Berkeley Township Council 'Pushing Hard' to Close Oyster Creek

Berkeley Township Council members have a message for the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission — close Oyster Creek now.

Council members voted 6-0 Tuesday night on a resolution calling for the plant's immediate closure and decommissioning. Council President Karen Davis abstained on the vote.

"How far can  you push this and get this thing closed?" one man said during the public portion of the meeting.

"We're pushing," Council Vice President Carmen J. Amato said. "We are pushing very, very hard."

The council vote came on the eve of the and about six weeks after the disaster in Japan at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power complex.

"It's just a reminder of what can happen," Amato Jr. said. "I encourage council members to unanimously support the resolution"

"Whereas, the Township Council of the Township of Berkeley strongly feels that Exelon Corporation has failed to adequately address important safety features at the Oyster Creek Nuclear Power Plant which could have a significant impact on the local population," the resolution states.

A film crew from the Japanese television station tv asahi america, inc. was there to record the vote. Correspondent Takayuki Yamano said after the meeting that even towns near Fukushima in Japan did not have "this kind of response."

Mayor Jason J. Varano did not attend the meeting. Varano instead went to hear a Tatsiana Alcantara, a Chernobyl survivor, speak at the Ocean County Administration Building in Toms River. The event was sponsored by Jersey Shore Nuclear Watch.

The resolution states that recent inspections and tests have found that Oyster Creek is deficient in certain safety features, including non-functioning radiation monitors and an alarm siren back-up system which is non-functional in the event of a blackout.

Oyster Creek is the oldest nuclear plant in the United States. It went on line on Dec. 23, 1969.

The resolution also notes that Oyster Creek has been determined to be the source of radioactive tritium in groundwater and the the plant exposes the public to "daily air emissions of radioactive isotopes."

Copies of the resolution will be forwarded to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Exelon Corporation, which owns the plant on Route 9 in Lacey Township; the Ocean County Board of Freeholders; Gov. Chris Christie; the 9th and 10th District legislators and the state Department of Environmental Protection.

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 1990s, when the late Bill Zimmermann Jr. was mayor, Varano has said.

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