History
The Levy County Nuclear Power Plant is the umbrella term for a proposed nuclear power plant in Levy County, Florida. Proposed in 2006, Progress Energy Florida (PEF) announced the selection of 5,100 acres (2,100 ha) in southern Levy County for the potential construction of nuclear reactors. The site's proximity to the company's existing Crystal River 3 Nuclear Power Plant was expected to provide opportunities for efficiencies in shared support functions at both facilities. However, Progress Energy (at this point, a subsidiary of Duke Energy) announced the decommissioning of the Crystal River reactor in February 2013 after cracks formed in its containment dome, estimated at $1.5 billion to repair. The company made no reference to constructing any new nuclear facilities in the region, only stating that they are "evaluating a number of potential sites for new plant capacity that may be needed in the future to meet Florida customer needs."
Progress Energy Florida submitted a filing with the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) on March 11, 2008, outlining its need for additional electricity and proposing to meet that need with two nuclear units in Levy County. The PSC scheduled hearings on the project in late May, and approved it in July. The company then applied for a Combined Construction and Operating License (COL) from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on July 30, 2008. Costs of the power plant are estimated at $19–24 billion, including $3 billion for necessary transmission upgrades. The first reactor is expected to become online in 2024 and the second one 18 month later.
On October 14, 2008, the PSC voted to allow PEF to charge customers an additional $11.42 per 1,000 kW·h, beginning in January 2009, to pay for the Levy plant and work upgrading the Crystal River plant.
On January 5, 2009, PEF awarded an engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract to Westinghouse and The Shaw Group's nuclear division to build the two reactors for $7.65 billion. The reactors were supposed to be operational by 2016–18. In May, after the NRC denied permission to begin excavation work on the site to prepare for construction prior to issuing the COL, Progress Energy announced that commercial operation of the two new reactors had been pushed back "a minimum of 20 months." In view of the delay, Progress Energy has requested approval from the Public Service Commission to reduce the project cost to consumers in 2010 from $12.63 to $6.69 per 1000 kW·h.
On August 11, 2009, Florida governor Charlie Crist and his cabinet unanimously adopted the recommendation of the state Department of Environmental Protection, and approved the plant's Site Certification Application (SCA). Site certification is the last major state-level approval needed before Progress can start constructing the Levy plant. The approval included a requirement that Progress shut down coal-fired electrical generating units 1 & 2 at its nearby Crystal River Energy Complex by the end of 2020, assuming the timely licensing and construction of the Levy nuclear power plant.
Read more about this topic: Levy County Nuclear Power Plant
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“I feel as tall as you.”
—Ellis Meredith, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 14, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“Regarding History as the slaughter-bench at which the happiness of peoples, the wisdom of States, and the virtue of individuals have been victimized—the question involuntarily arises—to what principle, to what final aim these enormous sacrifices have been offered.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“We said that the history of mankind depicts man; in the same way one can maintain that the history of science is science itself.”
—Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749–1832)