No Carbon From Nukes, But ...

The Exelon-owned Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in Lacy Township, Ocean County, is similar in age and design to Japan's crippled Fukushima reactors. The plant on Barnegat Bay has been described as "ground zero" in post-Fukushima debates over the safety of nuclear power.

The debate played out Thursday in Toms River during a Nuclear Regulatory Commission public hearing on Oyster Creek's safety record. Paul Gunter, Director of Reactor Oversight for Maryland-based Beyond Nuclear, questioned NRC officials about the failure of emergency systems at Fukushima designed to vent explosive gasses. After the systems failed, according to the New York Times, the reactors exploded and "spewed radioactive materials into the atmosphere, reaching levels about 10 percent of estimated emissions at Chernobyl, according to Japan’s nuclear regulatory agency."

"Does the failures at Fukushima make you confident in Oyster Creek," [Gunter] asked the panel of NRC representatives. "I'm calling on you to revoke a vent that will fail 100 percent."

[David Lew, deputy administrator, NRC Region 1] said the plant's "design captures risks associated with reactors" while Jeffrey Kulp, the NRC's senior resident inspector at Oyster Creek, said he "personally" inspected plant vents. However, the experts declined to provide the "yes" or "no" answers speakers desired, repeating that data out of Japan has not been reliable enough to form hard conclusions.

Beyond Nuclear has petitioned the NRC to suspend the licenses of 21 U.S. reactors, including Oyster Creek, similar in design to the Fukushima units.

NRC officials said Thursday that Oyster Creek earned its "green" or "safest" rating for operations in 2010.