Yahoo - AFP, Kerry SHERIDAN, May 28, 2017
A gray dinosaur statue outside south Florida's largest power plant is meant to symbolize two decommissioned fossil fuel reactors, but it also could be seen to represent a nuclear industry crumpling under mounting costs.
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| Plans to expand the Turkey Point Nuclear Reactor power station are on hold |
A gray dinosaur statue outside south Florida's largest power plant is meant to symbolize two decommissioned fossil fuel reactors, but it also could be seen to represent a nuclear industry crumpling under mounting costs.
Almost a
decade ago, Turkey Point was aiming to become one of the country's largest
nuclear plants.
Florida
Power and Light had argued that such expansion was needed to maintain diverse
energy sources and to supply Florida's booming population for years to come,
while touting nuclear as a clean form of energy.
But now,
just three reactors are in operation – one natural gas and two nuclear
reactors, built in the 1970s.
And plans
to build two more nuclear reactors -- first announced in 2009 -- are
essentially on hold for at least four years, according to filings with the
state's Public Service Commission.
"Right
now our only focus is on getting all the approvals we need," company
spokesman Peter Robbins told AFP.
"We
are not buying construction materials."
Westinghouse bankruptcy
Earlier
this year, the bankruptcy of Westinghouse, builder of the AP1000 reactor -- the
model scheduled for use at plants in South Carolina and Georgia as well as
Turkey Point -- rattled the industry.
Both
projects are now years behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget.
"We
are very closely monitoring the two new nuclear projects going on,"
Robbins said.
The
Southern Alliance for Clean Energy estimates that construction on Turkey Point
has been delayed until 2028 at the earliest, with costs expected to balloon to
over $20 billion.
FPL has
refused to publicly revise its projections at Turkey Point, for now.
"We
don't think there is value in coming up with a new cost or schedule until those
reactors are closer to completion," Robbins said.
Controversial project
The project
has been controversial from the start, and casts the spotlight on wider
concerns about nuclear power.
Critics
have pointed to the rising seas from climate change, risks of storm surge,
radioactive waste and threats to drinking water and wildlife at the site,
nestled near Everglades National Park, as reasons to stop nuclear expansion.
 |
The
dinosaur statue outside the Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant was
intended to
symbolise the fate of fossil fuel power generation
|
Complaints
have also centered on the difficulty of evacuating the densely populated area
around the plant in case of emergency. Miami-Dade County is home to 2.6 million
people.
"Investing
tens of billions of dollars on a power plant that will be underwater one day,
along with the highly radioactive waste it will produce, makes no sense,"
said fishing captain Dan Kipnis, one of the activists who is fighting to stop
the project.
Legal
challenges to the plant's planned expansion began in 2010, and continued this
month with a hearing before the Atomic Safety Board.
Over the
course of the two-day hearing, environmental scientists and lawyers wrangled
over whether the porous limestone in Florida could really contain wastewater
injected underground, without allowing toxic chemicals to seep upward into
drinking water.
Currently,
Turkey's Point's two nuclear reactors use a series of cooling canals to treat
wastewater.
These
canals were confirmed last year to be leaking into a nearby national park,
after a radioactive isotope, tritium, was found at up to 215 times the normal
levels in the waters of Biscayne Bay.
The
three-judge safety board panel is expected to rule by year's end on whether an
operating license should be granted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).
Time
never came
Throughout
Florida, FPL is expanding its solar installations, and is shuttering coal
plants.
Its energy
mix is 70 percent natural gas, 17 percent nuclear, with the rest divided
between solar, oil and coal.
Meanwhile,
the ever-dropping cost of natural gas is making nuclear less attractive every
day, analysts say.
"Most
people think Turkey Point will never get built," said Mark Cooper, senior
research fellow at the Institute for Energy and the Environment, Vermont Law
School, referring to FPL's proposed two new nuclear reactors.
"It
turns out it was not the environmentalists, it was not the lawsuits,"
Cooper told AFP.
"They
could not deliver a safe, economically viable product. They couldn't do it in
the '80s and they can't do it today," said Cooper.
"Nuclear
power is a technology whose time never came."
Related Articles:
"Recalibration of Free Choice"– Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth, 4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical) 8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)
“… 4 - Energy (again)
The natural resources of the planet are finite and will not support the continuation of what you've been doing. We've been saying this for a decade. Watch for increased science and increased funding for alternate ways of creating electricity (finally). Watch for the very companies who have the most to lose being the ones who fund it. It is the beginning of a full realization that a change of thinking is at hand. You can take things from Gaia that are energy, instead of physical resources. We speak yet; again about geothermal, about tidal, about wind. Again, we plead with you not to over-engineer this. For one of the things that Human Beings do in a technological age is to over-engineer simple things. Look at nuclear - the most over-engineered and expensive steam engine in existence!
