Federal Nuclear Regulators Respond to Concerns About Radiation Release at Oyster Creek

Millennium Radio New Jersey ^ | Friday, July 20, 2007 | Rosetta Key

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Reassurance about the public's safety is coming from the U-S Nuclear Regulatory Commission following word of the release of a small amount of radiation when the Oyster Creek Nuclear power plant in Ocean County was shut down this week.

N-R-C spokesman Neil Sheehan says a Senior Health Physicist was on hand at the time the reactor was being vented releasing a weak radioisotopeTritium. He says "the Physicist looked at the plant's data on what was emitted and is very confident that this didn't represent any sort of threat to members of the public."

Oyster Creek's parent company AmerGen, a subsidiary of the Exelon Company, issued a press release saying "The tritium in the steam had no environmental, health or safety impact and had about half the radiological exposure rate of living with a household smoke detector."

The Lacey Township-based nuclear power plant was shut down Tuesday morning because of what plant operators are calling an electrical fault in a motor on one of the station's three feedwater pumps which caused the plant to automatically shut down.

Amergen officials say the plant is still off line to date while station technicians prepare to replace the motor. They're also using the down time to perform additional plant maintenance that can only be performed when the plant is not operating. Spokeswoman Leslie Cifelli says they don't report on when they'll be brought back on line due to competitive reasons.

Sheehan says "they're continuing to look at the way the plant responded to the shut down. We would expect the plant to have a good handle on exactly what caused the problem before they would come back on line."

Meanwhile, this is a very touchy time for the nation's oldest operating commercial Nuclear Power plant that went online December 1st, 1969 because Oyster Creek's owners are seeking a license extension until 2029.

Sheehan says He doesn't believe this week's shut down will have any impact on the license extension application. He says when they're doing license renewal reviews they're looking at the longer term issues. We're looking at the potential environmental impact and the way they've managed the aging of key safety systems, structures and components.

He says "the event that occurred Tuesday would really be captured under their ongoing inspection process."

The plant generates 636 megawatts of electricity, enough to power about 600,000 homes a year. It provides 9 percent of New Jersey's electricity.

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