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Fasteners made for spent fuel storage devices at Oyster Creek Generation Station and several other power plants did not meet standards, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The NRC Web site lists information by Transnuclear Inc. that reported "a potential Part 21 violation and has reason to believe that Hwa Shin Bolt Ind. Co. provided unsubstantiated certified material." Transnuclear is performing an evaluation and does not believe the issue has safety significance. However, the company is reporting this issue because Hwa Shin may have supplied parts that may have safety significance, the report stated. The firm also reported that in addition to Oyster Creek, affected plants include Millstone Power Station in Connecticut, Susquehanna in Pennsylvania, Ginna in New York, Brunswick in North Carolina and Cooper Nuclear Station in Nebraska. NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said that initial reviews by Exelon Nuclear, owners of Oyster Creek, have determined Oyster Creek is in possession of the fasteners in question. "However, none are in casks currently in use, that is, in casks loaded with spent fuel," he said.

Fasteners made for spent fuel storage devices at Oyster Creek Generation Station and several other power plants did not meet standards, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The NRC Web site lists information by Transnuclear Inc. that reported "a potential Part 21 violation and has reason to believe that Hwa Shin Bolt Ind. Co. provided unsubstantiated certified material." Transnuclear is performing an evaluation and does not believe the issue has safety significance. However, the company is reporting this issue because Hwa Shin may have supplied parts that may have safety significance, the report stated. The firm also reported that in addition to Oyster Creek, affected plants include Millstone Power Station in Connecticut, Susquehanna in Pennsylvania, Ginna in New York, Brunswick in North Carolina and Cooper Nuclear Station in Nebraska. NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said that initial reviews by Exelon Nuclear, owners of Oyster Creek, have determined Oyster Creek is in possession of the fasteners in question. "However, none are in casks currently in use, that is, in casks loaded with spent fuel," he said.

" Levels of radioactive tritium remain high in a number of monitoring wells at the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey, according to new state data. The Oyster Creek nuclear plant looms near its discharge canal in Lacey (file photo by Peter Ackerman) Through late April, the highest tritium level - nearly 50 times government limits - was in a well in the Cohansey aquifer beneath the plant. The Cohansey is used for drinking water beyond Oyster Creek property lines. A different well in the shallower Cape May aquifer beneath Oyster Creek had a tritium level that was about 45 times above government limits. The state Department of Environmental Protection has posted a map of well locations."

A huge, anticipated turnout of workers from the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey, fishermen, Barnegat Bay environmental activists and others has prompted moving the state Senate Environment Committee meeting Monday to 1 p.m. in a big first-floor hearing gallery at the State House Annex. The committee will consider S-3041, which would require a new cooling system at Oyster Creek as a condition of any new state discharge permit. Sponsored by committee Chairman Sen. Bob Smith, R-Middlesex, the bill and an identical measure in the Assembly are seen as an attempt to either force the hand of outgoing Gov. Jon S. Corzine or Gov.-elect Chris Christie to require that plant owners Exelon build cooling towers.

A huge, anticipated turnout of workers from the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey, fishermen, Barnegat Bay environmental activists and others has prompted moving the state Senate Environment Committee meeting Monday to 1 p.m. in a big first-floor hearing gallery at the State House Annex. The committee will consider S-3041, which would require a new cooling system at Oyster Creek as a condition of any new state discharge permit. Sponsored by committee Chairman Sen. Bob Smith, R-Middlesex, the bill and an identical measure in the Assembly are seen as an attempt to either force the hand of outgoing Gov. Jon S. Corzine or Gov.-elect Chris Christie to require that plant owners Exelon build cooling towers.

The state Legislature may finally do what the Department of Environmental Protection and Gov. Jon Corzine should have done long ago: Mandate a cooling tower at the Oyster Creek nuclear reactor in Lacey to mitigate the plant's harmful environmental and economic impact. A bill proposed by Sen. Bob Smith, D-Middlesex, is scheduled to be heard by the Senate Environment Committee in Trenton Monday in what is shaping up as an epic showdown between Oyster Creek owner Exelon and the state's environmental groups, which are firmly united in support of the legislation. Among those expected to testify against it is Exelon CEO John Rowe. The bill would impose conditions on all energy generation facilities that withdraw water from or discharge water to a "shallow lagoonal estuary." At Oyster Creek, those conditions could only be satisfied by constructing a cooling tower.

