As promised, Florida Power & Light’s $766 million Turkey Point uprate project has provided a much-needed boost to the South Florida communities around it.
In the last year, the work has already created 3,200 construction jobs in Miami-Dade County, where the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics pegged the unemployment rate at 11.5 percent in September. In addition to the plant’s 800 permanent employees, the construction workforce will max out at 5,000 by the end of January.
In a recent interview with the Miami Herald, Mary Finlan, executive director of the Greater Homestead/Florida City Chamber of Commerce, said the influx of workers and capital has had an enormous impact. “A couple of our Realtors are up to their eyeballs in requests to find housing, and the restaurants are noticing it big time,” she said.
FP&L plans to upgrade four of its reactors in Florida at its Turkey Point and St. Lucie plants. The NRC expects their uprate applications will be complete in either the first or second quarters of next year.
FP&L reports each uprate calls for a 100-megawatt power increase, which at Turkey Point amounts to about 14 percent more power. According to the NRC, Turkey Point units 3 and 4 last received uprates of 4.5 percent each in 1996. Both units are Westinghouse pressurized water reactors first licensed in the early 1970s.