Electrical Issue Takes Oyster Creek Nuclear Plant Offline

LACEY TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) — The nation's oldest nuclear power plant remains offline after an electrical disturbance occurred this week on the "non-nuclear side" of the plant in southern New Jersey.

A spokeswoman for the Oyster Creek plant says all systems operated as designed when the automatic shutdown occurred Thursday night. But it's not clear when the plant will resume normal operations.

The plant located about 60 miles east of Philadelphia is scheduled to close permanently in 2019. It agreed to shut down in return for not being required to build costly cooling towers that would minimize the impact on fish and other marine life in the creek.

When operating at full capacity, it generates enough power for 600,000 homes, or roughly all the homes in Monmouth and Ocean counties combined.