(Reuters) - Electricity generator Florida Power & Light said on Thursday it will shut its two nuclear power plants before Irma comes ashore as a very powerful hurricane.

File Photo: A Florida Power & Light Company employee works on a power pole in Pembroke Pines, Florida February 26, 2008.

FPL, a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Inc, generates enough power for about 1.9 million homes at the Turkey Point and St. Lucie plants, which are both along Florida’s Atlantic Coast, about 20 feet (6 meters) above sea level.

“We will safely shut down these nuclear plants well in advance of hurricane-force winds, and we’ve finalized plans for that shutdown,” FPL spokesman Rob Gould told a news conference.

The company will adjust the plans as necessary, “depending upon the path of the storm,” Gould said. He would not comment on exactly when the plants would be taken down or how long they could be shut.

The Energy Department said late on Thursday that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission expects Turkey Point to close on Friday evening and St. Lucie to shut about 12 hours later, depending on the storm’s path.

Irma, a Category 5 hurricane at the top of the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, is packing winds of up to 180 miles (290 km) per hour.

Present forecast models are showing it hitting the tip of Florida on Sunday morning and raking the whole state as it moves north over the peninsula the following couple of days, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said.

FPL says it has invested $3 billion to protect its electricity grid since 2005, when the last major hurricane damaged power facilities in Florida. But no grid is hurricane-proof, and if Irma stays on its path, many FPL customers will lose power, Gould said.

The company, which serves about 10 million power customers across nearly half of Florida, may have to physically rebuild parts of the power system, Gould said. This could take weeks or longer “if Irma’s worst fears are realized,” he said.

Gould said FPL might have to turn off some substations ahead of any major flooding, a technique that could help the company restore power faster once any floodwaters recede, rather than keeping them on and allowing the storm to damage them.

FPL’s nuclear plants are protected by thick concrete and reinforced steel and like many plants around the world were bolstered further after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, Gould said.

A series of explosions and meltdowns occurred at the Fukushima nuclear plant after a massive earthquake unleashed a powerful tsunami that shut the facility’s cooling systems and led to meltdowns.</s>(Reuters) - Hurricane Irma threatens to knock out power to more than 4.1 million homes and businesses served by Florida Power & Light (FPL), affecting around nine million people based on the current storm track, the utility's chief executive said on Friday.

"Everyone in Florida will be impacted in some way by this storm," Eric Silagy said at a news conference, urging FPL customers to be prepared for a multiweek restoration process.

FPL is the biggest power company in Florida serving almost half of the state's 20.6 million residents.

Outages across the state will likely top 4.1 million customers since other utilities, including units of Duke Energy Corp, Southern Co and Emera Inc, will also suffer outages but have not yet estimated how many.

Irma poses a significantly bigger menace to power supplies in Florida than Hurricane Harvey did in Texas because Irma is packing 150 mile-per-hour winds (240 km/h) that could down electric lines and close nuclear and other power plants.

"This storm is unprecedented as far as strength and size. We are preparing for the worst and will likely have to rebuild parts of our service territory," Silagy said, noting the kinds of winds expected could snap concrete poles.

Irma's winds have rivaled the strongest for any hurricane in history in the Atlantic, whereas Harvey's damage came from record rainfall. Even as Houston flooded, the power stayed on for most, allowing citizens to use TV and radio to stay apprised of danger, or social media to call for help.

"When Harvey made landfall in Texas it made it fully inland and weakened pretty quickly. Irma, however, could retain much of its strength," said Jason Setree, a meteorologist at Commodity Weather Group.

Irma has killed several people and devastated islands in the Caribbean.

Current forecasts put almost the entirety of the Florida peninsula in the path of the storm, which made landfall in the Caribbean with wind speeds of 185 mph.

The threat of the Category 4 storm, the second highest rung on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, is grave enough that FPL plans to shut its two nuclear power plants in the state, and officials warned that it may have to rebuild parts of its power system, which could take weeks.

One of those nuclear plants, Turkey Point, is located south of Miami near the southern tip of Florida, putting it near where Irma is expected to make landfall early Sunday morning. The other nuclear plant, St. Lucie, is on a barrier island on the east coast about 120 miles (193 km) north of Miami.

Most Florida residents have not experienced a major storm since 2005, when total outages peaked around 3.6 million during Hurricane Wilma. Some of those outages lasted for weeks.

