Proposed construction of a nuclear power plant in Levy County has made consideration of the environmental impact of a plant more than an abstract concept. Environmental impacts occur under normal operations and when things go wrong. With more than 400 nuclear power plants in the world there is now hard evidence of normal operations and also when things go wrong. Under normal operations there are occasional and perhaps trivial releases of radioactive materials into the air or water. In some cases consumption of freshwater resources may be a factor. Also, warming of water resources may cause problems. For example, there is concern that manatees may congregate in the warm water and be trapped there if the plant is temporarily shut down. Nuclear reactors, the problematic components of a nuclear power plants, have been operating in the United States for more than sixty years. Their environmental impact, in actual practice, has included a partial melt-down at the Three Mile Island plant in PA, 18 other plants closed for various technical reasons and a massive contamination of land and ground water in Washington State. The melt-down at Three Mile Island (TMI) in 1979 marked the end of nuclear power plant construction in the U.S. Extensive investigation and analysis by federal and Pennsylvania authorities identified human error, design error and equipment failure as causes of the melt-down. No lives were lost directly from the TMI accident. There is limited and conflicting evidence of cancer and stillbirths following TMI. Another example of things going wrong is the FirstEnergy Davis-Besse plant of the same design as TMI. That plant, located on Lake Erie in Ohio, has a long history of problems and down time. It may be another example of design error, equipment failure and subsequent human error. Three FirstEnergy employees are under indictment for making false statements to a federal agency. A former commissioner of the Nuclear Regulatory Agency called the Davis-Besse case "a narrow escape" according to the Associated Press. Duke Power is owner of the Oconee South Carolina nuclear power plant of the same design as Davis-Besse and with similar equipment problems, namely corrosion of spray nozzles in the cooling system. The Electric Power Research Institute has identified 13 pressurized water nuclear reactors in the U.S. that may have similar problems with the nozzles in cooling systems. Disposal of nuclear waste may be the most difficult environmental impact of nuclear power plants. Currently waste is stored temporarily on-site in deep water filled tanks at each power plant. To date, no state has been willing to become the permanent storage site, although Nevada has been chosen as the best site. The state of Washington has long experience with nuclear waste and has vigorously resisted additional deposit of nuclear waste. The Hanford, Washington area (586 square miles) was chosen for production of nuclear weapons ingredients in the 1940's. Liquid nuclear waste (53 million gallons) has been stored in underground tanks, some of which have been leaking since the 1970's. The leakage has moved in a plume that is expected to reach the Columbia River within twelve years. Meanwhile, a process for encapsulation of the waste in glass has been developed. The plant that will encapsulate the waste will cost $12.2 billion and may be completed by 2011, or 2015 according to a U.S Army Corp of Engineers report. Nuclear waste management is regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Agency, the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency. Historically, corporations such as General Electric, Bechtel, Atlantic-Richfield and CH2M have done design and execution of nuclear industry projects. Public utilities such as FirstEnergy, Duke Power and Progress Energy own the nuclear power plants. These are the entities that balance the need for electricity and the public safety and environmental impact of nuclear power plants. Editor's Note: This is the second in a series of three articles about nuclear power plants. The third article will attempt to cover the economic aspects of building a nuclear power plant in Levy County. | 