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New Jersey environmental officials are requiring the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in Ocean County -- the nation's oldest nuclear plant -- to install cooling towers. The design change is considered environmentally-friendly, yet costly, and one the plant operators say will force them to shut down. The state Department of Environmental Protection is requiring the installation of a "closed-cycle cooling system," which involves mostly air-cooling the plant using one or two towers.

New Jersey environmental officials are requiring the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in Ocean County -- the nation's oldest nuclear plant -- to install cooling towers. The design change is considered environmentally-friendly, yet costly, and one the plant operators say will force them to shut down. The state Department of Environmental Protection is requiring the installation of a "closed-cycle cooling system," which involves mostly air-cooling the plant using one or two towers.

"Power has been reduced at the Salem 2 nuclear reactor here because of problems with vegetation clogging the cooling water intakes on the Delaware river, officials said today. Salem 2 was operating at about 82 percent power because of "grassing," the collection of dead phragmites and other plants that have been dislodged from the river shoreline collecting on the screens protecting the water intakes, according to Joe Delmar, spokesman for the plant's operator, PSEG Nuclear. The grassing problem occurs each spring as old vegetation floats downriver. The neighboring Salem 1 nuclear reactor was still operating at full power early this afternoon. "

"A monitor that measures radiation emissions at the nation's oldest operating nuclear plant has been found to be inoperable. But officials say the problem at the Oyster Creek plant in Lacey Township doesn't pose a public health threat. Exelon Corp., which owns the plant, recently notified the state Department of Environmental Protection about the problem. But it's not clear how long the equipment - known as a stack monitor - has been out of service. DEP officials say other monitors throughout the plant can be used to provide data about radiation levels. The agency also maintains a network of radiation monitors in the area around the plant. "(We're) confident that there have been no releases from the stack," DEP Commissioner Bob Martin said. "Our independent monitoring system has not shown any elevated levels in the environment.""

"Traces of radioactive tritium have been found in a storm drain system at the Salem 2 nuclear reactor on Artificial Island here, federal and utility officials said Thursday. The tritium was found in water samples taken from the drain catch basin located north of the Salem 2 reactor. The amount of tritium found in two samples closest to the plant structure registered 1.1 million picocuries per liter, according to Neil Sheehan, spokesman for the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Other samples taken farther away from the plant structure in the drain registered at 260,000 picocuries per liter and at 3,000 picocuries per liter."

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is investigating the Salem nuclear power plant to find out why there was an apparent loss of reactor coolant during a routine maintenance procedure. Commission spokesman Neil Sheehan says there was no danger to the public, but the Oct. 15 incident has raised concerns about procedures at the plant. Sheehan says investigators are looking into why the level of pressurized water in the reactor coolant system of Unit 1 at the plant was improperly measured. He said the level in the pressurizer could not be determined for more than eight hours.

NRG Energy, Inc. rejected Sunday a $6.1 billion takeover bid by Exelon Corp., openly challenging whether the Chicago-based parent company of Commonwealth Edison could successfully manage what would have been the country's largest power generation company. Exelon made an unsolicited all-stock offer last month that valued NRG at a 37 percent premium, a figure that dipped to 9.4 percent by the close of the stock market Friday. The offer proved underwhelming to the board of directors at NRG, which unanimously turned down a merger it said "significantly undervalues" the Princeton, NJ-based company.

An "unusual event" was declared at the Hope Creek nuclear reactor early Thursday morning after sump pumps failed to start and drain water accumulating in a service building. The incident occurred in a non-nuclear area of the plant where water is drawn into the plant from the Delaware River to be used for cooling the plant. A leak let about 2 inches of river water to accumulate on the floor of the building before an alarm sounded, according to Joe Delmar, a spokesman for the plant's operator, PSEG Nuclear.

An update on the proposed plan to contain a low-level radioactive slag pile at the Shieldalloy Metallurgical Corp. here will be provided to the public on Sept. 30 by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The NRC will preside over a 7 p.m. meeting at the Edgarton Memorial School on Catawba Avenue.

TRENTON Stakeholders are gearing up for the public debate over whether an additional nuclear power plant should be built in New Jersey most likely, in Salem County to meet future energy demand. The possibility of another reactor was floated last year by Public Service Electric & Gas, the parent company to PSEG Nuclear, which operates three plants on Artificial Island in Lower Alloways Creek.

LOGAN TWP. The operator of the three nuclear power reactors in Lower Alloways Creek Township received generally good grades during the annual review of plant performance by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission here Wednesday night.

Three nuclear power plants in southern New Jersey have begun their relicensing process. The Salem 1 and 2 and Hope Creek plants share an island on the Delaware River. The permit for Salem 2 is good until 2020 and Hope Creek is licensed to operate until 2026. But plant co-owner PSEG Nuclear says it is submitting relicensing materials for them along with Salem 1 because all the plants share operations. The Salem 1 license expires in 2016. Plant officials met with officials from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday to outline relicensing plans.