Setree compared the projected path of Irma to Hurricane Matthew in 2016, which knocked out power to about 1.2 million FPL customers in October.

FPL, a unit of Florida energy company NextEra Energy Inc, restored service to most customers affected by Matthew in just two days.

In a statement this week, FPL estimated about half of its near five million customers - particularly in the trio of populous southeast counties Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Broward - had not experienced a major hurricane since 2005.

FPL said it had invested nearly $3 billion since 2006 to strengthen its grid, including placing 60 main power lines underground and installing nearly five million smart meters and other devices.

Other utilities in the Sunshine State said in statements that they had also invested in intelligent, self-healing devices.

Smart meters allow utilities to see outages as they occur, rather than waiting on customer calls, and utilities also use automated devices that can reenergize lines without damage that were taken offline because of contact with trees or other objects, said Jay Apt, director of the Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center in Pittsburgh.

Olivia Ross, a spokeswoman for CenterPoint Energy, which serves the greater Houston area, said these devices helped the utility keep the lights on for more people in the aftermath of Harvey as some issues were resolved remotely.

But such devices can only do so much. Harvey's outages were limited to 312,000 customers, of which CenterPoint was responsible for about 109,000, as it quickly lost force after landfall and turned into a tropical storm. By contrast, Ross noted, Hurricane Ike in 2008 caused 2.1 million of CenterPoint's customers to lose power when it hit the Texas coast near Houston.</s>Utility officials are predicting up to 9 million Floridians could be without power after Irma strikes, and are weighing drastic measures before the storm — including shuttering both of the state's working nuclear plants.

Florida Power & Light (FPL), the nation's third-largest electric utility, warned on Friday that Irma, a Category 4 hurricane, could cut power for weeks.

"We are looking at outages that are probably going to impact 4.1 million of our customers. That's about 9 million people," the utility's president and CEO Eric Silagy told reporters Friday. "That would be unprecedented for us."

The utility has already positioned equipment and workers to help bring electricity back up and running as fast as possible, but fears the force of Irma's winds may snap concrete poles, Silagy said.

"We're preparing for the worst. With these kinds of winds, we're not looking for restoration," he said. "In some parts of our territory, we will be looking at having to rebuild it."

Related: Irma Threatens To Wash Away Florida Buildings After Tearing Through Caribbean

FPL, which runs the two nuclear plants, was closely watching the forecast and if hurricane force winds were predicted to hit either plant, "we will shut down those plants 24 hours before the onset," Silagy said.

One of the facilities, the Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station in Homestead, weathered "a direct hit" from Hurricane Andrew 25 years ago, Silagy said. The plant suffered millions of dollars in damage, but remained functional. Homestead is about 40 miles south of Miami.

The other facility, in St. Lucie, is more than 130 miles north of Miami.

"These are probably the most highly engineered and strongest facilities of any kind in the world," Silagy said. "We're not taking any chances."

Shutting down the nuclear plants would not affect power to Floridians served by FPL. But Silagy cautioned that Irma was forecast to be so damaging, utility officials anticipated that outages "will not be measured in days, but weeks."

"I want to be very clear about the level of damage that's possible with a storm of this kind of magnitude," Silagy said. "This is a storm that's been unprecedented in both strength and in size so far, and we're hoping that the winds diminish before it makes landfall."

As of 2 p.m. ET, Irma had maximum sustained winds of 155 mph and was about 380 miles southeast of Miami. The hurricane raked through the Caribbean this week, killing at least a dozen people. It is expected to make landfall in Florida on Sunday morning.

The storm is the most powerful Atlantic hurricane on record. It's expected to bring dangerous storm surge and winds and is on track to hit Miami, although its exact path still isn't clear.</s>Utility officials are predicting up to 9 million Floridians could be without power after Irma strikes, and are weighing drastic measures before the storm — including shuttering both of the state's working nuclear plants.

Florida Power & Light (FPL), the nation's third-largest electric utility, warned on Friday that Irma, a Category 4 hurricane, could cut power for weeks.

"We are looking at outages that are probably going to impact 4.1 million of our customers. That's about 9 million people," the utility's president and CEO Eric Silagy told reporters Friday. "That would be unprecedented for us."

The utility has already positioned equipment and workers to help bring electricity back up and running as fast as possible, but fears the force of Irma's winds may snap concrete poles, Silagy said.

"We're preparing for the worst. With these kinds of winds, we're not looking for restoration," he said. "In some parts of our territory, we will be looking at having to rebuild it."

