NUCLEAR DANGERS — An accident at Oyster Creek could result in a blast and radiation that would devastate an area with a 50-mile radius, nearly reaching New York City and Philadelphia.

Oyster Creek’s Safety Record Gets Second Look

During the fall, NJPIRG organized a series of successful campaigns toward the Oyster Creek Nuclear plant’s eventual closure.

In September, NJPIRG was joined by federal Reps. Saxton (3), Smith (4), Holt (12), Pallone (6), Pascrell (8), and Andrews (1) in calling for further examination of Oyster Creek’s safety.

The dry-well liner, which shields the reactor, was the critical concern outlined in the letter our congressmen sent to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

According to an NJPIRG expert, the liner is corroding, and could be outside safety margins. If the liner were breached, the resulting nuclear accident could affect more than one million New Jersey residents.

At a recent public hearing, the NRC admitted that Exelon failed to meet commitments critical to the continued safety of Oyster Creek, including testing water running along the liner for evidence of corrosion. Instead, Exelon improperly disposed of the water prior to testing as part of a pre-inspection cleanup.

“We cannot rely on Exelon to tell us the truth about Oyster Creek,” said NJPIRG Consumer Associate Adam Garber. “Without that assurance, we are letting Exelon and the NRC roll the dice with Oyster Creek, and it will be New Jersey residents who have to deal with the consequences.”

NJPIRG is part of the Stop the Relicensing of Oyster Creek (STROC) coalition, which includes the New Jersey Environmental Federation, the Sierra Club, Jersey Shore Nuclear Watch, GRAMMES and the Nuclear Information Research Service.

Rep. Saxton led the charge with NJPIRG and STROC by calling for a review of evidence on the dry-well liner by the Advisory Council on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS), an NRC committee composed of nuclear and engineering experts.

The letter also questioned whether the NRC was capable of doing its job.

“When deciding whether a vital safety structure has been allowed to corrode beyond its safety margins because of violations of the operating license which the NRC failed to notice for eight years, redundancy becomes a necessity,” read the letter from the New Jersey congressmen.

At an October hearing in Washington, the ACRS grilled NRC inspectors about the liner, agreed with STROC that the liner’s integrity is in question, and called for further testing to determine if the liner is within safety margins.

While the NRC has continually downplayed our concerns, the ACRS, which is regarded as the technical Supreme Court of the NRC, is waking up to Oyster Creek’s threat,” said Richard Webster of the Rutgers Environmental Law Clinic, who represents STROC on Oyster Creek litigation.