Progress Energy recently announced a contract with Westinghouse and The Shaw group to begin construction on two new nuclear reactors in Levy County, Florida. If approved, the site would represent the first new nuclear construction in the United States in over 30 years.
The contract provides for equipment, engineering, and construction of two Westinghouse AP1000 reactors. The AP1000 is a Generation 3+ Pressurized Water Reactor capable of producing over 1100 Mega-Watts of electricity. This dual-unit site would be able to generate over 2,200 Mega-Watts of much needed energy for the state of Florida.
As expected, public reaction to the proposed site has been mixed. With local business and education leaders coming out in favor of the proposal and many senior citizens opposed. Also opposed were the numerous activists who traveled to Levy County from all over the country in an attempt to stop the project in its infancy.
However, the largest hurdle that the new plant faces is approval from the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). In July of 2008, Progress Energy applied for a combined Construction and Operating License, which is required before ground can be broken at the site.
If approved, the dual-reactor Levy County plant would replace two “fossil units” (coal burning plants) at the Crystal River location only a few miles away. This exchange would result in the elimination of 5 million tons of greenhouse gases every year! It would represent 60% of the emissions goal set forth by Florida Governor Charlie Christ. The challenge by the governor was to reduce each utility company’s greenhouse emissions to 80% of 1990 levels by 2050.
Another benefit of the site is jobs. When completed in 2016, the dual-unit site would require as many as 900 highly paid employees and would also result in 1,200 indirect jobs (stores, restaurants, etc). Also, construction of the site would require as many as 3,000 laborers to complete. This, of course, is a very attractive offer for an area that suffers from high unemployment in times of recession.
However, there certainly are issues of contention with many residents. In order to finance construction, progress energy has proposed a significant rate hike for customers. Also standing in the way is the issue of permanent waste storage as many in Washington remain opposed to the Yucca Mountain Repository which is currently the only permanent option for waste storage.
Regardless of the outcome in this debate, the proposed Levy County site represents one more chapter in the story of the 21st century Nuclear Renaissance. Once built, this site will be a significant step towards energy independence, national security, and environmental stewardship for Florida residents.
Image Used in this Post
Electric Man image courtesy of Flickr user Oskay published under the CC license.
~Man Overboard
15 Comments
Jack, is the rate hike you are talking about a price increase in their electric bill?
That’s right, Greg. The proposal is a 3-4% increase in electric charges per year starting in 2009 all the way through 2018.
Of course, this would not be needed if the government would be willing to provide a loan to Progress Energy. After all, they are giving hundreds of billions to far less viable enterprises these days and they don’t even have to pay it back!
Certainly subsidies from our government would help. Now would that 3-4% increase go down after 2018 once the capital cost for the plant was payed for?
Also, while no one likes their bills or taxes to rise, it is a worthwhile venture in this instance when you consider the plant you are paying for is replacing two coal burning facilities. Of course our economic downturn makes this a tougher pill to swallow initially.
I could find nothing indicating the rate hike would be removed after the plant was paid for. By that time, it’s a safe bet that there will be plenty more projects in Florida energy infrastructure that need financing.
So my best guess would be no.
Will the plant get to have a cool mascot, similar to the one used in this post. We shall call him, light bulb Zeus.
I’ll see what I can do. The name could use a little work though.
The Czar of Filament?
Why is a Raleigh, NC company involved with this project? Ref Dice.com, ID 10110315. I’m dying to get back to my engineering/nuclear roots.
No tirades against nuclear will work. See: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5384001427276447319
Then decide! On the positive side of things, Florida is Radiant Resource Rich, and should look at Solar,Wind, Wave, Tidal power also, for a safer, cleaner way to do things! Florida is also ideally located for Algae-diesel production!
Uncle,
Are you assuming that Tidal, Wave, and AlgaeDiesel production will be less damaging to the environment than nuclear? I think there are many including myself that would disagree.
Chernobyl was a flawed reactor design that lacked a basic containment structure and was run by idiots.
First of all, it is illegal in the US to do what they did at Chernobyl (de-activate safety systems to run a test).
Second of all, American operators would have been required by law to shutdown the reactor at the first sign of the trouble they saw at Chernobyl.
Third of all American reactors have a primary containment structure that would have contained the blast at Chernobyl (which basically had only a tin roof).
Fourth of all, American reactors are inherintly fail safe in that they are water-moderated and therefore shut themselves down if they overheat.
Fifth of all, American control rods are not tipped with graphite (i.e. there is no momentary power spike when the reactor shuts down as was the case at Chernobyl).
In summation, Chernobyl was a lousy design run by morons and is a terrible reason to stop pursuing nuclear energy.
Jack, how well would a nuclear site hold up against natural disasters…hurricanes in Florida, earthquakes in California? They seem like pretty solid buildings. Has any site ever been at the center of this kind of event?
There are plenty of nuclear plants in florida that stand up to hurricanes on a regular basis. They might be shutdown by a storm, but safety is not threatened.
Also, the reactors in Japan stand up to some of the heaviest earthquakes in the world. Some were badly damaged but again safety was never an issue.
If they can withstand earthquakes that’s pretty damn impressive.
All good points but don’t you think its rather odd that no one is talking about the waste, lethal for 500,000 years, that we have no place for. At least initially, it would be “temporarily” stored near Crystal River. While everyone wants more jobs, are the Florida residents in a 100 mile radius willing to make that trade?
You can put it all directly under my house then. I know enough about the stuff to know if it’s sealed in Concrete and Lead then there is nothing to be afraid of. You know there are at least 16 locations around the world were the Uranium fission process happened naturally underground before any multicellular life even evolved on earth. Clearly deep geoligical storage is the answer if mother nature has been doing it for us for the last billion years!