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As a member of the Lacey Township Committee, Gary Quinn, also a Pinelands Commissioner, contributed to the Township's efforts to convert Oyster Creek to a natural gas-fired facility after closure. Lacey officials met with NJNG senior officials on several occasions about the plan. The Oyster Creek nuclear facility at Lacey is expected to be offline in 2019.(Photo: photo file)
LACEY – After more than 49 years, the nuclear reactor at Oyster Creek was shut down on Monday, the last day of life at the country's oldest commercial nuclear power plant.
The current 400 employees and former factory workers gathered to follow the process through a workflow, as operators turned on switches, pressed buttons and announced the closure of the plant in the center of the Forked River neighborhood. since 1969.
Oyster Creek was so rooted in the surrounding community that Lacey included an atom on her official seal.
RELATED: 5 things to know about closing Oyster Creek
"When I worked here, the mayor of the city was an employee, all technicians were employees," said Mike Roche, former station manager and vice president of the factory. "It was a generally quiet plant.This is not very eye-catching or sexy, but it was like the backbone of the city."
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Oyster Creek produced its first megawatt of energy in December 1969.
Its property taxes and energy tax revenues represent more than $ 13 million, more than a third of the city's revenue. And last year, factory officials intervened to pay for a municipal pyrotechnic show when it was about to be canceled.
MORE: How will the closure of Oyster Creek affect you?
"The surrounding community has been working within the plant over the years, raising their families here, buying homes here," said Lacey Commissioner Gary Quinn. "We knew this day was coming, that it was inevitable and that the factory would eventually have to close, but it's still sad."
The closure of the Oyster Creek Generating Station is the latest in a national trend, as the high cost of maintaining a decades-old infrastructure is compounded by the increasing dependence on renewable energies, such as solar panels and wind turbines.
"It's not security. It's not reliability. It is the market and federal policies that do not recognize the value that nuclear energy provides to this country, "said Bryan Hanson, Exelon's nuclear manager.
GULP: Lacey faces financial crisis following closure of Oyster Creek
In May, the US Energy Information Administration announced that 15% of US nuclear power plants should close by 2025, and that further closures should be announced.
Lacey officials are organizing a forum to replace the Oyster Creek Generating Station. IPHONE VIDEO BY BOB VOSSELLER
Exelon has entered into an agreement to sell the Oyster Creek plant, the property and its nearly $ 1 billion dismantling trust fund to Holtec International, an energy supplier of Camden.
Holtec will take over the process of dismantling the plant and restoring it for future development, a process estimated by Exelon to cost $ 1.4 billion.
The sale, which must be approved by the federal government and the state, will not be finalized until the end of 2019.
FLASHBACK: Oyster Creek for sale, decommissioned in 8 years
Mike Davis; @byMikeDavis: 732-643-4223; [email protected]
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