Politics & Government

Township Officials Call for Immediate Closure of Oyster Creek

Hard stance on controversial plant nothing new for Berkeley

Mayor Jason J. Varano and Township Council members had a simple message last night for the owners of the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station and the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Close it. Now.

Council members plan to pass a resolution at the next regular meeting calling for the closure of the plant on Route 9 South in Lacey Township. It's not the first time the council has come out against the troubled plant.

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"We've always taken a strong position," Council Vice President Carmen J. Amato Jr. said after the meeting. "We want it closed immediately. Now we are also concerned about natural disasters."

Varano said that Japanese nuclear experts were now comparing the situation at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear complex to the Soviet Chernobyl disaster in the 1980s.

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"It's at the Chernobyl category level in Japan, and that's pretty scary," the mayor said.

The Township Council last year passed a resolution calling on the state to mandate that Exelon install cooling towers at the plant, instead of the current system of drawing water from Barnegat Bay.

Varano has said Berkeley Township officials have been "at the forefront" of Ocean County municipalities calling for the plant's closure, dating all the way back to the years when the late Bill Zimmermann Jr. was mayor.

Township officials also opposed the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission's decision in April 2009 to allow the then-40-year-old plant to operate for another 20 years, he said.

Council members last night also followed up by unanimously passing a resolution in support of two bills sponsored by 9th District legislators Senator Christopher J. Connors , Assemblyman Brian Rumpf and Assemblywoman Diane Gove to establish the New Jersey Coordinating Council on the Decommissioning of Nuclear Power Generating Facilities.

The legislation — S-866 in the state Senate and A-296 in the state Assembly — calls for a mechanism to monitor and coordinate the decommissioning of plants to ensure they comply with federal and state regulations.

"Whereas the bills find that decommissioning of a nuclear power generating facility involves significant issues of public health, safety and welfare of the residents of the State of New Jersey..." the resolution reads.

Edith Gbur, a Berkeley resident and president of the Jersey Shore Nuclear Watch, thanked Varano and council members for agreeing to pass a resolution at the next meeting to close the plant.

"I would like to thank the mayor and council for reaching this decision and calling attention to the fact that Oyster Creek should be shut down now," Gbur said.

Resident William Gumper said during the public portion of the meeting that there were "two sides to this issue.

"I tend to stand in the middle,"Gumper said. "We do need electricity, unless we are going to light our homes with candles."


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