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Senate OKs Plan to Revive Nuclear Power
Index:
Senate OKs Plan to Revive Nuclear Power
Greenspan: US should explore nuclear, coal options
INTERVIEW-Cameco CEO predicts comeback for nuclear power
Irish take Britain to The Hague over nuclear plant
Mayors give Niigata governor approval to resume nuke reactor
Water leaks at Joyo reactor, no impact on environment
RG&E says exploring sale of Ginna nuclear reactor
===============================
Senate OKs Plan to Revive Nuclear Power
WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. taxpayers may underwrite a new generation of
nuclear power plants now that the Senate has endorsed the idea as
part of a broad energy bill.
Under the measure, the government would provide loan guarantees for
at least a half dozen advanced design commercial nuclear power plants
expected to cost about $3 billion each. The government would
guarantee half the cost.
An attempt to strip the loan guarantees from the Senate bill fell
short Tuesday, 50-48. Critics called the government help a giveaway
to a mature industry that should be left to succeed or fail on its
own.
The guarantees are part of a broader package of pro-nuclear measures
in the bill, which may be approved within weeks, including a plan for
the government to build a $1.1 billion reactor to make hydrogen and
$865 million for research into reducing nuclear waste.
The measure marks the most ambitious attempt to energize the nuclear
industry in decades and goes much further to help nuclear power than
House legislation passed in April.
Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., architect of a package of pro-nuclear
provisions, said the government help is needed sustain the role of
nuclear power in the country's energy picture.
No utility has tried to build a new power reactor since the 1979
nuclear accident at Three Mile Island. Several companies have filed
papers with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission declaring an interest
in building a new-design reactor in the near future, probably at
locations with an existing a nuclear power plant.
Industry representatives have argued that the government safety net
is needed at least for the first group of reactors now that the
electric power industry is in transition from highly regulated to
competitive markets.
``The time has come to quit playing around with energy and say,
wherever we can, we are going to produce more energy,'' argued
Domenici. Nuclear power has long been neglected, he said, and that
has been ``a giant mistake.''
He said that nuclear energy is ``clean, affordable and reliable ...
and offers a potential and promise for this country and the rest of
the world that I believe we have never really tapped.'' The new
reactors will be smaller, safer and more efficient than plants built
in the past, he said.
The legislation calls for supporting enough new reactors to produce
8,400 megawatts of power. That would be enough to build seven
reactors similar in size to many of the large commercial power
reactors now in operation, but could also be used to build more
smaller reactors.
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who led the opposition to the loan
guarantees, said it's ``not a question about whether someone is pro-
nuclear or anti-nuclear'' but whether ``to put at risk the taxpayers
of this country'' if the reactor projects flop.
Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., a co-sponsor with Wyden of the amendment to
block the loan guarantees, said ``power plants should be developed on
a level playing field without government subsidizing one industry
over another.''
They cited a 50 percent estimate by the Congressional Budget Office
that reactor projects might default, leaving taxpayers left with a
$16 billion bill - half the total cost of the construction loans.
Industry representatives dispute the CBO analysis and contend private
companies also would stand to lose billions of dollars and would not
pursue the ventures unless they are shown to be viable.
In addition to the loan guarantees, the energy bill calls for:
A requirement that the government purchase power from the new-
generation reactors that would be built.
Construction of a $1.1 billion government-owned reactor in Idaho to
produce hydrogen.
Authorization for an additional $865 million to speed research into
ways to alter reactor waste chemically to reduce its volume and long-
term radioactivity.
Increases in other nuclear research spending by tens of millions of
dollars over current levels.
Even without the loan guarantees, the measures amount to $3.7 billion
in additional government support for the nuclear industry over five
years, estimated the Taxpayers for Common Sense, a private advocacy
group on tax issues. It called the bill ``one of the largest
corporate welfare handouts in our nation's history.''
The bill is S.14.
-----------------------
Greenspan: US should explore nuclear, coal options
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States should explore ways to
expand nuclear power and coal energy, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan
Greenspan told a congressional committee Tuesday.
But no matter how much the nation diversifies its sources, it will
never be free from politically sensitive foreign suppliers like the
Middle East, Greenspan told the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
"I think we are committed irrevocably to a global economy," Greenspan
said at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing to address
looming U.S. natural gas shortages. "I don't think we have a choice
but to deal in a global economy."
The central bank chief said the United States should expand its
ability to import liquefied natural gas from countries like Algeria,
Nigeria and Russia to create a "safety valve" that can stabilize
natural gas prices, which are double year-ago levels.
Congress should also look at ways to increase energy supplies from
nuclear and coal, Greenspan said. The two sources together account
for about 70 percent of U.S. supply.
"I think a major endeavor to examine this whole program is where we
ought to be," Greenspan said, referring to nuclear and coal
industries. "At least look at it rather than dismissing it out of
hand," he told lawmakers.