The state Legislature may finally do what the Department of Environmental Protection and Gov. Jon Corzine should have done long ago: Mandate a cooling tower at the Oyster Creek nuclear reactor in Lacey to mitigate the plant's harmful environmental and economic impact. A bill proposed by Sen. Bob Smith, D-Middlesex, is scheduled to be heard by the Senate Environment Committee in Trenton Monday in what is shaping up as an epic showdown between Oyster Creek owner Exelon and the state's environmental groups, which are firmly united in support of the legislation. Among those expected to testify against it is Exelon CEO John Rowe. The bill would impose conditions on all energy generation facilities that withdraw water from or discharge water to a "shallow lagoonal estuary." At Oyster Creek, those conditions could only be satisfied by constructing a cooling tower.

It has been a crisis month for Exelon since federal regulators jumped the gun and relicensed the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in Lacey until 2029. Failure of a main transformer led to the shutdown of the reactor. That followed the recent discovery of high levels of radioactive tritium contamination at the site. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff have tracked the tritium leak to two burst pipes, a concrete vault and a monitoring well. Concentrations of radioactive tritium are 300 times the allowable levels in four test wells at the site. This raises alarm about the plant's aging management program, which was the basis of the relicensing that is supposed to prevent this sort of dangerous mishap. Despite assurances from Oyster Creek spokespeople that tritium has not traveled off company grounds, it has entered the water table. Water flows, and at Oyster Creek it will eventually empty into Barnegat Bay, where the state announced this week a huge reseeding program of the oyster beds.

A month after radioactive tritium was found in a concrete vault and then ground water at the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey, experts still are trying to define the scope of the contamination. Plant owner Exelon Corp. also is still investigating the cause of the contamination and whether there are other leaks, according to plant and federal officials. * Tritium leaks at Oyster Creek not easily contained * Radioactive tritium contaminated four wells at the Oyster Creek The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission decided last month that Oyster Creek was "good for 20 years, and it didn't last three weeks before something failed,'' said Richard Webster, legal director at the Eastern Environmental Law Center in Newark and lawyer for six national, state and local groups that fought the plant's relicensing.

"The Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey has killed 80 million pounds of aquatic organisms in the past 40 years, a federal agency says. In a March 15 letter to a state Department of Environmental Protection official, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service repeated its support for cooling towers to be built at the plant. In 2005, the service also concluded that closed-loop cooling (cooling towers) is the best technology available at Oyster Creek, according to the letter. A draft DEP permit calls for cooling towers, but Oyster Creek officials have said they aren't necessary and they'll close the plant if required to build them."

A tritium leak at Oyster Creek Generating Station has prompted the federal government to take a closer look at leaks happening at nuclear plants nationwide. On Tuesday, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission released its inspection report on a leak found at Oyster Creek on April 15, days after the plant was relicensed for another 20 years. The full report did not reveal any new information about the tritium leak, but the issuing of the report has prompted more investigation into future leaks at nuclear plants, including another leak that happened at Oyster Creek in August. The leaks occurred 18 years after the underground pipes had last been recoated. In 1991, engineers reported that two underground pipes had been excavated and completely recoated. The recent investigation revealed that the coating was not applied thoroughly enough. Adjoining areas of the pipes that were not coated properly allowed moisture to seep in, causing corrosion.

"You could call it the seven-year itch, and it's getting under the skin of environmental and conservation groups who want to see cooling towers at the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station. A coalition of 10 groups sent representatives to Trenton on Wednesday for the second public hearing on the proposed state water discharge permit for Oyster Creek, and they shared a common message: they want the state Department of Environmental Protection to shrink the permit's seven-year time frame for converting the reactor's once-through cooling water flow to a closed loop system."

