How close do you live to nuclear power?
Our closest plant here in Central Illinois is operated by Exelon and is up in Clinton:
Isn't that a pretty blue?
According to freemaptools.com, this plant is just 17.013 miles (as the crow flies) from our front door.
As I ponder that, I come to a realization..... dang! that's close!
As popular as nuclear power is these days, it's very easy to forget just how close it is. Nuclear news just doesn't come up very often. In fact, I very rarely even think of this power plant, except when we're out on the east side of Clinton and I see it's blue dome sticking up above the cornfields.
These days, we just very rarely hear about accidents at nuclear plants. But, remembering what happened just a couple years back in Japan (as well as what happened decades ago at Chernobyl), it's somewhat numbing to think about what an accident at the Clinton plant could do to these plains of Illinois.
Granted, there's not gonna be a tsunami on Clinton Lake. (but, what about some wacked-out dude hell-bent on blowing something up?)
And, they build, maintain, and operate these plants with safety foremost in their mind (right?).
This 2011 article from the Springfield paper (published just a handful of months after the Japanese nuclear disaster) has all sorts of things to say about the Clinton Power Plant:
A couple things caught my eye.
A closer look at the inspection report for Clinton’s power plant reveals several issues, including: a fire pump in such poor condition that it had to be shut down during a test run; hydrogen igniters (used to keep the gas from accumulating into an explosion risk) that lacked adequate power supplies; and firefighting equipment stored in buildings susceptible to earthquake damage.
yikes! and this is the stuff they found. what didn't they find?
Exelon points out in an April 2011 fact sheet that diesel generators and their fuel, as well as emergency reactor cooling systems, are designed to withstand seismic waves measuring between 6.0 and 6.9 on the Richter scale.
OK, that doesn't seem like that strong of an earthquake. What if their calculations were wrong and they carried a 1 in error? withstanding a 5.9 earthquake really doesn't sound all that impressive.
In line with NRC guidelines, Clinton and all other Illinois nuclear power plants have 10-mile radius evacuation planning zones. Within those zones, local and state emergency managers and responders, from firefighters to school bus drivers, are prepared to move affected residents to reception centers located about 25 miles away. NEIS says those zones are too small and that Illinois should follow the recommendation of the Physicians for Social Responsibility, another anti-nuclear group, which calls for a 50-mile radius evacuation planning zone instead of the current 10-mile zone. The group says there is no safe level of radiation exposure and points to the U.S. recommendation after Fukushima that all Americans within 50 miles of the damaged reactors evacuate.
So we are safely outside the 10 mile zone. If some God-forsaken, catastrophic event were to occur, I'm sure all sorts of folks would be evacuating right here thru town.
However, is using the word "safely" in the same sentence as "nuclear" and "10 mile" really wise? I'm leaning a strong no.
a 50 mile zone -- yeah, that would impact us big time. What direction would we go? probably away from Decatur, as all those folks would be headed out too. Likely, we'd use country routes to head east, towards Champaign. Of course, Champaign would be in the evac zone too. What a nightmare.
I find it very strange that in the short decade we've lived in this house, I don't ever recall receiving anything in the mail reminding me that the plant is 17.013 miles away from here. And, I don't recall receiving anything that provided us with information on what would happen or what to do if there was an accident in Clinton.
I imagine pretty much everyone would grab pets, prescriptions, and a few prized possessions and get in the car and drive. Drive somewhere. Probably slowly.
Gridlock among the corn fields.
I surely hope I never see it.
Out for now.....
Matt