Workers at the Turkey Point nuclear plant south of Miami found a dead crocodile in its water intake last week, which merited a report to regulators but did not affect plant operations.The animal showed no evidence of trauma that would suggested it died from plant operations, Florida Power and Light reported in a notice to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Thursday. Both units were running at full power at the time. The plant notified the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Federal Fish and Wildlife Service, actions that also required a report to the NRC.Turkey Point draws water from Biscayne Bay and discharges it into 5,900 acres of interconnected cooling canals. Crocodiles are a common sight at the back end of that system, where FPL has documented more than 3,000 hatchlings since beginning a monitoring program in the 1980s. A fact sheet from the utility notes that the canal system has been responsible for nearly all of the increase in the American crocodile population in the U.S. in recent decades. The species was reclassified from endangered to threatened in 2007.
Anonymous comments will be moderated. Join for free and post now!
