FPL ratepayers are already funding new nuclear at Turkey Point thanks to a Public Service Commission decision to allow the company to charge off planning costs for reactors that haven't even been permitted. This week, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission held a public hearing in Homestead that also was a make-believe event for a course of action that has already been determined.
I've written before: I support nuclear power where safety and water cooling issues are responsibly managed. That cannot be said of FPL acting like rogue elephants with every level of government. It is awful how FPL has been allowed to push around staff of local and state permitting agencies. And worse, how the MIami-Dade County Commission simply rolled, when it had a chance to protect taxpayers. We get the government we deserve. Thanks to South Miami Mayor Philip Stoddard for standing up to FPL. Dr. Stoddard is the single elected official who stands on the side of science and common sense in respect to nuclear at Turkey Point.
It is going to be quite a spectacle when nuclear power at Turkey Point is an island surrounded by flooded lands. Here's to betting these plants are decommissioned long before their service lifetime is done. I won't be around to collect the bet: FPL can pay to my grandchildren.
4 comments:
FPL is already planning for it to be an island in the bay. They are proposing a 20 foot tall mound of fill as the base for the new plant.
The old plant, at 9 feet and where they store the spent nuclear material, is the one that worries me more. One of the old reactors was recently found to have an alarming degree of corrosion in the containment liner and has regular incidents on the site that cause NRC announcements to go out. These are always labeled "low non-safety" incidents by NRC and FPL, but show the age of the existing plant.
FPL plans to turn up the power on these old beasts long before they get to work on the new reactors - especially since they keep finding safety flaws in the Westinghouse design.
Thanks to the little cities of South Dade for pushing back. Thanks to CASE for keeping FPL from just running roughshod over the public.
I don't suppose the new Commissioner from District 8 will be helping much.
Remember when Katie Sorenson had a meeting with worried residents after a string of safety violations were revealed and a plant operator walked off the job over safety concerns? FPL refused to meet with them saying that it was secret information or something.
She worked with the cities to try to get the power lines off US #1 and with the environmental groups to fight the expantion.
Those days are gone.
I'm sure the new Dist. 8 tyrant or VNS mimic will be a cheerleader for this project. She obvsiously didn't read the County Hierarchy as posted by Genius!
I wonder if she'll send anyone to Ag Practices - Oh, wait, she doesn't support active farmers because "those people who sit on tractors......" Nevermind, old news!
I'm sure she'll support anything outside the UDB in the farminbg area that's not farming and anything that invades the wetlands/CERP!
Sorry, until this person is out of office, I'm not stopping.
Barry White and the others did a great job. It appeared that most of the people in attendance with laptops were FPL or NRC attorney's or Staff, frantically looking up stuff.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/20/1934880/critics-of-fpls-turkey-point-expansion.html
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