S&P: Pipe break could hurt Hope Creek finances

Washington (Platts)--15Oct2004

Hope Creek's pipe break, "the latest in a series of operational difficulties"
at the southern New Jersey site, which also houses Salem, could have a
particularly severe financial impact on PSEG Nuclear and its parent company,
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services (S&P) said today. Unexpected outages, such
as the Oct. 10 shutdown of Hope Creek--a 1,118-MW BWR--force the utility to
buy high-priced replacement power, S&P said. Yesterday, NRC began a special
inspection at the site. Such inspections are typical when there is a reactor
shutdown "with complications under unusual circumstances," said Neil Sheehan,
a spokesman for NRC's Region I. According to a NRC summary, the rupture of an
8-inch drain line caused a decrease in condenser vacuum that "complicated
post-trip reactor water level and pressure control." Hope Creek is scheduled
to begin a refueling outage Oct. 29. S&P, like Platts, is a part of The
McGraw-Hill Companies.

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