Oyster Creek

Cleanup of radioactive tritium that leaked from the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Ocean County, New Jersey, last year is beginning this week. Plant owner Exelon Corp. will start pumping efforts on two monitoring wells in the Cape May and Cohansey aquifers below the power plant, where levels of tritium that far exceeded health standards issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency were documented in June, according to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.

Employees at the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant violated a safety cooling requirement early yesterday morning, and some records about the incident were intentionally destroyed, the plant's operator said. The plant had been shut down since Thursday for maintenance work, and the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission ordered yesterday that it remain shut during a federal investigation of the safety violation and the apparent coverup attempt. The plant cannot return to service until the NRC gives its approval, said Karl Abraham, spokesman at the commission's regional office in Philadelphia.

LACEY TOWNSHIP, N.J. - A year ago, New Jersey environmental officials reached a deal with the owners of the nation's oldest nuclear power plant to shut it down 10 years earlier than expected. In return, the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station would not have to build costly cooling towers. On Wednesday, state officials kept their end of the deal, granting Chicago-based Exelon Corp. a permit that will enable the plant to continue drawing water from Oyster Creek to help cool the nuclear reactor.

The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission yesterday approved the restart of the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant, which has been out of operation since a violation of safety requirements in September. The NRC reported that the plant, in Forked River, Ocean County, N.J., has adopted new training and monitoring procedures to prevent a repeat of the incident. Workers violated federal safety limits at the plant Sept. 11 by closing off cooling water that keeps the nuclear fuel from melting.

LACEY TOWNSHIP, N.J. - In this southern Ocean County municipality, where it's a compliment to be called a Piney, and hunting and fishing on Barnegat Bay are long-held traditions, residents have been neighbors with the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant for more than 40 years. The community has come to depend on the 700 jobs and $70 million payroll the facility brings to this rural and industrially barren fringe of the Pinelands. Residents know that the plant's presence has kept their property taxes relatively low, and have made an uneasy peace with what proximity to Oyster Creek could mean if disaster were to strike.

On the day that Exelon Corp. officially announced the closing of the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in New Jersey, state officials unveiled a sweeping plan to revitalize Barnegat Bay, the ailing coastal waterway that provides the plant's cooling water and has borne the brunt of its effects. The closure of the nation's oldest operating nuclear plant, which is to happen by the end of 2019, is neither the first - nor likely the last - among the nation's aging nuclear fleet. It raises the question of what will replace them.

GPU Inc., the New Jersey utility, said yesterday that in the face of deregulation, it may sell or shut down its Oyster Creek nuclear generating station in Lacey Township, Ocean County. The price for the 28-year-old plant would be $700 million, said Fred D. Hafer, GPU president and chief operating officer. If no buyer is located, the shutdown would begin in 2000, Hafer said. That would eliminate about 7 percent of GPU's 9,000 megawatts of generating capacity. Hafer said that regulation of the electric utility industry has served the public well but that it was time for a change to competition.

Nuclear plant is too dangerous It has been proved conclusively that when nuclear plants are closed, cancer rates in children drop dramatically. The study by the Radiation and Public Health Project checked children's baby teeth for radioactive strontium 90, which results only from nuclear-bomb explosions and nuclear reactors. This is why the Tooth Fairy Project, as the study is known, should continue to check children's baby teeth for strontium 90 and why the legislature should provide funding for this research.

Coast Guard crews from Atlantic City and Barnegat Light, N.J., yesterday recovered the body of missing boater Ken Madsen, 52, in Barnegat Bay near Oyster Creek. Earlier in the day, New Jersey state police reported a man missing from a boat they had found aground, with its engine running, near Waretown, N.J. A wallet and recreational gear were aboard. The state police reported stopping Madsen in the boat while he was underway for undisclosed reasons.

The Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in Forked River, Ocean County, was taken out of service at 11 a.m. yesterday after a technician improperly used a two-way radio in the control room, accidentally setting off a backup safety system. At the time of the incident, "the plant was operating normally, full power, and everything was in order," said plant spokesman Jim Laverty. "We will look into what happened and take steps to make sure it doesn't happen again. " Operators manually shut down the 650-megawatt plant after control room instruments indicated that the backup safety system had been activated, plant officials said.

