Anti-Nuclear Groups Call For Post-Sandy Inspections [AUDIO] via New Jersey 101.5

Anti Nuclear activists are asking the Governor’s office and Nuclear Regulatory Commission to keep Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station offline until the plant’s emergency procedures and evacuation plans are re-evaluated following Hurricane Sandy.

Members of Beyond Nuclear, GRAMMES, and the New Jersey League of Women Voters have filed a formal emergency legal proceeding claiming the storm revealed major safety concerns within the plant’s safety precautions and rendered prior emergency plans useless.

They claim the evacuation plan was inadequate before Sandy, however the storm caused many people to be relocated away from their home, causing a shift in population which could affect evacuation routes.

“It’s totally inappropriate to consider restarting the reactor when you have people within ten miles in evacuation shelters. As far as we know, those shelters have no evacuation plan,” says Richard Webster, Attorney for the Environmental Enforcement Project at Public Justice.

The petition, filed by Webster, addresses concerns discovered in the plant during the outage:

· The intake canal was inches away from totally flooding pumps key to the cooling system;

· The pre-Sandy evacuation plan fails to address the post-Sandy reality of new population centers in evacuation shelters and other places, clogged streets with debris and construction vehicles, and displaced emergency responders;

· Sandy proved the design basis (how strong a storm the plant can withstand) inadequate;

· The barrier island’s natural physical defenses are now weaker and make OC more vulnerable than before Sandy;

· Inspections during the outage revealed new cracks or precursors to cracks in and/or around the reactor vessel and control rods; and

· 33 of 43 emergency sirens were inoperable at the height of Sandy.

With so many residents evacuated from their homes, the petitioners are upset over the failure of emergency sirens throughout the area.

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