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3 groups oppose nuclear plant

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By TED JACKOVICS

tjackovics@tampatrib.com

Published: July 9, 2009

The federal Atomic Safety and Licensing Board on Wednesday granted standing to three petitioners who challenged the proposed Progress Energy Florida nuclear power plant in Levy County and will hear arguments on three of their legal arguments on why the plant shouldn't be built.

The Green Party of Florida, the Ecology Party of Florida and the Nuclear Information and Resource Service argue::

•Progress Energy's environmental report inappropriately characterized as small certain impacts in building and operating the facility, including impacts to wetlands, the underlying Floridan aquifer system and the Withlacoochee and Waccasassa rivers, among other issues.

•The environmental report assumes certain radioactive waste will be promptly shipped offsite and fails to address the environmental impacts if waste must be managed for a longer period.

•The safety analysis report makes the same assumption about shipping and handling radioactive waste.

The Nuclear Regulator Commission's board is expected to schedule a hearing for oral arguments in the near future, spokesman Joey Ledford said.

Progress Energy will review the ruling and decide whether to file an appeal, spokesman Tim Leljedal said.

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