Mar. 20--Critics of the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant say the license renewal process is rigged.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the federal agency that rules on re-licensing, has allied itself with the utility that owns the plant in opposing petitions by the state and a citizens group for public hearings on safety and security issues at Oyster Creek.

The regulatory agency shouldn't take sides, the critics say. The NRC insists its review process is thorough.

"NRC lawyers have fought tooth and nail to stop our petition," said Richard Webster of the Rutgers Environmental Law Clinic, which represents the citizen group.

"The NRC's basic mind-set is they're already dealing with everything that needs to be dealt with during the plant's operations -- the regulations are perfect -- so there's nothing left to talk about when you get to re-licensing."

A renewal of the license would extend the operation of the nation's oldest commercial reactor to 2029.

Opponents also charge that the NRC's criteria for granting the license to Exelon, the company that operates Oyster Creek, are too narrow. The NRC considers two factors: The environmental impact of the plant and the utility's ability to manage the aging of plant components. The same rules apply to all nuclear plants.

"We need to expand the scope of the NRC license review," said Brick Township Mayor Joseph Scarpelli. "They don't discuss a possible terrorist attack or evacuation procedures with an expanding population surrounding the plant."

Scarpelli has petitioned the NRC to change re-licensing rules to include those factors, among others. So has Westchester County Executive Andrew Spano, whose constituency includes the two Indian Point nuclear reactors, located 15 miles north of the New Jersey border.

"Life has changed in Westchester County since Indian Point came in," said Susan Tolchin, senior adviser to Spano.

"Would you license this plant in this place knowing about the increased population and how the evacuation plan can't protect the citizens of this county? We want the NRC to look at those factors, which they don't normally look at."

The chance of the NRC changing its re-licensing procedure based on those petitions is near zero, experts say. So the next step for both Scarpelli and Spano: Complain to Congress.

"We want Congress to take a more hands-on approach," Scarpelli said. "Twenty-one of the 33 municipalities in Ocean County have passed resolutions against license renewal. The entire freeholder board as well as the congressmen who represent the county have signed on as well. So we're all on board in Ocean County. We just have to get Washington on board."

The NRC has approved all 39 license renewal applications that utilities have submitted, said NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan. Another 12, including Oyster Creek, are under review, he said.

Those statistics obscure the complex and interactive nature of the license renewal process, Sheehan said.

"It's not as if every application has sailed through the process," he said. "Utilities have to do a lot of homework before they submit a re-licensing application, and once they do, there's a lot of back and forth between them and the NRC staff. We're always asking them to tell us more, so by the time they get to the end of the process, many of the issues have been resolved."

That's also the reasoning behind the NRC taking the side of the utilities when third parties, like citizen groups and the state of New Jersey, challenge their renewal applications, Sheehan said.

"It's not unusual for the NRC staff to oppose interveners' contentions because once a license renewal application is accepted by the NRC for review, the company typically has dealt with most of the key technical issues," Sheehan said in an e-mail message. If that's the case, it's the duty of the NRC staff to intervene if the petitioners' contentions don't meet the legal requirements for a public hearing, Sheehan said.

Utilities typically spend two years or more to complete their re- licensing applications, and it's not cheap. Costs can climb to $25 million for all the research, testing and communication with the NRC, said Steve Kerekes, spokesman for the Nuclear Energy Institute, an industry group.

Even with the expense, Kerekes said, from the viewpoint of the nuclear industry, "the re-licensing process is a thorough and reasonable one."

Jim Steets, a spokesman for Entergy, which runs Indian Point, said security issues are addressed on an ongoing basis and need not be part of re-licensing criteria.

"We don't wait until re-licensing to update security at the plant and our emergency response capabilities," Steets said. "Those things are examined and updated continuously. We have to demonstrate every year that our plans are current."

As for Spano's charge that Indian Point would never be built today at its current Westchester location, so the NRC shouldn't grant a license extension, Steets said that's a "political argument."

"There's no merit to that argument on safety grounds or from a regulatory viewpoint," Steets said. "His implication is it would be unsafe there. I'm saying I wouldn't try to build one there, but not because it's unsafe. It's because it wouldn't be politically possible. From a safety standpoint, there's no reason not to build it there."

Steets said Entergy is "strongly leaning toward" applying for 20- year license renewals for Indian Point 2 and 3, whose current licenses expire in 2013 and 2015, respectively. Utilities can apply for extensions anytime, but they usually begin the process at least five years before a plant's license expires.

A three-judge panel of the Atomic Safety Licensing Board ruled last month in favor of a citizen group's petition for a public hearing on an alleged weakness in a critical metal barrier in the Oyster Creek facility. Both the NRC and Exelon are appealing that decision.

At the same time, the judges rejected three challenges by the state Department of Environmental Protection. The state said it would file an appeal. The deadline to do so is March 28.

"It's no fun to be on the [plaintiff's] side," said David Lochbaum of the watchdog group Union of Concerned Scientists. "I've done it several times, and it's daunting. You're up against the high- powered D.C. lawyers who work for the company and the entire 86- lawyer entourage of the NRC. It's tough when they're both always against you. It would be nice to have it one-on-one instead of two- on-one."