[NukeNet] APP Aug 8 Activists gain ally in Corzine

[Edith]

Activists gain ally in Corzine
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 08/8/06

Gov. Corzine's declaration that he will oppose a 20-year license extension for the aging Oyster Creek nuclear generating station in Lacey is welcome news to anyone who has been paying attention to the safety issues at the plant over the past few years.

At an editorial board meeting with the Asbury Park Press Thursday, Corzine said he didn't believe the plant should be relicensed for another 20 years "under any circumstances." Neither do we. We are pleased Corzine recognizes the multitude of threats posed by the plant and shares our lack of confidence in the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to deal with them. We hope that stance will be backed with financial and legal support — should it come to that — to defeat license renewal.

Our many concerns about plant safety were hardly assuaged at an editorial board meeting earlier last week with opponents of Oyster Creek, who provided additional details about possible corrosion of the plant's drywell, a steel shell around the nuclear reactor that serves as a barrier to the release of radioactive material in the event of an accident. Despite evidence of corrosion of the drywell dating back a decade, the vessel has not been retested since 1995.

Richard Webster, an attorney for the coalition of groups fighting license renewal, says evidence suggests the drywell could corrode beyond the current safety margins during the license extension period, possibly leading to a collapse of the shell. It's also possible, he says, the integrity of the drywell is already compromised — something that can't be determined without an adequate testing program. Should the drywell collapse, the implications are frightening. Paul Gunter, a nuclear industry watchdog, said such an event would result in "something worse than Three Mile Island."

What makes this all the more disturbing is Oyster Creek's initial refusal to have new tests done — and the NRC's failure to insist they be done as part of the license renewal process. AmerGen, Oyster Creek's operator, recently agreed to measure the liner's thickness during the next refueling outage in October. But it was only after activists filed a contention with the NRC seeking to force testing. The NRC declared the contention moot after Oyster Creek agreed to conduct the test, but the ruling has been appealed because the test would measure only about 1 percent of the corroded area.

For far too long, activists have had to bear the burden of trying to protect the safety and health of the hundreds of thousands of people living in Oyster Creek's wide shadow. They have done the job public officials have failed to do. It's nice to see Corzine publicly committing to the cause. We hope he will enlist a New Jersey senator or congressman to join with him — in actions as well as words.
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