the prospective site for the nuclear
waste facility, the opinions of residents of Buan county were not truly
reflected." he said that a couple of regions were interested in submitting
applications to host the repository, and that he expected a decision by
September this year. The expansion of the selection process did not mean that
the Wido site had been ruled out, Yoon said, but rather it was "an attempt
to make the process democratic."
SPAIN
On 14 March 2004, the Socialist party unexpectedly came to power, after the
electorate judged the previous government to have used the 11 March bombings in
Madrid to its political advantage. The new government, led by prime ministerjose
Luis Zapetero, had pledged to phase out nuclear power "at any cost."
So far, it seems that it will be a case of 'business as usual' as the government
has only announced a gradual replacement of nuclear capacity with alternative
generation. Of more concern is the coalition agreement made by the new regional
government in Catalonia to close down the regions three units.
TAIWAN
Although the government had decided to not pursue its apparent mission to
halt the construction of two ABWR units at Lungmen, it began turning its
attention back to the issue in the last year. In mid-2003, president Chen
Shui-bian promised to hold a referendum before the next presidential elections
on whether to scrap the project. The referendum never took place, but since his
re-election on 20 March 2004 Chen said he would conduct referendums on a number
of topics. Uncertainty over the project has been causing delays, as contractors
are reluctant to commit to a project that could face disruption.
UKRAINE
The Ukrainian government and the European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development (RBRD) continued to disagree over loan conditions for the completion
of the Khmelnitski 2 and Rovno 4 (K2R4) reactors. After the Ukrainian government
decided to go it alone (not for the first time during these drawn-out
negotiations), the national nuclear power utility Energoatom raised over $70
million from a Eurobond issue and claimed it would sell another $22 million
soon. Projected dates for completion are 14 August (K2) and 16 September (R4)
this year - hardly believable, considering the reactors have been the best part
of 20 years under construction!
UNITED KINGDOM
The UK nuclear industry continues to adapt to the consequences of three major
events highlighted in last year's news review: the july 2002 white paper on
radioactive waste management; the February 2003 energy white paper, which
effectively ruled out nuclear power for the foreseeable future; and the
restructuring (to put it mildly) of British Energy (BE). However, it could be
reasonably argued that the root cause for the nuclear industry's problems (in
fact, just about any generator's problems) was the introduction of the New
Electricity Trading Arrangements (NETA) in England and Wales in 2001.
Whatever the cause, the past year has been quilc tough for be and BNFL. The
latter reported a pre-tax loss of almost 1.1 billion in the year to 31 March
2003. Chairman Hugh Collum (who was due to be replaced at the beginning of this
month by Gordon Campbell) saw the bright side, saying: "The last year was
certainly demanding for BNFL, but it was one in which further progress was made
in laying the ground for the company's future development."
Speculation continues over what form that 'future development' would take,
but some important questions have apparently been settled. The UK government
announced that it would not proceed with its planned part privatisation of the
state-owned company. In addition, plans for the restructuring of BNFL have been
laid out over the course of the year. At the beginning of May 2004, BNFL
announced the setting up of a standalone clean-up business under the name
British Nuclear Group. The new business is now operating as a business unit of
BNFL, and will have separate legal status when the Nuclear Decommissioning
Authority (NDA) is established, due to be 1 April 2005.
With reference to BNFL subsidiary Wcstinghouse, on 11 December 2003,
secretary of state for trade and industry Patricia Hewitt told parliament:
"Steps will be taken to enable the business to operate with greater
financial independence from its parent, so that possibilities for private sector
participation are opened up." This led to much speculation that Westing-house
would be sold, but this has since died down.
Moving on to BE, the company paid off some of its controversial government
loan, following the sale of its 50% stake in AmerGen. The European Commission
has been looking into whether the restructuring plan - which was formally
approved by BE's major creditors in October 2003 - constitutes illegal state
aid, and is expected to announce its findings shortly. When the state aid
inquiry began, the EC appeared to have major concerns over the legality of the
plan, but recent reports indicate that the EC is set to give its approval (see
page 6).
At the end of last year, BE announced pre-tax losses of 71 million between
April-September 2003, much of which was due to outages at Sizewell B and Heysham
1. Lost output for the year to 31 March 2004 from these reactors was estimated
to come to around 3.2TWh with an aggregate gross cash cost oi around 95 million.
Since April 2004, Sizewell B has been experiencing problems again: one of ils
two generating units is undergoing repair work and the reactor is therefore
currently operating at 50% capacity; it is expected to return to full service
early this month.
A consortium has applied to test the combined construction and operating
licence process at Tennessee Valley Authority's Bellefonte site - where
construction of two PWRs was cancelled
To add insult to injury, a report by the UK's National Audit Office (NAO) on
the events leading up to the restructuring found that the risks had been
highlighted but not closely monitored. BR had not responded effectively to
changes in the market, the report said, terming its attempts to enter the
domestic supply market 'too little, too late'. Sir John Bourn, head of the ???,
said: "It is regrettable that risks identified in my report of 1998 have
materialised. BK's actions contributed significantly to its difficulties and the
Department of Trade and Industry was constrained in whatit could do. But this
case highlights the importance of monitoring and managing previously identified
risks to ensure that the taxpayer is well protected."
