Reactor

Baltimore-based Constellation Energy Group's nuclear development arm said yesterday that it has asked state regulators for a permit to build a third reactor at Calvert Cliffs in Lusby, though the company maintains it has not yet decided to go ahead with the project. UniStar Nuclear Energy, a joint venture between Constellation and Electricite de France SA, applied to the Maryland Public Service Commission for what's called a certificate of public convenience and necessity. The PSC will coordinate a multiagency review of the project's potential impact on the environment and state infrastructure, among other things.

GREAT NECK, N.Y. -- Scientists at Brookhaven National Laboratory are dismayed at the Department of Energy's decision to permanently close an aging nuclear reactor that has been shut since 1996, but environmentalists praised the move."

WASHINGTON -- With as much diplomatic delicacy as it could muster, the U.S. government advised traveling Americans yesterday that dozens of countries might not fix year 2000 computer problems in time to prevent major disruptions around Jan. 1.In its first country-by-country assessment of the "Y2K bug," the State Department said many nations are likely to suffer disruptions in energy systems, communications, health care and shipping. No foreign country is free of Y2K risk, it said.The reports range from cautiously optimistic for developed countries such as Japan and France to gloomy but hopeful for Russia and other states from the former Soviet Union.

Nearly three months after a reactor explosion that injured five of its workers, Condea Vista resumed production at its South Baltimore plant late yesterday.Condea Vista, which makes a key ingredient in household cleaners, received the state's permission to start up the plant after signing a consent decree Dec. 24 with the Maryland Department of the Environment.In the decree, the chemical manufacturer admitted to illegally discharging visible emissions, failing to take reasonable precautions to prevent the accident and creating a public nuisance.

WOODLAWN -- A dawn fire damaged three apartment buildings near Security Square Mall yesterday and left 17 families homeless, fire officials said. No one was injured in the blaze.The fire began in a third-floor apartment at No. 3 Woodbriar Court, said Battalion Chief Mark Hubbard of the Baltimore County Fire Department, and spread through the top floors to the two flanking apartment buildings.The cause of the fire, which took nearly an hour to extinguish, remained under investigation. Damage was estimated at $750,000, Hubbard said.

Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. abruptly shut down one of two reactors at its Calvert Cliffs Nuclear Power Plant in Lusby late Thursday, after workers discovered a leak in a steam pipe.The manual shutdown of the Unit 2 reactor marks the first time since November 1996 that the reactor has stopped operating. The automatic shutdown that occurred then stemmed from a low water level in the reactor's steam generator.BGE spokesman Karl R. Neddenien said repairs to the pipe, which is in a non-nuclear area of the plant, would take "several days."

Lebanese man is suspect in blaze that killed 10LUEBECK, Germany -- Police said yesterday that they had detained a 21-year-old Lebanese man as a suspect in Thursday's fire that killed 10 immigrants at a shelter for asylum-seekers. They said the suspect lived there.A local newspaper said the man and two of his brothers had been taken into custody Friday. The brothers were released.Bahrain threatens to use armed forces to stop riotsMANAMA, BahrainMANAMA, Bahrain -- Bahrain's defense ministry warned yesterday that the armed forces were ready to step in to quell the year-old riots that reflect tensions between the country's Sunni Muslim rulers and its Shiite Muslim population.

SEOUL, South Korea -- The United States and North Korea have reached an agreement on providing up-to-date nuclear reactors to North Korea, clearing a major hurdle toward the dismantling of that country's suspected atomic weapons program, officials said today."

During the Clinton administration's first two years in office, the White House touted Russia as one of its major foreign policy successes. One no longer hears such talk. The administration's earlier hype, in fact, has come back to haunt it as relations with Moscow have deteriorated. By exaggerating U.S. influence over developments in Russia and by painting too positive a picture of Russian domestic and foreign policy, the administration set itself up for a big fall.The latest setback came this week when Russia rejected pleas from Defense Secretary William J. Perry to cancel a proposed $800 million sale of nuclear reactors to Iran.

Rivalry between North and South Korea is predictably bedeviling follow-up negotiations on the Washington-Pyongyang agreement to freeze North Korea's menacing nuclear-weapons program.The United States tried but failed to persuade its ally, South Korea, to forgo insisting that two light-water reactors destined for North Korea as a key part of the deal be listed specifically as of South Korean origin. When confronted with the "ROK" (Republic of Korea) initials of its enemy, North Korea threatened to cancel the whole pact.

