NRC protecting industry profits, not public, at Oyster Creek

I heard a committ that the NRC was strict about Nuclear Power Plants during a uranium meeting in Chatham but maybe not!

By JANET TAURO • January 16, 2009

Less than three weeks after a congressman demanded more transparency from federal regulators about safety issues at the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in Lacey, the agency held a secret meeting with plant operators to discuss the implications of new corrosion discovered during the October outage.

U.S. Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., in a Dec. 4 letter to the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission, insisted that citizens be apprised of ongoing safety issues, and specifically referred to corrosion discovered during the October refueling as a "significant case of high public interest."

He cited the need for "full transparency" in the continuing corrosion and degradation of the reactor's drywell, the steel containment vessel that shields the public from radiation.
Nineteen days after receipt of the letter, NRC staff convened a closed meeting with the plant operator, AmerGen, to discuss safety issues discovered during the October refueling when Oyster Creek was closed for repairs and inspections. In the past, citizens have attended these "exit meetings."

Calls for transparency in the NRC review process and the release of raw data for independent review have similarly come from state Sen. Christopher Connors, R-Ocean, the Ocean County Board of Freeholders and Jill Lipoti of the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Also, at a Senate subcommittee hearing on nuclear safety last summer, U.S. Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg, D-N.J., specifically requested the NRC to be open about Oyster Creek safety issues and to treat the citizens' groups with respect.

The lack of public notification and convening a closed exit meeting in December flouts all demands for transparency.

Though NRC regulations allow staff to conduct exit meetings with industry officials without public notification, a provision specifies that the meeting be open to citizens if the issues are of public interest. For NRC staff to decide that ongoing corrosion at Oyster Creek is not a matter of public interest is beyond belief.

The inevitable conclusion the pubic draws from the NRC's latest shenanigans is that there is something to hide at Oyster Creek. Had the October outage been a happy state of affairs at Oyster Creek, Exelon's well-heeled public relations machine would have gone into overdrive to fete the results.

We can expect a report from December's meeting to appear on the NRC Web site in mid-February. Unfortunately, past experience has shown that NRC reports can be stingy in details.
Corrosion of the Oyster Creek drywell is apparently continuing. There are new blisters and rust spots to prove it. It is absolutely essential to the public's trust to have the details of the December meeting opened for review. In the meantime, elected officials must continue to push this agency to fulfill its mandate — protection of the public and not industry profits. If the agency cannot prove itself to be a champion of the people, then it should be subject to a congressional overhaul.

Janet Tauro, of Brick, is a member of the boards of directors of the New Jersey Environmental Federation and Grandmothers, Mothers, and More for Energy (GRAMMES).