Time to take a stand

The relicensing of the oldest nuclear plant in the United States is not quite a done deal yet.

And that's all the more reason for public officials and residents throughout Ocean County to show up at two more public forums slated over the next several weeks.

State Department of Environmental Commissioner Lisa Jackson will be the keynote speaker Saturday morning at the Ocean County League of Women Voters annual meeting. One of the topics is the controversial relicensing of the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in Lacey Township.

Here's hoping it's a packed house at the Holiday Inn on Route 37 east in Toms River.

The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission is veering perilously close to granting AmerGen another 20 years to operate the nearly 40-year-old plant that sits off Route 9 south.

A possible last-minute reprieve came this week from the NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB). The ASLB announced a "limited" public hearing to be held in the freeholders' meeting room at the Ocean County Administration Building in Toms River on May 31.

Only those who are not members of a coalition of groups that have contested the plant's relicensing in court will be allowed to speak at the hearing.

The Board of Freeholders couldn't ask for a more convenient place to hold a hearing. Their meeting room is just two floors down from their offices. They have no excuse not to attend. And they have no excuse not to speak.

The freeholders have pretty much sat on the sidelines when it comes to the relicensing of a troubled plant that should be closed down when its license expires in April 2009. Ocean County residents shouldn't have to cross their fingers for the next two decades and hope that nothing goes wrong.

The freeholder board has passed occasional milquetoast resolutions that pretty much said the plant shouldn't be relicensed unless it meets the NRC's conditions. Talk about sitting on the fence.

But not one of them has come out on record and said whether they personally think Oyster Creek deserves another 20 years or should shut down forever. Each board member owes it to the more than half a million Ocean County residents they serve to let them know where they stand on Oyster Creek.

The ASLB's May 31 hearing may not be the last. If the ASLB rules favorably on the coalition's contention that there is still corrosion in the plant's drywell liner, there could be a full public hearing again at the end of September.

And if that's the case, the NRC's relicensing decision could be pushed back to January 2008. If the ASLB rules against the contention, there will be an answer very soon.

Every freeholder and every mayor in the county should attend both forums in the upcoming weeks. There is no excuse good enough not to.