FPL plan to run Turkey Point 80 years faces legal challenge
Eighty years would be unprecedented to run a U.S. nuclear plant and Florida Power & Light’s Turkey Point license should not be extended to 2053 without major changes to protect drinking water and the environment, according to a legal challenge to the Juno Beach-based utility’s plans.
An FPL official dismissed it Thursday as a chance to “grab a few headlines,” but the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy filed a petition for a hearing to intervene and urge the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to consider, among other things, cooling towers to replace a system of cooling canals that date from the early 1970s.
“We are challenging FPL’s proposal to run Turkey Point for far longer than anticipated because the facility is not being properly managed,” said Stephen A. Smith, executive director of the “clean energy advocacy” group founded in 1985. “Thankfully there are attainable solutions that can correct this FPL-created mess, and it’s long past time for FPL to do what’s right, fix these wrongs and move on.”
FPL officials have argued the plant south of Miami stands as a cost-effective success story that helps trim greenhouse gas emissions, and cooling towers would burden ratepayers with high costs. Alternatives to FPL’s proposal could cost up to $2 billion, they say.
“We will review the filings in detail, but our initial reaction is that this seems like yet another attempt by SACE to grab a few headlines and slow down the regulatory process, costing FPL customers money,” said FPL spokeswoman Bianca Cruz.
For their part, local agencies and officials in MiamiDade County, Monroe County and others have urged consideration of cooling towers, saying the canal system has created long-running problems with heated water, high salt concentrations, a deep underground plume and other issues. SACE’s filing says FPL has failed to grapple with “serious environmental damage.”
FPL officials have said remediation efforts are working, reducing salinity levels, for example.
NRC spokesman Scott Burnell said in May that cooling towers might not fall under the NRC’s purview but rather under state regulatory oversight.
But advocates say regulators have a duty to take action.
It would be “irresponsible” for the NRC to allow Turkey Point to operate for decades longer without a “comprehensive fix,” said Laura Reynolds, a West Palm Beach-based environmental consultant to SACE. “We can no longer just trust FPL to do the right thing. They continue to make predictions and claims that have been wrong time and time again.”
SACE officials said they expect a ruling on their request by the fall and, if granted, a hearing in 2019 or 2020.
In a separate issue, FPL joined other utilities to ask state regulators to increase the amount they can charge ratepayers for efforts to promote economic development, which potentially brings in new customers. That is capped at $3 million a year for FPL under rules that date from the 1990s, a level that has become outdated and “unduly restrictive,” according to the filing reported by the News Service of Florida.