Press Release-09-067, NRC Renews Operating License for Oyster Creek Nuclear Power Plant for an Additional 20 Years

Press Release-09-067: NRC Renews Operating License for Oyster Creek Nuclear Power Plant for an Additional 20 Years

ML090980482
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Site:	Three Mile Island
Issue date:	04/08/2009
From:	Office of Public Affairs
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Press Release-09-067
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NRC NEWS U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs Telephone: 301/415-8200 Washington, D.C. 20555-0001 E-mail: opa@nrc.gov Site: http://www.nrc.gov No.09-067 April 8, 2009 NRC RENEWS OPERATING LICENSE FOR OYSTER CREEK NUCLEAR POWER PLANT FOR AN ADDITIONAL 20 YEARS The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has renewed the operating license for the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in Lacey Township (Ocean County), N.J., for an additional 20 years.

The new license will expire April 9, 2029.

The decision to renew the license comes after thorough and extensive safety and environmental reviews of the application, submitted July 22, 2005, by the plants operator, AmerGen Energy Co. LLC, a subsidiary of Exelon Nuclear Generation Co. LLC. The application was also reviewed by the NRCs Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards (ACRS), an independent body of nuclear safety experts that advises the NRC, and was the subject of an adjudicatory hearing by the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board (ASLB), a quasi-judicial arm of the NRC that handles licensing matters. Challenges to the ASLBs decision were addressed on appeal by the Commission itself.

This has been the most extensive license renewal review to date, including the first adjudicatory hearing of a license renewal application, said Eric Leeds, NRCs director of Nuclear Reactor Regulation. The staffs licensing and inspection scrutiny, along with the independent contributions of the ACRS, the ASLB and various citizen groups, should give the people of New Jersey added confidence that Oyster Creek will remain safe during its continued operation.

As a result of these reviews and proceedings, the license includes several conditions and requirements that AmerGen has committed to performing to ensure that the plant continues to operate safely. The full list of AmerGens commitments and license conditions can be found in the NRC staffs Safety Evaluation Report on the Oyster Creek license renewal application, NUREG-1875, Appendix A, available on the NRC Web site at this address: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/nuregs/staff/sr1875/, as supplemented in a letter from AmerGen dated Jan. 14, 2008, and available in the NRCs ADAMS document system at http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/adams.html under accession number ML080160540.

Documents pertaining to the Oyster Creek license renewal, including the staffs Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement and the ASLBs Dec. 18, 2007, ruling in the adjudicatory hearing, are available on the NRC Web site at this address:

http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal/applications/oystercreek.html.

Oyster Creek is the 52nd reactor license renewed by the NRC. Thirteen other applications are under review. Information about the license renewal process is available at this address:

http://www.nrc.gov/reactors/operating/licensing/renewal.html.

News releases are available through a free listserv subscription at the following Web address:

http://www.nrc.gov/public-involve/listserver.html. The NRC homepage at www.nrc.gov also offers a SUBSCRIBE link. E-mail notifications are sent to subscribers when news releases are posted to NRC's Web site.