Related: Irma Threatens To Wash Away Florida Buildings After Tearing Through Caribbean

FPL, which runs the two nuclear plants, was closely watching the forecast and if hurricane force winds were predicted to hit either plant, "we will shut down those plants 24 hours before the onset," Silagy said.

One of the facilities, the Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station in Homestead, weathered "a direct hit" from Hurricane Andrew 25 years ago, Silagy said. The plant suffered millions of dollars in damage, but remained functional. Homestead is about 40 miles south of Miami.

The other facility, in St. Lucie, is more than 130 miles north of Miami.

"These are probably the most highly engineered and strongest facilities of any kind in the world," Silagy said. "We're not taking any chances."

Shutting down the nuclear plants would not affect power to Floridians served by FPL. But Silagy cautioned that Irma was forecast to be so damaging, utility officials anticipated that outages "will not be measured in days, but weeks."

"I want to be very clear about the level of damage that's possible with a storm of this kind of magnitude," Silagy said. "This is a storm that's been unprecedented in both strength and in size so far, and we're hoping that the winds diminish before it makes landfall."

As of 8 p.m. ET Friday, Irma had maximum sustained winds of 155 mph and was about 315 miles southeast of Miami. The hurricane raked through the Caribbean this week, killing at least 17 people. It is forecast to be near the Florida Keys and southern Florida peninsula by Sunday morning, the National Hurricane Center said.

The storm is the most powerful Atlantic hurricane on record. It's expected to bring dangerous storm surge and winds and is on track to hit Miami, although its exact path still isn't clear.</s>"I have been talking to Florida Power & Light, which owns these," Scott told CNN on Thursday, when asked about the power plants, "and they will both be shut down."One of the plants, St. Lucie, is on Hutchinson Island, about 55 miles (88km) north of West Palm Beach. Its two reactors generate 2,000 megawatts of electricity, enough to power more than 1 million homes.Turkey Point nuclear power station is located on the Biscayne Bay, about 24 miles from Miami. Its two reactors generate about 1,600 megawatts of electricity, or enough for about 900,000 homes."It is about a thirty hour process, as soon as the Category 1 winds start," Scott said. "We have evacuation routes opened for people to get out and get back to them. But they will be completely shut down before the storm hits. They will not be re-open until afterwards."The St. Lucie plant has already weathered powerful storms, like Hurricane Frances in 2004 and Wilma the year after.Turkey Point withstood 1992's Hurricane Andrew, a Category 4 storm and one of the strongest the country has experienced.according to the Federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission The trajectory of Hurricane Irma, a Category 5 storm with winds of 185 miles per hour (295 km/h), is uncertain but the US National Hurricane Center described it as the strongest Atlantic storm on record. The hurricane is currently passing the Dominican Republic.The shutdown of St. Lucie and Turkey Point goes a long way to assuage fears of an incident similar to Fukushima Dai-ichi, a power plant in Japan that suffered a reactor meltdown after the March 2011 tsunami.Flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey knocked out refrigeration units that were cooling chemicals stored at eight tanks at the Arkema plant in this Houston suburb. As the tanks heated up, the chemicals inside caught fire and exploded. Fifteen first responders were treated for smoke inhalation.A dozen chemical companies are located in Florida, near Miami, Tampa and Orlando, including Gold Coast Chemical Products, Gator Chemicals, Florida Chemical Supply and Thatcher Chemicals of Florida.Fertilizer manufacturer Helena Chemical Co has several locations in the state. RT requested a comment from its Tennessee headquarters about any precautions the company was taking, but has not received a response.Bell Chem makes the bleaching agent sodium hypochlorite at a plant in Longwood, just north of Orlando. While the compound itself is not combustible, it is a strong oxidizer and combustible for other substances. Calls made to the plant were not returned.FAR Chemical, located on the coast in Palm Bay, manufactures a number of chemical compounds. Florida Crystals, about 75 miles northwest of Miami, manufactures sugar, which can be combustible under the right conditions.While there are no large chemical plants in Palm Beach County, Delray Beach Fire Rescue said the department always prepares for the worst."We're constantly training for what might happen, but we really won't know what exactly we're going to do until something happens," Captain Kevin Saxton told WPEC "I think we would be prepared. We do have a special operations team and hazardous materials. We have a bunch of other resources that we can call in," Saxton said.He said a large scale explosion would require help from multiple agencies, and the first thing they do is get people away from the hazard.</s>Sept 7 (Reuters) - Electricity generator Florida Power & Light said on Thursday it will shut its two nuclear power plants before Irma comes ashore as a very powerful hurricane.

