Oyster Creek Generation Station, which has operated since 1969, is shutting down forever on Monday.

Over its nearly 50-year lifespan, the plant has employed thousands of Ocean County residents and contributed millions of dollars each year into the local economy through salaries and taxes.

The plant is an integral piece of Lacey, so much so that an atom was incorporated into the town seal.

APP Opinion:How will Oyster Creek closing affect you?

Once the plant closes, town officials will find pressure to replace the jobs and income lost by one of Ocean County's major employers.

The future direction of Lacey is murky as the township's greatest financial support plans to shutter. Other questions linger on where a half-century of nuclear waste will be stored and how it will be stored to protect future generations of residents from its potential harm.

The Asbury Park Press has been following the impending closure of the plant for years and what it will mean to Ocean County residents.

Take a look through our special Oyster Creek reports:

Years from now, the iconic stack of the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in Lacey will be a distant memory. The buildings will be gone, the vast majority of workers will be gone, and the 625-megawatt power plant will have long since stopped producing energy.

Yet one remnant will likely remain for decades – if not generations – into the future: radioactive waste.

A financial meltdown? What Oyster Creek's closure means to NJ

The station has energized homes and businesses throughout New Jersey as well as commerce in southern Ocean County, where it supports about 550 jobs directly and pumps about $80 million into the economy.

Those jobs and economic output will soon begin to diminish, as the nation's oldest still-operating nuclear power plant nears its closure.

Look for our report on Monday about the plant's final hours.

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