Incredible. Simply incredible. A draft report that concludes the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey would have only a small impact on the environment should the plant's license be renewed for another 20 years relied on data from the 1970s.

"We would have loved to have had new up-and-down information, but it wasn't available," Jeffrey A. Ward, a scientist who worked on the aquatic ecology section of the report, said at a hearing Wednesday.

How about gathering new information — data that would allow researchers to draw valid conclusions? Oh, we forgot: the Nuclear Regulatory Commission doesn't require such studies from plants seeking license renewal.

Even if it did, Ward said, new information might cause confusion. With so many environmental variables at play, it might be difficult to prove, for instance, that a reduction in a particular fish species was attributable to Oyster Creek, Ward said.

Sorry, we're already confused — about how the report could draw conclusions about environmental impact based on information three decades old. If current information isn't available, new data should be collected. A relicensing decision shouldn't be made until the information can be thoroughly analyzed.

We're also confused about how a license renewal process for an aging nuclear plant can exclude so many germane issues — the adequacy of an evacuation plan, the threat posed by spent fuel pools vulnerable to terrorist attacks, the health risks, the plant's previous safety record, the competence of management and the danger posed by on-site storage of spent fuel.

Only two issues are considered relevant by the NRC in license renewal applications: can the plant be operated safely over the renewal period and does the plant pose any threat to the environment — a question the NRC allows to be answered with 30-year-old data.

If concerns about plant safety don't have residents in a lather, the kangaroo-court flavor of the review process should. Public officials and citizens who have been sitting on the sidelines while activists and some state officials have been pushing for an objective analysis of all the risks posed by the plant must get involved. Contact your legislators and Gov. Corzine. Insist that your representatives start representing you.

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