FPL, a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Inc, generates enough power for about 1.9 million homes at the Turkey Point and St. Lucie plants, which are both along Florida's Atlantic Coast, about 20 feet (6 meters) above sea level.

"We will safely shut down these nuclear plants well in advance of hurricane-force winds, and we've finalized plans for that shutdown," FPL spokesman Rob Gould told a news conference.

The company will adjust the plans as necessary, "depending upon the path of the storm," Gould said. He would not comment on exactly when the plants would be taken down or how long they could be shut.

The Energy Department said late on Thursday that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission expects Turkey Point to close on Friday evening and St. Lucie to shut about 12 hours later, depending on the storm's path.

Irma, a Category 5 hurricane at the top of the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, is packing winds of up to 180 miles (290 km) per hour.

Present forecast models are showing it hitting the tip of Florida on Sunday morning and raking the whole state as it moves north over the peninsula the following couple of days, the Miami-based National Hurricane Center said.

FPL says it has invested $3 billion to protect its electricity grid since 2005, when the last major hurricane damaged power facilities in Florida. But no grid is hurricane-proof, and if Irma stays on its path, many FPL customers will lose power, Gould said.

The company, which serves about 10 million power customers across nearly half of Florida, may have to physically rebuild parts of the power system, Gould said. This could take weeks or longer "if Irma's worst fears are realized," he said.

Gould said FPL might have to turn off some substations ahead of any major flooding, a technique that could help the company restore power faster once any floodwaters recede, rather than keeping them on and allowing the storm to damage them.

FPL's nuclear plants are protected by thick concrete and reinforced steel and like many plants around the world were bolstered further after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan, Gould said.

A series of explosions and meltdowns occurred at the Fukushima nuclear plant after a massive earthquake unleashed a powerful tsunami that shut the facility's cooling systems and led to meltdowns. (Reporting by Timothy Gardner in Washington; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Sandra Maler)</s>Utility officials are predicting up to 9 million Floridians could be without power after Irma strikes, and are weighing drastic measures before the storm — including shuttering both of the state's working nuclear plants.

Florida Power & Light (FPL), the nation's third-largest electric utility, warned on Friday that Irma, a Category 4 hurricane, could cut power for weeks.

"We are looking at outages that are probably going to impact 4.1 million of our customers. That's about 9 million people," the utility's president and CEO Eric Silagy told reporters Friday. "That would be unprecedented for us."

The utility has already positioned equipment and workers to help bring electricity back up and running as fast as possible, but fears the force of Irma's winds may snap concrete poles, Silagy said.

"We're preparing for the worst. With these kinds of winds, we're not looking for restoration," he said. "In some parts of our territory, we will be looking at having to rebuild it."

Related: Irma Threatens To Wash Away Florida Buildings After Tearing Through Caribbean

FPL, which runs the two nuclear plants, was closely watching the forecast and if hurricane force winds were predicted to hit either plant, "we will shut down those plants 24 hours before the onset," Silagy said.

One of the facilities, the Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station in Homestead, weathered "a direct hit" from Hurricane Andrew 25 years ago, Silagy said. The plant suffered millions of dollars in damage, but remained functional. Homestead is about 40 miles south of Miami.

The other facility, in St. Lucie, is more than 130 miles north of Miami.

"These are probably the most highly engineered and strongest facilities of any kind in the world," Silagy said. "We're not taking any chances."

Shutting down the nuclear plants would not affect power to Floridians served by FPL. But Silagy cautioned that Irma was forecast to be so damaging, utility officials anticipated that outages "will not be measured in days, but weeks."

"I want to be very clear about the level of damage that's possible with a storm of this kind of magnitude," Silagy said. "This is a storm that's been unprecedented in both strength and in size so far, and we're hoping that the winds diminish before it makes landfall."

As of 2 p.m. ET, Irma had maximum sustained winds of 155 mph and was about 380 miles southeast of Miami. The hurricane raked through the Caribbean this week, killing at least a dozen people. It is expected to make landfall in Florida on Sunday morning.

