
{"id":3194,"date":"2008-08-07T07:46:02","date_gmt":"2008-08-07T15:46:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=3194"},"modified":"2008-08-15T08:58:44","modified_gmt":"2008-08-15T16:58:44","slug":"county-opposes-nuclear-plant-expansion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2008\/08\/07\/county-opposes-nuclear-plant-expansion\/","title":{"rendered":"County opposes nuclear plant expansion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>by <strong>Kirk Ross<\/strong><br \/>\nStaff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The Orange County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously last week to pursue objections to the expansion of Progress Energy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Shearon Harris nuclear plant.<\/p>\n<p>The county will seek an extension of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s comment period about the expansion and hold a public hearing, tentatively scheduled for Sept 2., to gather input from citizens about the proposal.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We have several concerns,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Barry Jacobs, chair of the board of commissioners, said this week, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153but first we want to hear what the public thinks.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>If the board decides to move forward with legal action, it would not be the first time Orange County has raised objections about the plant. It fought the relicensing of the plant challenging the use of storage pools for spent fuel rods. <\/p>\n<p>The legal work preparing that case costs roughly $325,000. Noting that Orange County paid about $300,000 of the legal bill, Jacobs said county officials hope to learn whether they can count on other local governments to pitch in on a new effort. He estimates that it would cost about another $100,000 to update the work done in the last challenge and to file to formally intervene in the proposed expansion.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to the use of storage pools for the fuel rods \u00e2\u20ac\u201d which would increase under the expansion plan \u00e2\u20ac\u201d commissioners are also concerned about the plant not being in compliance with fire-safety regulations, an additional draw of water from the Cape Fear River and questions about how security is handled at the plant.<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This is not the best run plant in the U.S. by a long shot,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Jacobs said.<\/p>\n<p>Julia Milstead, a Progress Energy spokesperson at the Harris plant, said the company respects the county\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s right to express its opinions about the expansion. Progress and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, she said, are \u00e2\u20ac\u0153committed to transparent and open process.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Although it has filed for the expansion, Milstead emphasized that Progress has not yet reached a decision on whether to expand Harris.<\/p>\n<p>She said it would be irresponsible of the company not to plan for the future.<\/p>\n<p>The proposed expansion would add two new reactors to the plant.<\/p>\n<p>Also this week, the North Carolina Waste Awareness and Reduction Network (NCWARN) filed a<br \/>\nmotion with the NRC to stop the expansion, citing many of the same concerns as Orange County.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Kirk Ross Staff Writer The Orange County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously last week to pursue objections to the expansion of Progress Energy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Shearon Harris nuclear plant. The county will seek an extension of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s comment period about the expansion and hold a public hearing, tentatively scheduled for Sept 2., to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3194","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3194","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3194\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}