Your current ideas of capturing energy from tidal and wave motion don't have to be technical marvels. Think paddle wheel on a pier with waves, which will create energy in both directions [waves coming and going] tied to a generator that can power dozens of neighborhoods, not full cities. Think simple and decentralize the idea of utilities. The same goes for wind and geothermal. Think of utilities for groups of homes in a cluster. You won't have a grid failure if there is no grid. This is the way of the future, and you'll be more inclined to have it sooner than later if you do this, and it won't cost as much…
Water
We've told you that one of the greatest natural resources of the planet, which is going to shift and change and be mysterious to you, is fresh water. It's going to be the next gold, dear ones. So, we have also given you some hints and examples and again we plead: Even before the potentials of running out of it, learn how to desalinate water in real time without heat. It's there, it's doable, and some already have it in the lab. This will create inexpensive fresh water for the planet.
There is a change of attitude that is starting to occur. Slowly you're starting to see it and the only thing getting in the way of it are those companies with the big money who currently have the old system. That's starting to change as well. For the big money always wants to invest in what it knows is coming next, but it wants to create what is coming next within the framework of what it has "on the shelf." What is on the shelf is oil, coal, dams, and non-renewable resource usage. It hasn't changed much in the last 100 years, has it? Now you will see a change of free choice. You're going to see decisions made in the boardrooms that would have curled the toes of those two generations ago. Now "the worst thing they could do" might become "the best thing they could do." That, dear ones, is a change of free choice concept. When the thinkers of tomorrow see options that were never options before, that is a shift. That was number four.”
"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)
“... Japan
Let us talk for a moment about Japan, and then I'll close the day of messages. There are thousands of souls on my side of the veil and they're just fine, more than fine. We have spoken so often of what happens at the Wind of Birth. I told you, before they even came in, they saw the potential. I looked in their eyes. "You may not last long. You know that, don't you? You're coming into this planet and you may not be here very long. And the passing that you will have with your family will not be pleasant, if any ever are. Why would you come in anyway?" I want to tell you what they said. When a soul has the mind of God, it understands fully what generates peace and what generates energy shift. You can clearly see what generates what the planet needs the most when you are about to arrive. So they said, "We're going to be part of one of the biggest compassion events the planet has ever seen." One earthquake, one tsunami. All of those who left that day will change the earth forever. And it already has. It was the same for the last tsunami as well.
Every single one of them on my side of the veil is getting ready to come back. Many old souls were involved, and just for a moment, if they could give you any information, if they could talk to you right now, if they could speak your language and look into your eyes, they would thank you for your compassion for them and those who are left. And they would say, "Be with those family members who are still alive. Enter their hearts every day and give them peace and keep them from crying, because we're OK."
Nuclear Power Revealed
So let me tell you what else they did. They just showed you what's wrong with nuclear power. "Safe to the maximum," they said. "Our devices are strong and cannot fail." But they did. They are no match for Gaia.
It seems that for more than 20 years, every single time we sit in the chair and speak of electric power, we tell you that hundreds of thousands of tons of push/pull energy on a regular schedule is available to you. It is moon-driven, forever. It can make all of the electricity for all of the cities on your planet, no matter how much you use. There's no environmental impact at all. Use the power of the tides, the oceans, the waves in clever ways. Use them in a bigger way than any designer has ever put together yet, to power your cities. The largest cities on your planet are on the coasts, and that's where the power source is. Hydro is the answer. It's not dangerous. You've ignored it because it seems harder to engineer and it's not in a controlled environment. Yet, you've chosen to build one of the most complex and dangerous steam engines on Earth - nuclear power.
We also have indicated that all you have to do is dig down deep enough and the planet will give you heat. It's right below the surface, not too far away all the time. You'll have a Gaia steam engine that way, too. There's no danger at all and you don't have to dig that far. All you have to do is heat fluid, and there are some fluids that boil far faster than water. So we say it again and again. Maybe this will show you what's wrong with what you've been doing, and this will turn the attitudes of your science to create something so beautiful and so powerful for your grandchildren. Why do you think you were given the moon? Now you know.
This benevolent Universe gave you an astral body that allows the waters in your ocean to push and pull and push on the most regular schedule of anything you know of. Yet there you sit enjoying just looking at it instead of using it. It could be enormous, free energy forever, ready to be converted when you design the methods of capturing it. It's time.
So in closing, do you understand what you're seeing? You're seeing intelligent design, quantum energy and high consciousness. You are seeing changes in Human nature. You're seeing countries putting things together instead of separating. You are seeing those who don't want war and instead want peace, good schools for their children, safety in their streets and a say in their government. We told you it was going to happen this way. I want my partner to teach these things that I have said in his 3D lectures for awhile. Many won't be able to know these things otherwise. …”
So in closing, do you understand what you're seeing? You're seeing intelligent design, quantum energy and high consciousness. You are seeing changes in Human nature. You're seeing countries putting things together instead of separating. You are seeing those who don't want war and instead want peace, good schools for their children, safety in their streets and a say in their government. We told you it was going to happen this way. I want my partner to teach these things that I have said in his 3D lectures for awhile. Many won't be able to know these things otherwise. …”
