New Nuclear in Florida

Jeff Lyash of Progress Energy visited the St. Petersburg Times last week, and columnist Robert Trigaux has a report:

Lyash stopped by the St. Petersburg Times last week to introduce himself and explain why and how a new nuclear power plant is heading our way.

It's coming because Florida continues to grow at a rapid pace and electricity demand will increase dramatically in the coming decades. It's coming because other traditional fuels - natural gas, oil and coal - used to generate electricity have become vastly more expensive than expected, or continue to raise air pollution concerns.

It's coming because mainstream America's longstanding fear of nuclear power - be it Three Mile Island or Chernobyl - is fading. It's coming because even environmentalists, opposed to nukes because of the lack of a national plan to handle their radioactive spent fuel, sense that nuclear power looks more attractive in a more unstable world too dependent on high-priced oil.

Lyash readily says there would be no nuclear power plant in the works if natural gas had remained cheap at $2 instead of $14 and oil at $10 a barrel instead of $70.

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