Environmentalists Demand Full Review of Progress Energy's Nuclear Models

Environmental groups have demanded to see details of Progress Energy's plans to build two nuclear power plants in Levy County.

Granted intervener status by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, the groups are challenging the west coast project on grounds that it would severely damage the state's water resources.

Cooling two nuclear reactors will require 122 million gallons of water per day, with up to an additional 5.8 million gallons of fresh water from the Floridan Aquifer daily, said Mary Olson, southeast regional coordinator for the Nuclear Information and Resource Service.

This water will be drawn from every water source in the area: the aquifer, springs, and estuaries, turned to steam which will be vented. Some will leave the site as radioactive waste."

Progress, based in Raleigh, N.C., says its simulation models show that the impact of their proposed nuclear reactor on the local freshwater ecosystem will be minimal. The draft environmental impact statement written by NRC staff has used this claim to conclude that the environmental effect of the nuclear reactor will be minimal.

But the NRC did not review the details of the simulation model itself, and environmentalists are demanding independent review and verification.

Progress Energy should provide to the public all of the details of the models used in coming to their conclusions, said Cara Campbell, chair of the Ecology Party of Florida, who argued at Wednesday's hearing in Rockville, Md. The models can then be validated by independent experts who do not have a financial stake in the licensing process.