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Why Is Oyster Creek Still Operating?

by Dennis Zannoni

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is not doing its job. It was created to regulate the use of radioactive materials and ensure that people and the environment are protected in the process. Supporting the nuclear industry is now the NRC’s priority, not our safety! The fallout from this one-sided relationship is troubling. Unfortunately, the NRC is more concerned with reviving the nuclear industry than protecting our health and safety. They are now willing to risk tremendous damage to New Jersey by keeping Oyster Creek running.

The NRC is out of touch with the people

The government forced nuclear power on the people over the past 40 years. This was a mistake. This reckless proliferation of nuclear power alienated the people from the process. Too many plants were built too quickly!

The NRC and the nuclear industry still work in a vacuum and real public interaction just doesn’t happen. The NRC docket is full of letters thanking the public for its comments while completely ignoring them. You don’t have to look any further than Oyster Creek license renewal for one powerful example. Every comment submitted by concerned citizens, groups, and government agencies were ignored by the NRC.

In New Jersey, citizens had to sue the NRC to get them to realize that the Oyster Creek drywell isn’t safe. Also, the State of New Jersey had to sue the NRC to find out the impacts from an Oyster Creek spent fuel pool accident. The NRC can not be trusted

None of the many government promises made about nuclear power came true. The record of the NRC and the nuclear industry in operating these plants speaks for itself. Most plants have operated poorly and numerous plants were cancelled in the process. The real costs to make these plants run as originally promised, especially after the Three Mile Island accident, are enormous. The Oyster Creek story provides enough evidence for not trusting the NRC.

How can you trust an agency that told us that Oyster Creek spent fuel would not remain in our community and then turn around and say that it will probably never leave? How can you trust an agency that won’t explain the environmental and financial damages from an Oyster Creek spent fuel pool accident even though they were ordered to by a Federal Court, but still refuse to comply? How can you trust an agency that gave Oyster Creek its highest safety rating when it is the worst plant in the country?

Unfortunately, the nuclear industry did an effective job lobbying Congress to make the NRC - industry friendly, which means much less oversight. Any NRC staff who tries to raise safety issues are in a difficult position. Good employees risk being overturned and disciplined by its own pro-nuclear management for opposing the nuclear industry.

The NRC is playing a dangerous game by keeping Oyster Creek open and are placing New Jersey citizens in harms way. They are drawing a line in the sand with Oyster Creek and Indian Point, (an aging plant in Westchester, New York). If these old plants close, others like them, especially in the Northeast, will close as well. These closures will put the brakes on the so-called nuclear renaissance. In other words, our safety is secondary to the NRC and the nuclear industry’s primary mission of keeping old plants operating while paving the road for new plants.

Some solutions to the problem:

• Appoint neutral NRC Commissioners
• Eliminate the pro-business and ineffective NRC plant oversight process
• Stop the NRC practice of rubber stamping plant license renewals
• Remove all radioactive waste from every nuclear power plant site. The Department Of Energy owns it, let them take it.
• Make all plants terrorist free
• Close old plants that people don’t want

Dennis Zannoni, Florence, New Jersey, was removed as the chief nuclear engineer for his opposition to Oyster Creek nuclear plant. He will be speaking at the Citizens Protest (see below) to stop the re-licensing of this plant. For more information, call 732-240-5107

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