Advisory: Conservation Groups, Local Officials, Experts to Discuss Concerns with Florida Power & Light Proposal to Add Nuclear Reactors at Turkey Point in Biscayne Bay

Guest Blog | April 20, 2017 | Press Releases

Future of nearby national parks and region’s drinking water supply at risk

Contact: Jennifer Rennicks, SACE, 865-235-1448, [email protected]
Alison Heis, National Parks Conservation Association, 202-384-8762 or [email protected]

***UPDATED RESOURCES***

 

Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. – Join us Tuesday, April 25 at 11:00 a.m. ET, for a tele-press conference with a panel of speakers that includes local, regional and national experts and elected officials discussing concerns with Florida Power & Light’s (FPL) proposal to build two additional nuclear reactors at the Turkey Point facility near Homestead, adjacent to Biscayne National Park and nearby Everglades National Park. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will be the final decision maker to determine if FPL will receive the federal licensing approval that is required for them to move forward with an expansion at Turkey Point.

Together, National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), Southern Alliance for Clean Energy (SACE) and local residents Captain Dan Kipnis and Mark Oncavage legally intervened regarding the federal licensing proceedings for the proposed nuclear expansion. The Everglades Law Center (ELC) and Emory University School of Law’s Turner Environmental Law Clinic have provided extensive legal counsel to the groups.

After seven years of legal engagement, the NRC’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board will conduct an evidentiary hearing on May 2, 2017 to consider our concerns on whether FPL’s plan to dispose the proposed Turkey Point nuclear reactors’ wastewater underground could contaminate the Upper Floridan Aquifer with catastrophic results.

WHAT: Telephone press conference on Tuesday, April 25, 2017 (in advance of evidentiary hearing – see “Additional Information” below)

WHEN: Tuesday, April 25, 2017 at 11:00 a.m. EDT

WHERE: Dial 727-258-5789 and enter PIN: 97609

WHO: Mayor Philip Stoddard, City of South Miami

Caroline McLaughlin, Biscayne Program Manager, National Parks Conservation Association

Sara Barczak, High Risk Energy Choices Program Director, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy

Captain Dan Kipnis, local resident and fishing captain

Legal counsel representing NPCA, SACE and citizen intervenors:

Mindy Goldstein, Clinical Professor of Law, Director, Turner Environmental Law Clinic, Director, Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program, Emory University School of Law

Jason Totoiu, Executive Director, Everglades Law Center

Diane Curran, Attorney, Harmon Curran Spielberg & Eisenberg LLP

WHY: This proposal threatens our national parks, endangered wildlife, Everglades restoration and the health of park water resources. According to the NRC’s own standards, “sites adjacent to lands devoted to public use may be considered unsuitable,” and unacceptable impacts are “most apt to arise in areas adjacent to natural-resource-oriented areas.”

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Representatives of SACE and NPCA along with citizen intervenor Captain Dan Kipnis who have challenged FPL’s federal license approval before the NRC, and others will be available to the media at 9 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, May 2, 2017 prior to the start of the NRC’s Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB) evidentiary hearing that begins at 9:30 a.m. at Homestead City Hall, 100 Civic Court, Homestead, Florida.

 

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