There is hope that the proposed plant will ignite a lethargic economy in one of the poorest areas of Florida
- Edited by April Murelio -
According to a report in the New And Observer, Jobs are a big reason most residents favor Progress Energy's plan to construct the nation's first nuclear power reactors since the Watts Bar plant in Tennessee came on line in 1996.
"There's an awful lot of hope here," observes Bill Lake, the mayor of this village of 1,700 residents about 90 miles north of Tampa, where the Florida peninsula begins curving west into the Panhandle.
Levy County, population 39,000, has seen plenty of job losses in the last two years as its unemployment rate almost tripled to 12.1 percent. Still, there is hope that the proposed plant will ignite a lethargic economy in one of the poorest areas of Florida, where the per capita income averages less than $15,000 annually.
The North Carolina-based utility initially estimated it would have the plant online by 2016 or 2017 at a cost of $17 billion, but the date was moved to 2020 since the company cannot get approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission before all site and safety reviews are finished.
Watts Bar, the last U.S. nuclear plant, opened after 22 years of construction and cost $7 billion, about 40 percent of what the Levy County project is expected to cost.
Several other nuclear plants are planned in the Southeast, but some have been delayed. Duke Energy is looking into a new plant in Gaffney, S.C., to serve customers in the Carolinas while Progress is considering a new plant at its existing Harris nuclear plant in New Hill, N.C.
The Tennessee Valley Authority has trimed its plans for a potential four-unit nuclear plant in northeast Alabama to one reactor. In Virginia, Dominion Resources Inc. has gotten NRC approval for an early site permit to add a third reactor to its North Anna Power Station in Louisa, about 60 miles north of Richmond.
The Levy County plant's principal contractors - The Shaw Group and Westinghouse - are holding off on hiring employees while the construction application negotiates the bureaucracy. It has received the necessary approval from state regulators, but hasn't gotten a federal greenlight.
The new plant is projected to produce power for more than 1 million homes, and many residents are happy with the prospect of good jobs. Progress spokeswoman Cherie Jacobs said about 3,000 workers would build the plant when construction starts, maybe in 2012. About 800 full-time positions will be created to staff the two generators when they open.
"If they (Progress Energy) hire locally first for the unskilled labor positions it would help our economy a lot," said Luhanna Wilsey, a short-order cook at a local gas station who has lived in the area since 1973.Her son is among those looking for permanent employment.
Pari Nagda and her husband Bobby bought a gas station and convenience store on the southeast corner of a busy intersection of U.S. 19/98 and State Road 40 two years ago. They wanted to buy more property, but speculators drove the price far above the appraised value.
"There's lot of anticipation as far as the property owners go in what they might be able to get for their property," real estate agent Nancy Little Lewis observes. "People want more for their property than it's worth, they say, 'Well, the power plant is coming.'"