The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has put on hold a 2019 decision to extend the operating license to 80 years for the two-unit Turkey Point station in southern Florida south of Miami, the Associated Press reported this week. The plants are two elderly 802-MW Westinghouse pressurized water reactors, with construction completed in 1972 and 1973.
Citing the National Environmental Policy Act, the NRC said it wants a further review of the environmental impacts of the extended license. The NRC wrote that the application to move from an already approved license extension to 2021 and 2023, which relied on a 2013 generic environmental impact statement, was inadequate. The NRC said that document “did not address subsequent license renewal. As a result, the environmental review of the subsequent license renewal application at issue in this case is incomplete.”
Florida Power & Light, the plant’s owner and operator, replied, “The NRC’s decisions do not affect FPL’s current authority to safely and reliably operate the Turkey Point units. The decisions affect the NRC’s environmental review for plant operations in the future, starting in 2032. We are evaluating the NRC’s decisions to determine our next steps in the license renewal process.”
The move, which has a political component, reversed a 2019 NRC order allowing the units to operate until 2052 and 2053. In 2019, with Republicans in control of the NRC, the agency extended that operating license from an originally approved 2021 and 2023 extension. The 2019 order would have meant that the plant would have been able to operate for a total of 80 years.
When the Biden administration took over in 2021, the balance of power on the five-member commission, which now consists of only three members, two Democrats and one Republican, shifted. The commission vote was 2-1.
The NRC earlier this year took action on a similar extension to 80 years for Exelon’s two Peach Bottom Units near Philadelphia in Pennsylvania.
The Turkey Point Republican extension drew fire from environmental groups, including Miami Waterkeeper, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and Friends of the Earth, who challenged the license extension at the NRC.
Diane Curran, a long-time litigator for environmental groups at the NRC, said the company’s generic impact statement, written in 1996 and updated in 2013, only looked at extending reactor operations from the original license term of 40 years to 80 years. She told the AP, “NRC researchers have acknowledged, however, that operating a reactor beyond 60 years poses unique safety and environmental issues related to the age-related degradation of safety equipment. This decision paves the way for a hard look at those significant concerns.”
–Kennedy Maize