Oyster Creek hearing slated for next week Advisory board to hear testimony on safety of aging plant's dry-well liner BY PATRICIA A. MILLER Staff Writer PATRICIA A. MILLER The Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station on Route 9 south in Lacey Township shimmers in the late summer sunlight. The spent fuel rods are stored in the top of the reactor building. TOMS RIVER - History will be made on Sept. 24 when a hearing on a contention raised about the relicensing of the Oyster Creek nuclear plant gets under way. The three-judge Atomic Safety and Licensing Board will start the hearing at 9 a.m. in Room 119 of the Ocean County Administration Building on Hooper Avenue. The hearing is the first in the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission's history to be held on a contention raised over a nuclear plant's safety, NRC spokesman Neil A. Sheehan has said. A coalition of six organizations filed the contention that cites corrosion concerns about the plant's dry-well liner earlier this year. The groups are the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, the Jersey Shore Nuclear Watch Inc., Grandmothers, Mothers and More for Energy Safety (GRAMMES), the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group (NJPIRG), the New Jersey Sierra Club and the New Jersey Environmental Foundation. Corrosion was first discovered in the dry-well shell that surrounds the reactor vessel by GPU Nuclear, the plant's previous owner, back in the 1980s. The company found that water had accumulated in an area known as the "sandbed region" that surrounded a lower section of the shell, which caused the corrosion. GPU removed the sandbed and coated the liner with an epoxy. AmerGen contends that visual and ultrasonic tests showed that the thickness of the dry-well shell is within safety limits. However, coalition members and critics of the plant's relicensing say the NRC is allowing AmerGen to make the determination that the dry-well liner is safe. They have also questioned the actual thickness of the shell in certain areas of the dry well. The ASLB denied a request by AmerGen to grant a summary disposition dismissing the coalition's contention back in June. "At this juncture and on this record, we are unable to conclude as a matter of law that Amer- Gen's monitoring plan is sufficient to ensure adequate safety margins during the period of extensive operation," the ASLB said in its June 19 decision. The NRC supported Amer- Gen's request for a summary disposition. The Sept. 24 hearing will involve lawyers for both parties and expert witnesses. "Members of the public can observe the sessions but will not be allowed to participate," the NRC said. Portions of the hearing may be closed to the public if there is any discussion of "proprietary" information. "Members of the public are also advised that NRC procedures prohibit the use of signs, banners, posters and displays at all NRC adjudicatory proceedings," the NRC said. The hearing will run all day on Sept. 24 and conclude no later than noon on Sept. 26. Oyster Creek, which went online in 1969, is the oldest nuclear plant in the United States. Its 40-year operating license expires on April 9, 2009. AmerGen applied to the NRC for a 20-year license extension in July 2005. AmerGen has faced a series of setbacks this year in its quest to have the plant on Route 9 south in Lacey Township relicensed. The state Attorney General's Office petitioned the federal 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in May to contest the NRC's stance that the impact of a terrorist attack should not be part of a nuclear plant's relicensing review. The Attorney General's Office filed the petition on behalf of the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). And in early June, the DEP faulted both AmerGen and the NRC for relying on environmental studies that were up to 30 years old during the relicensing process. The overwhelming majority of residents who were allowed to speak at previous hearings dealing with Oyster Creek said the plant should not be relicensed. They cited concerns about the dry-well shell, spent fuel rod storage, the vulnerability of the plant to a terrorist attack, and evacuation of residents in the event of an accident.