The United States has 103 operating nuclear power plants that produce
about 20 percent of domestic energy supply. Some utilities have said
they are considering seeking permits to build new plants, but
optimism has been tempered by lingering national security and plant
safety concerns.
No new U.S. nuclear plants have been built since the 1979 accident at
Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island plant, which had a partial meltdown
of its reactor core.
Also Tuesday, the U.S. Senate rejected a Democratic attempt to strip
from the energy bill some $10.5 billion in loan guarantees to
encourage utilities to build new nuclear plants. The Senate is trying
to finalize its version of a broad energy bill this week.
Few new U.S. coal plants have been built because of their high
emissions of air pollution and fears that the United States will bow
to pressure from Democrats and environmentalists to impose costly
controls on carbon dioxide emissions.
Virginia Democratic Rep. Rick Boucher pointed out that the nation has
enough coal supplies to last about 250 years.
"We have got to find some fuel alternatives and coal is the most
obvious candidate," Boucher told Reuters in an interview.
New "clean coal" technology could be used to build new plants "with
little environmental effect," Boucher said.
-----------------------
INTERVIEW-Cameco CEO predicts comeback for nuclear power
TORONTO (Reuters) - Nuclear energy's time may have come -- again.
Touted in the 1950s and 1960s as the answer to the world's energy
problems, then vilified for the Chernobyl (1986) and Three Mile
Island (1979) disasters, nuclear energy is poised for a comeback,
according to Gerald Grandey, chief executive of Cameco Corp., the
world's biggest uranium producer.
Helping fuel that interest is an ambitious plan by President George
W. Bush to reduce the dependence of the United States, the world's
biggest energy consumer, on imported oil.
That combines with growing public concern over pollution from fossil-
fuel power plants -- especially coal-fired generators, Grandey told
Reuters in a recent interview.
"We just have people listening now. The public's attitude is
beginning to warm up," he says.
Grandey's passion is to tout the environmental benefits of nuclear
power.
With growing public pressure for "greener" energy sources, that's
where low-pollution nuclear plants "win hands down," he says, unlike
coal-fired generators, which "use the atmosphere as a toilet."
Grandey's optimism wins support from Julian Steyn, president of the
Washington, D.C.-based consulting company Energy Resources
International.
"Demand for nuclear power in this century should be colossal," Steyn
said. And Canada will be at the forefront of the boom because "it is
the Saudi Arabia of uranium."
Steyn points out that the price of uranium climbed to $11 a pound in
May from $7 in late 2000 and could rise to $15 before 2010, as supply
concerns grow.
There are already forecasts of a shortfall as early as 2010 as
stockpiles -- originally built up during the Cold War -- dwindle,
reactors around the world step up output and mines in Canada, Russia,
Australia and Africa exhaust their supplies.
"Even at existing consumption (rates), there is concern about uranium
supply," Grandey says.
Of the more than 175 million pounds of uranium used annually, a third
comes from established stockpiles and the rest from mines such as the
McArthur River mine, in which Cameco has a 70 percent stake.
Located in the western Canadian province of Saskatchewan, McArthur
River is the world's richest uranium deposit. Cameco's stake in
McArthur and its 50.25 percent share of Cigar Lake mine, also in
Saskatchewan, together hold enough uranium to generate as much energy
as nine billion barrels of oil.
Cameco's biggest customer is the United States, where more than 100
reactors generate about 20 percent of the power. But prospects in
Asia are growing, with 97 reactors operating, 23 under construction
and 14 planned over the next decade.
Grandey, 56, an American, took the reins of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-
based Cameco in January. The 15-year-old company, which produces
about 17 percent of the world's uranium, is also a gold producer,
with mines in Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia and a property in Mongolia.
But plans call for it to spin off the gold operations by the end of
the year to focus on nuclear power.
Grandey's goal is to transform Cameco into an energy company that
invests in idled or unfinished reactors in Canada, the United States
and elsewhere.
Cameco recently upped its stake in Bruce Power, northwest of Toronto,
to 31.6 percent. It also sells uranium to Bruce, one of the biggest
nuclear power plants in North America.
Grandey said investment opportunities in nuclear plants are plentiful
because historically investors have shied away from such prospects
because of regulatory hurdles.
"What better place than a field where not many people are playing?"
he said.
-------------------
Irish take Britain to The Hague over nuclear plant
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (Reuters) - Ireland mounted a fresh bid
Tuesday to force Britain to shut down a controversial nuclear fuel
manufacturing plant by taking its concerns about pollution to an
international arbitration tribunal in The Hague.
Ireland accuses Britain of breaching a global maritime convention by
building the Sellafield MOX plant on England's northwest coast in the
1990s and says it is concerned about radioactive discharges into the
Irish Sea.
Ireland has asked a panel of five international arbiters at the
Permanent Court of Arbitration to decide if Britain breached the
United Nation's Law of the Sea Convention when it decided to build
the plant. The panel will hear both sides this month.
