Comment: The NRC renewed the oldest, troublesome, Nuke Plant for 20 more years!! NRC, why?
Thursday, April 02, 2009
BY BRIAN T. MURRAY
Star-Ledger Staff
The Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station, the nation's oldest nuclear power plant, was granted clearance yesterday for a new 20-year operating license despite claims from conservationists, watchdog and citizens groups that the Ocean County facility poses a danger to the public and wildlife.
"We expect, at this point, that the new license will be issued by April 9, when the plant's current 40-year operating license expires," said Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
The license renewal was automatic after the commission voted, 3-1, not to re-open hearings and review a decision by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board that the 60-year-old plant is safe to re sume operations for another 20 years.
Opponents pushing for the review were the Nuclear Information and Resource Service; Jersey Shore Nuclear Watch Inc.; Grandmothers, Mothers and More for Energy Safety; New Jersey Public Interest Research Group; New Jersey Sierra Club; and New Jersey Environmental Federation.
They contend the drywell liner or shell that encases the reactor and is designed to contain steam during an accident is too corroded to continue safely or withstand an accident.
"This decision is radioactive. To keep open the nation's oldest nuclear power plant for another 20 years is just going to lead to a disaster," said Jeff Tittel of the Sierra Club. "We could easily replace the plant with 200 windmills that will not pose a danger. If they would re- license this plant, they would renew Chernobyl."
The plant's owners, Chicago- based Exelon Corp., dispute the al legations, and federal inspectors contend corrosion issues uncovered in the 1980s and 1990s have been addressed with repairs, modifications, ultrasonic tests, thickness measurements and ongoing monitoring of the drywell.
"We've known all along the drywell was safe. It more than meets ASLB code ...," said David Ben son, a spokesman for Oyster Creek. "Scientists and researchers with Exelon and the NRC have done considerable work with it and the inspections. It is solid. We are pleased with the decision."
Benson said more than a million pages of documents were submitted in the license review process that began in 2005 and resulted in about a dozen public hearings.
The NRC concluded the opposi tion groups failed "to provide fac tual or expert evidence" to merit overturning the findings of the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board.
"Nothing ... disturbs our overall confidence that Oyster Creek can and will operate safely during the renewal period," the commis sion concluded in its 96-page decision.
The ruling was the second defeat this week for activists pushing to shut down the Lacey Township facility. On Tuesday, a federal court judge dismissed a lawsuit in which groups argued the NRC should consider the environmental impact of a terrorist attack before relicens ing the plant.
Oyster Creek, which generates electricity for about 600,000 New Jersey households, began operat ing in 1969 as the first large-scale commercial nuclear power plant in the United States. It uses a single, boiling-water reactor that produces 625 megawatts, which is relatively small compared to most of the 104 commercially operated nuclear generating plants in the nation.
Oyster Creek is one of four nuclear plants generating the bulk of electricity for New Jersey, but provides only 9 percent of that energy.
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