LACEY TOWNSHIP, N.J. - A year ago, New Jersey environmental officials reached a deal with the owners of the nation's oldest nuclear power plant to shut it down 10 years earlier than expected. In return, the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station would not have to build costly cooling towers. On Wednesday, state officials kept their end of the deal, granting Chicago-based Exelon Corp. a permit that will enable the plant to continue drawing water from Oyster Creek to help cool the nuclear reactor.

BAY HEAD, N.J. - Everyone knows Barnegat Bay is in trouble. The real question is, how bad are things? To get answers, the state Department of Environmental Protection will team with research institutions across the state to carry out 10 studies of aspects of Barnegat Bay to get a comprehensive view of the health of the struggling waterway. The answers won't all be in until 2014. The studies will examine such things as pollution nutrients in the water, crabs and clams, and the prevalence of stinging jellyfish and algae blooms.

April Woerner lived through earthquakes as a child in Japan and the Philippines, so the tremor she felt in Cherry Hill on Tuesday was unmistakable. "It seemed like it was coming up from the earth," said the 68-year-old woman, a Cherry Hill resident for 35 years whose father served in those countries while in the Army. "It was an irregular shaking, kind of a side-to-side movement. It felt too solid to be a truck going by and creating a vibration. You felt this came from a deeper source.

April Woerner lived through earthquakes as a child in Japan and the Philippines, so the tremor she felt in Cherry Hill Tuesday was unmistakable. "It seemed like it was coming up from the earth," said the 68-year-old woman, a Cherry Hill resident for 35 years whose father served in those countries while in the Army. "It was an irregular shaking - kind of a side-to-side movement. It felt too solid to be a truck going by and creating a vibration. You felt this came from a deeper source.

TOMS RIVER, N.J. - A task force set up to examine emergency plans at New Jersey's four nuclear reactors in the aftermath of the Japanese disaster wants more pumps at the plants, and is seeking to ensure that emergency generators at three plants in Salem County are interconnected enough to function in a disaster. The state's Nuclear Review Task Force was formed in late March, shortly after the disaster at a nuclear plant brought on by an earthquake and tsunami that knocked out power to critical cooling systems.

A federal appeals court on Wednesday declined to review the Nuclear Regulatory Commission's license renewal of Exelon Corp.'s Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in New Jersey. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia said the NRC did not abuse its discretion when it rejected a challenge of the license renewal by a coalition of environmental groups. "We are confident that the NRC's review of Exelon's application was well-reasoned, and we will not second-guess technical decisions within the realm of its unique expertise," the court said.

TRENTON - Samples of milk, air, and rainwater in New Jersey show no sign of elevated radiation from the Japan nuclear disaster, the state's top environmental official said Wednesday. Preliminary air samples did show trace amounts of radioactivity, but at levels far below those considered hazardous to human health, Environmental Protection Commissioner Bob Martin said. Samples of precipitation show traces of iodine-131, but not enough to cause concern, he added. "We're seeing virtually nothing right now. We've tested the water, we've tested the milk, and we're testing rainwater," Martin said.

State Stores belong in old Soviet Union Whenever I say State Store, I feel like I'm in a communist country. Isn't it about time to privatize these stores? It would create free enterprise, and it would create jobs, because there would be competition. When I go to a liquor store in another state, there are knowledgeable employees who are available to assist you (not just tell you where things are). Additionally, there is competition that will lead to better prices and selection. For example, I purchased a specific wine out of state for $9.99.

New Jersey is saying no to a new rule that would allow nuclear power plants to store radioactive spent fuel on site up to 60 years beyond the useful life of the plant. In the case of the Oyster Creek plant, which is due to shut down in 2019, the rule would allow spent fuel to remain at the site, which is in Ocean County next to Barnegat Bay, until 2079. The previous limit was 30 years. The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued the rule in December In February, New York, Vermont and Connecticut filed a challenge.