New Jersey

Nuclear Energy

In New Jersey, nuclear power controls the electricity market, representing as much as 3.8 percent of the national nuclear market. The state currently hosts three nuclear power plants that supply more than half of the state's demand. As has happened to nuclear power around the world in the past, this source of energy has been troublesome in New Jersey. Environmentalists and the Department of Environmental Protection of New Jersey have expressed concern due to recent incidents in at least two of the nuclear plants. In 2010, water contaminated with tritium leached into catch basins at the Salem 2 nuclear power plant in Lower Alloways Creek in Salem County.

As with all ionizing radiation, exposure to tritium increases the risk of developing cancer. However, because it emits very-low-energy radiation and leaves the body relatively quickly, for a given amount of activity ingested, tritium is one of the least dangerous radionuclides. Tritium loses half of its radiation potency every 12.3 years. Nationwide, tritium has leaked at 33 of 104 nuclear plants. Concerns were also expressed after tritium-tainted water was found in an underground conduit as a result of a spill at New Jersey's Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in 2007. Oyster Creek Station, which began operating in 1969 as the first large-scale commercial nuclear facility in the United States, cools its system by first pumping in about 662 million gallons [Page 592]of water per day from Barnegat Bay, then pumping in another 748 million gallons to dilute the heated water before discharging it back into the bay. Two new spills in the Oyster Creek plant in 2009 sent at least 180,000 gallons of irradiated water underground. The contaminated water is, as of 2010, in a plume that migrates less than one meter per day. At this rate, it will take 14 to 15 years to reach the nearest residential wells in Lacey Township.

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