Cryptome eyeballs the nuclear power plant yours truly grew up within a mere two miles of. I like to think of it as "my nuclear power plant". Over the years, I've truly enjoyed following its various accidents and dribbling safety record. My childhood is dotted by its infrequent drills and more frequent fish-kills. I revel in every dead link to its emergency plans as if they were the failed papers of my children hanging on the kitchen refrigerator.

Noted for being the first commercial nuclear power plant in the United States, it has claimed a number of firsts over its lifetime. I believe it even held first place on Greenpeace's "accidents waiting to happen" list, bumped only because its actually had accidents happen. While no radiation leak has ever (publicly) occurred which has extended beyond the site's inner boundary, local residents keep our iodine tables handy and in a cool preserving environment.

Oyster Creek, first run by the same company that brought us such hits as Three Mile Island, is now run by the company that brought us the spring blockbuster known as The Great East Coast Blackout, and remains a major local attraction. The energy museum on the north end of the site burnt down several years ago when a forrest fire blazed right up to the edge of the plant site, but any given day you will find a dozen or so local residents fishing off the Route 9 (locally known as Thunder Road, due to the Springstein song) bridge on the southern side of the plant. The plant's exit stream is known as one of the best local fishing spots due to the slightly (sometimes radically) warmer waters present. In the evening you can watch the sun set over the plant, and in the morning experience the eerie fog present on the south side of the plant.

Also visible in this image is the past path of the defunct rail line running along Route 9 that government plans cite as the route for transporting its growing nuclear waste stockpile. You may notice how it suddenly ends at the roads on either side of the plant. A few years ago the local waste site was augmented to hold even more waste, as the plant continues to have its license extended again and again, pushing far beyond the plant's designed lifetime. Oyster Creek, rusted drywell and all, continues to pound away, never at full capacity, and likely will for years to come until this lovely chunk of Ocean County is evacuated and turned into a wildlife preserve.

Eyeballing the Oyster Creek Nuclear Power Station

Could a new plant, designed and built to current standards, be licensed on the same site today? With the growth of Ocean County, which continues today, it is not certain that a nuclear plant would be permitted there today.

The design of Oyster Creek's reactor has been prohibited for nearly four decades. Does that reactor conform to today's standards? Would Oyster Creek receive a license today with that reactor?

In light of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, would Oyster Creek's storage system, which is located close to Route 9, be acceptable today?

Is the evacuation plan realistic in today's Ocean County?

Every few months something about Oyster Creek comes up. I've blogged my thoughts about this several times. This plant is known for its accidents and union disputes with workers who blow whistles about the plant's many problems.

I am of the opinion that they should update the plant rather than shut it down. Remove the current reactor, encase it in solid concrete on the western part of the site, and install something new and modern. They already have a very significant amount of waste storage on site, might as well go for broke. It is Jersey after all, home of the Toxic Avenger. The plant would not be a problem if it was safe and efficient. Currently, it is neither.

Joseph Scarpelli, Mayor of Brick Township, NJ, Petitions against Oyster Creek Nuclear Powerplant (Cryptome)

This is a (Windows Media) video spot from News 12 about the situation at Oyster Creek Nuclear. Union officals have been leaking company documents about safety problems. In particular, about problems with under trained fire protection personel, and dangerous cutbacks in waste and radiation control. Also, the investigation into the fish-kill earlier this year has been reopened by the state Attorney General's Office.

The strike has been going for about six weeks now. Activity outside the plant does not show any signs of calming down. Recently, they had a 20ft tall blow up rat outside the main entrance. I wish I had a picture of it..

NJ News 12 | Safety concerns drive Oyster Creek strike

Years of radioactive waste water spills from Illinois nuclear power plants have fueled suspicions the industry covers up safety problems and sparked debate about the risks from exposure to low-level radiation.

The recent, belated disclosures of leaks of the fission byproduct tritium from Exelon Corp.'s Braidwood, Dresden, and Byron twin-reactor nuclear plants -- one as long ago as 1996 -- triggered worries among neighbors about whether it was safe to drink their water, or even stay.

