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Letter hints nuclear effort in vain

As county leaders lobbied to build the plant here, it implies, Progress Energy had already zeroed in on Levy County.

By CATHERINE E. SHOICHET
Published March 4, 2007

CRYSTAL RIVER - For more than a year, Progress Energy's looming decision about where it might build a new nuclear plant was one of the hottest topics in town.

Local business leaders lobbied Progress to choose Citrus. Local government officials passed resolutions expressing their support.

And in early December, many of them still hoped the company would build a new plant here. They said Progress Energy officials had recently told them Citrus was on its short list.

But a letter sent to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in September tells a different story.

"The purpose of this letter is to inform you that Progress Energy has selected a site in Levy County, Florida, for the Florida COL combined license application," Progress Energy senior vice president and chief nuclear officer C.S. Hinnant wrote.

His letter to the NRC was dated Sept. 8 - more than three months before the utility publicly announced its decision and told local officials about its choice. The St. Petersburg Times obtained a copy last month.

"We expect the contract negotiations for purchase of the Levy, Florida, site will be completed by November 2006," he wrote. "Therefore we are requesting that information regarding our site selection be withheld from public disclosure."

Progress Energy spokesman Buddy Eller said the deal wasn't done when Hinnant sent the letter.

"This was a fluid process. We looked at a lot of locations throughout our service territory throughout this process," he said. "We were still in serious land negotiations with landowners in Citrus County in late October and early November."

The sites in Citrus included the company's existing Crystal River complex and several other locations, Eller said. But he declined to provide more details.

"We were as open and transparent as possible given the fact that we were trying to secure land," he said.

* * *

Meanwhile, Citrus officials were bending over backward to express their support, according to County Commissioner Gary Bartell.

"It sure would have been nice for the county not to have to jump through all those hoops," he said after receiving a copy of Hinnant's letter from the Times.

Many local business leaders and government officials regularly talked with Progress Energy employees in the months leading up to the company's announcement, Bartell said.

"While I understand the sensitivity of Progress Energy's negotiation for Levy County real estate," he said, "I am disappointed that Citrus County and the business community spent countless hours wooing Progress Energy to expand here in Citrus County when a decision had already been made."

On Dec. 12, when the company announced that it had a contract to buy 3,000 acres in Levy County as the site for a possible new nuclear plant, Bartell said he was shocked.

The day before, commission Chairman Dennis Damato told the Citrus Times he was sure the company would pick a site in Citrus.

Last month he said he was surprised that the utility leaned toward Levy, but not about the timing of the announcement.

"The time lines were a little different," Damato said. "That doesn't surprise me."

Commissioner Joyce Valentino said she knew before the announcement that Progress Energy was considering Levy.

"I know it was postponed for a while. They planned on having a decision much sooner," she said. "They kept us informed. We still had a shot right until the last minute."

Commissioner Vicki Phillips said she was not surprised Progress Energy officials seemed to have decided on a site well before informing Citrus officials.

"I would expect a corporate organization to do just that," she said. "The people here that I talked to, they probably didn't know either."

Citrus County Economic Development Council president Jack Reynolds said the county's business leaders would have wanted to know the company's decision as soon as it was final.

But he said he understands why the company - which is Citrus County's largest private sector employer - had kept it quiet.

"They were fair," he said. "They were honest with us all along."

* * *

The letter also reveals details about Progress Energy's recent real estate negotiations.

"Our selection of a site in Florida has been delayed due to the difficulty in completing real estate negotiations for a greenfield site," Hinnant wrote.

In response, an NRC official said Hinnant's request met the agency's requirements for confidentiality because disclosing it "would cause substantial harm" to Progress Energy's financial interests.

"Negotiations are presently being conducted by an agent and Progress Energy's interest in the land has not yet been disclosed," wrote Joelle Starefos, a senior project manager in the NRC's Division of New Reactor Licensing.

* * *

In the next few months, Eller said Progress Energy will continue detailed evaluations of the Levy County site.

"This is still fluid," he said. "We obviously have not made a decision or a commitment to move forward or to build."

And many Citrus officials are still hoping the utility will change its mind.

"It takes a long time to get permitting," Valentino said. "You never know. Something may go wrong and they may decide not to go in that direction."

Citrus, they say, would still welcome another nuclear plant.

"I understand their situation. They were trying to negotiate a land deal," Bartell said. "And at the end of the day, if this is ever built, I still believe my gut feeling is that it will be built here in Citrus County."

Catherine E. Shoichet can be reached at cshoichet@sptimes.com or 860-7309.

Commissioner Gary Bartell: "It sure would have been nice ... not to have to jump through all those hoops."

Commissioner Joyce Valentino: "They kept us informed. We still had a shot right until the last minute."

Commissioner Vicki Phillips: "I would expect a corporate organization to do just that."

What the commissioners are saying

Upon learning that Progress Energy might have kept quiet about its selection of Levy for a nuclear plant, some county leaders expressed disappointment. Others said they weren't surprised at all.

[Last modified March 3, 2007, 20:22:50]