Nuke plant shutdowns up 40% from a year ago

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(snip)

According to a Reuters survey today of nuclear plant operators, total nuclear generating capacity off line for refueling and/or extended maintenance was still up 40 percent from the same year-ago period.

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http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/000310/v9.html

-- - (x@xxx.com), March 10, 2000

Answers

Squirrels I'll bet.

-- - (x@xxx.com), March 10, 2000.

You're link is bad. So, no points for this one.

-- Buddy (buddydc@go.com), March 10, 2000.

Try reading the article, it's halway down.

-- - (x@xxx.com), March 10, 2000.

Friday March 10, 12:29 pm Eastern Time

NYMEX Hub gas moves up midday on technicals, cash

NEW YORK, March 10 (Reuters) - NYMEX Hub natgas mostly moved higher midday Friday in moderate trade, lifted by reports of a firmer weekend physical market and some follow through technical buying after yesterday's rebound, sources said.

At 12:25 p.m., April was up 2.4 cents at $2.81 per million British thermal units after trading today between $2.785 and $2.835. May was 2.4 cents higher at $2.84. Most other months were flat to up 2.4 cents.

``We saw a little selling this week when crude tanked, but I still like the market. I'm a little nervous up here, but the technicals still look okay, and there are still questions about whether we're going to get enough gas in the ground for next winter,'' said one East Coast trader, noting gas stocks were fairly low.

Recent AGA data showed that total gas inventories of 1.165 trillion cubic feet were still 427 bcf, or 27 percent, below last year, raising expectations an early rush to rebuild storage could help support physical and paper prices when injections begin in April.

In addition, traders said still-high oil prices and a busy spring nuclear plant maintenance program also should translate into additional demand for gas.

According to a Reuters survey today of nuclear plant operators, total nuclear generating capacity off line for refueling and/or extended maintenance was still up 40 percent from the same year-ago period.

WSC expects East Coast temperatures Friday to climb to as much as 18 degrees F above normal, then moderate to normal or slightly above on Monday and Tuesday. Midwest readings will range from near seasonal Friday-Saturday to several degrees above seasonal later in the period.

The mercury in Texas mostly will average three to six degrees above normal for the next five days, while the West also will see mostly above seasonal temperatures.

Despite some profit taking this week, chart traders agreed the uptrend was still intact.

April resistance was pegged at the new contract high of $2.88, with further selling likely in the low-$2.90s. Psychological resistance was expected at $3.00.

Minor support in April was seen at $2.67, with trendline support in the low-$2.60s. Buying also was expected at the 40 day moving average of $2.60 and then at the fifty-percent retracement point of $2.53. Better support should emerge at $2.495, which was the Feb 23 low. Further support was at $2.44, which was the low last month.

In the cash Friday, Henry Hub weekend quotes firmed more than a nickel to the $2.76-2.77 area. Midwest pipes were almost a dime higher in the high-$2.60s. In the West, El Paso Permian was up more than five cents at about $2.67.

Weekend gas on Transco at the New York city gate gained five cents to about $3.00 on cooler forecasts, while Chicago also was a nickel higher at $2.81-2.82.

NYMEX said 22,116 Hub contracts traded at 11:45 p.m. Hub open interest on March 9 rose 4,776 lots to 288,114.

For the latest U.S. spot natural gas prices type NG-US and hit F3.

-- - (x@xxx.com), March 10, 2000.


Sessions pushing nuclear energy

03/10/2000 By BRETT DAVIS Times Washington Correspondent

WASHINGTON - Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Mobile, said Thursday he has a solution for rising gasoline and energy prices: the nation needs to increase reliance on nuclear power, maybe starting with TVA's mothballed Bellefonte plant.

Sessions told a hearing of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works that the U.S. has backed away too far from nuclear energy. Nuclear power generates around 20 percent of the country's electricity, versus 60 percent for France and nearly 50 percent for Japan.

''It is insanity to believe that we can meet our energy and environmental needs without the use of nuclear power,'' said Sessions, who was once a member of the committee.

Space & Technology

Sessions said he knows a good place to get started, and that's near Scottsboro, at the unfinished Bellefonte plant. That plant is 85 percent complete, but TVA hasn't decided what to do with it.

''When you go in it, it looks like you could turn a switch and it would run,'' Sessions said.

He said that fear of Nuclear Regulatory Commission red tape is helping keep TVA from finishing Bellefonte as a nuclear plant.

''I think that's its highest and best use,'' Sessions said after the hearing. ''It would involve a thousand, perhaps, high-paid employees. It would be great for the economy, it would allow TVA to cut back on its fossil fuel production, which would cause great improvement in the air. It's a win-win.''

TVA officials have said they won't finish Bellefonte as a nuclear plant without an economic partner in the deal.

For a while, it looked like Uncle Sam might be that partner, because the Department of Energy considered using Bellefonte to make tritium for the nation's nuclear weapon stockpile.

That didn't pan out - TVA's Watts Barr plant in Tennessee got the nod instead. ''I was convinced that TVA would bring that plant online if they had gotten the tritium deal, tritium production there,'' Sessions said.

Instead, TVA is looking at the feasibility of reopening the inactive Unit 1 reactor at its Browns Ferry plant near Athens as a way to meet future demand, although that's just one option of many being considered.

TVA is also adding natural gas units to some fossil plants to meet peak demand, and is also building a natural gas unit in Tennessee for that purpose. Those units could also burn oil.

Sessions said natural gas is fine, but he complained that the White House has ruled some public lands and water off-limits for natural gas drilling, so its cost may rise in the future, too.

''If we shut off the Gulf, if we shut off the Rocky mountains, natural gas prices are going to go through the roof,'' Sessions said.

He said nuclear energy could fill that gap, and he still has hopes for Bellefonte. ''It's too much capacity for them to allow that plant to not ever be used,'' Sessions said. ''As the price of energy goes up it will be more and more viable to bring it on line.''

http://www.al.com/news/huntsville/Mar2000/10-e26668.html

-- - (x@xxx.com), March 10, 2000.



OK, my bad.

But, check this out:

http://www.nrc.gov/NRR/DAILY/psr.htm

17 plants are down, so that 40% quoted from Reuters (which in this case makes it second hand info.) can be misleading.

That means last year at this time there were 12 down, now there are 17. So, what's the big deal?

-- Buddy (buddydc@go.com), March 10, 2000.


Natural gas prices.

-- - (x@xxx.com), March 10, 2000.

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