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OYSTER CREEK SPARKS FIERCE DEBATE AT TOMS RIVER FORUM
By Jo Ann La Russo
 | | Experts and advocates were on hand in Toms River recently to discuss the re-licensing of Oyster Creek. |
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Tempers flared at the League of Women Voters' community meeting about the public health effects of radiation at Oyster Creek Nuclear Plant in Lacey.
Though Exelon representatives tried to offer their side of the issue, citizens who packed Mancini Hall at the Toms River Library were irate at the possibility that the nuclear plant could remain open for another 20 years if it is re-licensed in 2009.
"We feel that it's not safe," said Barbara Zwain of Manchester. "We don't want it here," echoed Karen Garbarini.
The ladies said that they agree with actor/activist Alec Baldwin, who was on the panel of guests invited to share their opinions by Ocean County League President Gail Marsh Saxer. The forum was co-sponsored by the Ocean County Library and the Ocean County League of Women Voters.
It was standing room only at the forum where for two hours Baldwin, health researcher Joseph Mangano, Professor Donald Louria and attorney Richard Webster fielded questions and spoke about what they claim are the unsafe conditions of the aging facility, built in 1969 and approaching the end of its current 40-year license.
The League of Women Voters went on record as opposing the license renewal in 2006, citing problems with the plant's operating system.
Critics say that Oyster Creek is approaching the end of its lifetime and that the plant's design is outdated.
"All the evidence suggests that the NRC hasn't checked these parts properly," said Rutgers Law Clinic attorney Richard Webster. "We've petitioned the NRC to suspend its re-licensing program, investigate what's really happening and remedy what's happening … We have a court challenge with the NRC. We hope that the NRC will wake up and protect people and not the interests of the nuclear industry."
Baldwin suggested the facility is a likely terrorist target and spoke about the danger of exposure to radioactive contamination.
"I'm here to say that there is no safe level of exposure," said Baldwin. "Nuclear power is not by any stretch of the imagination clean energy. The NRC is absolutely in the pocket of the nuclear industry."
Mangano said that exposure to radioactivity has been linked to numerous negative health problems, including cancer, and that continuing to operate Oyster Creek increases the risk of human exposure to radioactivity.
Ocean County has the highest cancer incidence rate of any New Jersey county. Toms River resident Linda Gillick, who has spearheaded local cancer cluster studies, told the panel, "We can't put a price on it. It's our responsibility to try to do whatever to keep the community safe."
Mangano played a major role in the study of Strontium-90 in baby teeth, the only study to examine radioactivity in bodies of Americans living near nuclear plants. The study found high Sr-90 levels in children with cancer.
But supporters of the plant's re-licensing claim that cancer studies have not taken into account the county's growth in 20 years. They also said that Oyster Creek provides clean, safe, reliable energy for the future.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) operates a nationwide network for monitoring radioactivity in the environment and has indicated that although Sr-90 levels have declined since atmospheric nuclear weapons testing ended, the radioisotope is still detected in the environment, especially in milk, so that it would be found in baby teeth.
But the EPA has stated that nuclear power plant emissions of Sr-90 are inconsequential compared with other man made sources and at Oyster Creek "there was no evidence of excess mortality from childhood leukemia or any other form of cancer in any age group below age 40."
Beth Rapcaynski, Mid-Atlantic communications manager for Exelon Nuclear, attended the forum and defended the radiation monitors at the plant, saying that they belong to the Bureau of Nuclear Engineers and serve as backup to the plant's monitoring system.
"We have 90 monitors inside and outside the plant that monitor for 10 miles," she said. "The system is comprehensive and working every day."
Although some people voiced their frustrations with the nuclear facility loudly at the open forum, Saxer called the panel discussion a success.
"We had an amazing crowd," said Saxer, as she reflected on the community dialogue and the high level of excitement evident in the large crowd. "I hope that we all learned something from the information and studies that were shared and realize that we do not have to accept status quo."
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