[ RadSafe ] [Nuclear News] TVA will aim for nuclear unit, conservation

[Sandy Perle]

Index:

TVA will aim for nuclear unit, conservation
Comhar: Informed debate required on Ireland nuclear issue 
Federal agency to inspect nuclear plant after power failure
Electricity supply sparks debate at pre-budget hearing
More Russian nuclear fuel delivered to Iran
Value assessment of Byron Nuclear Power Plant
Millstone Plans Presentation On Nuclear Technology
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TVA will aim for nuclear unit, conservation
Goal is to cut its purchases of costly outside power

(Tennessean.com) Jan 24 - TVA's next rate hike for electricity will 
probably be a 6 percent-9 percent jump in April for projects that 
include a new nuclear power unit and energy efficiency, agency 
President and CEO Tom Kilgore said.

Kilgore also told The Tennessean editorial board that he supports 
reprocessing of nuclear waste to reduce it and create more fuel, but 
believes a long-disputed disposal facility proposed for Nevada's 
Yucca Mountain is necessary.
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"Nuclear waste is a long-lasting problem, and we still need something 
to dispose of that permanently," he said.


For now, TVA has plenty of space to store its nuclear waste on-site, 
he said.

Reprocessing is a controversial practice of separating uranium and 
plutonium for reuse from other materials in the radioactive waste 
from nuclear fuel.

While France is one of the countries that is reprocessing, it brings 
with it a new set of costs and problems and still leaves lots of 
radioactive waste, critics say.

Kilgore said that a new nuclear unit and getting residents and 
businesses to reduce energy use would cut the amount of costly 
outside power now required.

About $1 billion of electricity - 12.4 percent of its power - was 
bought during the 12 months ending last September.

"We have to buy way too much power," Kilgore said Wednesday. "We're 
trying to close the gap."
Drought was costly

About $230 million of the cost resulted from the drought. Low water 
levels reduced power from the agency's dams. Production had to be 
stopped temporarily, too, at a nuclear unit. Nuclear and coal plants 
both rely on water for cooling.

About 10 percent of TVA's electricity is from hydroelectric, 30 
percent nu clear, 60 percent coal and a percentage or two from 
natural gas plants. Less than 1 percent comes from solar and other 
green technologies.

The agency intends to increase its power output by completing a 
nuclear unit at Watts Bar, estimated to cost $2.5 billion and take 
five years. About $22 million is set aside for energy efficiency and 
conservation so far, but the amount could go well over $100 million, 
he said.

"We want to be leaders on this," he said.

The "listening session" the TVA board holds to hear from the public 
is being moved to the beginning of the meeting in an effort to get 
comment before votes are taken, he said.

It is unlikely that the public would get the materials that the board 
members would have or be voting on later in the meeting, he said. He 
added that this would be looked into further.
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Comhar: Informed debate required on Ireland nuclear issue 

Calls for a debate about nuclear power in Ireland have been supported 
by the country's Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural 
Resources, Eamon Ryan.

At the present time, the country has no nuclear-generated 
electricity, but this may change in light of pro-nuclear political 
developments in countries including the UK and Finland.

The Comhar Sustainable Development Council's chairman, Professor 
Frank Convery, noted the importance of being informed about the 
issues that must be addressed in such a debate.

In a new commentary, Sustainability and the Nuclear Option, he spells 
out these issues, which include clarifying what will happen if the 
country does not adopt nuclear power, estimating future greenhouse 
gas emissions with and without nuclear, and analysing options for 
waste disposal.

Professor Convery notes that the price per tonne of CO2 in the EU's 
Emission Trading Scheme currently stands at Euro 23.10, and this cost 
is likely to increase after 2012 when stricter emissions rules are 
introduced.

"This price wedge is a crucially important factor in enhancing the 
commercial viability of both wind and nuclear power," he writes.

The manufacturing process for nuclear power (and wind power) involves 
the use of energy, and therefore greenhouse gas emissions, but in 
operation it is virtually carbon-free.

At a time when Ireland is attempting to lower its CO2 emissions, this 
is an "important dividend from both the perspective of climate change 
and in commercial terms", he argues.

Other issues that Professor Convery said need to be discussed include 
the security of supply of fossil fuels, and nuclear weapons 
proliferation. 
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Federal agency to inspect nuclear plant after power failure

TWO RIVERS (AP) Jan 22  - The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has 
begun a special inspection at the Point Beach Nuclear Power Station, 
the agency said Tuesday.

Commission officials hope to learn why an electrical transformer 
failed last week at the Two Rivers facility. The failure left a 
safety system that´s used in emergencies temporarily without power.

The regulatory commission monitored the event for about 24 hours. The 
plant remained in stable condition, and public safety was never at 
risk, agency officials said.

The point of the current inspection is to understand what went wrong, 
said James Caldwell, the agency´s regional administrator.

"We also need to have confidence that the utility gains a full 
understanding of what happened and what needs to be done to prevent 
recurrence of such electrical problems," he said in a statement.

The plant is owned by FPL Energy, based in Juno Beach, Fla.

