PSEG Gets Go-ahead To Reopen A-plant

A nuclear plant shut down for three months after a radioactive steam leak is safe to reopen, federal regulators said recently, trumping the objections of New Jersey's top environmental official.

The Hope Creek plant, one of three nuclear reactors on Salem County's Artificial Island, was shut down Oct. 10 after the leak in an area normally off-limits to plant workers. No workers were exposed.

In two letters sent Monday to Public Service Energy Group, the Newark-based company that owns the plant, the fed- eral Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the plant is safe to begin generating power again, but only if the company takes extra steps to monitor the separate issue of a problematic pump.

While the leak was being fixed, concerns were raised about the pump, used to circulate cooling water, which had been vibrating so much that workers said it sounded like a freight train.

New Jersey Environmental Protection Commissioner Bradley M. Campbell last month wrote to the NRC asking the federal agency to force the owner of the plant to replace the part.

PSEG officials said they planned to replace the pump during a regularly scheduled plant shutdown next year and that it would be safe to operate the plant until then.

The NRC agreed with that assessment.

"That conclusion, however, is contingent on requirements agreed to by the company that rigorous and continuous monitoring be maintained of pump parameters, including vibration levels, so that prompt actions can be taken should there be abnormal indications," said Samuel J. Collings, the regional administrator for the NRC.

Technically, PSEG does not need the permission of the regulators to restart the plant. But the power company agreed to wait until it had the NRC's approval and a public meeting was held on the issue.

A public meeting is scheduled for Wednesday in Swedesboro. Activists, who say the plant should not be allowed to restart now, were planning to protest.

It was not immediately clear when the company would restart the reactor.

PSEG is merging with Chicago-based Exelon Corp. in a deal that would make the new company the nation's largest operator of nuclear power plants. Part of the reason for the merger, company officials said, is that the new company could make the Salem plants more efficient and more profitable.

Consumers are not directly affected by the plant shutdown because the reactor feeds power to a regional energy pool.