Appellate Court Wants More Information About Oyster Creek, Tsunamis and Earthquakes

The 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals has directed lawyers for the federal Nuclear Regulatory  Commission to provide more information about the "propriety" of re-licensing the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

The NRC re-licensed the then-40-year-old plant on April 8, 2009, to operate for another 20 years, over the objections of a coalition of citizen groups that fought the plant's re-licensing. Oyster Creek is the oldest nuclear plant in the United States.

"At the direction of the court, counsel for the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission is directed to advise the court what impact, if any, the damages from the earthquake and tsunami at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station have on the propriety of granting the license renewal application for the Oyster Creek Generating Station," the court's directive states.

The court gave NRC attorneys and Exelon — Oyster Creek's owner — until April 4 to submit any relevant information.

NRC attorneys are reviewing the court's order and will respond in time to meet the deadline,  NRC spokesman Neil A. Sheehan said today.

"On Monday morning, the five-member, presidentially appointed  commission that oversees the NRC was briefed by the agency’s staff on reviews the agency plans to undertake in response to the Japan reactor events," Sheehan said. "One will be a 'quick-look' assessment to determine if any immediate actions are needed, with the results due in 30 days. There will also be a more extensive review done. The findings of that evaluation are expected within 90 days. Of course, the NRC will continue to look for lessons learned from the events in Japan."

Richard Webster, the lead attorney for the citizens' coalition, said he was surprised by the appellate court's action.

"Normally the court doesn't do that," he said. "The more information the court has, the better. It certainly helps us make our case."

The coalition includes the New Jersey Environmental Federation, The New Jersey chapter of the Sierra Club, the Nuclear Information and Resource Service, the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group and Grandmothers, Mothers and More for Energy Safety. Attorneys for the coalition have until April 18 to respond to submissions.

The Nuclear Information and Resource Service today launched a campaign for the permanent shutdown of the 23 General Electric Mark I reactors currently operating in the United States. That includes Oyster Creek.

“For nearly 40 years, top U.S. safety officials at the Atomic Energy Commission and later the Nuclear Regulatory Commission have warned about the safety shortcomings of the GE Mark I design,” said NIRS Executive Director Michael Mariotte. "A 1972 recommendation that the U.S. stop licensing the design was accepted on technical grounds but denied by the AEC’s (Atomic Energy Commission) top safety official, Joseph Hendrie, because it ‘could very well be the end of nuclear power.’ In 1986 Harold Denton, then the top safety official at the NRC, warned that Mark I containments have a 90 percent probability of failing under accident conditions."

The Nuclear Information and Research Service also said the reactors have a  design flaw that places the irradiated fuel pools above the reactor core and outside the primary containment.

“When the containment buildings exploded, release pathways from the irradiated fuel pools appeared,” said Mariotte. “And the explosions might not have merely exposed the fuel pools, but damaged them as well, allowing the loss of water and subsequent release of radiation."

But Sheehan said that although the Oyster Creek plant does have a Mark I boiling water reactor and containment, there are design differences.

Boiling water reactors in the United States with Mark I containments have hardened vents that allow for venting hydrogen to prevent the kind of explosions seen in Japan, Sheehan said.

Toruses — large reservoirs below the reactors used for cooling — at boiling water reactor Mark I plants in the United States were reinforced years ago, he said.

"We are still endeavoring to learn more about differences between the U.S. and Japanese plants, though the focus for now is on safely shutting down the Japanese units," Sheehan said.

Oyster Creek is the only one of Exelon's nuclear plants located near the Atlantic Ocean. But Exelon notes on its website are "not typical" on the East Coast. The plant is more than five miles inland from the ocean and 23 feet above mean sea level, the company's website states.