Oyster Creek license should be granted, committee says
20-year renewal OK provided promises are kept, say NRC advisers
BY PATRICIA A. MILLER
Staff Writer

A Nuclear Regulatory Commission advisory committee has recommended that the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station's license renewal be approved.

The 16-member Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards is an independent body of experts that reviews license renewals for the NRC.

The plant's current owner, AmerGen, a subsidiary of Exelon Corp., wants to run the plant for another 20 years beyond the current license term, which expires on April 9, 2009.

AmerGen's program commitments provide "reasonable assurance" that Oyster Creek can operate in accordance with its current licensing basis for a period of extended operation "without undue risk to the health and safety of the public," William J. Shack, an advisory committee member said in a Feb. 8 letter to NRC Chairman Dale E. Klein.

Oyster Creek, on Route 9 in Lacey Township, is the oldest operating nuclear plant in the country. The NRC issued its first provisional operating license on April 9, 1969, and the operating license on July 2, 1969.

How important is the committee's findings?

"It's another input into the commission's overall decision," NRC spokes Neil Sheehan said. "It's a big deal. The commission takes this advisory commission's recommendations very seriously. This advisory commission brings a tremendous amount of technical expertise to bear on these issues."

But the committee said Oyster Creek's license should be renewed only if AmerGen meets certain conditions which include:

+ Increasing the frequency of the drywell inspections and the monitoring of the two drywell trenches to ensure that sources of water are identified and eliminated.

+ AmerGen must conduct an engineering study prior to the extended period of operation to identify options to eliminate or reduce leakage in the refueling cavity liner.

+ AmerGen must perform a three-dimensional finite-element analysis of the drywell shell before entering the period of extended operation.

The Ocean County Board of Freeholders passed two resolutions, one in 2004 and another last year, opposing Oyster Creek's license renewal unless the plant could meet all current NRC operational and safety standards.

And many environmental groups and the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group (NJPIRG) vehemently oppose the plant's relicensing. They contend that the plant is a detriment to the public health, safety and the environment and is vulnerable to terrorism.

If the license is granted, New Jersey will be the "test case for a 60-year-old nuclear power plant," according to NJPIRG's Web site. "Oyster Creek's major components were only designed to last for 40 years."

NJPIRG is urging residents to write to Gov. Jon Corzine to publicly oppose the plant's relicensing.

The state Department of Environmental Protection also filed a petition opposing the plant's relicensing.

Six area legislators wrote to Klein last September, citing concerns about water leakage and subsequent corrosion found in the main containment wall of the reactor.

"It is imperative that all questions and uncertainties about the structural integrity of this plant be answered," they said in the letter. It was signed by Congressmen Christopher H. Smith, H. James Saxton, Robert E. Andrews, Rush Holt, Frank Pallone Jr. and William Pascrell Jr.

Citizen groups and legislators have been clamoring for another public hearing on the relicensing. Whether there is another hearing could depend on whether AmerGen proposes additional steps that would "render a hearing unnecessary, Sheehan said.

"If there is no hearing, we are looking at May for a decision," he said.