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The Shearon Harris nuclear power plant is a single Westinghouse designed pressurized-water nuclear reactor operated by Progress Energy. Located in New Hill, North Carolina, in the United States, about 20 miles (30 km) southwest of Raleigh, it generates 900 MWe, has a 523 foot (160 m) natural draft cooling tower, and uses Harris Lake (New Hill, North Carolina) for cooling. The reactor achieved criticality in January 1987 and began providing power commercially in May of that year.

The Shearon Harris site was originally designed for four reactors, but construction and budget issues resulted in three of the reactors being cancelled. The original budget estimated a cost of $1.1 billion for four reactors; the final cost of the single reactor that was constructed was nearly $4 billion ^[1]. However, in 2006, Progress Energy succeeded in their efforts to gain approval for two additional reactors at the Shearon Harris site ^[2]. Expansion of the plant will require raising the water level of Harris Lake by 20 feet^[3], decreasing the size of Wake County's largest park, with the Cape Fear River as a backup water source.

The Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina is one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in America, and with that growth comes increased demand for electricity. (Raleigh is located in Wake County, the site of Shearon Harris.) However, nuclear reactors are a highly contentious issue among the citizens of North Carolina. The Shearon Harris plant has consistenly failed to meet security guidelines established by the NRC ^[4]. The plant is also the site of the largest concentrated amount of nuclear waste in the United States ^[5], primarily due to the fact that waste from two other Progress Energy facilities (the Robinson and Brunswick plants) is stored at Shearon Harris. The transport of the waste from those two plants to Shearon Harris takes place six times a year and involves loading shipping casks onto heavily-guarded trains and trucks. In 2002, an unidentified number of escaped prison inmates accidentally boarded a train that was carrying nuclear waste to Shearon Harris ^[6]. These issues led to the formation of citizens' action groups such as NC WARN (North Carolina Waste Awareness and Reduction Network). However, in August of 2007, NC WARN dropped a lawsuit against Progress Energy that was intended to delay or prevent expansion of Shearon Harris, claiming that continuing their legal battle would cost at least $200,000^[7].

Shearon Harris, not unlike other NRC licensees, has used Thermo-Lag endothermic fireproofing for the purpose of circuit integrity to protect safe-shutdown wiring between the nuclear reactor and the control room. The Thermo-Lag scandal became known as a result of disclosures by whistleblower Gerald W. Brown. To mitigate the problem, the plant used another fireproofing system, which subsequently also failed fire testing, requiring the operator to use further means to mitigate the problem.

• INDY News article about local opposition to NRC safety oversight
• NRC treatise on circuit integrity measures, including Shearon Harris
• DoE information
• http://www.nukeworker.com/pictures/thumbnails-101.html

• Shearon Harris Nuclear Power Plant is at coordinates 35°37′58″N 78°57′17″W / 35.632782, -78.954620Coordinates: 35°37′58″N 78°57′17″W / 35.632782, -78.954620
• http://science.howstuffworks.com/nuclear-power.htm

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