Board's Oyster Creek decision expected soon
BY PATRICIA A. MILLER Staff Writer
Athree-judge panel is expected to release a decision on the safety of the drywell liner surrounding the Oyster Creek nuclear plant reactor no later than Dec. 20, said a spokesman for the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

"The judges are still deliberating," NRC spokesman Neil A. Sheehan said. "The decision could come at any time now."

The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB), the judicial arm of the NRC, held two days of hearings in September in Toms River to listen to testimony - pro and con - about the drywell liner's safety.

The hearing was the first in the NRC's history on a contention raised over a nuclear plant's safety.

Stop the Relicensing of Oyster Creek (STROC), a coalition of six organizations, filed the contention that claims parts of the drywell shell at the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in Lacey Township could be dangerously corroded and are improperly monitored.

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 state Environmental Foundation.

Coalition representatives testified during the September hearings that AmerGen's monitoring of the drywell shell is insufficient and that portions of the shell will not withstand another 20 years of operation.

The testimony focused on water sources that could corrode the drywell liner and the lifespan of the epoxy coating on the liner itself.

AmerGen experts testified that the water is only present during the refueling process, which occurs roughly every other year and lasts about 26 days.

But coalition representatives testified there is water present even when the reactor isn't refueling.

The next plant refueling is scheduled for October 2008.

"There is no assurance that Oyster Creek meets the applicable safety standards," said Richard Webster, a staff attorney for the Eastern Environmental Law Clinic, which represents the coalition. "The evidence the NRC presented shows either that is it reasonably possible or it is likely that the containment no longer meets the ASME (American Society of Mechanical Engineers) code safety standards."

Oyster Creek, which went on line in 1969, is the oldest nuclear plant in the United States. Its 40-year operating license will expire on April 9, 2009. AmerGen, a subsidiary of the plant's owner, Exelon, applied for a 20- year license extension in July 2005.

But regardless of the ASLB's eventual decision, either side can appeal the outcome, Sheehan said.

NRC rules provide that a nuclear plant can continue to operate as long as the plant has at least five years left on its license, but that rule will not apply.

"Oyster Creek filed [for an extension] with less than five years on their license, but they asked for a waiver on that and it was granted," Sheehan said. "Oyster Creek would still be able to operate until it was resolved."