Iran's president called Wednesday for international cooperation on nuclear technology in a prime-time television appearance filled with conciliatory language toward the world community, in stark contrast to the dismissive tone of other senior Iranian officials toward a United Nations-backed proposal. Although President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did not directly mention a U.S.-endorsed International Atomic Energy Agency plan in which Iran would trade the bulk of its enriched uranium in exchange for fuel to operate a Tehran medical reactor, he said Iran was confident and powerful enough to begin working with other countries and the U.N.'s international watchdog to expand the country's nuclear program.

The debate over Constellation Energy Group's proposal to sell almost half of its nuclear power business to a French-owned utility continued Thursday night in Baltimore. Supporters and opponents of the deal both claimed to represent the best interests of Maryland's financial, energy and environmental future. Employees of Constellation and its subsidiary, Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., filled at least a third of the seats in the room and applauded heartily as their speakers argued that the $4.5 billion deal would ensure the future health and growth of the company and its value as a corporate citizen of Maryland.

Shorter sentence denied driver in crash that killed 4 A Delaware woman who in 2002 caused a car crash that killed four members of a northern Baltimore County family should remain in prison, the Delaware Board of Pardons has decided. Tishara A. Duffy had asked that the remainder of her nine-year prison term be commuted in the deaths of Wayne and Emily Abbott of Freeland and their sons, Douglas, 9, and Brian, 5. Duffy, who pleaded guilty in 2003 to first-degree assault and four counts of criminally negligent homicide, expressed remorse during a hearing Thursday for her role in the high-speed accident on Route 1 north of Dover, but the board voted not to recommend to Gov. Ruth Ann Minner that Duffy be set free.

Southwest to add priority security lanes at BWI Southwest Airlines said yesterday that it will add priority security lanes this month at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport for its business customers and frequent fliers. BWI is one of seven airports where Southwest is adding the speed lanes. Other airports include: Dallas; Phoenix; Orange County, Calif.; Denver; San Francisco; and Los Angeles. The airline, the largest carrier at BWI, plans to add such lanes to additional airports next month.

State regulators will begin hearings today to determine whether an affiliate of Baltimore's Constellation Energy can build a third nuclear reactor at Calvert Cliffs in Lusby. The project, which could cost up to $9.6 billion, is among a handful of applications being considered as the nation's first new nuclear reactors in nearly 30 years. Government and energy company leaders are looking to the new plants to remedy energy shortage concerns across the country - beginning as early as 2011 in Maryland.

WASHINGTON -- Forgotten but not gone, the waste from more than 100 nuclear reactors that the federal government was supposed to start accepting for burial 10 years ago is still at the reactor sites, at least 20 years behind schedule. But it is making itself felt in the federal budget. With court orders and settlements, the federal government has already paid the utilities $342 million. But it is virtually certain to pay a total of at least $7 billion in the next few years and probably more than $11 billion, government officials said.

Maryland : Nuclear power Constellation unit acts on reactor plan Constellation Energy Group's nuclear development arm has notified federal regulators of its plans to seek a license to build a nuclear reactor near Oswego, N.Y., the company said yesterday. UniStar Nuclear, a joint venture of Constellation and Paris-based EDF Group, said the Nuclear Regulatory Commission notification is another milestone in its plans to build up to four new plants in the United States based on a French reactor design.

A doughnut-shaped building that looks like a sports arena may soon rise beside the Chesapeake Bay - a cooling tower for a huge new nuclear reactor proposed at the Calvert Cliffs power plant in Southern Maryland. The state-of-the-art cooling system would enable the new reactor to recycle water, thus drawing 98 percent less from the bay than the two existing reactors, which opened in 1975 and 1977. The low and wide circular structure would look different from the tall, hourglass-shaped cooling towers that have become an iconic symbol of nuclear power - as featured, for example, in the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant where the cartoon character Homer Simpson works.

Sparrows Point for sale again A deal to sell the Sparrows Point steel mill to a group led by steelmaker Esmark Inc. collapsed, reopening a government-supervised search for a new owner. ArcelorMittal said it canceled the purchase agreement because the prospective buyer, E2 Acquisition Corp., was unable to secure the necessary financing. Port turns to investors Officials at Baltimore's port are sounding out investors to help pay for a $120 million project to deepen a berth at the Seagirt Marine Terminal to accommodate bigger ships.

UniStar Nuclear Energy, a joint venture led by Baltimore-based Constellation Energy Group, moved a step closer to building several new nuclear reactors yesterday with the signing of a deal with Pennsylvania's second-largest utility owner. PPL Corp. has asked UniStar to prepare a license application for a reactor to be built near Berwick, Pa. The application will be filed with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission by the end of next year. Though electricity from the project wouldn't come to Maryland, it would help bolster the regional power grid.