Rather than shutting down its cracked Crystal River Nuclear Plant 3 in Citrus County, Progress Energy Florida will seek approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the state of Florida for up to $1.3 billion in additional repairs to the out-of-commission facility, likely keeping it offline until 2014.
The plant has been shut down since 2009, when Progress initiated a planned refueling and replacement of its steam generators. In October 2009, workers for SGT, Charlotte, N.C., the contractor performing this work, were creating an opening in the structure to facilitate generator replacement when they discovered severe internal cracking in the concrete, referred to as delamination, at the periphery of the containment building. Analysis revealed the delamination occurred between horizontal tendon sleeves.