Three Mile Island (Pittsburgh, Harrisburg, Middletown: home, to buy, high school)

[familymom]

Anyone worried about living in the Harrisburg area with this nuclear power plant as a neighbor?

[lititzman2003]

Originally Posted by familymom

Anyone worried about living in the Harrisburg area with this nuclear power plant as a neighbor?

My wife teaches at the High School and several of her co-workers live in Middletown. They've never expressed any concern so I guess they figure the worst that could happen already did.

[BackToTheCityMouse]

No. I'm grew up in NJ and am used to having nukes as neighbors. My late husband designed test equipment used by nuclear power plants, many in the Pittsburgh and Philly area (not TMI, though). I realize that nukes could pose a danger -- nothing in this world is 100% safe and risk free -- but the risk isn't all that great. What does concern me is having a huge truck accident on 81/83 with a toxic substance, or a railroad derailment likewise.

Some military installations are more likely to be radioactive than Harrisburg. We were going to buy some land to build a home in NJ, but backed out after testing the area for radiation -- just walking around with a pocket Geiger counter gave readings much higher than normal background readings should be. This is not the case in Harrisburg.

And a lot of the hills around Harrisburg are naturally radioactive. (You know, radon?) I remember years when we had cold, snowy, winters you could see a few huge yellow-tinted icicles along 322 from the uranium in the rocks, along with more red, blue and green ones from other minerals -- very cool.

[PeterRabbit]

My aunt lives there. She glows in the dark.

[ki0eh]

For a number of years suburban sprawl in the Harrisburg area stopped at the viewshed of the cooling towers. Not so much anymore.

[lititzman2003]

Originally Posted by PeterRabbit

My aunt lives there. She glows in the dark.

She must be fun at parties!

[Johnny C]

The remaining operating unit at TMI has been one of the best producing nuclear power plants in the US - it is very safe and you should have no trouble sleeping at night.

Here is a good article on the events at TMI in 1979, and what's changed since then.

Three Mile Island (http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf36.htm - broken link)

[Unstable]

Good lord. What about Peach Bottom or Limerick?

This nation really needs to get over its nuclear power phobia.

[bethany12]

I wish they were all shut down.

[Johnny C]

Originally Posted by bethany12

I wish they were all shut down.

And 20% of our electrical grid would go down with them - sounds like a real good idea.