A spokesman for the power plant did not immediately return a message 
left Tuesday afternoon by The Associated Press.
The nuclear agency last conducted a special investigation of the 
Point Beach facility in June after a water pump designed to cool the 
reactor briefly ran at a higher-than-normal temperature. At the time 
the plant was operated by Nuclear Management Company, now Xcel 
Energy, in Minneapolis, Minn.
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Electricity supply sparks debate at pre-budget hearing

(Tb News Source) Jan 24 - An energy debate put the spark into the 
provincial pre-budget hearing for Northwestern Ontario held in 
Thunder Bay on Thursday.

The point of contention was the proposed 2014 Integrated Power Supply 
Plan which came up last after 14 different groups made presentations 
to the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs

Northern Ontario Municipal Association vice-president Iain Angus 
expressed concerns to the committee surrounding the Ontario Power 
Authority's plan to close the coal-fired generating plants by 2014. 
He says alternative energy sources must be put into place before that 
happens.

One member of the Finance and Economic Affairs Committee suggested 
looking into the possibility of building a nuclear plant in the 
region for future energy needs. Angus said the idea makes no sense.

Mayor Lynn Peterson entered the fray saying the plan prohibits 
industrial growth in the region and made a request for funding to 
conduct research on alternative fuels in the city. She also expressed 
the need for a 'Made in Canada' policy and having a Deputy Minister 
of Research and Innovation based in Thunder Bay.

The committee, made up of both government and opposition members 
listened to various requests, big and small. Thunder Bay and District 
Injured Workers Support Group made their case again for increased 
funding as they have been, unsuccessfully since 1987.

Pic River First Nation with a population of 350 people gave a 
detailed description of what it's like to learn on reserve. They 
requested provincial assistance to help fund basic elementary school 
needs saying that because of an inadequate federal funding model they 
can't teach their own language in their school.

Even inexperienced lobbyists had a voice, like the first time funding 
request from The Thunder Bay Health Coalition. They asked for an 
increase for aboriginal and disabled health care and money to provide 
better mental health services.

All of the groups had more than one funding request in their 
presentations with the biggest one coming from the city of Thunder 
Bay for $50 million through the Ministry of Research and Innovation.

It remains to be seen whether any of these requests make their way 
into the Liberal government's spring budget.
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More Russian nuclear fuel delivered to Iran

TEHRAN (AFP) - Russia delivered a sixth consignment of fuel for 
Iran's first nuclear power plant in the Gulf port of Bushehr on 
Thursday which makes it around 80 percent of the consignment, the 
official IRNA news agency reported.

"The sixth load of nuclear fuel arrived at the Bushehr plant on 
Thursday morning," said a statement from the Organisation for 
Production and Development of Nuclear Energy quoted by the news 
agency.

The delivery brings the nuclear fuel supplied by Russia so far to 66 
tonnes or around 80 percent of the total order of 82 tonnes, IRNA 
said.

Previous deliveries were made on December 17 and 28, and January 18, 
20 and 22. Two more consignments are due by February according to a 
timetable agreed by the two sides.

Late last month, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the 
Bushehr reactor would be working at 50 percent capacity by mid-2008.

But the Russian constructors insist the 1,000-megawatt plant will not 
go on line until the end of the year.

After delivery of the first shipment of fuel, Russia said Iran no 
longer needed to pursue its own uranium enrichment, a message 
repeated by US President George W. Bush.

Tehran has so far defied successive UN Security Council ultimatums to 
suspend enrichment prompting two sets of UN sanctions.

The six major powers, the five veto-wielding permanent members of the 
Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United 
States -- plus Germany drew up a new text on Tuesday to put before 
the council.

The contents of the text agreed by the foreign ministers of the so 
called 5+1 were not released.

But a senior US official said the new draft "increases the severity 
of the sanctions already in place and will also introduce new 
elements."

Iran on Wednesday described as illegal and ineffective the threat of 
new UN sanctions and said it would clear up any remaining questions 
about its nuclear programme in talks with the UN watchdog.

The Western powers fear that Iran's nuclear programme is a cover for 
a drive to develop a bomb, a charge Tehran strongly denies.
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Value assessment of Byron Nuclear Power Plant

Bryon, IL (WTVO) - The Ogle County Board of Review gives their ruling 
on how much the Exelon nuclear power plant is worth.
They assessed it at 455-million dollars.
That's up from last year at 436-million.
Last year exelon paid 27.6 million dollars in taxes.
It's not yet known how much that number will be this year.
Exelon had argued that the value of the plant was 309-million 
dollars. Officials say the ruling could be appealed.
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Millstone Plans Presentation On Nuclear Technology

The owner of the Millstone Power Station in Waterford will present 
information on new nuclear reactor technology at a meeting Thursday 
of the Nuclear Energy Advisory Council. The public meeting with 
Dominion takes place at 7 p.m. in the auditorium of East Lyme Town 
Hall. The council will also review and consider approving its 2007 
annual report.-----------------------------------------
Sander C. Perle
President
Mirion Technologies, Inc., Dosimetry Service Division
2652 McGaw Avenue
Irvine, CA 92614 

Tel: (949) 296-2306 / (888) 437-1714  Extension 2306
Fax:(949) 296-1144

E-Mail: sperle at dosimetry.com
E-Mail: sandyfl at cox.net 

Global Dosimetry: http://www.dosimetry.com/
Mirion Technologies: http://www.mirion.com/