Nuke

With federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission investigators picking through the aftermath of last Monday’s emergency shutdown of Arizona’s Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant, the first of its three units (Unit #1) was ramping up to full operations Friday, according to a spokesperson for Phoenix-based Arizona Public Service (APS), the majority owner and operator of the plant.

South Carolina Electric & Gas (SCE&G) recently discovered that seal injection piping at the utility’s 1,000 MW Summer nuclear power plant in South Carolina has been leaking boron, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) reported last Tuesday.

Marking another step in the long journey to get the shuttered 935 MW Davis Besse nuclear power plant back online, FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co. (FENOC) officials last week said that a recent pressure test at the plant fully met all of its objectives, including validation of the integrity of the bottom of the plant’s reactor vessel and of the reactor coolant system.

FPL Energy last week concluded that small boron deposits on the reactor vessel head of the 1,161 MW Seabrook nuclear power plant in New Hampshire resulted from a leaking weld, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) said last Wednesday.

Bucking the trend that has brought other companies’ merchant operations to the brink of disaster, New Orleans-based Entergy Corp. on Tuesday reported that its energy trading earnings for the fourth quarter were up 33% from the same period of 2001, while overall, quarterly earnings rose more than 25%.

At the urging of Congressman Paul Gillmor (R-OH), House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Billy Tauzin (R-LA) last Thursday said that he is sending investigators next week to FirstEnergy Corp.’s Davis-Besse nuclear power plant in Ohio, which is already under scrutiny from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) after the plant’s operator discovered major corrosion on the plant’s reactor head.

With the drought that plagued the northwest region of the country for most of 2001 appearing to be over, the resulting increase in hydropower will likely not put natural gas-fired generation out of business, according to Raymond James & Associates Inc. in its Stat of the Week. Raymond James analyst J. Marshall Adkins said the negative impact on gas-fired electricity generation from the increase in hydropower will be mostly offset by a reduction in nuclear power generation in 2002.

With the drought that plagued the northwest region of the country for most of 2001 appearing to be over, the resulting increase in hydropower will likely not put natural gas-fired generation out of business, according to Raymond James & Associates Inc. in its Stat of the Week. Raymond James analyst J. Marshall Adkins said the negative impact on gas-fired electricity generation from the increase in hydropower will be mostly offset by a reduction in nuclear power generation in 2002.

Dominion earnings beat consensus Wall Street estimates by about 2 cents/share coming in at $180 million (72 cents/share), compared to $139 million (59 cents/share) for the same period in 2000. The improved performance was mainly attributed to higher gas and oil prices and the addition of the Millstone nuclear power station. Other highlights included the addition of more than 2,600 MW of new generation during the quarter, 47,000 new energy delivery customers, a 130 Bcf increase in proven gas and oil reserves to 2.95 Tcfe–resulting in a 266% reserve replacement ratio, and the divestiture of Saxon Mortgage.