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WHEREAS, regardless of the safety and security findings made by NRC inspections of <br />the plant, NRC and Progress Energy policies and procedures promote <br />inadequate security measures to protect the plant and spent fuel pool <br />storage area from terrorist activities culminating in fire and airborne release <br />of toxic nuclear waste materials; and <br />WHEREAS, absent terrorist attack, approximately 50 percent of the risks of <br />catastrophic nuclear plant failure (as calculated by the NRC) are <br />associated with fire-related accidents; and <br />WHEREAS, information has been presented to the community at large and the Orange <br />County Board of Commissioners as to ongoing problems with fire safety <br />practices at the Shearon Harris nuclear power plant; and <br />WHEREAS, Progress Energy has indicated that it will take seven to ten more years to <br />bring the Shearon Harris nuclear power plant into compliance with the <br />NRC's adopted fire safety standards and regulations; and <br />WHEREAS, Progress Energy has indicated that it has or will apply to the NRC for a <br />twenty year extension of its operating license for the Shearon Harris plant <br />while the plant is not in compliance with existing fire safety standards and <br />regulations; and <br />WHEREAS, Progress Energy is in the process of evaluating, permitting, designing and <br />constructing two nuclear power reactors at the Shearon Harris nuclear <br />power plant while the existing plant is not in compliance with existing fire <br />safety standards and regulations; and <br />WHEREAS, The permanent storage facility for spent nuclear fuel rods and other high <br />level radioactive waste at the proposed federal Yucca Mountain facility in <br />Nevada appears to be no closer to fruition than it was twenty years ago <br />and will probably not be available for another twenty years, if ever; and <br />WHEREAS, the Orange County Board of Commissioners and the community have <br />grave concerns about the NRC's objectivity in evaluating the nuclear power <br />industry's proposals and programs related to the concerns outlined above; <br />and <br />WHEREAS, numerous technical reports and papers by environmental groups, the <br />utilities themselves and the NRC have shown that additional power <br />generation capacity in this region may be unnecessary for the foreseeable <br />future; and <br />WHEREAS, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has set a deadline of August 4, <br />2008 for submitting objections to the issuance of a permit for the <br />construction of two new reactors at the Shearon Harris plant, even though <br />