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Florida Power and Light is looking to uprate three of its nuclear plants: St. Lucie, Turkey Point and Point Beach. FP&L Director of Nuclear Fuel Services Claude Villard told the Platts Nuclear Fuel Strategies conference in Arlington, Virginia September 15 that the uprating of its nuclear plants would result in a 10% increase in demand for uranium. He said Turkey Point and St. Lucie are each looking at boosting their generating capacity by 200 MW, with an uprated St. Lucie-1 scheduled to go online in fall 2011 and unit 2 in spring 2012. Turkey Point's uprated unit 3 is slated to begin generating at its increased capacity in spring 2012 and unit 4 in fall 2012. Point Beach is looking to increase capacity by 180 MW.

Flooding from tropical Storm Fay triggered the shutdown of an 839-megawatt nuclear reactor unit at FPL Group's St. Lucie plant, but power supplies are still adequate, the company said today. Due to flooding in an area that holds equipment and pumps, the St. Lucie 1 reactor was taken offline around 6 a.m. Wednesday, said FPL spokeswoman Leslie Cifelli.

Florida Power & Light Co. should have gone to greater lengths to make sure it was getting the best deal on contracts related to expansion of its nuclear plants in St. Lucie and Miami-Dade counties, consumer advocates argued Thursday. During a Florida Public Service Commission hearing in Tallahassee, representatives from the Office of Public Counsel said FPL should have sought competitive bids for the work it's doing to add capacity to four reactors at its St. Lucie and Turkey Point nuclear plants.

In the late nineties, the State Department of Health looked into a possible cancer cluster in St. Lucie County. There were 28 cases of brain and central nervous system cancers in kids. No pattern was established. No cluster proven. As well and soil tests wrap up this week, some sobering facts about providing clusters exist. The centers for Disease Control conducted 108 cancer cluster investigations between 1961 and 1990. None of them found an environmental cause for cancer. Local and State Health Departments now bear the burden of investigating clusters and there are 1,000 reported in the U.S. every year. Since 1995, only about 50 clusters have been confirmed in the country. The DEP tests of wells and the counties tests of soil at schools go forward with the knowledge that in only one case, at Southside High School in Elmira New York, have children been victimized by toxic exposure. 20 cases of testicular cancer was documented.The school had been built near an industrial site.

In the late nineties, the State Department of Health looked into a possible cancer cluster in St. Lucie County. There were 28 cases of brain and central nervous system cancers in kids. No pattern was established. No cluster proven. As well and soil tests wrap up this week, some sobering facts about providing clusters exist. The centers for Disease Control conducted 108 cancer cluster investigations between 1961 and 1990. None of them found an environmental cause for cancer. Local and State Health Departments now bear the burden of investigating clusters and there are 1,000 reported in the U.S. every year. Since 1995, only about 50 clusters have been confirmed in the country. The DEP tests of wells and the counties tests of soil at schools go forward with the knowledge that in only one case, at Southside High School in Elmira New York, have children been victimized by toxic exposure. 20 cases of testicular cancer was documented.The school had been built near an industrial site.

The Florida Public Service Commission on Friday agreed to let the state's two largest utilities collect more than $270 million from ratepayers next year as a down payment to develop new nuclear plants expected to come online in the next decade. The commission will allow FPL Group's (FPL.N) Florida Power & Light Co to recover nearly $62.7 million in costs related to construction of two proposed nuclear reactors, Turkey Point Units 6 and 7, and work to increase output at its existing nuclear units, Turkey Point Units 3 and 4 and St. Lucie Units 1 and 2, the commission said in a release. FPL is the state's largest utility with 4.5 million customers.

The Florida Public Service Commission on Friday agreed to let the state's two largest utilities collect more than $270 million from ratepayers next year as a down payment to develop new nuclear plants expected to come online in the next decade. The commission will allow FPL Group's (FPL.N) Florida Power & Light Co to recover nearly $62.7 million in costs related to construction of two proposed nuclear reactors, Turkey Point Units 6 and 7, and work to increase output at its existing nuclear units, Turkey Point Units 3 and 4 and St. Lucie Units 1 and 2, the commission said in a release. FPL is the state's largest utility with 4.5 million customers.

Florida Power and Light filed with the Public Service Commission a request to recover costs incurred so far on two key nuclear projects: expansion of the power capacity at our nuclear power plants at Turkey Point and St. Lucie, and the addition of two nuclear units at the Turkey Point power plant complex. If approved by the Public Service Commission, beginning January 2009 consumer electric bills may increase by slightly more than 2 percent.