A firm is originally aiming to be one of the US biggest nuclear plants a decade ago. But with some controversies and bankruptcy faced, it looks like their plans of making nuclear the "next fossil fuel" is still in reach.
In an article published in AFP, Turkey Point, a company using nuclear as a source of energy aimed to be an initiator of nuclear energy. Other company Florida Power and Light had said that an expansion like that was needed in maintaining a diverse energy source to supply Flordia's booming population for years to come.
But right now, only three reactors in an operation. It is one natural gas and two nuclear reactors that were built in the 1970's. The plans of building two more nuclear reactors are essentially put on hold in four years.
Turkey Point spokesperson Peter Robbins said that they are looking for approvals in having a large nuclear power plant. "Right now our only focus is on getting all the approvals we need as we are not buying construction materials," he said.
This year, the model that Turkey Point will use for their nuclear power plant faced bankruptcy that rattled them. Westinghouse, the builder of AP1000 reactor, is scheduled to supply the models at nuclear plants located in South Carolina and Georgia.
Currently, both projects depending on the success of the nuclear are years behind schedule. Not only that, billions of dollars went over budget.
Robbins said that they are very closely monitoring the two nuclear projects that are going on. He also said that the company doesn't think that there is a value in coming up with a new cost or schedule until the reactors are closer to completion.
In an article published in Phys.org, the nuclear plant project has already faced various controversies from the start. Critics of the project have pointed out the rising seas from climate change, risks of storm surge, radioactive waste and threats to drinking water as the reason why the nuclear expansion should not happen.
The complaints also centered on the difficulty of transferring the populated area around the nuclear plant in case of emergency. Currently, the Miami-Dade County has 2.6 million residents.
Currently, Turkey's Point's two nuclear reactors use a treatment of wastewater through a series of cooling canals. These canals were reported to have been leaking into a nearby national park.
"They could not deliver a safe, economically viable product. They couldn't do it in the '80s and they can't do it today," Mark Cooper said about the nuclear project. He is a senior research fellow at the Institute for Energy and the Environment at the Vermont Law School.
