Anonymous sources have disclosed that Chicago-based Exelon Corporation has reach an agreement with New Jersey officials to close its Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station 10 year earlier than planned in exchange for not having to build expensive cooling towers. The facility is in the Forked River section of Lacey Township and is the nation's oldest nuclear power plant. The plant will now close in 2019 instead of 2029.
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| Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station |
The facility's current 'once-through' technology draws 1.4 billion gallons of water a day from Barnegat Bay and opponents of the plant use the charge that it is killing billions of aquatic creatures each year. This is a back door method to try to close the plant. Exelon estimates that it would cost $800 million to build the towers, which is more than the plant is worth.
In January, the state Department of Environmental Protection required the plant to build one or more closed-cycle cooling towers instead of relying on water drawn from the Oyster Creek to cool the reactor. The U.S.
Nuclear Regulatory Commission granted the Oyster Creek station a new 20-year license in April 2009. Oyster Creek generates enough electricity to power 600,000 homes a year. It provides 9 percent of New Jersey's electricity. Oyster Creek went online Dec. 1, 1969, the same day as the Nine Mile Point Nuclear Generating Station near Oswego, N.Y. (
NYT, 12/9/2010)
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