(Hit on image to enlarge it)Florida Power and Light, the star player in many of our fine environmental justice efforts (Barley Barber swamp being the latest), could well be the center of another. All we hear about from our ratings-obsessed news media recently (aside from new administration and economic news) is the overarching threat of terrorism and the calamity of the Wars in Iraq (and occasionally a place called Afghanistan). They've talked over all of the "nuclear threats" facing us from foreign nations, but never have they really focused on the threats in our own backyard:
Turkey Point goes forgotten by most of the county, churning away providing us power. The only times we ever really hear about it are when things go wrong ($6 million hole anyone?). Thankfully, so far, things haven't gotten to the critical point. However, with their plan to put two more reactors at the site, it's important for us to consider what would happen in the event of the worst situation: a nuclear meltdown.
We never hear about it from them, because honestly, what kind of PR would that be for their environmental conscience?
A few years ago I ran across a fallout map for Turkey Point, and the estimated affected areas, as well as the evacuation plans in the event of a catastrophe. After an hour of searching on Google, I found the very well-hidden document once again! Keeping in mind that winds would alter this a bit (radiation spikes were measured in Canada following Chernobyl), this diagram shows what areas would be primarily affected by the radiation. So if you're in these areas, you might want to consider investing in a fallout shelter, maybe some face masks, or just donating your time to fighting FPL's environmentally-negligent agenda. Either way, stay safe...and don't forget to stock up on that cherry flavored iodide for the kids!
7 comments:
Last night in the news they showed how little security they have. The gate house is empty, you can bring your boat very close the the plant. Scary, very scary. Hope there wasn't any waco watching the news last night!
For the most part we shouldnt worry. a missle can hit turkey point but it is double walled reinforced concrete thats like ten feet thick.
Miami Herald
Posted on Wed, Jan. 28, 2009
FPL may be fined millions for '08 outage
BY JOHN DORSCHNER
Florida Power & Light expects to get hit with 25 or more violations of reliability standards and perhaps millions of dollars in fines for an outage last year in which a field engineer's blunder caused about one million customers statewide to lose power.
That announcement in a federal securities filing Tuesday came on the same that the utility's parent, FPL Group, announced its best year ever -- $1.6 billion in profit -- even as its utility lost customers amid the economic downturn.
The Feb. 26 blackout started when an engineer working alone disabled two levels of relay protection in trying to diagnose a problem in a substation in West Dade. His work then sparked a small fire, which within a minute shut down a major part of the electric grid, including the nuclear reactors at Turkey Point.
Experts wondered why there hadn't been safeguards in place to stop an error from cascading so quickly through the system.
The filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission said the penalties could come from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which has been investigating the outage.
The FERC and FPL have been involved in settlement discussions. If a settlement is not reached, FPL believes federal regulators ``will pursue formal enforcement proceedings in which FPL expects the FERC may or will assert up to 25 or more violations of the reliability standards.
''The maximum statutory penalty for any violation of a reliability standard is $1 million per day. FPL believes that, in any such enforcement proceeding, the FERC may or will assert that some of the alleged violations have continued from January 1, 2008,'' the utility said in the filing.
''FPL believes that it has meritorious defenses and will vigorously contest any penalties, should they be assessed,'' the company said, adding that ``FPL does not expect that the ultimate resolution of this matter will have a material adverse effect on its financial statements.''
$16.4B IN REVENUE
That down note marked in what was in many ways a highly positive year for FPL Group. Overall, the company had revenue of $16.4 billion, with the utility providing $11.6 billion of that.
While many businesses across America struggled, the holding company's unregulated utility, which now goes under the name NextEra Energy Resources, brought in $915 million in profit, up from $540 million in 2007.
NextEra provides wind, nuclear and solar power to many areas around the country. Its growth overcame slumping profits from the utility in Florida, which saw net income decline to $789 million, down from $836 million in 2007.
THE DOWNTURN
The utility struggled with the downturn in the Florida economy. After years of adding 2 percent more customers annually, FPL had 11,000 fewer customers at the end of 2008 than it had at the end of 2007.
Retail sales of electricity decreased 2.4 percent for the year -- and 8.4 percent in the fourth quarter. Mild weather accounted for 0.9 percent of the annual decline. The rest came from penny-pinching customers reducing their power usage. The utility compensated by reducing its operations and maintenance costs by 10 percent compared with the amounts budgeted for the year.
Corporate Greed at our expense! What happened to the "BOB Commercials"? Too inscenscere even for FP&L?
No to mention the Cuban refugees who just FLOATED on in Turkey Point this week. If refugees can get to it - so can terrorists!!
Terrifying
In a related story, Miami was voted the cleanest City in the United States of America by Forbes Magazine. Number 1.
Although they didn't factor the tremendous amount of bilge spewed by some bloggers, it is clear that Nuclear energy has a positive impact on the cleanliness of the air we breathe.
But then again, why focus on positive impacts when we can get hysterical about what has not happened.
Do you have a chart for what happens when space ship full of green men attack? How can I protect my family? I'm scared.
Perhaps we should consider the long-term impacts of our actions? It's not just what we're doing to ourselves, but what we leave behind for our children, their children, and their children. With there still being NO SAFE WAY to store nuclear waste (Yucca Mountain doesn't count, didn't your mother teach you not to throw things in the closet or sweep them under the rug?), and a history of accidents at nuclear power plants (yes, even in the United States), it's only logical to examine certain scenarios.
As for the little green men, just take out your Slim Whitman vinyls... that's how they do it in the movies. Makes those damned green heads go "pop".
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