There is no certainty yet about whether Hurricane Irma, which could make landfall as a category 4 or 5, will hit Florida and, if so, which parts. But reactors at Turkey Point, 35 miles south of Miami, and St. Lucie, 25 miles south of Vero Beach, could lie in its path. When Hurricane Harvey was headed to South Texas, we called for the precautionary shutdown of the two South Texas Project reactors there. Harvey's sustained winds never topped the 73 mph threshold for requiring the reactor to shut down. South Texas dodged a bullet. The nuclear power station never lost offsite electric power from the grid that would have automatically shut the reactors down.  The surrounding area in, around and on the South Texas nuclear power plant flooded and emergency personnel already fully stretched or themselves evacuated, the South Texas operators refused to shut down the plant. Beyond Nuclear staff are monitoring the progress of Irma and endeavoring to assess the risk to Florida nuclear plants -- and possibly others in South Carolina depending on Irma's eventual path. Rest assured, we will be making similar calls for public safety first, should communities around any affected nuclear power plants face an imminent danger. (Image of Irma: National Hurricane Center.)f