Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Oyster Creek owner says plant acted 'in good faith'
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has accused Exelon Corporation, the owner and operator of Oyster Creek Generating Station, of misreporting the status of funds utilized to prepare nuclear power plants for shut down. The investigation, initiated on Sept. 10, 2010, found that a senior Exelon executive and an Exelon manager appeared to have “deliberately” provided incomplete and inaccurate information in decommissioning funding status reports. The decommissioning fund is used to return a site back to pre-facility conditions once the power plant is shut down. “Our regulations require that the funds continue to grow at a rate to ensure there will eventually be sufficient monies to cover the costs of the radiological decommissioning of each …
Thursday, January 3, 2013
The NRC is 'failing to enforce its regulations,' anti-nuclear advocates said on a teleconference with the federal agency
Anti-nuclear advocates and concerned citizens participated in a teleconference Thursday with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission requesting the federal agency to revise regulations and take action against Oyster Creek Generating Station in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. “We’re here because we have serious concerns about the ongoing safety of the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant,” said attorney Richard Webster of Public Justice, who submitted a petition on behalf of Beyond Nuclear, the New Jersey Environmental Federation (NJEF) and Grandmothers, Mothers and More for Energy Safety (GRAMMES). “The NRC appears to be failing to enforce its regulations and that lack of enforcement is leading to a lack of adequate protection at the power plant…
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
The public can phone in to listen to the meeting on Thursday, Jan. 3
A public meeting will be held on Thursday, Jan. 3 on the recent petition submitted by anti-nuclear advocates on the impact of Hurricane Sandy to Oyster Creek Generating Station, Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan said. The petition, filed in November, called on Gov. Chris Christie to intervene and ensure that “major flaws” at Oyster Creek Generating Station are addressed prior to the nuclear power plant returning online. Oyster Creek began a regular refueling and maintenance outage on Oct. 22 and returned to service on Dec. 4. The petition submitted by Grandmothers, Mothers and More for Energy Safety, the New Jersey Environmental Federation and Beyond Nuclear, sought to keep the nuclear plant offline until safety measures…
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Oyster Creek terminates alert status, resumes operations
Power has been restored to Oyster Creek Generating Station after a loss due to Hurricane Sandy. Once electrical service was lost, the nuclear power plant utilized backup generators to power water pumps that cool the fuel stored in the nuclear reactor, a statement from the state Department of Environmental Protection said. Oyster Creek Generating Station terminated its “alert” status early this morning after the intake water level returned to normal. The “alert” was terminated at 3:53 a.m. today and normal operations resumed less than 36 hours after Hurricane Sandy pummeled the Jersey Shore, a statement from Oyster Creek said. On Monday night, the plant suffered power outages, declared an “alert’’ due to rising water levels and lost a …
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
The plant declared an "alert" as water levels rose at its canal, experienced a power outage and lost a portion of its warning alarm system
The Department of Environmental Protection and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission are monitoring the impacts of Hurricane Sandy on operations at Oyster Creek Generating Station, a news release from the Gov. Chris Christie’s office said. The nuclear power plant suffered power outages and declared an “alert” on Monday night due to the rising water levels as a result of high tides, wind direction and storm surge. The plant also lost a portion of its warning alarm system. An NRC statement noted that Oyster Creek remains in “safe condition” and the federal agency anticipates that water levels will abate within several hours. The plant experienced a power disruption in the station’s switchyard. The station’s two backup diesel generators …
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Decision comes nearly three months after a federal appeals court threw out a rule that would allow nuclear plants to store radioactive waste on site for up to 60 years after a plant closes
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission will be re-evaluating its plan for spent fuel storage with a two-year environmental study after a federal appeals court threw out a rule that would allow nuclear plants, including Oyster Creek Generating Station, to store radioactive waste on site for up to 60 years after a plant shuts down. “Resolving this issue successfully is a Commission priority,” NRC Chairman Allison Macfarlane said in a news release. “Waste confidence plays a core role in many major licensing actions, such as new reactors and license renewals.” The NRC directed the agency’s staff today to develop an environmental impact statement (EIS) and a revised waste confidence decision and rule on the temporary storage of spent nuclear fuel. …
Wednesday, August 1, 2012
The loss of power was the result of an electrical ground caused by a tree contacting one transmission line, a NRC report says
The electrical fault that triggered Oyster Creek Generating Station to go offline and 22,000 Ocean County residents to be powerless last week has been identified and repaired, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) stated in a report. The loss of power was the result of an electrical ground caused by a tree contacting one transmission line, the report says. There also was an unrelated electrical circuit breaker coordinator problem that affected another transmission line running between the power plant and its connection to the electrical grid. The transmission system operator repaired the problems, the report said. Following the electrical fault, Oyster Creek declared an "Unusual Event" for approximately two hours and went offline for six…
Thursday, June 7, 2012
Fukushima is a "low probability event," NRC says
Oyster Creek critics expressed a sense of urgency at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s second public meeting on the oversight of the Forked River based nuclear plant. Just more than a year after the Fukushima disaster, citizens continue to show concern over the NRC’s lack of immediate action to improve the safety of nuclear plants in the United States. In March, the federal agency issued its first orders following the nuclear disaster but plant’s have until 2016 to comply. “Why is this urgency that we’re now all supposed to be feeling after Fukushima is not reflected in the work of the NRC,” said New Jersey Environmental Federation’s (NJEF) Peggi Sturmfels, who considers the post Fukushima requirements “patchwork.” “We need to get this …
Friday, April 6, 2012
As requested by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the National Research Council is developing a study that will analyze the cancer risks in populations near nuclear plants
Oyster Creek Generating Station may be included in a pilot study of cancer risks in populations in close proximity to nuclear facilities. The National Research Council will conduct the two-phase study, which was requested and will be funded by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), on the 104 nuclear reactors and 13 fuel cycle facilities licensed throughout the country. Phase one will identify scientific approaches for the study while phase two, if the NRC chooses to proceed, would actually carry it out. The study is a follow-up to one that was done in 1990 by the National Cancer Institute that had limitations and is now outdated, said John Burris, chair of the committee that wrote the report and president of Burroughs Wellcome Fund. …
Thursday, March 29, 2012
NRC says Oyster Creek operated safely in 2011 with eight "green" findings
Barnegat resident Marianne Clemente came into last night’s Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s (NRC) open house on the annual assessment of Oyster Creek Generating Station outraged. “This is not a public hearing,” she said. The open house, which consisted of several tables and NRC representatives, was to give citizens the opportunity to discuss plant-related topics, including its 2011 safety report. “They have to start listening to us,” said Clemente, who attended the open house as an independent concerned citizen. “This isn’t clean energy. They’re talking about mothballing (the plant) when they should be decommissioning it. There’s no reason for it to be open right now.” Despite the NRC boasting that Oyster Creek operated safely during 2011, …
K H S
2:00 pm on Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Honesty and integrity are basic tenets of the nuclear industry. Your willingness to deliberately violate the basic tenets are just cause for immediate termination. Feel free to bring in the boys from Chicago for their termination. more ›