LACEY TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) -- The nation's oldest nuclear power plant has been granted a new license allowing it to operate for another 20 years.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission dismissed objections from anti-nuclear and environmental groups and issued the license Wednesday to the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station in Lacey Township.
Opposition centered on corrosion to a metal enclosure that keeps superheated radioactive steam within a containment building at the 39-year-old plant.
Oyster Creek's boiling-water reactor is considered obsolete by today's standards.
But the plant generates enough electricity to power 600,000 homes a year. It provides 9 percent of New Jersey's electricity.
It went online Dec. 1, 1969.