The UK energy bill, published in early December 2003, and being debated in
parliament as this issue of JVE/ goes to press, outlines plans for nuclear
decommissioning and energy market regulation. UK minister responsible for
energy, Stephen Timms, said the bill contains "measures which will help us
ensure that 10% of our electricity comes from renewable sources by the year
2010. The establishment of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority will ensure
that we effectively deal with our nuclear legacy. For the first time, one public
body will have complete responsibility for the decommissioning and clean-up
oflhe UK's civil nuclear sites, , and for the safe and effective management of
our nuclear waste."
UNITED STATES
Despite the best efforts of Energy & Natural Resources Committee chairman
Pete Domenici - who chaired the conference committee to resolve differences in
the bills passed in the Senate and House - last year's attempt to pass the $31
billion energy bill failed. The sections in the bill promoting the domestic
nuclear power industry were not contentious: to reaffirm the Price-Andersen Act;
to provide tax incentives for next generation commercial nuclear facilities; to
support domestic uranium mining technologies; to improve nuclear security; and
to support the design of advanced nuclear reactor systems to produce hydrogen.
The bill ultimately failed because Congress was not able to reach an
agreement on the gasoline additive methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE). Intensive
lobbying from the Bush administration could not persuade House Republican leader
Tom DeLay, of Texas, to delete the provision that would shield oil companies
from law-suits for water contamination by MBTE. It was just two votes short of
the issue going through, but the additional votes could not be found before the
Senate's Thanksgiving recess.
This year, Domenici presented a trimmed down $14 billion bill, which contains
the original provisions to extend the Price-Andersen Act for an additional 20
years, and to authorise $ 1 billion over five years for an advanced reactor to
produce both electricity and hydrogen at the Idaho National Engineering and
Environmental Laboratory. While this bill does allot $2 billion for nuclear
energy research programmes, production tax credits for new nuclear power plants
will not be available. However, there is still continuing dispute over the MTBE
liability waiver. It is now almost certain that an energy bill will not be
passed in this election year.
Although the energy bill was seen as key component to kick-start a new build
programme, the first steps towards new plant construction have nevertheless been
taken. The DoE announced late last year that it was inviting utilities to share
the costs for licensing activities enabling a new plant to be ordered and
licensed for deployment. To date, three consortia have applied to test the
combined construction and operating licence (COL) process. The largest of these
consortia is made up often companies; seven of these have formed NuStarl Energy
Development and each has pledged $ 1 million a year plus inkind services for
seven years; federal power agency Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) will be
providing in-kind services only; and two reactor vendors, GE and Westinghouse,
will be contractors to NuStarl Energy. The consortium members selected GE's
ESBWR and Westing-house's APlOOO as the reactor designs for the project. The two
reactor vendors would pay the largest share of the industry costs, about $400
million. If approved, the amount matched by DoE research and development funds
would average about $57 million a year for seven years.
TVA is also leading one of the other consortia, whose other members include
GE, Toshiba, LJSEC, Global Nuclear Fuel-Americas and Bechtcl to evaluate GE's
ABWR design to build at TVA's Bellefonte site in northern Alabama. The third
consortium is made up of Dominion, AECL Technology, Hitachi America and Bechtcl
to evaluate AECL's ACR-700.
Three electric power companies Exelon, Dominion and Entergy submitted early
site permit (ESP) applications to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for
Exelon's Clinton plant in Illinois, Dominion's North Anna station in Virginia
and Entergy's Grand Gulf station in Massachusetts. An approval of the ESP does
not automatically authorise construction oi a new plant.
In the meantime, several reactors have changed ownership over the last year.
Constellation Energy announced it would buy the 517MWe R E Ginna plant from
Rochester Gas and Electric for $401 million. British Energy's (BE's) 50% stake
in AmerGen was also sold, following the financial meltdown of BE. Originally
Florida Power & Light had offered $276.5 million, but Exelon exercised its
right to buy the share by matching the offer. Exelon is now the sole owner of
the AmerGen plants - Clinton, Three Mile Island 1 and Oyster Creek, representing
approximately 248OMWe. The Kewaunee plant also came under the hammer, after
Wisconsin Public Service and Wisconsin Power & Light agreed to sell the
545MWe unit to Dominion for 1220 million. And ear lier this year, Cameco
announced it would purchase a 25.2% share of South Texas Project's two 1315MWe
PWRs for $332.6 million from a subsidiary of American Electric Power.
Finally, and hopefully drawing a line under a recent low point, FirstEnergy
Nuclear Operating Company began the restart its Davis- Besse reactor in Ohio on
8 March 2004. The plant had been out of action since 16 February 2002, when
boric acid corrosion of the reactor vessel head was discovered.
Copyright Wilmington Publishing Ltd. Jun 2004