[Dane]

A nuclear plant or two wouldn't hurt either.

Plus there are no greenhouse gases with a nuclear plant(that drives the envirowhackos nuts, when you mention that).

[snowsislander]

A nuclear plant or two wouldn't hurt either.

Yes, more nuclear power in Florida would be great. Florida is currently ranked 11th in the U.S. in nuclear capacity, but for such a populous state, it would make more sense to be higher in the DOE list:

FLORIDA

Florida Nuclear Highlights

• Of the 31 States with nuclear capacity, Florida ranks 11^th.
• Crystal River ranks 7th on the Energy Information Administration's list of 100 largest power plants and Turkey Point ranks 50th, but both powerplants have fossil as well as nuclear units. St. Lucie, strictly a nuclear plant, ranks 99th.
• Florida’s nuclear power plants generated 33,704,230 megawatt hours of electricity in 2002, a new State record.

 

Nuclear Generation in Florida, 1960 through 2003
Million Kilowatt Hours

   Sources: Energy Information Administration, State Energy Data Report 1999, and Electric Power Annual, Volume 1, 2001, and EIA Survey Form 906.

  Florida's Nuclear Power Plants                                   

Plant Name	Nuclear Units	Capacity Net MWe	Share of State Nuclear Generation Total	Operator/Owner
Crystal River	Unit 3	842	22%	Florida Power Corporation/Progress Energy
St. Lucie	Unit 1, Unit 2	1,678	43%	Florida Power & Light (FPL)/FPL and various others*
Turkey Point	Unit 3, Unit 4	1,386	36%	FPL/same
Total	5 reactors	3,906	100%

    * Unit 1 is wholly owned by FPL, Unit 2 is owned by FPL (85.1 %), Florida Municipal Power Agency (8.8 %), and Orlando Utilities (6.1%). 
   Note:  Total exceeds 100 percent due to rounding.
   Source: Form EIA-860, "Annual Electric Generator Report"

 

Competing Fuels

Electricity Market in Florida (Percent Generated by Fuel)
Year	Coal	Gas	Hydro	Nuclear	Petroleum	Other
2003	31	32	*	15	18	4
2002	30	32	*	17	17	4

   *less than one percent
   Source: Form EIA-906, Power Plant Report

Emissions

Florida Electric Power Industry Estimated Emissions Thousand Short Tons
Product	Thousand Short Tons	National Ranking	Annual Growth Rate  (1993 through 2002)
Sulfur Dioxide	502	7th	-4.2 percent
Nitrogen Oxide	289	4th	-1.4 percent
Carbon Dioxide	131,484	3rd	2.5 percent

   Source:  State Electricity Profiles, Energy Information Administration

 

See also, the comprehensive table comparing emissions tonnage for all 50 States plus the District of Columbia.

License Renewal 

On June 6, 2002 the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) issued a renewed license to the Turkey Point Nuclear Plant, for both units 3 and 4.  On October 2, 2003, the NRC approved the license renewal application for units 1 and 2 at the St. Lucie nuclear power plant.

 Information on the current status of all license renewal applications appears on the NRC web site at http://www.nrc.gov .  To locate the data, select “index,” then select the letter “l” and click on “License Renewal.”