Legislation to mandate new cooling towers at the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station will be held until the start of the 2010 session in February when the state Senate Environment Committee can get more information from plant operators Exelon, says committee chairman Sen. Bob Smith, D-Middlesex. 'Barnegat Bay is going to be the major thrust of this spring in front of this committee," Smith said, after telling a hearing room packed with plant workers and environmental activists the committee was split evenly on releasing bill S-3041 today. Exelon officials claimed the bill is singling out Oyster Creek as the biggest threat to Barnegat Bay due to the environmental impact of its cooling water intake and discharge. Company senior vice president James D. Firth said the committee should address the bay's other problems with non-point pollution.

Legislation to mandate new cooling towers at the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station will be held until the start of the 2010 session in February when the state Senate Environment Committee can get more information from plant operators Exelon, says committee chairman Sen. Bob Smith, D-Middlesex. 'Barnegat Bay is going to be the major thrust of this spring in front of this committee," Smith said, after telling a hearing room packed with plant workers and environmental activists the committee was split evenly on releasing bill S-3041 today. Exelon officials claimed the bill is singling out Oyster Creek as the biggest threat to Barnegat Bay due to the environmental impact of its cooling water intake and discharge. Company senior vice president James D. Firth said the committee should address the bay's other problems with non-point pollution.

Failure of a main transformer led to the shutdown of the reactor earlier this week. That followed the recent discovery of high levels of radioactive tritium contamination at the site. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) staff have tracked the tritium leak to two burst pipes, a concrete vault and a monitoring well. Concentrations of radioactive tritium are 300 times the allowable levels in four test wells at the site. This raises alarm about the plant's aging management program, which was the basis of the relicensing that is supposed to prevent this sort of dangerous mishap. Despite assurances from Oyster Creek spokespeople that tritium has not traveled off company grounds, it has entered the water table. Water flows, and at Oyster Creek it will eventually empty into Barnegat Bay, where the state announced this week a huge reseeding program of the oyster beds.

The owners of Oyster Creek Generating Station have asked the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that the full analysis regarding the cause of a recent tritium leak at the plant not be made public. Advertisement Earlier this month, state Sen. Christopher J. Connors and Assemblymen Brian E. Rumpf and Daniel M. Van Pelt, all R-Ocean, called for the immediate release of the root-cause analysis of the leak that occurred in April at the plant in the Forked River section of the township. "We will discuss what our review of the root-cause analysis found in our upcoming inspection report on the groundwater contamination issues at Oyster Creek," NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said Wednesday. He added that the report should be issued next month.

Opponents of the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey want the Ocean County Board of Freeholders to use whatever legal means are at their discretion to shut down the nation's oldest commercial reactor. Advertisement A delegation from Jersey Shore Nuclear Watch appeared before the freeholder board for the second time in two weeks to call on the county government to stop a 20-year extension on the plant's operating license by the federal government. The group's president, Edith Gbur, had been before the freeholders May 20. On that date, she had asked the board to place a countywide referendum on the November ballot that would have polled voters on whether Oyster Creek should be closed.

"Screening and diverting devices that save fish from the Oyster Creek nuclear plant's cooling water intake are "about as good as it can get" in modern techniques, and the reactor's major impact on Barnegat Bay is with the tiny organisms that get sucked in and destroyed, a top state environmental official told a state Senate committee Monday. Fishermen and environmental groups have insisted for years the power plant is reducing numbers of clams and fish in the bay. "Technically, the issue is more entrainment than impingement," said Nancy Wittenberg, an assistant commissioner in the state Department of Environmental Protection, referring to the intake of fish eggs and larvae. A system of fish ladders and chutes - what "I like to call an amusement ride for fish" - screen out and bypass the larger animals, releasing them back into the plant's canal that flows to Oyster Creek, Wittenberg said."

"A problem with a pump at Oyster Creek Generating Station resulted in a violation by the plant's operators, Exelon Nuclear. A Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspection report of Oyster Creek revealed a "very low safety significance" finding. A letter from Ronald R. Bellamy, the NRC's chief Projects Branch 6 Division of Reactor Projects, to Exelon Generation Co. Senior Vice President Charles G. Pardee, stated that the agency's inspection was completed on Dec. 31, 2009. "The report documents one self-revealing finding of very low safety significance that was determined to involve a violation of NRC requirements," the letter states. Bellamy states in the letter that the NRC is treating the finding as "a noncited violation.""

