"Cooling Tubes At FPL St. Lucie Nuke Plant Show Significant Wear"

"Yet another Florida nuclear plant may be in trouble. More than 3,700 tubes that help cool a nuclear reactor at Florida Power & Light's St. Lucie facility exhibit wear. Most other similar plants have between zero and a few hundred."

"Worst case: A tube bursts and spews radioactive fluid. That's what happened at the San Onofre plant in California two years ago. The plant shut down forever because it would have cost too much to fix.

FPL says its plant is safe, the rate of wear is slowing and its customers' multibillion-dollar investment in the plant is not in jeopardy."

Ivan Penn reports for the Tampa Bay Times February 22, 2014.