Close Oyster Creek

You would think with Oyster Creek's possible relicensing looming that a community dialogue sponsored by the Ocean County League of Women Voters last week would have been jam-packed with public officials concerned about their constituents' safety.

You'd be wrong.

There were two members of the Island Heights Borough Council there. Lacey Township Committeeman David Most, who works for AmerGen, the company that runs the plant, showed up to voice his support for his employer.

That was it. And that's an outrage.

Ocean County has 33 municipalities, all of which would be terribly affected by a mishap or terrorist attack at Oyster Creek.

Yet not one mayor could pencil the forum into his or her datebook.

Invitations were sent to all Ocean County mayors well ahead of the event, said league President Gail Marsh Saxer.

Saxer even hand-delivered the invitations to all five members of the Board of Freeholders.

Where were the freeholders that night?

Not in the Mancini room of the Ocean County Library. County Planner David J. McKeon was the only visible county presence in the room.

It's time for Gov. Jon Corzine and the public officials in Ocean County - freeholders, mayors and council members - to let the public in on whether they think the 38-year-old nuclear plant deserves another 20 years to operate.

And while they are at it, officials need to let the public know just how Ocean County residents within the plant's 10-mile radius could safely evacuate in the event of an "event" at the plant.

Here's a news flash. They couldn't.

Anyone who has ever tried to navigate two-lane Route 9 in the central and southern part of Ocean County or the Route 72 causeway on a summer weekend already knows that's an impossibility. The coastal evacuation routes are a joke.

And it's time for a public hearing and a public debate between local activists, nuclear experts and AmerGen representatives. AmerGen needs to answer a number of questions about their aging plant. Questions about corrosion in the drywell shell. Questions about the plant's vulnerability to terrorist attacks. Questions about evacuations.

There are too many unanswered questions about the safety of the oldest nuclear plant in the country. Ocean County doesn't deserve to be the test case for a plant with too many problems already.

Oyster Creek only generates a small percentage of the state's electricity supply. It's not worth the risk to keep it up and running. The plant should close in 2009, if not sooner.