"A coalition of environmental groups, fishing interests, and members of the public concerned about the health of Barnegat Bay and the Jersey Shore's livelihood are all calling on Exelon, the owner of the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station, to stop harming the Bay with continued operation of antiquated "once-through cooling" technology. Continued mass destruction of marine life and water pollution caused by the Oyster Creek Nuclear Power Plant is threatening our entire Jersey Shore economy. We cannot allow the greed of one company, Exelon, to put a natural resource at risk that generates $4 billion dollars annually for our state. This permit is right on the money, and we're calling on NJDEP Commissioner Martin to understand this and adopt the permit. On January 7th, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection issued a draft Clean Water Act permit that requires the company to install a closed loop cooling system on the plant."

"A contract employee who failed to disclose a prior arrest has caused the owners of the Oyster Creek Generating Station to receive a violation from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The employee's arrest constitutes a violation of the plant's license conditions. An NRC investigation completed on Jan. 14 concerned a contract employee working for Bartlett Nuclear Inc. at the Forked River-based power plant. The worker failed to report a prior arrest in accordance with Oyster Creek security plan requirements. The NRC confirmed the employee, who had unescorted access to vital areas of the plant, deliberately failed to report an arrest. Regulations require individuals with unescorted access to the facility to report any arrest or criminal charges."

A coalition of environmental groups that opposed the relicensing of the Oyster Creek Generating Station issued a statement accusing the power plant's owners of not taking corrective action that may have prevented leakage of tritium last spring. The coalition was also critical of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission when it referenced the recent release of Oyster Creek's root cause analysis report of a tritium leak that occurred in April, eight days after the power plant was relicensed by the NRC to operate for another 20 years. A more recent incident of tritium leakage took place Aug. 25. The root cause analysis report, which was released in a redacted form, was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Paul Gunter of Beyond Nuclear. In addition, NRC released e-mail exchanges surrounding the coalition's inquiries regarding buried pipes.

A coalition of environmental groups that opposed the relicensing of the Oyster Creek Generating Station issued a statement accusing the power plant's owners of not taking corrective action that may have prevented leakage of tritium last spring. The coalition was also critical of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission when it referenced the recent release of Oyster Creek's root cause analysis report of a tritium leak that occurred in April, eight days after the power plant was relicensed by the NRC to operate for another 20 years. A more recent incident of tritium leakage took place Aug. 25. The root cause analysis report, which was released in a redacted form, was obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Paul Gunter of Beyond Nuclear. In addition, NRC released e-mail exchanges surrounding the coalition's inquiries regarding buried pipes.

The coating on a corroded radiation barrier at the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey should be fully inspected for failures during a fall 2010 refueling outage, according to a state official. Advertisement "It remains in the best interests of the residents of New Jersey that a robust and effective drywell inspection and water intrusion prevention program is implemented and maintained at Oyster Creek," according to a Feb. 6 letter from Jill Lipoti of the state Department of Environmental Protection to an Exelon Generation staffer. The corroded steel drywell envelopes Oyster Creek's nuclear reactor vessel. It is designed to prevent a radioactive release during an accident, protecting the public, and has an epoxy coating.

A New Jersey nuclear plant has reduced its operating power by about 50 percent while workers repair an underground pipe that's been leaking. Advertisement David Benson, a plant spokesman, says the leak was detected Monday inside Oyster Creek's turbine building. Workers excavated soil immediately outside the building, and samples showed elevated levels of tritium - a weak radioisotope found naturally and produced in somewhat higher concentrations in commercial reactors. Officials say the leak at the Lacey Township plant does not pose a threat to employee or public safety. The excavation is near the area where two other small leaks were found in April and repaired. Oyster Creek opened in December 1969 and produces about 9 percent of New Jersey's electricity.