A panel headed by Florida Gov. Rick Scott has approved the construction of two new reactors at the Turkey Point Nuclear Plant, along with their associated transmission infrastructure.Under a state law, the certification granted by the Power Plant Siting Board also amounts to approval for the project from all state agencies and local land use authorities. The Miami Herald reported Tuesday that Scott and three other officials voted unanimously in favor of the new power generation and an additional 88 miles of transmission lines. Nearby communities had opposed the placement of new transmission towers, and Miami's city attorney told the paper the city plans to challenge the project in district court.The new reactors still require approval from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Florida Power and Light in 2009 applied for a combined license to build two Westinghouse AP1000 reactors at the plant south of Miami. According to the NRC, the schedule for the COL's safety evaluation report is under review. Delivery of a draft environmental impact statement is tentatively scheduled for early 2015.
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So happy when logic prevails-Nuclear has to be part of our energy solution. The only possible problem, based on past incidents , is the human connection. Solution: hire only the best of the best, especially in engineering and control room situations--do not ever succumb to the idiotic concept of hiring less qualified individuals because of nepotism, race ,religion, age, politics, finance or any other reason--and stop denying funding to the NRC-Logic is beautiful, anything else borders on criminal. This is a vitally important industry and requires oversight for safety !
"This is a vitally important industry and requires oversight for safety !"
With the advent of Gen 3+ and fast reactors, the human factor in the safety equation
is transported upstream, and oversight is only important in the design phase, if then.
We need more competent NRC design reviewers, not operational workers. The
need for highly competent operational workers becomes much less, not more and
there is no purpose in day-to-day regulation. You make a system safer by design to
remove the human factor, not by trying to figure out who to hire that is least likely to make
a mistake - that is totally impossible - there are no valid tests or procedures to hire
"competent" workers. Companies spend millions trying to hire a competent CEO,
and more often than not, fail completely. "Hire competent workers" may sound
like good advice, but it cannot be done reliably and should not even have to be done.
More jobs and more reliable carbon free power.
Population of S Fla continues to grow . So electric consumption will follow right along.
Generation needs to be in proximity to consumption because long, long transmission lines carrying lots of power into a region invite regional blackouts.
Good long term planning to place more generation way down there.
Being just upwind of Everglades Park, these zero emission plants are a good choice in my humble opinion.
old jim hardy
New nuclear power plants is the solution to carbon free emissions and has been missing in this country for quite some time. This is good opportunity for south Florida since PTN is about to decommission Unit 1 and 2 that will lose approximately 700 MW of power. With that power loss, a necessity of two new replacement units will be in high demand, will supply additional power throughout the state, create more jobs and revenue and stimulate the south Florida economy. There are many sufficient qualified engineers, trades and craftsmen to perform this work but Quality Control and Quality Assurance must meet the demand in pursuing a safe and healthy nuclear culture.
Great news - nuclear power in the USA has stagnateged for years while China, South Korea, UAE, France and other contries continue to build with US technology.
This is important to the growth of Florida.
I am in agreement with all the comments here as we will need the power as Florida populations continues to grow. I hope, though, FPL management makes better decisions, plans better and chooses better vendors. In six years Progress/Duke Energy let the cost of their 2 unit Levy County station go from about $6 billion to $22 billion dollars. Not a problem though as they pass that on to the customer. We can't afford bad decisions by bad management.
