Hurricane Idalia Storm Surge Hits Nuclear Power Plant in Florida

A nuclear power plant on the western coast of Florida, which only recently began the process of decommission, is among the areas facing storm surge flooding as Hurricane Idalia makes landfall further up the coast.

Duke Energy, which owns the Crystal River Nuclear Plant near Yankeetown, to the north of Tampa, announced in 2020 its intention to accelerate the decommissioning of the plant—but said spent nuclear fuel would remain on site until 2037.

Despite concerns that the floodwaters could cause a "potential disaster" at the site, the storage units for the spent fuel are designed to withstand extreme weather events such as hurricanes and flooding.

Hurricane Idalia is now an "extremely dangerous" Category 4 storm, bringing winds in excess of 130 miles an hour, the National Hurricane Center said in its latest forecast. Meteorologists predict Idalia will travel across northern Florida, before moving through Georgia and up the coasts of the Carolinas.

The National Hurricane Center foresees coastal storm surges of as much as 16 feet above ground level and destructive waves in Florida's Big Bend.

Storm surge is a rise in the sea level beyond tidal changes that precede the arrival of an impending storm. Even before a storm hits, it can cause severe flooding as seawater breaches coastal defenses.

"This hurricane is making landfall in an area that has substantial debris, and we are prepared to surge resources to clear roads and restore power as quickly as possible," Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said in a statement on Tuesday evening.

A map produced by the National Weather Service shows that there is the potential for storm surge flooding of more than 6 feet above the localized ground level in the area immediately surrounding the decommissioned nuclear power plant. The agency said there was around a 10 percent chance of that level being exceeded.

Noting that the power plant was still being dismantled, some social media users feared that the battering the Florida coastline is already experiencing could lead to a nuclear leak.

One X, formerly Twitter, user claimed that Crystal River Nuclear Plant was decommissioned in 2009 "but never cleaned up," adding that its proximity to the path of the hurricane could be the making of "a potential disaster." The plant was originally intended to be decommissioned from 2067, but the start date was brought forward to 2020.

Another user noted that spent nuclear fuel "was put in an Independent Spent Fuel Storage Installation on site," adding: "9+ feet of storm surge there? What could go wrong?" While there are areas that are predicted to see in excess of nine feet of storm surge, these are further up the coast, near Horseshoe Beach and other parts in the direct path of the storm.

"Every plant, like Crystal River, has procedures and processes to prepare for and respond to a variety of events, including storms," Shawna Berger, a Duke Energy spokesperson, told Newsweek.

She added that the spent nuclear fuel "remains securely sealed in the robust on-site storage facility, also designed and proven to withstand extreme weather.

"The used nuclear fuel storage facility at Crystal River was built on a berm approximately 25 feet above the surrounding area and the used fuel is stored in steel cannisters in concrete structures designed to withstand hurricanes."

According to Duke Energy planning documents, spent nuclear fuel at the site is being housed in a dry cask storage facility, which is "a safe, proven system that stores used nuclear fuel assemblies in sealed steel canisters house in robust concrete structures."

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission states that dry cask storage "is safe for people and the environment" and that the system is designed to "resist earthquakes, projectiles, tornadoes, floods, temperature extremes and other scenarios."

Duke Energy noted in its decommissioning plan that all American nuclear power plants had to store spent fuel on-site as the U.S. has no centralized storage facility, owing to a long-term political battle over a disposal site in Yucca Mountain, Nevada.

Berger said preparations for the hurricane at the Crystal River Nuclear Plant were completed on Monday, adding that its nuclear facilities "are designed and built to withstand a wide variety of natural and other severe events, and are staffed by trained personnel."

Update 08/30/23, 12:33 p.m. ET: This article was updated to include further comment from Shawna Berger, a Duke Energy spokesperson.