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WHEREAS, regardless of the safety and security findings made by NRC inspections <br />of the plant, NRC and Progress Energy polices and procedures promote <br />inadequacies in security measures to protect the plant and spent fuel pool storage <br />area from terrorist activities culminating in fire and airborne release of toxic nuclear <br />waste materials; and <br />WHEREAS, absent terrorist attack, approximately 50% of the risks (as <br />calculated by the NRC) of catastrophic nuclear plant failure are associated with fire- <br />related accidents; and <br />WHEREAS, information has been presented to the community at large and the <br />Orange County Board of Commissioners as to ongoing problems with fire safety <br />problems and practices at the Shearon Harris nuclear power plant; and <br />WHEREAS, Progress Energy has indicated that it will take seven to ten more <br />years to 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/CP&L has indicated that it has or will apply to the <br />NRC for a 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/CP&~ is in the process of evaluating, permitting, <br />designing and constructing two nuclear power reactors at the Shearon Harris <br />nuclear power plant while the existing plant is not in compliance with existing fire <br />safety standards and regulations; <br />WHEREAS, the Orange County Board of Commissioners and the community <br />have grave concerns about the NRC's objectivity in evaluating the nuclear power <br />industry's proposals and programs related to the concerns outlined above; and <br />WHEREAS, numerous technical reports and papers by environmental groups, <br />the utilities themselves and the NRC have shown that additional power generation <br />capacity in this area is unnecessary for the foreseeable future; and <br />WHEREAS, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has set a deadline of <br />August 4, 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 the <br />Westinghouse Model AP4100 reactor technology proposed for use there is not <br />expected to have been designed, reviewed and permitted by the NRC before 2011. <br />