Nuclear under Fire in New Jersey

Nuclear under Fire in New Jersey

Dec 06 - NJBIZ

Power plants that provide half the state's electricity find themselves under fire

Harkness says Oyster Creek has long been a good neighbor and provider of jobs.

New Jersey's two nuclear-power plants are under attack. Not by terrorists, but by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), which demands an improved maintenance regime at one site, and politicians and grass-roots groups that oppose extending the license at the other.

New Jersey has a great deal at stake in these battles. The two facilities provide electricity to half the state and employ a total of 2,250 people. Nuclear-fueled power is far cheaper than gas- or oil-fired electricity, and last year became cheaper than coal-fired power as well (see box). Replacing either plant would require a massive investment.

But both facilities are generating intense controversy. At the nuclear power station in Salem County, operators shut the site's Hope Creek unit on October 10 when a ruptured pipe leaked low-level radioactivity into the turbine building (NJBIZ, October 18). Hope Creek remains shut for refueling.

The NRC is focusing special oversight on all three generating units at the Salem site, which is run by the nuclear power subsidiary of Newark's PSEG. The move follows complaints that the station-whose Hope Creek and Salem 1 and 2 units make it the country's second-largest generator of nuclear energy-has deferred needed maintenance, failed to correct long-standing problems and ignored employees who have come forward with safety concerns.

Meanwhile, the Oyster Creek plant in Ocean County is seeking a 20- year extension of a federal license that's set to expire in 2009. Built in 1969, Oyster Creek is owned by AmerGen Energy, a unit of Chicago's Excloii, and is the longest-running nuclear plant in the country Opposing its bid for a license extension are 17 Ocean County towns, and political leaders that include U.S. Representative Christopher Smith (R-4th District), state Senator Robert Singer (R- Lakewood) and Brick Mayor Joseph Scarpelli.

Such resistance creates head-scratching among the plant's managers. "If nuclear-power plants go away, they'll be replaced with a higher-cost mm power supply or plants that aren't as environmentally sound," says Ernie Harkness, vice president for special projects at Oyster Creek. Harkness says the plant produced $46.5 million in taxes, payroll and other economic benefits last year, an impact that jumps to $247.7 million when the sale of electric power is factored in.

"The people who are working here are your fathers, your children's coaches; they're in your neighborhoods," says Harkness. "You have a plant that's been a great neighbor for years."

At Salem, PSEG Nuclear president Chris Bakken says his company is promoting a more open workplace that encourages employees to raise concerns. Bakken says Salem is devoting 100,000 manpower hours to reducing its maintenance backlog. "We'll focus on fixing the problem, not fixing the blame," he says.

PSEG Nuclear plans to spend $800 million over the next five years on Salem improvements like replacing controlrod drive mechanisms that have malfunctioned. While the outlays are double what a nuclear facility typically spends on upkeep, PSEG Nuclear says it could take two years to fix the current problems and regain its workers' trust.

The Hope Creek refueling will last 45 to 55 days, compared with the usual outage of 25 to 35 days. "It's not a money issue," says Bakken. "Our goal going forward is to achieve excellence. We look forward to a better performing plant in the future."

POWER FOR NEARLY 4 MILLION HOMES

NUCLEAR AND COAL PLANTS RUN CHEAPER

Tauro, Paula Gotsch and Scarpelli want to replace Oyster Creek with wind or solar power.

Such promises don't reassure critics like the Unplug Salem Campaign, a coalition of more than 100 local, regional and national groups that has collected over 25,000 signatures on petitions that call for shutting and decomissioning the Salem I and 2 units. The petitions raise issues ranging from fire safety to fish kills and radioactive waste.

Oyster Creek critics express similar concerns. Since January, Brick homemaker Janet Tauro has worked with township mayor Scarpelli to fight the license-extension request. Tauro is particularly concerned about the lack of an evacuation route in the event of a radiation leak at the aging plant. "You wouldn't be able to get out in time," she says. "There's one road in and one road out, and that's Route 9"-a highway that's mostly two lanes in Ocean County.

Other opponents of extending the license include the Asbury Park Press, which last June accused the NRC of rubber-stamping such applications-30 plants have received extensions so far-and called for a statewide campaign to close Oyster Creek when its license expires in 2009.

Scarpelli demanded a closing after a study last January found an elevated level of the radioactive substance strontium 90, which has been linked to bone cancer and leukemia, in the baby teeth of Brick children. The study was prepared by Joseph Mangano of the Radiation and Public Health Project, a New York City-based research group. Mangano speculates that the strontium 90 level was higher in Brick than in Lacey, where Oyster Creek is located, because plant emissions wafted to Brick on the wind.

Oyster Creek owner AmerGen dismisses the study as scare tactics and junk science. AmerGen says strontium 90 comes from fallout left in the atmosphere by nuclear bomb tests, not from nuclear power plants. According to AmerGen, a 1990 study by the National Institutes of Health found no connection between cancer rates and people's proximity to nuclear plants.

The cooling tower at Salem, the nation's second-largest nuclear generating facility.

Oyster Creek spent $1 million in fines and plant improvements two years ago after a refueling outage caused temperatures in nearby Barnegat Bay to drop, killing 5,000 fish. The company now promises to replenish the bay with 50,000 fish next spring. But critics want Oyster Creek to replace its cooling system, which pumps more than 1 billion gallons of water into and out of the plant each day, with an $80 million closed-cycle system that AmerGen says would make the plant too costly to run.

AmerGen plans to formally ask for a license extension next July; the NRC is likely to review the application for 24 to 30 months. To prepare for an extension, Oyster Creek is inspecting 160,000 pieces of equipment, including pipes, valves and emergency diesel generators. AmerGen says it has spent more than $1.5 billion to upgrade the plant through measures like reinforcing the containment structure and replacing air compressors and emergency cooling pipes.

The company has spent another $20 million in response to post-9/ 11 federal directives that call for improved security. Investments include a new security building, new fencing around the complex and new detection gear. The plant currently budgets $4 million to $5 million for security guards.

The NRC is not the only watchdog with an eye on Oyster Creek. The plant also falls under the purview of the state Department of Environmental Protection's Bureau of Nuclear Engineering, which monitors the level of radioactivity around nuclear facilities. State Assemblyman John McKeon, a West Orange Democrat who chairs the environmental and solid waste committee, plans a fact-finding hearing on the plant next month.

"We will be taking testimony from industry, labor and environmental groups and residents on their views and opinions on the plant," McKeon says. "It's not to do anything but to take information and understand the issues." Nonetheless, the session is certain to generate plenty of electricity.

"If nuclear-power plants go away, they'll be replaced with a higher-cost power supply or plants that arent as environmentally sound."

Ernie Harkness

Vice president for special projects, Oyster Creek

TURNING OFF THE LIGHTS

More than a dozen U.S. nuclear plants have been shut and decommissioned over the past 30 years, leaving 103 plants running in 31 states. In the Northeast, decommissioned plants include Shoreham, which closed its doors on Long Island in 1987, and Maine Yankee, which provided 25% of Maine's power before it was shut in 1997. Both facilities had encountered strong public opposition.

Full decommissioning can take decades from the time a plant stops operating. The process includes decontaminating or dismantling buildings and hauling the parts to a low-level waste facility. Spent nuclear fuel must be placed in dry storage, where it is to be held until a controversial high-level waste depository is built at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. The last step involves reducing any radioactivity that remains at the site to harmless levels through a final decontamination.

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