Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.energy From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: energy Thu, Mar 26 1992 Date: Thu, 26 Mar 92 05:44:31 EST Message-ID: 03-26 0000 DECISIONLINE: Energy USA TODAY Update March 26, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network ROCKWELL TO PLEAD GUILTY: Rockwell International Corp. Thursday will plead guilty to 10 violations of hazardous waste laws arising from its operation of the Rocky Flats nuclear weapons plant, and to pay a fine of nearly $20 million, The Associated Press reported. The pleas, in Denver federal court, will cap a three-year investigation. Rockwell officials declined to comment. RUSSIAN NUKE PLANTS UNSAFE: Tuesday's leak of radioactive gas from a Russian reactor underscores the need to help eastern Europe modernize its old - and potentially hazardous - reactors, experts say. "There's no question that those reactors are not as safe as ours," says Scott Peters of the U.S. Council for Energy Awareness, a nuclear industry trade group. "But the whole area is energy-starved." (For more, see special Safety package below.) NATURAL GAS PRICES RALLY ON: Natural gas prices extended their rally to four straight sessions Wednesday. Natural gas for delivery in May settled at $1.379 per 1,000 cubic feet, up 9.8 cents, at the New York Mercantile Exchange. A combination of cold weather across much of the USA and recent cutbacks in production from energy companies have been boosting natural gas prices. OIL PRICES FALL SLIGHTLY: Oil futures languished in sluggish trading Wednesday at the Mercantile Exchange. Light sweet crude oil for delivery in May settled at $19.19 per barrel, down 3 cents. Home heating oil for delivery in April settled at 52.79 cents a gallon, down .42 cent. Unleaded gasoline for delivery in April settled at 57.68 cents a gallon, down .11 cent. SHELL CANADA ANNOUNCES SPENDING: Shell Canada Ltd. plans capital and exploration expenditures of about $835 million in 1992, a decrease of $153 million from the 1991 level, the company said Wednesday. Some $590 million is allocated to resources, $215 million to oil products, $10 million to chemicals and $20 million to corporate departments. Within resources, $420 million is for natural gas exploration. DEADLINE FOR NOZZLES APPROACHES: April 1 is deadline for about 800 medium-sized gasoline stations across Massachusetts to install new vapor-trapping nozzles on their pumps, an environmental official said Wednesday. The deadline is the second phase of a state program to cut smog. In 1991, 1,000 stations installed the nozzles that keep vapors from escaping into the air. COLUMBIA GAS OWES $42M IN TAXES: Columbia Gas Transmission Corp. paid South Carolina $5.4 million in property taxes, an official said Wednesday. The natural gas transporter is under federal bankruptcy protection, but a judge has ruled it could pay $31 million of $42 million in taxes it owes 10 states. NUCLEAR TEST CANCELED: A nuclear test near Las Vegas that was to be monitored by 23 Russian scientists was postponed Wednesday because of unfavorable wind conditions at Nevada Test Site, officials said. Eleven anti-nuclear activists were arrested while protesting at the gates of the site. The device to be detonated has the explosive force of 150,000 tons of TNT. TRY TO STOP DRILLING REBUKED: A Wisconsin judge Wednesday rebuked Lac Courte Oreilles Chippewa tribe's plea to temporarily halt drilling of an exploratory oil well in Ashland. A permanent ruling will be issued Monday. The tribe says the state didn't fully assess the environmental impact of the drilling. TEST OF RESIDENTS CANCELED: A meeting is Thursday to inform residents of Hockessin, Del., that plans for a federal health study of them have been canceled, a state official said Wednesday. He said the air quality in the community has improved in the year since deluge of complaints over chemical odor. Odor was caused by mercaptan leaking from natural gas pipeline owned by Delmarva Power & Light Co. SPECIAL PACKAGE ON SAFETY: RUSSIANS `KIND OF CAUGHT': Scott Peters of the U.S. Council for Energy Awareness says the Russians are "kind of caught" because they need the electricity supplied by their unsafe nuclear plants and they don't have a ready source of supply of other fuel. The reactor at the Leningradskaya plant that leaked radioactive gas is a graphite-cooled style called RBMK - the same kind that exploded at Chernobyl in 1986. RBMK DOESN'T HAVE SHIELD: Unlike the light-water reactors used in the West, the RBMK does not have the domed containment structure typically made of concrete and steel that acts as a shield in accidents. Its design also is the reverse of Western water-cooled reactors: If the RBMK loses its water, the nuclear reaction process speeds up rather than slows down as Western plants do. The RBMK was built in the early 1970s. SAFETY STILL A SERIOUS ISSUE: The former Soviet republics, heavily dependent on nuclear power, have 15 nuclear plants with a total of 45 reactors - 16 of them RBMK-type. Last year, there were a total of 270 shutdowns at all 15 plants. Although some procedures have been improved since Chernobyl, safety remains a serious issue at the plants, says Ivan Selin, head of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. GERMANS CALL FOR SHUTDOWNS: Upgrading eastern Europe's reactors to Western safety standards would cost about $8.4 billion, says Adolf Haertl, energy chief at Germany's Siemens. German experts say the 16 RBMK reactors - all in Russia, Ukraine and Lithuania - should be shut down. "We remain convinced that the RBMK reactors cannot be brought up to standards," said Klaus Toepfer, Germany's environment minister. (End of package.) Energy Editor: William Snoddy. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM