Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
PI <br />WHEREAS, regardless of the safety and security findings made by NRC inspections of <br />the plant, NRC and Progress Energy polices and procedures promote <br />inadequacies in 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% of the risks (as calculated by the <br />NRC) of catastrophic nuclear plant failure are associated with fire- related <br />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 />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 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 /CP &L has indicated that it has or will apply to the NRC for <br />a twenty year extension of its operating license for the Shearon Harris <br />plant while the plant is not in compliance with existing fire safety standards <br />and regulations; and <br />WHEREAS, Progress Energy /CP &L is in the process of evaluating, permitting, <br />designing and constructing two nuclear power reactors at the Shearon <br />Harris nuclear power plant while the existing plant is not in compliance with <br />existing fire 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 area is unnecessary for the foreseeable future; <br />and <br />