A three-headed pink flamingo, a witch and a fish were among about 35 protesters who marched Wednesday in downtown Gainesville to protest the proposed $14 billion nuclear power plant about 50 miles from Gainesville in Levy County.
The marchers were members of Sustainable Urban and Rural Florida(SURF), a community group that favors using alternative energy sources and is opposed to the plant's construction. They donned costumes as part of a "Nukes are Monstrous!" parade.
Accompanied by music from the Gainesville Radical Ruckus Marching Band, the marchers paraded around the Bo Diddley Community Plaza and walked through the Farmer's Market to the post office on Southeast First Avenue. They dropped a handful of letters addressed to Progress Energy and state representatives into a mailbox, with messages encouraging them to rethink plans for the power plant.
Christian Hansen danced along with the group in his pink flamingo costume. Hansen said his flamingo costume had three heads because nuclear waste leaked into the estuary where the flamingo fed.
He said nuclear waste works its way up the food chain and creates health hazards, but power companies and nuclear regulation committees continue to push off these problems.
"For 40 years they've been saying, 'Oh, by the time these plants get decommissioned, we'll solve this problem,'" Hansen said. "They haven't."
Jack Davis, an associate professor of history at UF, saw the protesters marching. He said the proposition to build the plant emphasizes that the state has no sense of social responsibility.
"My 4-year-old daughter over here is the one that's going to have to pay for the mess they're gonna make," Davis said.
Woody Blue, who held a sign saying "Nuclear Energy Vampires Suck Our Money and Never Die," said she has been fighting nuclear power since the 1980s.
"Now we're back in the same old place," Blue said. "We're still dealing with the same old problems and doing the same old things."
Blue said she supports conserving energy and finding alternative energy sources.
But Cherie Jacobs, Progress Energy spokeswoman, emphasized the benefits of nuclear energy.
"Nuclear power has no greenhouse gas emissions and it's one of the most environmentally friendly to produce electricity," Jacobs said.
She said Progress Energy also relies on coal, oil and natural gas for power.
Jacobs said the plant would be funded by a combination of stocks, bonds and cash flow from customers.