The storm is the most powerful Atlantic hurricane on record. It's expected to bring dangerous storm surge and winds and is on track to hit Miami, although its exact path still isn't clear.</s>Two Florida nuclear power plants in the path of Hurricane Irma are shutting down to brace for the Category 5 storm’s devastating wind and rain.

Florida Power & Light announced on Thursday it will shut down the Turkey Point and St. Lucie nuclear plants ahead of Irma’s expected arrival this weekend. The two facilities are Florida’s only operating nuclear power plants. Both are on Florida’s Atlantic Coast, which is bracing to get hit very hard by Irma’s ferocious winds.

“This is an extremely dangerous storm,” Rob Gould, chief communications officer at Florida Power & Light, told reporters.

Gould said the nuclear sites are among the strongest in the United States and are designed to withstand heavy wind and storm surge. Turkey Point’s nuclear reactors are enclosed in six feet of steel-reinforced concrete and sit 20 feet above sea level, the Miami Herald reported. Nuclear plants also have significant redundancies that serve as back-ups to back-ups.

Turkey Point, located just south of Miami in Homestead, survived a direct hit from Hurricane Andrew in 1992. However, the facility did suffer $90 million in damage from that Category 5 storm, according to press reports.

“This storm has the potential to eclipse Hurricane Andrew,” Gould said.

Florida Power & Light declined to give specific timing on when the nuclear plants will be shut.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it expects Turkey Point to be shut down Friday evening and St. Lucie to go offline about 12 hours later, depending on the storm track.

The country has 61 operating nuclear power plants in 30 states, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Florida is also grappling with gasoline shortages caused by panic-buying from motorists in the storm’s path and lingering supply disruptions from Hurricane Harvey. At least 40% of gas stations in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale region are without fuel, according to estimates from crowdsourcing platform GasBuddy.</s>Two nuclear power plants in the path of Hurricane Irma will be shut down well in advance of hurricane-strength winds reaching South Florida, the Florida Light and Power Co. said Thursday.

The reactors at the two plants, Turkey Point on Biscayne Bay and St. Lucie on Hutchinson Island, about 50 miles north of West Palm Beach, are reinforced with steel and concrete and are above sea level, said Rob Gould, the chief information officer for Florida Power and Light Co. Both plants have multiple diesel generators to allow them to continue to operate if either loses power.

“Those two structures are among the strongest in America,” he said.

Irma hit the Caribbean on Wednesday as a Category 5 storm with sustained winds up 185 miles per hour, damaging 95 percent of the buildings in Barbuda. It is expected to reach Florida on Sunday but its path remains uncertain.

Skeleton crews called storm riders will remain at the Florida nuclear power plants throughout the storm, Gould said.

Even if both plants were taken off line, there would be enough power available for all customers, according to the company.

And if either of the plants is shut down, it will remain offline until it is inspected and until evacuation routes are clear, Gould and Florida Gov. Rick Scott said Thursday.

"Turkey Point will of course be closed at the right point, and I've been talking with FP&L, they're all prepared to do it, we're preparing both, to close it and how to reopen it," Scott said.

Gould noted that the eye of Hurricane Andrew passed directly over Turkey Point in 1992 and there was no damage to its nuclear components.</s>Two Florida nuclear power plants in the path of Hurricane Irma are shutting down to brace for the powerful storm, CNN reported.

Florida Power & Light announced Thursday it will shut down the Turkey Point and St. Lucie nuclear plants ahead of Irma's expected arrival this weekend. The two facilities are Florida's only operating nuclear power plants. Both are located on Florida's east coast, which is bracing for Irma’s winds.

"This is an extremely dangerous storm," Rob Gould, chief communications officer at Florida Power & Light, told reporters.

Gould said the nuclear sites are among the strongest in the United States and are designed to withstand heavy wind and storm surge, CNN reported.

Turkey Point, located just south of Miami in Homestead, survived a direct hit from Hurricane Andrew in 1992. However, the facility did suffer $90 million in damage from that Category 5 storm, according to press reports.

"This storm has the potential to eclipse Hurricane Andrew," Gould said.

Florida Power & Light declined to give specific timing on when the nuclear plants will be shut.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it expects Turkey Point to be shut down Friday evening and St. Lucie to go offline about 12 hours later, depending on the storm track.

The country has 61 operating nuclear power plants in 30 states, according to the Energy Information Administration.
Florida's electric utility company says it will shut down its Turkey Point and St. Lucie nuclear power plants before Irma comes ashore.