Freeholders need to take a stand on Oyster Creek

It is time for the freeholders to "get off the fence" and take a position on closing the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station (OCNGS). For the past eight years, the Freeholders have dodged the issue by responding to antinuclear critics by passing the buck to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) as the agency to decide the fate of Oyster Creek.

The Ocean County Freeholders have held meetings with the NRC to make them aware of the issues from concerned citizens to open up a dialogue between the citizens and the NRC. The NRC has held 15 meetings in the last two years regarding a variety of issues. A landmark hearing by the Atomic Safety Licensing Board (ASLB) was held on Sept. 24, 2007, in response to a safety contention brought by a coalition of six citizens organizations. However, the freeholders have given us ambiguous messages regarding their stand on OCNGS.

OCNGS is among the largest emitters of airborne and waterborne radioactivity of any U.S. reactor, with a total five times greater than the Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant during its 1979 meltdown (see www.radiation.org). OCNGS has a long history of health, safety, security and environmental problems, and over 15 municipalities have called for its shutdown.

At the Dec. 19 freeholder board meeting, Cheryl Borowski asked the freeholders to make a resolution calling for decommissioning Oyster Creek and said, "If not now, why not?" Freeholder John C. Bartlett Jr. said, "I raised two children within 10 miles of that plant. If I thought it was dangerous, I would not have lived there." Apparently, Freeholder Bartlett has been very fortunate to be one of the few who have not been affected by cancer. However, others have not been so fortunate, since the New Jersey 2000-04 Cancer Registry reported that there were 230,761 cancer cases in New Jersey, 19 percent above the total U.S. rate.

Also, there is an explosion of cancer among seniors in Ocean County. About 23,500 residents 55 and up are cancer survivors and the cancer rates keep climbing in Ocean County.

The National Institute of Health (NIH) said about two-thirds of cancers are caused by the environment. "The good news is that a large number of cancers can be prevented." (See NIH Publication No. 03-2039, September 2003)

We believe that it is the responsibility of the freeholders to investigate the source of these rising cancer rates. ("The Board of Freeholders acts in concert to protect the health and welfare of its citizens", see Page 6, Ocean County Directory.)

In 1999, when Alec Baldwin spoke at Ocean County College on the links between the childhood cancer cluster in Toms River and strontium 90 emissions from Oyster Creek, the freeholders said that the health of citizens is their concern and they encouraged meetings on the Tooth Fairy Project.

Alec Baldwin will return to speak at a community dialogue sponsored by the League of Women Voters at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 20 at the Ocean County Library's Toms River branch, 101 Washington St.

Even the NRC, in its 2006 environmental impact statement, said that for 20 consecutive years, OCNGS has been dumping radioactive waste materials and is the worst polluter of Barnegat Bay.

In "Silent Spring," biologist Rachael Carson wrote, "In this now universal contamination of the environment, chemicals are the sinister and littlerecognized partners of radiation in changing the very nature of the world - the very nature of life. Strontium 90 … in time takes up its abode in the bones of a human being, there to remain until his death."

We dispute the need for nuclear power in the future energy sources. We all know that there are various forms of clean, safe, renewable energy such as solar and wind power.

A group of Midwest utilities is building a wind energy plant in Iowa to provide base load power by storing energy underground in the form of compressed air. A small power plant in Alabama has been doing it since 1991, and a Texas-size project (3,000 megawatts) is now being planned in Texas.

Also, two kinds of solar energy power plants are being built now to provide base load power, meaning power is available day or night - one in California and the other in Iowa (see www.rachel.org). Germany is phasing out all its nuclear plants by 2021 and investing in renewable energy and is buying solar-electric photovoltaic cells from a company in Palo Alto, Calif.

In November 2007, the citizens have signed petitions to shut down OCNGS, and you, the freeholders, have not responded. We have been coming to you since 2000 regarding problems linked to Oyster Creek. They include: cancer linked to radioactive emissions from OCNGS; the ineffective and impossible evacuation plan; the plant's vulnerability to terrorism; the corrosion of the dry well liner; the millions of fish being killed by the oncethrough cooling system; and the storage of the growing radioactive spent fuel nuclear waste being dumped in "our backyards." All the evidence shows that OCNGS is not a safe, clean reliable source of power. Therefore, it is now time for you, the freeholders, to take a clear stand and call for the decommissioning of the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station now.

Edith Gbur

President

Grace Costanzo

Vice President Jersey Shore Nuclear Watch

Toms River