Reliant Energy HL&P's Nuclear Plant has Lowest Fuel Cost

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@EARTHLINK.NET>]

Index:



Reliant Energy HL&P's Nuclear Plant has Lowest Fuel Cost

Company to ask Aomori village for MOX factory construction

Japan Nuclear Fuel uses uncertified containers for shipment

Top German radiation expert warns on cellphones

=======================================



Reliant Energy HL&P's Nuclear Plant has Lowest Fuel Cost of All Power 

Plants In U.S.



WADSWORTH, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 31, 2001-- The South Texas 

Project Saved Houston-Area Customers 234 Million in Fuel Costs in 

2000  



The South Texas Project (STP) nuclear power plant had the lowest 

average fuel cost of any power plant in the U.S., according to 

reports filed with federal regulators for the year 2000. At less than 

four-tenths of a cent per kilowatt-hour (kwh), STP's cost is the best 

reported among American nuclear plants, and the uranium used in 

reactors is the least expensive power plant fuel, according to the 

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. 



STP's year-2000 4/10 of a cent fuel cost per kilowatt hour compares 

very favorably with 1999 industry average fuel costs of 1.45 cents 

per kilowatt hour for coal, 2.41 cents for oil and 2.84 cents for 

natural gas, the most recent summary data available to FERC. 



"We expect a lot from STP, and it hasn't let us down," said Tom 

Standish, president of Reliant Energy HL&P. "It has been in operation 

for over 13 years and was built to provide electricity using a 

reliable fuel with a stable price. In the year 2000, STP saved 

Houston-area customers about $234 million, or about $137 per 

customer." 



The nuclear plant set a new U.S. benchmark by generating more than 19 

billion kilowatt-hours of electricity with $76.4 million of fuel last 

year. STP's cost was 0.39971 cent/kwh or 17 percent below the 

national nuclear average of 0.481 cent/kwh, which also was a new 

record. 



STP Fuel Engineering Supervisor David Hoppes said the low cost 

resulted from buying uranium during market price dips and by reusing 

fuel. "We mine our spent fuel to find fuel assemblies that have been 

used but not exhausted," Hoppes said. "We've been getting extra 

energy out of about one-tenth of the assemblies in recent years. The 

reclaimed fuel is used in the plant's two reactors during their 17-

month production runs." 



STP supplies electricity to nearly one-third of Texas, in an area 

stretching from Houston to Austin and San Antonio, and south to 

Corpus Christi, Laredo and Harlingen. The plant is managed by the STP 

Nuclear Operating Company and owned by American Electric Power's 

Central Power and Light subsidiary, Austin Energy, City Public 

Service of San Antonio and Reliant Energy HL&P. The plant produces 

2,500 megawatts of electricity, enough to serve more than one million 

homes. Reliant Energy HL&P's 30.8 percent share of the plant provides 

about 8 percent of the company's overall needs. The rest is produced 

using coal and natural gas. 



Note: Photos and a fact sheet are available at URL: 

http://www.reliantenergy.com/news/pressreleases/press-release-225.asp

-----------------



Company to ask Aomori village for MOX factory construction



AOMORI, Japan, July 31 (Kyodo) - A nuclear fuel company is ready to 

ask the village of Rokkasho in Aomori Prefecture and the northeastern 

Japan prefecture for permission to build a factory there to 

manufacture mixed uranium and plutonium oxide fuel (MOX), company 

officials said Tuesday. 



Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. (JNFL), based in Aomori, will make an 

official request to the prefectural and village governments to build 

the plant after giving details of the plant, the officials said, 

adding that it aims to start operating the factory some time between 

2008 and 2009. 



MOX fuel -- made by mixing uranium with plutonium chemically 

extracted from spent nuclear fuel -- powers light-water nuclear 

reactors. 



The officials said JNFL is ready to make the request after completing 

examinations of a basic plan of the factory and technical information 

obtained from a French nuclear fuel company. 



The company will also undertake a drastic organizational change in 

preparation for moving its head office to the village, the officials 

said. 



