Progress Energy's application to build two new reactors near Gainesville, Fla., will continue to move forward after a regulatory body dismissed an appeal by environmental groups.
The Nuclear Information and Resource Service and the Ecology Party of Florida had challenged the final environmental impact statement issued for the project last year. In a ruling announced Tuesday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board rejected the groups' contentions following an extensive hearing last fall. Among other things, the ruling found that the FEIS fairly accounts for the proposed site's underlying geology and hydrology, according to an NRC release. The groups can appeal the decision to the NRC's commissioners.
Progress applied for a combined license for the new plant in 2008. According to an agency timeline, the NRC sent the FEIS to the Environmental Protection Agency in April of last year and plans to finalize its safety review in September. If approved, the license would allow the utility to build two Westinghouse AP1000 reactors at the site in Levy County.