"How'd you like to live next to that plant and every time you turn on the tap to take a drink you have to think about whether it's safe?" asked Joe Cosgrove, the head of parks in Godley, Illinois, a town adjacent to Braidwood.

"The president's plan is misguided. It presents health risks, creates additional nuclear waste that we have no long-term solution for, creates additional terrorist targets that we do not adequately defend, and costs an enormous amount of money. (Bush's) phrase 'clean, safe nuclear power' is oxymoronic," he said.

The problem isn't nuclear power plans. The problem is nuclear power plants built on 60's technology operating way past their design lifetimes.

Every nuclear power plan currently in operation in the United States should be scrapped and rebuilt using modern technology. They would be safer, more efficient, and produce more output. We don't need to create new plants. We need to update the ones we have.

The old reactor cores can be stored on site. Just incase them in plastic and concrete, or something that should last for a few hundred thousand years. Give it a nice external layer of granite so it looks pretty. Put a statute on top of whoever actually manages to make it happen. Have the statue holding an old school lantern in one hand and a bundle of electrical cable in the other.

All these plants already have waste storage on site. In many cases the waste storage facilities have been the only thing these plants have changed over the years. They have been augmented to store more waste from inefficient plants that have been operating for too long. Plans like Yucca Mountain cannot be counted on. A distributed approach is necessary, and we already have it to a certain degree.

Start with this plant, please.

Reuters | US nuclear plant leaks fuel health concerns

cyantist wrote:

Finally! We have proof that Google is hiding things from us in Alaska, Mexico and New Jersey. Hmmm. Anyway, it's a conspiracy I tell you!

I can say with somewhat certainty that there is nothing odd in the middle of Little Egg Harbor, the "Black Hole" in Jersey's coverage. The water there is pretty shallow, so its unlikely there was something there that was blacked out, like a parked fleet.

I'm not nearly as familiar with the Little Egg Harbor area as I am with the Barnegat Bay/Inlet area slightly to the north, where I'm from. In that last link, you might notice the Oyster Creek Nuclear Power Plant, which I'm fond of making jokes about.

There are a number of interesting things in the immediate vicinity of that Black Hole though.. If from that point, you start going up to the north-west, you will see where most of the US cranberry supply comes from (more). All around that area are parts of Fort Dix and numerous decommissioned bases.. The only stuff that really looks interesting from orbit is the McGuire AFB stuff.

As I'm fond of saying, the entire state might as well be a military base. The best example being the Earle Naval Weapons Station. Check out these Google Maps's links of it: The pier - Landing, offices, and America's most secure baseball field - Lots of parking for a big area of nothing with a bunch of tunnels... - And follow down that secret highway/rail corridor to the main magazine - If you zoom out a decent amount, you will surely notice that the overall Earle complex dominates the area. Zoom out farther, and you notice that the stuff I linked here dominates the state.

Google Maps is endless fun.

RE: Google Sightseeing - Post Archive - Black Holes

I'm not sure how accurate this is.. I live right by Oyster Creek NP in Jersey. The rail line that runs up to the plant has not been in use, or usable, since the plant's construction. Its one of those rail lines that's all overgrown or had roads and buildings built on top of it in many places. I'm pretty sure I know where the rail this refers to used to be.. The section of it that goes through Barnegat is now a road in sections, firetrail in others. At one point, it used to extend south to Long Beach Island.. In Toms River, its the rail that goes^Wwent across I-37 by the Walmart west the of the Parkway. Its in complete disrepair, and would have to be completely relaid in order to be at all safe to use, even if the same path exists unrestricted by development.

There is no active rail in this area. Someone was engaging in wishful thinking when they drew this up.

US Nuclear Waste Transportation Routes

] Striking electricians have reached a tentative deal with
] the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant, an agreement that
] could end the longest strike in the plant's history.
]
] Members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical
] Workers Local 1289 were due to vote on the proposal
] Thursday and would return to work on Monday if the offer
] is accepted.
]
] The deal was reached early Tuesday after a marathon
] negotiating session. Neither side would provide details
] of the settlement, but officials with the Lacey plant
] were optimistic that it would be approved.