The company is commissioned to build the factory by nine major power 

companies and Japan Atomic Power Co. 



The 120 billion yen plant, with the involvement of Tokyo Electric 

Power Co., is expected to have an annual output capacity of 130 tons. 



Under Japan's plutonium thermal project, the government is to 

establish a system to efficiently utilize precious uranium resources. 

The project calls for recycling the nuclear fuel -- burned at 

existing nuclear power plants -- to manufacture MOX fuel. 



In Rokkasho, JNFL is now building a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant, 

from which plutonium will be chemically extracted. The plant is 

expected to commence full operations in July 2005. 



The planned MOX factory -- to be built adjacent to the plutonium 

reprocessing plant now under construction -- will make MOX fuel by 

using plutonium extracted from spent nuclear fuel at the neighboring 

reprocessing plant. 

----------------



Japan Nuclear Fuel uses uncertified containers for shipment



TOKYO, July 31 (Kyodo) - Japan Nuclear Fuel Co., an international 

nuclear fuel processing firm based in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, 

has violated nuclear safety rules by using uncertified containers to 

ship nuclear raw materials, the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency 

said Monday. 



The agency said 31 containers that had not been properly certified 

had been used by the company for shipping nuclear raw materials. 



According to agency officials, 23 of the uncertified containers were 

among 2,000 the company had used since March to ship powdered uranium 

dioxide from France, and the rest was used for other shipments. 



While insisting that the uncertified containers posed no safety 

concerns, the Nuclear and Industrial safety Agency said it has 

instructed Japan Nuclear Fuel to take measures to prevent similar 

incidents from occurring in the future. 



The agency said similar reminders were sent to 17 other nuclear fuel 

companies involved in handling nuclear fuel containers. 



Japan Nuclear Fuel is a joint venture set up by General Electric Co. 

of the United States, Hitachi Ltd. and Toshiba Corp. in 1967 to 

process nuclear fuel used by power companies to produce electricity. 



Officials at the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, which operates 

under the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, say all nuclear 

containers were inspected before shipment and the 31 uncertified 

containers posed no safety concerns. 



According to Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency officials, 

containers used for shipping radioactive materials are subject to 

regular inspection to ensure operational safety. 



Japan Nuclear Fuel found out about the undocumented containers and 

reported them to the Nuclear and Industrial safety Agency. 



The agency asked Nippon Nuclear Fuel to check all its 3,000 nuclear 

fuel containers in April after the agency found some of the 

containers company used had no certification papers. 

-----------------



Top German radiation expert warns on cellphones

  

BERLIN, July 30 (Reuters) - Germany's top radiation official said in 

an interview released on Monday that people, especially children, 

should minimise their use of mobile phones as a health precaution. 



"In general, cellphone calls should be kept as short as possible," 

Wolfram Koenig, head of the Radiation Protection Agency, told the 

Berliner Zeitung. "Parents should keep their children away from this 

technology as much as possible." 



In the interview scheduled for publication on Tuesday, he also 

advised car drivers to avoid using mobiles completely. 



Earlier this year, the U.S. cellular telephone industry came under 

renewed legal attack in a series of class-action lawsuits claiming 

that cellphones pose a series of health risks ranging from infections 

to brain damage. 



Most similiar previous cases have been dismissed. 



Studies published recently in the New England Journal of Medicine and 

the American Medical Association have found no evidence that the 

phones cause brain tumours in the people who use them. 



Koenig said there was no scientific evidence of health risks through 

cellphones, but he warned of possible hidden risks through thermal 

and biological effects. 



He said science must urgently address whether cellphones could be 

linked to a series of different illnesses.



------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	

Director, Technical				Extension 2306 				     	

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Service		Fax:(714) 668-3149 	                   		    

ICN Pharmaceuticals, Inc.			E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 				                           

ICN Plaza, 3300 Hyland Avenue  		E-Mail: sperle@icnpharm.com          	          

Costa Mesa, CA 92626                    



Personal Website: http://www.geocities.com/scperle

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com



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