Miami Waterkeeper has taken its long-running concerns over Florida Power & Light’s Turkey Point nuclear plant to the federal appeals level, filing a challenge that aims to unwind a key federal approval and keep the aging reactors from running deep into the 2050s.
The Coral Gables nonprofit said Wednesday that it has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to overturn the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s reapproval of a 20-year operating extension for the plant. The group argues that extending the life of the two reactors raises fresh red flags about groundwater contamination and climate-driven threats to the coast. Turkey Point and its open cooling-canal system sit at the edge of Biscayne Bay, perched on porous limestone that helps feed South Florida’s drinking-water supply.
On May 6, the group announced that attorney Rachael Curran had filed a petition in the D.C. Circuit to initiate the appeal, arguing the NRC failed to “meaningfully evaluate and mitigate” environmental and climate risks, according to Miami Waterkeeper. The petition (case number 26-1105) asks the court to revisit the agency’s supplemental environmental review, a filing also noted by Local 10.
Why activists are alarmed
Advocates focus on a dense, hypersaline plume that has migrated from Turkey Point’s unlined cooling-canal system into the limestone beneath the site and toward the Biscayne Aquifer. The Biscayne Aquifer is the principal source of drinking water for roughly 3–4 million residents of southeast Florida, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, and Nuclear Regulatory Commission records filed in the licensing process describe how the unlined canals allow salt and other contaminants to move into the aquifer.
FPL and regulators say progress has been made
Florida Power & Light points to a county-approved remediation plan and a recovery-well system that the company says “has removed more than 36 billion gallons of hypersaline groundwater” over six years, a figure the utility provided to local outlets such as WLRN. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says it completed a supplemental environmental review and in 2024 restored the subsequent license expiration dates, allowing Units 3 and 4 to operate into the early 2050s. FPL’s website notes that Turkey Point “generates about 1,600 million watts,” which the company equates to roughly enough electricity for 900,000 homes. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Florida Power & Light detail those technical steps and timelines.
Legal road ahead
The petition asks the D.C. Circuit to review whether the NRC complied with the National Environmental Policy Act and properly weighed groundwater contamination and climate risks when it approved the license, according to Miami Waterkeeper. If the court accepts the case, it could send the issue back to the NRC for additional study or order other relief. As with most administrative appeals, the outcome is likely to turn on narrow procedural arguments and could take many months to resolve.
Why it matters for Miami
Beyond the legalese, the fight lands squarely in the realm of everyday public-health and planning decisions: how cleanup deadlines set by Miami-Dade are enforced, whether remediation efforts will reach deeper layers of the hypersaline plume, and how long regulators will allow the plant to run as sea-level rise accelerates. Federal science and local reporting both underscore that the Biscayne Aquifer anchors drinking-water supplies for millions of residents, so the court’s ruling will help determine whether Miamians see tougher safeguards or longer cleanup timetables while Turkey Point continues operating into the 2050s.
