Ocean County, NJ – The vast wildfire in Southern Ocean County, including the area where the closed Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station is located, could be a harbinger of what is to come as dry conditions persist throughout the state.
The wildfire drives home continued disturbing issues involving Oyster Creek, even though it closed in 2018 and is well into a decommissioning.
“We can’t forget or overlook that there continues to be tons of highly radioactive nuclear waste stored at the site,” said Janet Tauro, Clean Water Action, NJ Board Chair.
The waste is stored in casks lined up along Route 9, a portion of which was closed Tuesday night.
“It looks like we are in for a hot, dry summer,” said Tauro. “This is a taste of what could come. We have to stop burning fossil fuels and super heating the atmosphere. And that doesn’t mean turning to nuclear. It means renewables, energy efficiency, and conservation.”
The wildfire has brought to light unsettling questions about Oyster Creek, even though on Wednesday morning NRC’s Diane Screnci, the Sr. Public Affairs Director stated in an email that the agency has been in communication with plant officials adding: “There’s been no safety impact from the fire. The spent fuel is safely stored in dry casks, which are designed to contain radiation and withstand natural disasters and accidents, including fires.”
How much heat can the casks withstand without combusting and spewing deadly radioactive material that can be carried with the wind? What is the current temperature of the casks?
Did the NRC allow Holtec International LLC to disband the plant’s in-house fire brigade, which is trained to respond to a nuclear fire? If so, it would behoove elected officials to demand that the fire brigade be reinstated.
Has the reactor been completely disassembled? If not, did the fire get near the reactor building?
These are questions that the public deserves answers to.
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Since our founding during the campaign to pass the landmark Clean Water Act in 1972, Clean Water Action has worked to win strong health and environmental protections by bringing issue expertise, solution-oriented thinking and people power to the table. Learn more at www.cleanwater.org.