Oyster Creek shutdown in NJ could leave high taxes, giant casks of dangerous radioactive waste

Three miles of pine forest separates Paul Berkowicz’s ranch-style home from a cluster of towering canisters on a concrete pad containing one of mankind's most dangerous substances.

For decades, the 68-year-old retired educator has lived and worked near the Oyster Creek Generating Station, the nation’s oldest operating commercial nuclear power plant until it stopped energy production in September.

Since the plant's opening a half-century ago, residents of Lacey Township relished the high-paying jobs and the low taxes the plant helped provide.

With decommissioning, nuclear jobs will dry up. Property taxes are expected to spike. And, for the foreseeable future, the town's 30,000 residents will be left with the plant's dangerous legacy — the stored canisters, or casks, containing radioactive waste.

Read more: https://www.dailyrecord.com/story/news/local/land-environment/2019/06/19/nuclear-power-oyster-creek-closes-jersey-shore-decommissioning-speeds-up/1274417001/
(Parsippany Daily Record)