Safest evac. plan is to shut down Oyster Creek

They are going to do their best, whether or not the "event" becomes a catastrophe. That's what I've concluded from attending my fourth annual public hearing on Oyster Creek's evacuation plan, or more correctly, the Radiological Emergency Response Plan.

Even though the plan estimates the plume from a radioactive release would spread over the region in four hours, the N.J. State Police claim they'll evacuate the region in 7.5 to 9.5 hours - a claim no citizens in the room believed. Many who spoke recounted repeated experiences of traffic delays and gridlock trying to move about or leave Ocean County's shore areas.

But I realized that to the state officials charged with developing a "radiological response" plan, it ultimately doesn't matter whether it takes 9.5 hours or 9.5 days to evacuate the shore if Oyster Creek has a radioactive accident or is struck by an airliner piloted by terrorists. Not at all to imply that they don't care if such a terrible thing happens. Of course they do. It's just that given their jobs and their sense of professionalism, they believe first responders will ultimately do what needs to get done to execute the planned evacuation of hundreds of thousands of people.

And if thousands of fleeing people are irradiated in the process and develop cancers or flat-out die, those charged with planning for and carrying out the evacuation plan will do the best they can and probably help thousands of other folks not catch lethal doses of Oyster Creek's pent-up pool of radioactivity.

The real problem with this true-grit attitude is that they give cover to Oyster Creek's owners, Exelon, to continue to generate more and more radiation and radioactive waste as they play Russian roulette with their aging, obsolete nuclear plant.

The state police and Department of Environmental Protection would be better serving the public to tell the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that yes, the emergency workers will do the very best they can, but no, this plan is not adequate to assure the public's health and safety.

Everyone who lives here knows that if the terrorists do follow through on their preliminary plans to take out a nuclear power plant, and if they set off an ongoing fire at Oyster Creek - not a single release of radioactive steam, but a Chernobyl-type fire - we're going to be stuck in the worst traffic jam in history. And thousands of us will get sick or die as a result.

The best "radiological response plan" is to reduce the threat and the temptation for terrorists by closing down Oyster Creek, removing the spent fuel rods from its elevated fuel pool as soon as technically possible, and fortifying the dry cask storage area until that too-distant day when this deadly waste can be safely transported to "permanent" storage.

Jeffrey Brown

Brick