"The case was taken when the strongly held objections of the Irish
government to the commissioning of this plant, conveyed many times
and over many years to the United Kingdom, were disregarded," Irish
Environment Minister Martin Cullen said.
Britain emphatically rejected the Irish claim that it had breached
the convention and said the European Commission had ruled the plant
did not pose an environmental threat to Ireland.
"The fact is that the Sellafield MOX plant does not generate any
significant radioactive waste and has virtually no impact on
radioactive discharges," British Energy Minister Brian Wilson said,
adding that the Irish case had no basis in fact or law.
State-owned British Nuclear Fuels started operating the plant after
seeing off a series of legal challenges from the Irish government and
environmental groups. Britain says the plant meets the highest
international safety standards.
The latest Irish legal move is seen as part of a long-term strategy
to put pressure on London to close the plant, which mixes plutonium
with uranium oxides to produce MOX (mixed oxide) for use in nuclear
reactors.
Last year Dublin asked the Permanent Court of Arbitration for access
to information about the plant's viability that Britain says is
commercially sensitive. Britain is obliged under international law to
ensure the plant is commercially viable.
A ruling in that case is expected later this year.
-----------------------
Mayors give Niigata governor approval to resume nuke reactor
NIIGATA, Japan, June 11 (Kyodo) - The mayors of two Niigata
Prefecture municipalities hosting a nuclear power plant conveyed
their approval for resuming operations of a reactor there to Gov.
Ikuo Hirayama on Wednesday.
Kashiwazaki Mayor Masazumi Saikawa and Kariwa Mayor Hiroo Shinada
visited the prefectural government office and communicated their
decisions in the afternoon.
Hirayama is likely to decide whether the prefecture will give the
green light to resuming the operations of the No. 7 reactor of Tokyo
Electric Power Co.'s (TEPCO) Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant
following discussions at a prefectural assembly committee meeting
slated for Monday, sources close to the matter said.
Yoshihiko Sasaki, director general of the Ministry of Economy, Trade
and Industry's (METI) Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, and TEPCO
president Tsunehisa Katsumata are expected to attend the meeting as
unsworn witnesses, according to the sources.
If the prefectural government approves, the No. 7 reactor will be the
second of TEPCO's 17 reactors to be restarted. TEPCO's No. 6 reactor
in the Niigata plant resumed operations in May.
The No. 7 reactor is an advanced boiled water reactor, the same type
as the No. 6 reactor.
TEPCO has completed preparations to restart the No. 7 reactor on
Monday. METI recently said the reactor is safe.
Following revelations in August 2002 that TEPCO falsified safety
reports, the power company shut down all 17 of its nuclear reactors --
seven in Niigata Prefecture and 10 in Fukushima Prefecture -- for
safety checks in an effort to win the public's trust.
------------------
Water leaks at Joyo reactor, no impact on environment
MITO, Japan, June 10 (Kyodo) - Water leaked Tuesday afternoon at the
spent nuclear fuel storage pool of the Joyo experimental fast breeder
reactor (FBR) in the town of Oarai, Ibaraki Prefecture, but there was
no impact on the environment, the Japan Nuclear Cycle Development
Institute said.
Some 25 to 75 milliliters of water per minute was leaking as of 8
p.m. but the total amounts to less than 0.1 cubic meter and the
radiation level is below measurable limits, according to the
institute.
The institute found the leakage at around 7:10 p.m. after a water
leakage alarm was set off at around 5:50 p.m.
The facility has been suspended since June 2000 for checks and
improvements to make the 100,000-kilowatt reactor into a 140,000-
kilowatt one. The institute plans to resume operations in October.
It was built in 1977 as Japan's first fast breeder reactor as part of
the government's policy to recycle spent nuclear fuel to maximize
energy production.
Based on the results of research and development carried out at Joyo,
the fast breeder reactor Monju was built in Tsuruga, Fukui
Prefecture, and first taken critical in April 1994.
Monju, however, has been shut since a sodium leak there sparked a
fire in December 1995.
--------------------
RG&E says exploring sale of Ginna nuclear reactor
NEW YORK, June 10 (Reuters) - Rochester Gas & Electric Corp., a unit
of Energy East Corp. <EAS.N>, said it is looking into selling its
Ginna nuclear reactor as well as other power generation assets.
RG&E said it has begun the process as part of a plan to implement New
York State's deregulation program.
Other New York State utilities, including Consolidated Edison Inc.
<ED.N>, have sold off all or most of their generation assets as part
of a plan to lock in long-term rates for customers.
The 470 megawatt Ginna nuclear reactor is located in Wayne County,
New York, and has been in service since 1970. Its current operating
license expires in 2009, though RG&E last year filed an application
to extend the license by 20 years.
Energy East, a utility holding company based in Albany, New York,
acquired RG&E parent RGS Energy Group in June of last year.
-------------------------------------------------
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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