Citizens Against Perkins .org
A local
citizen organization opposed to the
Perkins Nuclear Reactors
on the Yadkin River
in
Davie County, NC
Citizens Against Perkins .org A local
citizen organization opposed to the |
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Thursday's Internet Edition, 7:12 PM, May 19, 2005
- The Perkins Nuclear Station ... those are no longer household words here.
I still think about my old Perkins connections every time I drive past the site on N.C. 801 in the southeastern side of Davie County. Had the plant been built, we would see huge white plumes of steam on the horizon every morning. Instead, the 1,800-acre site is ripe with deer, and I slow down measurably when driving in that area.
The Sunday issue of the Winston-Salem Journal had a story about the chance that the old Perkins site might one day be used by Duke Power for electricity production.
Might one day ...
Don’t get your dander up just yet.
Perkins was originally slated to open in 1981.
Fears of nuclear power, regulatory red tape, protesters and reality got in its way 30 years ago.
I was a cub reporter for the Salisbury Post in the mid-1970s and got the Perkins assignment. The hearings were exhaustive. The nuclear power language was harder to decipher than Latin. As the years ground on, Duke Power suddenly awoke to the fact that it didn’t need the three-unit nuclear station at all.
The protesters won. And the site has sat idle.
Duke Power realized its long range forecast for electrical consumption was all wrong. Like the Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, the earlier assumptions were faulty.
Now, with demand for electricity growing, Duke Power must consider its options once again — including the Perkins tract. Demand may have returned, but Duke Power may find even more opponents now.
Perkins was proposed as half of a six-pack of nuclear reactors. Three other reactors were planned in Cherokee, S.C. Construction actually began at Cherokee. It was halted after Duke Power had invested hundreds of millions in the process.
Davie County leaders, initially, were mostly thrilled to be chosen for a nuclear site. The property tax rate could have been adjusted downward to a single digit with the sudden benefit of a power plant that would be valued at a billion dollars. Neighboring Davidson commissioners grumbled that they should get a share of the tax revenue — just for being close.
Cost skyrocketed on the project almost as fast as the national debt. The economy soured. Then America became terrified of nuclear power.
Had Perkins been built, Davie County would have been able to afford the finest school buildings architects could design. School board members and county commissioners were licking their lips and dreaming of ways to spend all that money.
But it didn’t happen.
Before the Three Mile Island disaster, nuclear power was considered safe, economical and the energy source of choice for the future. Perkins was defeated because of water, not nuclear worries.
Local opponents were categorized as the Yadkin River rats — downstream people worried about the impact of a gigantic vacuum gulping huge volumes of water. David Springer, Mary Davis, Lawrence Pfefferkorn, the High Rock Lake Association and others combined to make Duke Power struggle to demonstrate the Yadkin River had enough water to satisfy its thirst and leave enough for others downstream.
The Yadkin River never had a better friend than David Springer.
The old lawyer-turned-cattle-farmer, owns the Forks of the Yadkin property downstream. With riparian rights, he claimed a legal stake in Duke Power’s plans for the river. He pulled out his law books and filed motion after motion and made countless appearances before committees.
He was a thorn in Duke Power’s side, but Springer — always courteous, always polite and always there — should have been considered for the company’s board of directors. His tactics actually saved the company hundreds of millions of dollars.
An Advance woman called this week, saying the site should be used for a coal-fired plant, not nuclear. Coal plants also require huge volumes of water for cooling purposes.
That would mean trains rumbling back and forth daily from the West Virginia coal fields — and tracks don’t go close to the site. Imagine the little-used tracks along Hanes Mall, through Clemmons and Advance being converted to a major line.
Be careful what you wish for.
— Dwight Sparks
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