Congressmen contest NRC's safety standards
BY PATRICIA A. MILLER Staff Writer

TOMS RIVER - Two federal legislators concerned about the relicensing of the Oyster Creek nuclear plant want an investigation of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) adherence to accepted engineering safety requirements.

Republican New Jersey Congressmen H. James Saxton and Christopher Smith asked the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board, an NRC advisory board, for the probe in a Sept. 21 letter.

Saxton and Smith want the investigation to focus on the NRC's adherence to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) requirements.

"We are concerned that the steel containment wall does not meet minimum safety requirements as a result of severe corrosion in several locations," the letter states.

The two said that according to original testimony presented to the ASLB by Mark Hartzman - a senior mechanical engineer in the NRC's Division of Engineering, Office of Nuclear Reactor Regulation - that the steel barrier encasing the nuclear reactor did not meet the minimum ASME safety requirements.

"We are astounded to learn of the development," Saxton and Smith said in the letter.

The two legislators acknowledged that there is disagreement about the calculations and methodologies used to determine the thickness of the drywell shell.

"Even so, it is not acceptable for the containment wall of a 636-megawatt nuclear power to just barely meet minimum federal requirements, or perhaps, as suggested by Dr. Hartzman's testimony, to fall below the margin of safety."

The ASLB this summer granted a coalition of six citizen and environmental groups a hearing on their contention concerning corrosion around the drywell shell and the frequency of AmerGen's corrosion monitoring program.

The NRC said in a brief filed with the ASLB on Aug 23 that the Hartzman's rebuttal testimony contained "a misstatement," which had since been corrected.

The NRC also concluded in the brief that AmerGen's monitoring frequency of the corrosion was sufficient to maintain an adequate safety margin in accordance with NRC requirements.

Janet Tauro, a member of Grandmothers, Mothers and More for Energy Safety, one of the six groups involved in the contention, said the Oyster Creek should not even be considered for relicensing.

"That [drywell] is the radiation barrier that shields us in the event of a meltdown," she said. "That's the only thing that protects the public from radiation. If they don't meet the safety codes, they shouldn't have a business operating today, let alone for another 20 years."