NRC shuts public out of meeting on Progress Energy nuke

A watchdog group is criticizing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission for abruptly halting a public meeting last week after problems arose with Progress Energy's application for a new reactor in North Carolina -- and for continuing the discussion with company officials in private. The N.C. Waste Awareness and Reduction Network says the agency's action violates federal policy and has asked U.S. Rep. David Price (D-N.C.) to intervene.

The meeting on technical aspects of the company's plan to build a new reactor at its Shearon Harris nuclear plant near Raleigh was held Thursday at NRC's headquarters in Rockville, Md. N.C. WARN's attorney, executive director and other representatives were participating via phone when NRC staff raised questions about the site's geology and availability of cooling water. The historic drought afflicting North Carolina recently forced Progress to warn that it might have to shut down the existing Harris reactor because of low levels in the adjacent cooling lake.

When the answers offered failed to satisfy the NRC, Progress officials suggested that the issues be resolved after the meeting. At that point, a meeting that had been scheduled to last two and a half hours was ended after 70 minutes. In a letter sent to the NRC today, N.C. WARN Attorney John Runkle criticized the move:

You essentially went into "closed session" after some tough questions from the NRC staff that lengthy discussions did not resolve. Representatives from Progress Energy were the ones to suggest that issues be resolved "after the meeting." Nothing being discussed was proprietary or safeguards-related, so all of the meeting should have been public.

N.C. WARN called on Rep. Price to help ensure all future meetings regarding Progress Energy's proposed reactor are held near the Harris plant to allow greater public participation. Price has proved willing to use his post as chair of the House Appropriations' Homeland Security Subcommittee to exercise oversight of the nuclear industry: In response to a recent Inspector General report that found Harris and other nuclear plants are violating fire safety regulations, for example, Price wrote a letter to NRC Chair Dale Klein urging him to demonstrate that the agency's actions on the matter "are fully transparent." Hearings on that report are set for next month. Price has also requested a Government Accountability Office investigation into nuclear fire safety issues.
 

In other nuclear news, Progress Energy is raising eyebrows with its cost estimate for the two nuclear reactors it's planning to build near its Crystal River Nuclear Plant in Levy County, Fla.: $14 billion for construction costs and an additional $3 billion for transmission facilities, with the expense to be passed on to its customers in the form of higher bills. Cost estimates for new nuclear plants have as much as tripled in the past two years due to climbing prices for materials, labor and reactor technology. Progress Energy's initial estimate for the Crystal Rivers reactors, for example, was $5 billion to $7 billion -- off by more than half. The reactors chosen for Florida -- the Westinghouse AP1000 -- are the same model Progress plans for Harris.