Press Releases
May 7, 2010
DEP Directive for Oyster Creek Generating Station
MILLVILLE, NJ – Today, the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued a “Spill Act” directive to the Oyster Creek Generating Station regarding the tritium leak that was discovered on-site in April 2009.
The order stipulates that Exelon, the facility’s owner, cooperate with the DEP to perform a comprehensive analysis on the effects of the leak and take steps to prevent the tritium from reaching the region’s potable water supplies.
DEP representatives said that the purpose of the directive is to perform a more extensive investigation that confirms last year’s tritium leak is contained and will not impact the water table in the future. They assured that there is no imminent health threat.
“As a long time member of the NJ Energy Coalition, we have first-hand knowledge of Exelon’s strong commitment to ensuring the safety and highest level of excellence in Oyster Creek’s operations,” said Chairman Dr. Edward H. Salmon. “Since this issue arose, the company has been completely transparent with regulators and the public and has taken significant steps to both fix the problem and prevent it from occurring again.”
In April 2009, Oyster Creek’s environmental monitoring system led workers to quickly pinpoint and replace two non-safety buried pipes leaking water on-site. Since that time, the facility has taken over 1,000 water samples and continues to install new monitoring wells that monitor any tritium at the site and reflect the downward trend in tritium concentrations at Oyster Creek. All this information is shared with the State. In addition, the facility is currently a third of the way through an aggressive, 16-month buried piping initiative to prevent similar instances from occurring in the future.
Tritium is an isotope of hydrogen that produces a very low level of radiation. It is produced naturally in the upper atmosphere when cosmic rays strike atmospheric gases and is produced in larger quantities as a by-product of the nuclear energy industry.
“Ensuring that our drinking water is safe and clean is fundamentally important,” said Richard S. Mroz, Senior Advisor of the Coalition. “We are confident that Exelon will continue its commitment of safety and excellence to its plant neighbors and cooperate with the DEP in taking the necessary steps to avoid a threat to public health.”
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The mission of the NJ Energy Coalition is to generate public support for the production of clean, reliable, affordable, American energy to meet New Jersey's growing energy needs. The Coalition seeks to achieve this goal through increasing the public's awareness of the need to keep existing clean energy providers operational and to promote and support the development of new affordable clean sources.
For more information, please contact:
Andrew Young
Phone:856-308-3656
ayoung@njenergycoalition.org