BY PATRICIA A. MILLER
Staff Writer

The federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission has left the door open for two more public hearings on the relicensing application of the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in Lacey Township.

Residents who are not part of a coalition of groups that oppose the plant's relicensing will have a chance to speak at a "limited" public hearing to be held on May 31 at the Ocean County Administration Building in Toms River.

"It's an opportunity for anyone who is not a party to the proceedings to offer comments on the issues that have been raised," NRC spokesman Neil Sheehan said.

The hearing will be held by the NRC's Atomic Safety and Licensing Board in Room 119. The first session will run from 2-4 p.m. The second session will run from 7-9 p.m.

No one from the coalition of groups that have contested the plant's relicensing in court will be allowed to speak, Sheehan said.

The coalition organizations are the Nuclear Information and Resource Service; the Jersey Shore Nuclear Watch Inc.; Grandmothers, Mothers and More for Energy Safety; the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group (NJPIRG); the New Jersey Sierra Club, and the New Jersey Environmental Federation.

But the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board is still considering a contention raised by the coalition about monitoring the corrosion level in the plant's dry-well liner and the former sand-bed region, Sheehan said.

The sand-bed region was removed in the 1990s, and the dry-well liner was coated with epoxy.

"The concern [of the contention] is that there is still corrosion there and it is still occurring," Sheehan said.

If the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board rules favorably on the coalition's contention, that could lead to a full public hearing in September. That would push the earliest possible relicensing back to January 2008, he said.

Commercial nuclear power reactors are licensed to operate for 40 years, according to the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 and the NRC. Operating licenses can be renewed for up to an additional 20 years.

"The original 40-year license term was selected on the basis of economic and antitrust considerations rather than on technical limitations; however, some individual plant and equipment designs may have been engineered for an expected 40-year service life," according to the NRC's safety evaluation report on the plant.

The NRC will have the final say in whether the 38-year-old Oyster Creek plant - the oldest nuclear plant in the country - should be allowed to operate for another 20 years.

Oyster Creek's current license will expire on April 9, 2009. The plant was granted its first license on July 2, 1969.

AmerGen Energy Co., the plant's owner, has filed a motion that seeks to have the coalition's contention on the dry well dismissed, Sheehan said.

"They haven't ruled on that yet," he said. "Until there is a verdict on that, we can't say with certainty the actual hearing would take place. If there is no hearing, a decision is due next month. Aside from the hearing, that's the only thing that remains before a final decision is rendered on this.

The Atomic Safety and Licensing Board issued an April 17 memorandum and order that sets the schedule for the hearing, if it is held.

The hearing scheduled was crafted so that the NRC could meet its self-imposed goal of 30 months to issue a final decision in the contested license-renewal proceeding, the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board said in its April 17 order.

The 16-member Advisory Committee on Reactor Safeguards recommended in January that Oyster Creek be relicensed, provided a number of conditions were met. The committee is a body of experts that reviews license renewals for the NRC.

But the coalition members, environ-mental groups and six area legislators vehemently oppose the plant's relicensing. They contend that the plant is a detriment to public health, safety and the environment, and is vulnerable to terrorism.

Anyone who wishes to speak at the May 31 hearing and submits a written request no later than 5 p.m. on May 25 will be given priority over those who have not done so. Each speaker will be limited to five minutes.

The requests can be mailed, faxed or sent via e-mail.

To mail: Office of the Secretary, Rulemakings and Adjudications Staff, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001.

To fax: (301) 415-1101.

To e-mail: hearingdocket@nrc.gov.

A copy of the written request must also be submitted to Administrative Judge E. Roy Hawkens, c/o Debra Wolf, Law Clerk, Atomic Safety and Licensing Board Panel, Mail Stop T-3 F23, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, DC 20555-0001. It can also be faxed to (301) 415-5599 or e-mailed to daw1@nrc.gov.