Oyster Creek Open Forum Ocean County Library 2/28 6:30 pm

A second forum will be held at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 28 at the Toms River branch of the Ocean County Library.At The last forum in January Rutgers Law Clinic attorney Richard Webster represents Stop the Relicensing of Oyster Creek, a coalition of environmental groups, and spoke about safety and security issues.Webster explained in a slide show the function of the dry-well shell or liner, which resembles an inverted light bulb and is used to contain radiation in the event of an accident.Adequate tests pertaining to the integrity of the critical system have not been performed, Webster said. Only a small area has been tested for what he said were increased corrosion problems caused by water, which has leaked into the metal plating of the device.Rutgers Law Clinic attorney Julia Huff is concerned about Oyster Creek's impact on the environment.Oyster Creek needs 1.4 billion gallons of water a day for its system as part of reactor system, she said. Water circulates through the plant and is discharged back out."It sucks water in, and along with it, draws in sea turtles and some fish, which sometimes get smashed into an intake grate," she said.The Rutgers Law Clinic and the environmental coalition "formed an opinion that (AmerGen) are not meeting the letter of environmental law," Huff said. "The environmental impact statement that has just been released by the NRC contains information based on data that is 50 to 35 years old. Very little of it is current."Paul Gunter, director of the Reactor Watchdog Project, said his fellow speakers outlined "safety, security and environmental concerns, but that is just half the problem. The lack of government oversight is another issue."Gov. Jon Corzine's office is under pressure to increase its scrutiny of the license renewal process and the threat of a terrorist attack on Oyster Creek, the speakers said. Regulators are "in defense of the nuclear industry, which precludes public safety concerns," Gunter said. "It was an environmentalist — not the NRC — that blew the whistle on the corrosion issue (of the dry-well liner) at Oyster Creek."Gunter urged the audience, which was made up mostly of members of the environmental coalition and the League of Women Voters, to write to their lawmakers and the governor's office about the regulation of the power plant.