Return to Crystal River

I got more, closer shots of the Crystal River Energy Complex in Citrus County this time. You can see that it boasts four coal-fired plants in addition to one nuclear reactor. Last fall, the NC-based firm that owns the plant called Progress Energy pondered the notion of building another reactor. The St. Pete Times weighed in on it--against.

Construction of the current reactor began when Lawton Chiles was a state senator and it finally came online after he had walked across Florida--and after his first term in the U.S. Senate and re-election to a second term. When plant construction began, Lyndon Johnson was president, Martin Luther King was still alive...when it ended the U.S. had withdrawn from Vietnam and Jimmy Carter had just been inaugurated president in the aftermath of Watergate.

In Chiles' time, Citrus County was known for well...citrus. If Progress Energy gets its way, it may as well be called Progress County. There doesn't seem to be much else going on there these days, other than a small tourist economy built around the Crystal River.