Oyster Creek Power Plant opened in 1969 and has been operating for now 40 years, starting at 2009. The recently passed renewal from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will extend the power plant for another 20 years, which allows it to run until 2029.

Oyster Creek's design a boiling water reactor is considered obsolete by today's standards. But now the NRC has decided that the plant is safe a determination that came despite a persistent water leak that has caused rust to eat away at part of the metal liner around the reactor.

(Taken from The Associated Press, by GEOFF MULVIHIL)

Oyster Creek is draining the life out of the Barnegat Bay. The plant is outdated and runs without cooling towers. The effects are massive fish kills, the destruction of fish eggs, and hundreds of sea life such as shellfish, plankton and larvae. Another effect is thermal pollution, which raises our water temperatures. Harmful chemicals are released into our Barnegat Bay.

The Oyster Creek nuclear power plant reported recently that it has detected elevated levels of the radioactive isotope Cesium-137 in leaf and soil samples near the plant. Cesium-137 and strontium-90 are the most dangerous radioisotopes to the environment in terms of their long-term effects. The amounts found were also below levels that would require them to report their findings to federal regulators, plant officials reported in a prepared statement.

However, exposure to radiation from Cesium-137 can result in increased risk of cancer, according to information on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Web site.

At a rally against the license renewal, group president Edith Gbur of Berkeley Township said "In the 1970s and 1980s, there was radioactive waste that leaked into the Barnegat Bay according to the NRC's own records."

Dennis Zannoni, former chief nuclear engineer for the NJ Department of Environmental Protection has stated, "I have been involved with Oyster Creek for 20 years. My goal was to do what I could to make the plant safer. Oyster Creek's time is up. Close it, clean up the site and ready the property for the next business. Zannoni was reassigned from his position as chief nuclear engineer of the DEP last year in response to what he says is an unspecified complaint from an NRC staffer. He has said it may take a march to close the plant.

An accident at Oyster Creek would cause tens of thousands of cancer cases and affect people up to fifty miles away. But, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission continues to ignore concerns about the plant and continues to move ahead with the relicensing process. The evacuation plan is poorly thought out, and New Jersey's Governor Corzine did not even review the evacuation emergency plans. The evacuation area is too heavily populated in event of an emergency.

Why are we taking a risk? Why are we harming our wildlife, our home, where we live? If an accident really did happen at the plant, the area would be inhabitable for fifty to a hundred years. It can't hurt to say "what if", because that "what if" could be closer to actually happening. Stand up and think about it. Taking a chance to say no will never hurt, and could also bring many good things to come. You have a voice, and now is your chance to let it be heard.