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Apr 21 - The Miami Herald
Investigators have made no progress in finding who made a small hole in a pipe at the Turkey Point nuclear plant, the head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Friday in Miami. Nils Diaz said several agencies are continuing to investigate the man-made hole, which he said was 3/16 of an inch, slightly larger than the 1/8-inch earlier reported. "We are trying to get to the end of this," said Diaz. More than 50 FBI agents have investigated the hole, and Florida Power & Light has offered a $100,000 award for information. Diaz made his statements after visiting Turkey Point on Friday. Meanwhile, in Washington, a new pro-nuclear group is preparing for its first formal press conference. The Clean and Safe Energy Coalition is led by former EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman and Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore. Charter members include the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the American Iron and Steel Institute, the National Association of Manufacturers, and the Electric Consumers' Alliance. Diaz said pro-nuclear forces were getting a popular boost because environmental issues such as "global warming," the soaring cost of fossil fuels and the complex geo-politics of depending on other areas of the world for oil. Asked about about FPL's announcement that it plans to file an application for a new nuclear plant, Diaz said the approval process "has been changed." It used to be that a power company had to first get a permit to build a nuclear plant, then get an operating permit. In the new scenario, the two steps are combined into one. The new process is "more streamlined" but still can take years, he said. Art Stall, FPL's senior vice president in charge of its nuclear program, said the utility has yet to choose a site for a new plant, but it owns several properties that might be used for nuclear. He said it was obvious that a site that already has a nuclear plant, such as Turkey Point, would be easier to get permission for a new plant rather than starting with a completely new site. ----- Copyright (c) 2006, The Miami Herald Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. |