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Nuclear plant idea has support

As Progress Energy considers putting a second plant in Crystal River, local officials warm up the welcome mat.

By CATHERINE E. SHOICHET
Published October 9, 2005

CRYSTAL RIVER - When describing the benefits of nuclear energy, Progress Energy officials point to the company's Crystal River complex with pride.

The nuclear reactor there has been pumping power into Florida homes since 1977. Last year, it generated more electricity than it had ever generated in a single year - 7.303-billion kilowatt hours, with the lowest fuel cost of any plant in the Progress Energy Florida system.

Now, as Progress Energy officials look to support the state's burgeoning population and combat rising fuel prices, they are considering constructing another nuclear power plant in Florida. And they say the Crystal River complex is on a list of possible sites for a new plant.

Progress Energy plans to pick a site by the end of the year. Construction could start in five years, with the plant beginning operation as early as 2015.

Most major national environmental groups strongly oppose nuclear power. But county and city officials, who first heard that another nuclear plant may be on the way at a briefing with Progress Energy brass last month, responded happily to the news. They say they plan to do whatever they can to let Progress Energy officials know that Citrus County is an ideal location to build.

"We have the access to the water, which you need for a nuclear plant. We also are situated in an area where there appears to be ample land there for it. I'm hoping that some of those things work to Citrus County's advantage," County Commission Chairwoman Vicki Phillips said. "We would be delighted to have another nuclear plant here."

Crystal River City Council member Susan Kirk said city officials will likely discuss ways to formally show their support of Progress Energy's possible expansion at an upcoming meeting. Inverness City Council members discussed the benefits of another nuclear power plant at a meeting last week.

County Commissioner Joyce Valentino said the thought of another plant is not only a delight, but also a relief.

For the past five or six years, she said, rumors have flown around about Progress Energy pulling out of Citrus.

"With them seriously thinking about expanding in Citrus County, that puts us at ease," she said.

At the briefing, Progress Energy officials also said they intended to renew the current Crystal River nuclear plant's license, which expires in 2016, at least until 2036.

The company is the county's largest taxpayer and its largest private sector employer. A new plant would bring something Citrus County's economy desperately needs: more high-wage jobs.

"Their wage levels are very good, because they have such technically skilled people," Economic Development Council director Brett Wattles said.

Progress Energy, then known as Florida Power Corp., began operations at the Crystal River nuclear plant on March 13, 1977.

At that time, Citrus County's population was about 38,500, according to the 1978 Florida Statistical Abstract. And construction of the plant - which took 10 years, 110,000 cubic yards of concrete and 13,800 tons of steel - met with little protest outside of environmental objections at public hearings.

Since then, Citrus' population has more than tripled. The Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University of Florida estimates that about 132,600 people live here. Land once covered by orange groves and cow pastures is giving way to shopping centers and gated communities.

But still, local opposition to nuclear power remains faint at best.

"The county and the city look at it as, oh, there will be all this big construction and lots of jobs. And we already have one here so it's not going to drive people away who don't want to live near nuke plants," said Helen Spivey, a former Crystal River City Council member who previously opposed Progress Energy's construction of two coal-fired plants at the Crystal River complex. "But I just have no desire to glow in the dark."

Spivey said she is particularly worried that spent radioactive fuel cells from the plant are housed on-site. "It's like the universal solvent. If you haven't got anything you can put it in, why generate more?"

Frank Jackalone, senior regional representative for the Sierra Club, said storing nuclear waste on-site is dangerous.

"The reason they built that plant at Crystal River as opposed to on Tampa Bay is because that area had been sparsely populated," he said. "Now that a lot of people are moving into Hernando and Citrus counties, the threats to the growing community in those areas are real."

County officials, he said, should be less concerned about economic development and more concerned about protecting the environment.

"Do they want to follow the road of Hillsborough and Pinellas counties and be completely built out, destroying the environment in the process?" Jackalone said.

But Progress Energy officials say the spent cells stored on-site pose no safety risks. Furthermore, the plant is amply protected against meltdown, hurricanes and terrorist attacks, they say. And local government officials - many of whom went on a bus tour of the plant after the briefing last month - agree.

"It's protected as if it were Fort Knox," Inverness City Council member Sophia Diaz-Fonseca said. "If they do get another plant, I'm very assured that they would take as good or better care of it as the one they're taking care of now. I think they're doing a real good job."

Local officials say they're also not worried about the environmental impact of building a new plant.

"They've already been through all the environmental issues," Crystal River Mayor Ron Kitchen said.

In an interview with the St. Petersburg Times last week, Progress Florida president and chief executive Bill Habermeyer said that although the Crystal River site is an attractive possibility, it also has some disadvantages. The complex already includes four large coal-fired generating units producing more than 3,000 megawatts of electricity. Adding a second nuclear reactor to the site, he said, would be "putting a lot of generation at one location."

But at the briefing, Progress Energy senior vice president and chief nuclear officer C.S. "Scotty" Hinnant said that "existing nuclear plant sites do have some desirable features," noting that Progress Energy already has a good relationship with the communities surrounding its existing plants.

"It would be perfectly logical to me if they did go forward at a site where they already have plants," said Brendan Hoffman, campaign organizer for Public Citizen's energy program. "People don't see it as breaking new ground. Everybody is already used to living near a nuclear plant . . . but that's not to say there are not other options that would be more beneficial."

Hoffman said energy company and government officials should focus on cheaper, more environmentally friendly sources of energy, like solar or wind power.

But Jim Bierly, president of the Citrus County Audubon Society, said nuclear power is a cheap and safe solution.

"I think the whole country ought to go with nuclear power rather than with fossil fuels," he said. "Most people just don't understand it really."

Catherine E. Shoichet can be reached at cshoichet@sptimes.com or 860-7309. Times researcher Mary Mellstrom and Times staff writers Louis Hau, Abbie VanSickle and Lucy Morgan contributed to this report.

[Last modified October 9, 2005, 01:08:18]