nuclear-news

Florida residents up for $millions for nuclear plants?

Progress Energy rate-payers are already on the hook for part of the $2.5 billion in repairs for the existing Crystal River nuclear plant. The plant has been offline with various problems since September 2009 and is not expected to be operating again before 2014. The utility wants customers to pay about $670 toward the repairs and insists that scrapping the plant would cost rate-payers more than fixing it.

Nuclear plant opponents in Fla. voice concerns Washington Examiner, By: MITCH STACY | 01/12/12  Opponents of two proposed nuclear power reactors in west-central Florida told a Nuclear Regulatory Commission panel on Thursday that the units will upset the delicate balance of the rural area’s water system and present a health risk……. The hearing before a
three-judge panel of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board — the judicial arm of the NRC — addressed a legal challenge to Progress Energy’s application to license the plants. The NRC is expected to complete an environmental impact statement this spring and a formal trial on the challenge could happen as early as October.

The Nuclear Information and Resource Center, as well as two Florida
environmental groups, formally challenged Progress Energy’s assertion
that the reactors at the 3,000-acre site would have only a small
impact on area wetlands, the floodplain, groundwater and wildlife.

“This project would take Florida back 100 years, when we viewed
wetlands as worthless,” said 90-year-old Lee Bidgood Jr., who
described himself as a longtime environmental activist. “Let’s save
some wetlands.”…… While supporters see nuclear energy as a way to
reduce dependence on foreign fuel and cut climate-changing air
pollution, critics cite such problems as ever-increasing construction
costs, the still unsolved issue of spent-fuel disposal and potential
radiation hazards if something goes wrong, such as Japan’s nuclear
disaster following an earthquake and tsunami.

Dr. Lynn Ringenberg, representing Physicians for Social
Responsibility, said the new nuclear units just aren’t worth the risk.
It’s been proven, she said, that even low levels of radiation can
cause cancer…..
Progress Energy rate-payers are already on the hook for part of the $2.5 billion in repairs for the existing Crystal River nuclear plant. The plant has been offline with various problems since September 2009 and is not expected to be operating again before 2014. The utility
wants customers to pay about $670 toward the repairs and insists that scrapping the plant would cost rate-payers more than fixing it.
“Nuclear power is not the answer to global warming,” Ringenberg told
the judges. “It is not clean, it is not green, it is not safe and it
is not renewable.”
http://washingtonexaminer.com/news/2012/01/nuclear-plant-opponents-fla-voice-concerns/2090381#ixzz1jNe6HUnA

January 13, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | business and costs, USA