Rodney C. Ewing1 and Frank N. von Hippel2 The recent action to shelve Yucca Mountain as the potential geologic repository for U.S. "spent" (i.e., no longer usable) nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level nuclear waste (HLW) (1) brings to a close a 30-year effort to develop and implement a policy for nuclear wastes in the United States. Selection by Congress in 1987 of Yucca Mountain in Nevada as the only site to be investigated condemned the United States to pursue a policy that had no backup if Yucca Mountain failed politically or technically. 1 Department of Geological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1005, USA. 2 Program on Science and Global Security, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08542-4601, USA. E-mail: rodewing@umich.edu E-mail: fvhippel@princeton.edu

Rodney C. Ewing1 and Frank N. von Hippel2 The recent action to shelve Yucca Mountain as the potential geologic repository for U.S. "spent" (i.e., no longer usable) nuclear fuel (SNF) and high-level nuclear waste (HLW) (1) brings to a close a 30-year effort to develop and implement a policy for nuclear wastes in the United States. Selection by Congress in 1987 of Yucca Mountain in Nevada as the only site to be investigated condemned the United States to pursue a policy that had no backup if Yucca Mountain failed politically or technically. 1 Department of Geological Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1005, USA. 2 Program on Science and Global Security, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08542-4601, USA. E-mail: rodewing@umich.edu E-mail: fvhippel@princeton.edu

State representatives met with the public here Wednesday night for an annual review of the emergency plan which would be put into effect if there were a threatening release of radiation from any of the three nuclear reactors here in the county. Required by state law, the public hearing on the New Jersey Radiological Response Plan gives residents a chance to question or give their comments to the agency representatives responsible carrying out the plan. The plan is a coordinated effort between the New Jersey State Police, which would be the lead agency in case of an emergency, and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. It spells out the duties and roles that state, county and local officials would play in case of an actual release of radiation at any of PSEG Nuclear's three reactors on Artificial Island in Lower Alloways Creek Township.

Two months after the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in Lacey Township won a 20-year extension of its license, a coalition of environmental and citizens groups has asked a federal court to overturn the decision. Citing inadequate information provided to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission about the plant's safety, the coalition wants a federal court to invalidate the relicensing of the 40-year-old facility.

Two months after the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in Lacey Township won a 20-year extension of its license, a coalition of environmental and citizens groups has asked a federal court to overturn the decision. Citing inadequate information provided to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission about the plant's safety, the coalition wants a federal court to invalidate the relicensing of the 40-year-old facility "We are appealing the decision because the Nuclear Regulatory Commission did not have sufficient information available to it to decide whether Oyster Creek can operate safely for the next 20 years," said the coalition's attorney, Richard Webster, of the Eastern Environmental Law Center. The coalition is composed of the New Jersey Environmental Federation, the New Jersey Sierra Club, the Public Interest Research Group, the Nuclear Information Resource Service and Grandmothers, Mothers and More for Energy Safety (GRAMMES).

South and central New Jersey are Ground Zero, so to speak, concerning the future of aging U.S. nuclear electricity plants. The nation's oldest operating commercial plant, Oyster Creek in Lacy Township, awaits its fate, with its initial 40-year license set to expire this year. Meanwhile, PSEG Nuclear took official steps this month to extend the licenses of its three Salem County plants. And, Saturday was the 30th anniversary of the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania. While it resulted in the meltdown of a reactor core, the containment walls worked. The U.S. nuclear industry still can point to a safety record that traces no deaths directly to a plant release. At Salem, the original license for Unit 1 expires in 2016, the Unit 2 license expires in 2020, and Hope Creek is licensed until 2026. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission requires considerable lead time for relicensing, and there should be sufficient time to answer questions from citizens, experts and the NRC itself.

The Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station, the nation's oldest nuclear power plant, was granted clearance yesterday for a new 20-year operating license despite claims from conservationists, watchdog and citizens groups that the Ocean County facility poses a danger to the public and wildlife. "We expect, at this point, that the new license will be issued by April 9, when the plant's current 40-year operating license expires," said Neil Sheehan, a spokesman for the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

"A new environmental center in southern New Jersey aims to build the case for more nuclear power. New Jersey's largest utility, Public Service Energy Group, unveiled its Energy & Environmental Resource Center in Salem on Monday. The 6,000-square-foot facility features exhibits on climate change and electrical generation. The center is near Artificial Island, which is home to three nuclear plants. The company is seeking to have their licenses renewed and to build a fourth. Officials say one purpose of the education center is to promote nuclear power as an environmentally friendly way to generate electricity. Growth of nuclear power has been stalled in the U.S. since the Three Mile Island partial meltdown in 1979."

"Rep. John Adler, D-NJ, and two other members of Congress have asked the General Accounting Office to investigate the condition of buried piping systems at nuclear plants, after a leak of water carrying traces of radioactive tritium were detected at the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in Lacey and a similar problem turned up at the Indian Point reactor in New York. The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspection guidelines are not sufficient to ensure the integrity of that underground plumbing, which can carry cooling water for use during unexpected reactor shutdowns or diesel fuel for backup generators, the lawmakers say. "Under current regulations, miles and miles of buried pipes within nuclear reactors have never been inspected and will likely never be inspected,'' Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., said in the letter he signed with Adler and Rep. John Hall, D-NY. "As it stands, the NRC requires - at most - a single, spot inspection of the buried piping systems no more than once every 10 years. This cannot possibly be sufficient to ensure the safety of both the public and the plant.''"