Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
ORANGE COUNTY <br />BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br />Meeting Date: October 3, 2006 <br />Action Agenda <br />Item No. 6 -u <br />SUBJEGT: Resolutions Regarding Shearon Harris Fire Safety and Emergency Evacuation <br />Issues <br />DEPARTMENT: County Commissioners PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) no <br />County Manager <br />ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: <br />Resolution In Support of Bringing the <br />Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant into Barry Jacobs, Chair BOCC <br />Compliance with existing Fire Safety County Engineer, 919-245-2303 <br />Regulations <br />Resolution Requesting that Progress <br />Energy/CP&L Work with Law <br />Enforcement and Emergency <br />Management Officials within the 50-Mile <br />Impact Area Around the Shearon Harris <br />Plant to Establish and Coordinate <br />Emergency Evacuation Planning <br />NCWARN Resolution <br />PURPOSE: To provide two resolutions related to safety issues at the Shearon Harris Nuclear <br />Power Plant to the BOCC for the .Board to review, revise as necessary and adopt. <br />BACKGROUND: The citizens and elected officials of Orange County have, for some years, <br />been aware of the potential for widespread and lethal consequences resulting from an airborne <br />release of the tremendous quantity of radioactive material available from the spent nuclear fuel <br />stored in Shearon Harris nuclear power plant's "temporary" waste storage pools. While the <br />southernmost portion of Orange County. is approximately 15 miles north of Shearon Harris, all of <br />the County lies within the 50 mile radius "ingestion pathway" around the plant - as do a large <br />densely populated area and important governmental, military, industrial and education facilities <br />(approximately 2,000,000 individuals, the state capital, Fort Bragg, the Research Triangle, four <br />major universities and a number of smaller universities and colleges). Orange County <br />governments and citizens have been very vocal about concerns related to those safety and <br />security issues at the Shearon Harris nuclear power plant that could lead to an incident <br />involving a significant airborne release of nuclear waste materials. <br />During the period of late-1998 through mid-2002, Orange County's concerns led it to work with <br />other local governments to challenge, through a quasi judicial proceeding with the Nuclear <br />Regulatory Commission (NRC), the plans. of Progress Energy/CP&L to expand the use of the <br />Shearon Harris fuel storage pools. In May of 2002, Orange County and Chatham County co- <br />hosted asymposium on the effects of release of a major release of nuclear materials as a <br />consequence of terrorism. <br />