Push to examine Turkey Point nuclear wastewater plan

Turkey Point nuclear wastewater plan needs further study, groups say, Susan Salisbury, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer, April 25, 2017 If Florida Power & Light’s proposed Turkey Point units 6 and 7 nuclear reactors are ever built, will it be safe to inject wastewater used to cool to the reactors into deep wells in the Boulder Zone?

FPL and the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission say yes, but groups who oppose the new $20 billion reactors say no. They assert that injecting the wastewater underground could contaminate the Upper Floridan Aquifer above the Boulder Zone and threaten the water supply of 3 million South Floridians.

Mindy Goldstein, an attorney and director of the Turner Environmental Law Clinic at Emory University School of Law, said Tuesday that more studies are needed for the NRC to make an informed decision about the potential impact of possible upward migration of wastewater.

“The NRC and FPL continue to wish away the problem, saying upward migration would not occur,” Goldstein said.

On May 2, at 9:30 a.m. the issue is scheduled to be heard before the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Atomic Safety Licensing Board at Homestead City Hall, 100 Civic Court, Homestead.

The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, the National Parks Conservation Association and Miami-Dade residents Capt. Dan Kipnis and Mark Oncavage intervened in the licensing proceedings. They assert an environmental impact statement issued last year is deficient.

The intervenors say that the chemical concentrations of ethylbenzene, heptachlor, tetrachloroethylene, and toluene in the wastewater injections could adversely impact the water supply should they migrate from the Boulder Zone to the Upper Floridan Aquifer……

On Tuesday, the intervenors referred to a 40-page 2015 study that found water could migrate from the boulder zone into the lower Floridan Aquifer through “tectonic faults” or cracks and through collapsed karst, the limestone layer that was formed millions of years ago from the remains of sea creatures.

The U.S. Geological Survey report by Kevin Cunningham was prepared in cooperation with the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department. It focused on the Floridan Aquifer system near Boulder zone deep wells where the department injects treated wastewater.

FPL already operates two nuclear units at the site about 20 miles south of Miami. In 2009, FPL applied for permission to construct and operate two AP1000 reactors at the site, but the NRC has not yet granted FPL a license.

FPL customers have paid more than $282 million in pre-licensing costs for the two reactors that may never be built. http://www.palmbeachpost.com/business/turkey-point-nuclear-wastewater-plan-needs-further-study-groups-say/T2Ro4nLv3kISeojDNGqOkL/

April 26, 2017 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | USA, water

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