Rural Fla. Residents See New Nuclear Plant As Boon

BRENT KALLESTAD

INGLIS, Fla. (AP) — Not much has changed in this Gulf Coast town since Elvis Presley filmed "Follow that Dream" here 48 years ago — except that a shrinking economy dependent on fishing, shrimping and agriculture has left more people looking for work.

Jobs are a big reason most residents favor Progress Energy's plan to build the nation's first nuclear power reactors since the Watts Bar plant in Tennessee came on line in 1996 — even if it brings some environmental risk.

"There's an awful lot of hope here," said Bill Lake, the mayor of this village of 1,700 residents about 90 miles north of Tampa, where the Florida peninsula begins curving west into the Panhandle.

Levy County, population 39,000, has seen plenty of job losses in the past two years as its unemployment rate almost tripled to 12.1 percent. But there is hope that the proposed plant will ignite a lethargic economy in one of the poorest areas of Florida, where the per capita income averages less than $15,000 annually.

The North Carolina-based utility initially estimated it would have the plant online by 2016 or 2017 at a cost of $17 billion, but the date was moved to 2020 since the company cannot get approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission before all site and safety reviews are completed.