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Entergy Invests in Future at Arkansas Nuclear One
Index:
Entergy Invests in Future at Arkansas Nuclear One
British Energy slumps after reactor shutdown
N.Korea threatens to ditch nuclear freeze deal
CP&L's Robinson plant seeks 20-yr license renewal
Duke Power's Nuclear Stations Meet Customer Demand in Record Fashion
========================================
Entergy Invests in Future at Arkansas Nuclear One
RUSSELLVILLE, Ark., Aug. 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Entergy (NYSE:ETR) is
investing in the future of Arkansas with its decision to replace both
steam generators and the reactor vessel head for Arkansas Nuclear
One's Unit 1. Replacement work is scheduled for fall 2005 during the
unit's 19th refueling outage.
New steam generators will mean efficiency gains and improved
equipment reliability going forward. A new reactor vessel head will
resolve Unit 1's potential susceptibility to the industry's generic
Alloy 600 reliability issues. Alloy 600, a nickel alloy, is a
material commonly used on reactor vessel head nozzle penetrations.
After years of prolonged exposure to elevated temperatures and
pressure, Alloy 600 has shown a potential for cracking. Repairing
such cracks can extend the duration of outages.
Steam generators are massive heat exchangers about 75 feet in length
weighing over 500 tons located inside the reactor building. They
create steam by transferring heat from water heated in the reactor to
water in a secondary system. The steam is used to spin the turbine-
generator to create electricity just as in fossil-fueled generating
plants.
Both ANO Unit 2 steam generators were replaced in 2000. That was the
largest project for the site since original construction. Unit 2 was
shut down for 85 days to complete the $150 million project. Unit 2's
reactor vessel head was inspected during this spring's refueling
outage, and no evidence of cracking was found.
The estimated cost to build and install Unit 1's steam generators and
vessel head is about $235 million.
ANO is a valuable emission-free generation asset for Entergy.
Entergy Arkansas customers benefited from last year's record-setting
production at the site. Record efficiencies at ANO, combined with a
general decrease in fuel costs and purchased power, resulted in a
nearly 10 percent reduction on typical residential bills this year.
ANO's increased production is due primarily to improvements in
operational efficiency and equipment reliability and less downtime
for refueling. With 56 percent of Entergy Arkansas' power coming
from Arkansas Nuclear One last year, the company spent less on more
costly non-nuclear fuels and power purchased on the open market.
Unit 1, in commercial operation since 1974, is licensed to operate
until 2034. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission renewed its operating
license in 2001, adding 20 years to an authorized 40-year initial
operating period scheduled to end in 2014.
-------------------
British Energy slumps after reactor shutdown
LONDON, Aug 13 (Reuters) - British Energy Plc shares fell more than a
third on Tuesday after the privatised nuclear power producer said it
had taken another reactor out of service and was reviewing production
forecasts after the unplanned shutdown.
It was the second 600 megawatt (MW) reactor taken out of service at
Torness power station in Scotland, and the company, Britain's biggest
electricity generator, said it was not clear when it would come back
on stream.
Analysts said the difficulties would hit British Energy's profits and
its dividend could be under threat.
The Torness Reactor 1 was taken out of service at midday on Monday to
investigate vibrations on a gas circulator. Its twin, Torness Reactor
2, has been out of action and under repair since mid-May, when a gas
circulator failed.
British Energy has similar gas circulators at its Heysham 2 reactor
in northwest England and those operations were continuing as normal,
but were under review, it said.
The company's Dungeness nuclear power station in southeast England is
also out of commission for repairs and maintenance after an
unscheduled stoppage earlier this month.
"British Energy is quantifying the implications of the above for this
year's generation forecast and a further statement will be made on
this later today," it said.
At 1135 GMT, shares in the company were 37 percent lower at 56-1/4
pence, valuing British Energy at about 370 million pounds. Earlier
they hit 47 pence, their lowest since the company was privatised and
floated on the stock market six years ago.
"The worry is that if the output is knocked, profits are going to be
hit, and that endangers the dividend, which is already looking ropy,"
said Philip Hollobone, analyst at SG Securities.
The company paid a dividend of 16 pence in 1999, and halved it a year
later, keeping it at eight pence since then.
"We're now potentially looking at them cutting it in half again,"
Hollobone said.
The company had expected to generate 67.5 terawatt hours (TWh) in the
year 2002/03 and Hollobone said the difficulties could shave 2.5 TWh
off that. "But we'll have to wait for their own figures," he added.
UNDERPERFORMER
News of the Torness outage had little effect on UK power prices and
day ahead prompt power was trading at 11.65/11.70 pounds per megawatt
hour, hovering around the opening level.
"Six hundred megawatts makes little difference in a market which is
already over-supplied," one dealer said.
British Energy's shares have lost more than 80 percent of their value
in the past year and before Tuesday's fall had already underperformed
their British power sector peers by 34 percent over the same period.
The company has suffered as wholesale power prices fell 30 percent
following the introduction of a more competitive market just over a
year ago. It is the only significant British power generator with no
access to retail customers through ownership of a national brand or a
former regional monopoly.
British Energy shares often fluctuate sharply because analysts differ
markedly over how to value the business, which has long-term
decommissioning liabilities.
In May, it reported annual pre-tax profits of 47 million pounds, but
that was before 500 million pounds of exceptional write-offs on
generating assets and trading contracts associated with the wholesale
power price slide.
