Progress Energy halts spent-fuel shipments to Shearon Harris nuke plant

The N.C. Waste Awareness and Reduction Network has learned that Progress Energy recently halted shipments of spent nuclear fuel rods from other facilities for storage in water-filled cooling pools at the Shearon Harris nuclear plant 25 miles southwest of Raleigh. Instead, the company is now storing those rods on site at the Robinson plant near Florence, S.C. and the Brunswick plant near Wilmington, N.C.

Under pressure from local government officials in Orange, Chatham and Durham counties and the towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro, Progress in 2003 announced that it would halt the spent-fuel shipments to Harris by the end of 2005. In an e-mail sent to those officials this week, N.C. WARN Executive Director Jim Warren said the fact that it took two additional years is "unfortunately consistent with Progress Energy’s pattern of prioritizing profits over regional safety, despite its public relations position."

Last October, a train delivering spent fuel to Harris derailed on the plant's property. Fortunately, no one was injured in the incident, and the waste was reportedly undamaged. The company blamed the mishap on human error.

Adding to concerns about the spent fuel shipments to Harris is the plant's history of serious security problems exposed by whistle-blowing guards; those problems led the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to levy a $65,000 fine against the company last year. In addition, Harris is one of a number of nuclear power plants across the South and the nation that are failing to follow the letter of the law on fire prevention.

N.C. WARN has long called on Progress Energy to lower the density of the spent-fuel cooling pools at Harris and to move all waste over five years old into more secure dry storage casks -- a plan endorsed in 2005 by the National Academy of Sciences.

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In other Progress Energy news, the company has a new media spokesperson: Julia Lewis, a longtime reporter and editor for Raleigh's WRAL TV news. Her predecessor, Julie Hans, has reportedly been promoted to another position within the company.

(Photo of Harris plant from the Progress Energy Web site)