Federal regulators are turning up the heat on Progress Energy's proposed nuclear power plant in Levy County.
In a ruling that could potentially affect every proposed nuclear facility in the country, the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board ordered Progress to produce modeling data regarding the ecological impact of its proposed plant. The West Coast facility would withdraw up to 5.58 million gallons of water per day from the Floridan aquifer system.
The ASLB order came in response to a motion filed by the Ecology Party of Florida and Nuclear Information and Resource Service, which contended that wetlands, streams, springs and estuaries in the surrounding area, and the federally listed species that rely on these natural resources, would be "irreparably harmed" by the withdrawal of such large amounts of water from the aquifer.
The ASLB is the independent body within the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that issues decisions for the NRC when there is a challenge to proposed licensing or enforcement actions.
Progress Energy's application claimed that simulation models developed by its consultants show that the environmental impacts of the proposed nuclear reactors would be small.
The draft environmental impact statement prepared by NRC staff used Progress Energy's claim to echo the utility's conclusion without actually reviewing the model data.
This is an extremely important ruling, said Mary Olson, NIRS Southeast coordinator.
Progress Energy and the NRC relied on these models to determine the environmental impact of constructing a nuclear facility and to justify claims of minimal environmental impacts. The data from these models must be independently reviewed, or the results cannot be verified.
Ecology Party chair Cara Campbell said, "This is a critical issue, since corporations could insulate themselves from legal responsibility by delegating tasks to other companies not directly involved in the licensing process.
"The ruling could potentially affect every energy corporation considering construction of nuclear facilities.
Progress Energy was given 20 days to coordinate the release of the data to the interveners who will then have their experts review it.
Progress Energy spokesperson Cherie Jacobs told Sunshine State News in a written statement: "We are working with the interveners, and we will comply with the order." She did not elaborate.
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Contact Kenric Ward at kward@sunshinestatenews.com or at (772) 801-5341.