Other British electricity generators have restored a retail customer
base since the privatisation process separated the industry in the
1990s. As a result they can offset wholesale losses with higher
profits at the other end of the power chain.
But British Energy never achieved critical mass in the retail area,
and now has no household end-user customers.
----------------
N.Korea threatens to ditch nuclear freeze deal
SEOUL, Aug 13 (Reuters) - North Korea rejected on Tuesday a U.S.
demand to submit to nuclear inspections and threatened to pull out of
a 1994 deal under which Pyongyang froze its atomic weapons programme
in return for two reactors.
Last Wednesday, U.S. and other officials attended a concrete-pouring
ceremony at the planned reactor site at Kumho, North Korea.
U.S. envoy Jack Pritchard said in a speech there the North should
allow international checks on old atomic sites and plutonium stocks
"now, not later."
The North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman, in a statement issued by
the official KCNA news agency, said the United States was to blame
for years of delays to the project. Originally, the first reactor was
to have been ready by 2003.
"The reality is pushing us to the phase where we should make a final
decision to go our own way," the ministry spokesman said.
This was a reference to the core of the U.S.-North Korea deal which
was brokered in 1994 after the peninsula came close to war.
The crux of the accord was to stop Pyongyang acquiring weapons-grade
plutonium and give it light-water reactors which are harder to misuse
than the North's Soviet-era models.
Pyongyang has made similar threats in the past, but the timing of
Tuesday's comments was particularly sensitive as the two Koreas hold
talks and Washington decides when to send an envoy to the North.
Washington has rejected previous compensation claims.
Under the 1994 accord, known as the Agreed Framework, a multinational
consortium including the United States will deliver key components
for the reactors only when the International Atomic Energy Agency has
inspected the old sites and stocks.
The agency has said it needs to start that work now for the
consortium to deliver the crucial parts on time. Washington has said
the North caused delays by rejecting inspections.
North Korea argues there is no such deadline or requirement, and
wants Washington to compensate it for lost energy.
"By delaying construction...the U.S. has caused a huge loss of
electricity to the DPRK and created grave difficulties in its economy
as a whole," the ministry spokesman said. "This has seriously
threatened its right to existence."
The DPRK is the acronym for North Korea's official title, the
Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
The spokesman said Washington should discuss compensation "whether it
likes it or not" and save the deal by agreeing to
simultaneous action rather than demanding early inspections.
"We will move if the U.S. does," he said, according to KCNA.
----------------
CP&L's Robinson plant seeks 20-yr license renewal
WASHINGTON, Aug 12 (Reuters) - Carolina Power & Light, a unit of
Progress Energy Inc. <PGN.N>, has asked the Nuclear
Regulatory Commission for a 20-year renewal of the operating license
for the H.B. Robinson nuclear power plant Unit 2, the agency
said on Monday.
The current license for the plant located near Hartsville, South
Carolina expires in July 2010. The nuclear power plant began
operating in 1970.
The NRC said in a statement that it launched a review of Carolina
Power's June request. Any company or group seeking a hearing
on the nuclear plant renewal application has until Aug. 18 to submit
a request, the agency said.
The NRC set a tentative timetable, in which it aims to issue a
commission decision on the license renewal in Dec. 2004.
The Robinson plant also has a coal-fired electricity generating unit.
-----------------
Duke Power's Nuclear Stations Meet Customer Demand in Record Fashion
CHARLOTTE, N.C., Aug. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- During a hot,
humid summer in which electricity demand has been
consistently high, Duke Power's nuclear stations have established a
new reliability record.
The company's seven units in North Carolina and South Carolina have
simultaneously operated for a record 86 consecutive days --
eclipsing the old record of 85 days set in the summer of 2000.
For the first half of 2002, nuclear generation has provided 60
percent of Duke Power customers' electricity needs. This is
especially
important because a four-year drought has seriously limited the
availability of the company's hydroelectric generators.
"This is why Duke Power has advocated a diverse energy mix to meet
people's electricity needs," said Michael S. Tuckman,
executive vice president, nuclear generation. "Our balance has
enabled us to meet our customers' electricity demands without
interruption."
Duke Power's nuclear fleet is amassing an enviable long-term
performance record. Back in May, Catawba unit 1 set a national
record for shortest refueling/maintenance outage by an ice condenser
plant -- 21 days, one hour.
Two months earlier, McGuire unit 2 set a station record for shortest
refueling outage -- 32 days, six hours, 40 minutes.
In 2000, Oconee Nuclear Station operated all three of its units
simultaneously for 179 consecutive days, which is a national record
for a three-unit station, according to a review by the Nuclear Energy
Institute.
And last year, Oconee unit 2 operated for a company-record 485
consecutive days.
"What this proves is we're getting better in the efficiency and
effectiveness of our refueling/maintenance outages, resulting in
shorter outages and more reliable operation," Tuckman said. "Our
employees deserve much of the credit for their focus on safety,
dedication and work ethic.
"The bottom line is our stations are available and generating low-
cost electricity when our customers need it most."
-------------------------------------------------
Sandy Perle
Director, Technical
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Service
ICN Plaza, 3300 Hyland Avenue
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100 Extension 2306
Fax:(714) 668-3149
E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net
E-Mail: sperle@icnpharm.com
Personal Website: http://sandy-travels.com/
ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com/
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