Over a dozen sea turtles, protected under the Endangered Species Act, died after entering the cooling canal for Duke Energy’s Brunswick nuclear power plant after safety screens were damaged in April. The canal connects to the west side of the lower Cape Fear River, across from Fort Fisher.
According to Duke Energy, “Following a super new moon and king tides, staff at Brunswick Nuclear Plant identified damage to some of the screens that prevent sea turtles from entering the intake of the plant’s cooling canal. Prior to the screens being repaired, several turtles entered the canal.”
Duke later confirmed that 14 turtles died and one was injured. The company said it had contacted the North Carolina Sea Turtle Coordinator for guidance on handling the dead turtles.
According to a spokesperson for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), those specific species killed were two Kemp's ridley sea turtles and 12 green sea turtles — the latter exceeds the number of incidental “takes” allowed under federal regulations. NOAA defines "to take" as "to harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect, or to attempt to engage in any such conduct." Incidental means unitentional, but not unexpected.
Duke said it had also “found, tagged and released many of the turtles back to the ocean,” but didn’t specify a number.
A host of federal agencies oversee various aspects of Duke’s nuclear-powered steam electric plant, including the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), which maintains a federal permit from NOAA. Under that permit, the plant is granted exemptions for six loggerhead, two Kemp’s ridley, three green, and one hawksbill or leatherback turtle. In addition, the plant is permitted to capture and re-release up to 50 turtles of any species, provided they are not injured.
The death of 12 green turtles means Duke’s plant has significant exceeded the three allowable takes, the NRC is now performing an “Endangered Species Act Section 7 consultation,” according to NOAA. This involves “reviewing the NRC/power plant exclusion device design to ensure that they are doing all that is necessary to help avoid recurrence of this type of situation."
Duke and NOAA agreed that “high amplitude” tides contributed to damaging screens designed to prevent turtles from entering the plant’s cooling canal. This year saw three ‘super new moons’ in a two-month period — on February 9, March 10, and April 8 — which generated increased tidal forces. According to a NOAA, high winds also played a role in damaging the screens.
According to Duke, the plant has added measures to monitor for similar tidal or weather events in the future. Duke said staff have been monitoring the area, and have not located any additional turtles in recent weeks.
“Our employees are highly trained and care very much about protecting turtles and other wildlife. They routinely patrol the intake canal looking for wildlife and perform daily monitoring from April through August especially for turtles,” a Duke spokesperson told WHQR.
In a statement, Duke touted its “robust biological monitoring and turtle protection program,” which it has maintained for several decades. The company claimed that “Historically, this year is different from previous years, perhaps reflective of how well turtle populations have rebounded since the cooling canal was placed in operation 50 years ago (e.g., 95 green turtle nests last year compared to 11 green turtle nests, historically).”
There have been very few if any turtle fatalities in the past several years. One loggerhead turtle died in 2023 and two were captured and released near Oak Island; no turtles were killed in 2022 or 2021. According to a Duke spokesperson, 2024 is the first year the plant has exceeded its permitted number of takes. Back in 2012, similar tidal conditions damaged the exclusion screens around the cooling canal; that year, the plant reached but did not exceed its limit for green sea turtles.
