Closing Oyster Creek - The Nations Oldest Nuclear Power Plant by Cathy Sims
Oyster Creek, the nation's oldest commercial nuclear power plant, began operating in 1969 and is literally rotting at its core. Experts say that Oyster Creek is past its time and the plant's design is unsafe. Its existing license will expire next April, however, a 20-year license renewal is currently undergoing appeals, which - if passed, would allow Oyster Creek to run until 2029.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has the authority to determine whether Oyster Creek can renew their license. The NRC is the federal agency in charge of regulating the nuclear industry to ensure that safety codes are met.
Rutgers Law Clinic attorney Richard Webster has filed a court challenge to suspend the re-licensing plan. Webster believes the government's re-licensing process limits public input and largely ignores pressing safety issues at aging plants. "We hope that the NRC will wake up and protect people and not the interests of the nuclear industry," he states.
In defense of NRC re-licensing procedures, NRC Chairman Dale Klein says the NRC insists that plants seeking a 20-year extension operate "just as safely as they have been."
At a recent hearing, Klein said, "Each re-licensing application is thoroughly reviewed, and NRC staff members spend more than 10,000 hours per reactor." He added that the NRC is following through on improvement recommendations issued last year by the agency's in-house watchdog, Inspector General Hubert Bell. In his written testimony, Bell said "the re-licensing process has shortcomings. NRC inspectors don't always independently verify information provided by nuclear plant operators and sometimes fail to ensure that the plants implement NRC-required steps before license renewals."
New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg requested a hearing with the NRC, where he criticized their procedures, citing an Inspector General report that said the NRC "probably" does safety analysis as part of the re-licensing process. "The communities surrounding the Oyster Creek facility cannot rely on 'probably,'" Lautenberg said in a statement. "The NRC has an obligation to conduct real oversight of the nation's nuclear plants."
This year an audit of the license renewal process by the Inspector General found that information provided in NRC safety evaluation reports was identical, or nearly identical, to the corresponding applications, casting doubt on whether the NRC independently reviewed the applications.
Disturbed by the findings, the Inspector General reviewed how the NRC staff prepared the reports documenting their assessments at four nuclear plants, including Oyster Creek. According to a recent memo from the Inspector General's Office, the audit revealed that application documents and working papers used to support the review and approval of the application were destroyed by NRC staff. "Consequently," the memo concluded, "the failure to retain applicant documents and NRC working papers made it difficult to verify specific details of staff on-site review activities." In other words, it was impossible to determine whether the reviews were done properly.
The supporting documents prepared during on-site reviews would likely have been subpoenaed by watchdogs of the 40-year-old plant. The fact they have been destroyed, assuming they existed in the first place, heightens concerns that the application review process was flawed.
Exelon, the corporation that owns Oyster Creek, failed to meet an NRC requirement and disposed of water leakage without testing it for contamination. An NRC inspection report notes their failure to monitor water runoff, but does not take enforcement action against Exelon. "NRC's offering of endless last chances to Oyster Creek for repeated violations is a dangerous dodge of its regulatory responsibility," said Paul Gunter of Nuclear Information and Resource Service.
The NRC and Exelon's failure to act on possible corrosion on the drywell liner is symptomatic of larger problems, according to a coalition of six watchdog groups. If the drywell liner were to corrode enough, in the event of a nuclear accident, it could threaten over one million people.
Throughout Oyster Creek's relicensing process, attempts to gather information about its safety have repeatedly been refused or obstructed by red tape. "We cannot rely on Exelon to tell us the truth about Oyster Creek or follow commitments key to its safety," said Adam Garber, Consumer Advocate for New Jersey Public Interest Research Group. "Without that assurance, we are letting Exelon and the NRC roll the dice with Oyster Creek, and it will be New Jersey residents who pay the debt."
Economic Benefits to Plant Closing
There will be more money circulating in the economy after Oyster Creek shuts down. AmerGen will spend around $650 million over a 10-year period to clean up the site. They will employ around 300 workers, mostly unionized. The site will eventually be used by some business that will generate economic activity, employ people and pay taxes.
Security and Spent fuel
The NRC required plants to spend billions after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Unfortunately, the NRC neglected unprotected spent fuel pools. If the plant continues to operate, the amount of spent fuel stored there will continue to accumulate.
New Jersey Gov. Corzine requested a review of the Oyster Creek emergency plan, which was not done. Apparently, the plan has not considered the consequences of a spent fuel pool attack. Lacey Township will have the spent fuel for a very long time. Most of it will remain in a pool of water, never designed as a storage facility, 100 feet above the ground, with only sheet metal between it and you. The safest course of action is to close Oyster Creek, remove all the spent fuel from the spent fuel pool, put it in safety canisters, and force the Energy Department to take it all away - but where?
Dennis Zannoni, former chief nuclear engineer for the NJ Department of Environmental Protection has stated, "I have been involved with Oyster Creek for 20 years. My goal was to do what I could to make the plant safer. Oyster Creek's time is up. Close it, clean up the site and ready the property for the next business. Zannoni was reassigned from his position as chief nuclear engineer of the DEP last year in response to what he says is an unspecified complaint from an NRC staffer. He has said it may take a march to close the plant.
For more information, please call 732-240-5107 email: oystercreekmarch@yahoo.com
Cathy Sims, has been a journalist for over 30 years. She co-authored the first community publication on what you could do in your own home to help stop the pollution process, back in 1971. She is editor and publisher of the biz.ed Guide for 22 years and host of the Business Education Talk Show on Cablevision for over 10 years. http://www.bized.com
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