Newsday.com - Striking electricians, nuclear plant operators reach tentative deal

] The labor union for striking workers at the Oyster Creek
] nuclear power plant met with representatives for Sens.
] Jon Corzine and Frank Lautenberg at the union
] headquarters here Thursday.
]
] The talks mostly centered on the union's version of
] events that led to a massive fish kill at the plant last
] year. The two-hour session came as the union begins its
] fourth week of a strike at the nation's oldest nuclear
] power plant.
]
] At the meeting, two union leaders and six power plant
] workers said on Sept. 23, 2002, that they warned
] management not to turn off pumps that cool water
] discharged from the plant into Oyster Creek.

] "We brought it up several times," said Bill Strako, a
] control room operator. "We said, 'You know, if you do
] that, you're going to violate the thermal limits.'"

] "Does it tie into the strike?" Stroup said. "Yes, it
] does in a way. Our members are the safety net for this
] plant. Now we're walking up and down Route 9 in picket
] lines. And they're bringing in people who will do
] anything they're told."

The plant workers are still striking. Its been about a month now. The outside of the plant has taken on the look of a shanty town. Tents, fires in steel drums, and at least a hundred ragged looking picketers stationed at the plant's three main entrances.. The length of rt9 that runs along the plant is sporting signs every hundred feet or so, "Don't Trust AmeriGen's Lies!", "Who is running the plant?", "Striking for saftey, not money!", etc.. Between the strikers and the heavy national guard presence, its makes for one damn surreal scene..

There has been almost no press coverage.. This is one of the few articles I have found, and I've been looking. The AC Press seems to be the only paper in the area even taking note that there is a strike going on. Of course, all the other papers in the area are Gannet. Still, I find it very strange that the workers of the oldest (and most accident prone) nuclear power plant in the United States or America are striking because they don't feel the plant is safe, and none of our local news papers give enough of a shit to cover it!

Oh the comedy of errors! Plant errors killing fish.. Working striking over saftey.. National guard soldiers accidentally shooting themselves.. At a plant with a rusted and cracked drywell that's over ten years past its design lifetime.

I gotta get the hell outta this town^H^H^H^Hcounty^H^H^H^H^H^Hstate.

AC Press | Union says members warned company before act that caused 2002 fish kill

] At least 100 dead fish were seen yesterday floating in
] the Oyster Creek by the nuclear power plant here, a
] veteran fisherman reported.
]
] Plant investigators saw four dead fish by the Route 9
] bridge that crosses the creek and another near the
] plant's property line, but officials here said the plant
] did not cause them to die.
]
] "We've checked all of our systems and we've done
] nothing," said Ernest J. Harkness, site vice president at
] the Oyster Creek plant.

] The plant was shut down since Tuesday following an
] electrical malfunction. Power generation should resume
] within the next two days, Harkness said.
]
] In December, the largest fine ever assessed on a New
] Jersey nuclear power plant for causing a fish kill --
] $372,912 -- was levied by the state Department of
] Environmental Protection against Oyster Creek.

Oh yeah.. The plant is _never_ killing the fish. Not this time, not earlier this year, not every six months this happens.

This time it was only a few hundred (or the offical number of "four"), last time it was thousands. Does this mean they are getting better?

The workers are still striking too..

Asbury Park Press | Official: Plant did not kill any fish

] Electrical workers at the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant
] in central New Jersey have gone on strike, adding another
] woe to a troubled week for one of the nation's oldest
] nuclear-generating stations.
]
] The walkout, by 215 of the plant's 450 workers, started
] abruptly just before noon on Thursday after weeks of
] fruitless negotiations over old work rules, staff
] reductions and employee benefits.
]
] Two days before the strike, Oyster Creek was forced to
] stop producing electricity after a cable failure knocked
] out power to about half the plant's safety system,
] including security cameras, alarms, sensors, pumps and
] valves, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
] Makeshift repairs restored the power, but Oyster Creek is
] barred from generating power until a new cable is
] installed, said Neil Sheehan, a commission spokesman.

Lots of activity around the plant today.. At least 150 people out picketing along with the normal crop of police cars, humvees, soldiers, machine guns, and big concrete barriers.

Nuclear Plant Electrical Workers Strike, Citing Job Reductions