Global Monitor: NRG applies for first COL

Power, Nov 2007

face= Bold; Barnwell radwaste disposal site to close.face=-Bold; In a move that will reduce the nation's already limited capacity for disposing of low-level radioactive waste, face= Bold; EnergySolutions LLCface=-Bold; has announced it will not seek to keep its Barnwell landfill in South Carolina open to waste generators from all states after June 2008. The decision reflects growing opposition to radwaste storage by state lawmakers, as well as a new controversy over groundwater contamination at Barnwell that has drawn the concern of South Carolina's attorney general.

EnergySolutions officials said they will not try to change a current South Carolina law that requires Barnwell to stop accepting deliveries of nuclear waste from states other than South Carolina, Connecticut, and New Jersey--the three members of the Atlantic interstate compact for low-level radioactive waste disposal.

Barnwell's closing will leave most utilities and other low-level radwaste generators only two commercial disposal options: a facility in Clive, Utah (also operated by EnergySolutions), and a landfill in Richland, Wash., managed by a subsidiary of American Ecology Corp. under the trade name U.S. Ecology. The Washington site only accepts deliveries of low-level radwaste from states belonging to the Northwest and Rocky Mountain waste disposal compacts.

Barnwell, the nation's oldest low-level waste disposal site, began operation in 1971 and has since taken in about 28 million cubic feet of waste. The 235-acre site is now 90% full. In recent years, environmentalists have ratcheted up their opposition to Barnwell, saying its disposal practices do not meet modern standards, as evidenced by the burial of some waste in containers with holes in the bottom.

EnergySolutions officials said their decision on Barnwell was largely dictated by political realities in South Carolina. In particular, they noted that the Agriculture Committee in the South Carolina House of Representatives voted 16-0 this April to defeat a proposal that would have kept Barnwell open to all states for another 15 years. The unanimous vote was somewhat surprising because the state government has typically received more than $10 million annually from Barnwell to support education programs--revenues that will doubtless be curtailed by the restriction of access to the landfill.

face= Bold; We Energies transfers ownership of Point Beach Nuclear Plant to FPL Energy.face=-Bold; On October 1, face= Bold; We Energiesface=-Bold; announced completion of the sale of its two-unit Point Beach Nuclear Plant to face= Bold; FPL Energy.face=-Bold; On that day, FPL assumed management and operation of Point Beach from Nuclear Management Co., which had operated the plant for We Energies since 2000.

FPL Energy bought the plant, its nuclear fuel, and associated inventories for $924 million. With final closing adjustments, the deal also will release to We Energies decommissioning trust investments worth more than $482 million. All told, the sale will yield more than $882 million of proceeds for the benefit of We Energies' customers--about $57 million more than originally projected.