João-Pierre arrived in 1997 at the door of NJBIZ, then known as Business News New Jersey, as an intern and was hired that same year as a staff writer. For more than 12 years he has covered the retail, technology, and media industries in the state. He also handles principal online news writing at NJBIZ.com. João-Pierre is a lifelong resident of the state and graduated from Rutgers University. 
The owner of the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station, in the Forked River section of Lacey, said its talks with environmental regulators will continue, but closure of the power plant is possible.
Chicago’s Exelon said New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection proposed a draft permit in January for Oyster Creek that calls for the installation of cooling towers, which the agency called “the best technology available for minimizing adverse environmental impact.” Exelon issued a letter Monday to the DEP’s Bureau of Water Permitting to refute that assertion.
“If cooling towers are required, we’re going to have to shut the plant down,” Exelon spokesman David Benson said. “The cost is more than the plant is worth.” But an immediate closure is not in the works, he said, with the draft permit just one step in a long process. “We’re sure that sound science and economics are going to show that cooling towers are unnecessary at Oyster Creek.”
Closing the plant would erase 700 jobs and hurt local contractors and businesses that provide services to the Oyster Creek station, Exelon said.
The plant currently discharges wastewater to a canal that leads to tributaries of Barnegat Bay. Benson said Gov. Chris Christie and acting DEP Commissioner Bob Martin asked stakeholders at Barnegat Bay to discuss the power station’s environmental impact, which Exelon said it supports.
DEP spokesperson Elaine Makatura said the permit process would take at least one year before a final decision is made. She said a public comment period closed Monday, and the state agency is reviewing the gathered statements. “The next step is to evaluate the hundreds of comments we got, put something in writing and make a recommendation,” she said.
Organizations and private firms in favor of the cooling towers said the price tag Exelon bemoans is far higher than their estimates. Bill Powers, principal of Powers Engineering Inc., in San Diego, issued a letter Monday to the Bureau of Surface Water Permitting citing a much lower cost estimate for construction of the cooling towers. Powers said in the letter the cooling towers could be installed at capital cost of less than $200 million. Powers commented on behalf of the Eastern Environmental Law Center.
Powers said in the letter that installation of cooling towers would reduce intake and discharge of water at the Oyster Creek station by more than 98 percent. He also stated construction of the towers could create from 100 to 250 construction jobs during the two-year construction phase, and add some 65 permanent jobs related to the cooling towers.
A coalition of organizations in favor of water cooling towers also issued a letter Monday to the bureau. The coalition, which includes the American Littoral Society, Beyond Nuclear, Clean Ocean Action, and Sierra Club’s New Jersey chapter, said in its letter “the health of the bay is constantly under attack.”
The coalition called the plant’s technology “antiquated,” adding that it draws up to 1.4 billion gallons of water daily, annually affecting trillions of aquatic species include fish and shellfish.
Oyster Creek is Exelon’s only New Jersey nuclear power station, according to Benson. It generates some 625 megawatts of power, and began operation in 1969.
Exelon said no state or federal law requires existing power stations to install cooling towers, and Benson argued that the cost and regulatory burdens regarding these towers have increased — the cost of cooling towers at the power station was determined in 2006 to be between $705 million and $801 million. Construction could take at least seven years, which would not leave sufficient time to recoup the cost of installing cooling towers before the plant would be retired, scheduled for 2029.
Exelon acquired the station in 2000.
E-mail João-Pierre Ruth at jpruth@njbiz.com
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