Oyster Creek nuclear reactor – the oldest and most dangerous?

Oyster Creek has been dogged by problems including a corroding liner in the carbon steel containment unit; leaks that allow radioactive tritium to seep into drinking water; and huge volumes of stocked spent fuel rods.

“We have 40 years of radiation on site — two-and-a-half to three times more than in Japan,”

Oldest US nuclear reactor: a ‘disaster’ in waiting?, Google news, By Karin Zeitvogel (AFP) –25 March 11, LACEY, New Jersey — A sleepy New Jersey town has popped onto people’s radar screens because it has the oldest running nuclear power plant in the United States — and, some say, the most dangerous.

Named for a Revolutionary War general, Lacey is the kind of American town that few from outside the seaside settlement knew much about before the earthquake and tsunami in Japan triggered a nuclear crisis.Down the road from the 1950s-style diner and across from the bridge that locals use as a fishing pier stands the Oyster Creek nuclear plant.
It uses a GE Mark I Boiling Water reactor identical to those that lost power at Japan’s Fukushima plant in the March 11 earthquake and then was struck by a tsunami that knocked out its backup generators, causing reactor cooling functions to fail.US anti-nuclear activists and many residents of Lacey and surrounding Jersey shore townships worry that a similar nuclear disaster could happen at Oyster Creek, and it wouldn’t need an earthquake or tsunami to trigger it.

“We have 40 years of radiation on site — two-and-a-half to three times more than in Japan,” anti-nuclear activist Jeff Brown told AFP.

“You also have that tremendously stupid design to start with where the spent fuel rods are sitting on top of the reactor,” he said, raising a fear among residents that the reactor could be an easy target for a terrorist attack…..

New Jersey is not in a seismically active zone but meteorologists say the coastal state is long overdue for a Category Five hurricane.

“One good storm surge, and Oyster Creek’s backup generators are swamped. It’s Japan all over again,” Sturmfels said……

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission extended Oyster Creek’s license for another 20 years in 2009.

The NRC not only gives out nuclear licenses but is the industry safety watchdog. That’s a conflict of interest, say critics who liken the situation to the regulation of the oil industry prior to last year’s devastating Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Under pressure from state officials, Oyster Creek’s license was rolled back to 10 years, and the plant is now due to close for good in 2019.

Even that’s too late, say some residents…….

A federal court hearing a case brought in 2009 by environmental groups against the NRC on Monday asked the nuclear watchdog to advise if Japan’s unfolding crisis impacted “the propriety” of renewing Oyster Creek’s license.

On the same day, the NRC extended for 20 years the license of another Mark 1 reactor, in the state of Vermont.

The Vermont Yankee reactor has had tritium leaks, a cooling tower collapse and even a fire in the plant’s transformer.

AFP: Oldest US nuclear reactor: a ‘disaster’ in waiting?