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Not VickiR, but my opinion on this matter is of course, some people don't want to live near a nuclear plant just as some don't want to live near an airport, train tracks, freeway. I'd venture to guess the values are less down there because it is further from Raleigh but suburban sprawl will catch up (already a bunch of new houses going in down there). It is still more "country" in that area than suburban and there is no major shopping which is a draw for a lot of homebuyers.
And if Harris does go, it won't matter if you are in Cary, Holly Springs or Wake Forest. Remember Chernobyl? Still testing high levels of radiation 100 miles away from that place to this day.
Gonna have to agree with you on this one, cncsmomndad!
Some people would not like to live too close to the plant.
I sold a home that backed up to an elementary school. I wondered if it would affect value but my clients were adament about buying this house. They had elementary kids and were thrilled that the kids could walk to school and walk home. A few years later, I put the house on the market and guess what the "negative" was? Yep...backs to the school! It didn't really decrease the value but it did take a while longer to sell. Just simply because if there are alot of homes on the market, buyers can be more picky.
I do think that the area around the plant has lower values than Cary or North Raleigh due to the area being further away from Raleigh, itself, but I'm sure there are some people that wouldn't want to live there due to the plant.
When you are looking to buy a home, just remember that ANY negative feeling that you have...when it comes time to sell, the next buyer may have that same feeling.
Vickie, I thought your comments about "evacuation route" to be especially interesting. I spent the past weekend at the Oregon Coast and noticed that the Tsunami Evacuation Route tends to have an inverse affect on real estate there. Houses in the Tsuanmi Evacuation Areas are more expensive.... because they are closer to the ocean (for the most part... homes on cliffs are the exceptions). The homes that are above the Tsunami Warning Areas tend to be worth less since they are further from the ocean.
Some of the most expensive homes in Portland are built on hillsides that experience landslides every year. It doesn't affect home values.
If people deem it a desirable area they will live there, regardless of the potential threats.
What about those crazy Californians that live on cliffs with their homes sliding into the valley? Didn't anyone point that out to them before they spent MILLIONS??? Vicki
to live closer to the plant than in North Raleigh. At least in an incident you would go quickly, while everyone else would die a slow painful death. OK, too gruesome for this early in the morning. The truth is the hazard isn't really any worse next door than several miles away. The houses are not cheaper in that area because of the plant. It is just farther from RTP, which drives costs in the Triangle considerably. Until recently, the access roads to RTP from Apex, Holly Springs, and Fuquay-Varina, were not great. They are improving and prices are climbing there. Newer subdivisions in higher price ranges are going in. I sold two homes in Holly Springs and one in Fuquay last month. When I did the evaluations, I saw that their prices had gone up 10% per year for the last two years, one of the highest appreciation rates in the Trinagle. Just wait until 540 gets closer to it's start! Move over, North Raleigh!!!
When you are looking to buy a home, just remember that ANY negative feeling that you have...when it comes time to sell, the next buyer may have that same feeling.
This thread is really easing everyone's fears. Look, you'll be more likely to be killed by lightning, tornadoes, flooding, car accident, heart attack, a fall from a ladder, etc.... than by a meltdown at a nuclear plant even if you live a stone's throw away. The way I look at it is, the Lord's gonna take you when it's your time, no matter the circumstances. There are bigger things to worry about, for me anyway.
This thread is really easing everyone's fears. Look, you'll be more likely to be killed by lightning, tornadoes, flooding, car accident, heart attack, a fall from a ladder, etc.... than by a meltdown at a nuclear plant even if you live a stone's throw away. The way I look at it is, the Lord's gonna take you when it's your time, no matter the circumstances. There are bigger things to worry about, for me anyway.
AMEN!
Also, from this thread, it seems like alot of people think that a nuclear meltdown (regardless of how likely it is) is equivalent to an X megaton nuclear bomb going off, destroying everything within 50 miles of it. In reality, even if the reactor began to melt down, there would likely be several hours of warning and plenty of time to leave the area before being blanketed by radiation. Chernobyl was unnecessarily tragic because no one was warned about what was happening. I remember stories of locals congregating to watch the 'eerie glow' emanating from the plant, completely unaware that they were being poisoned by radiation.
I live in Wake Forest, personally I would'nt think to live in Apex or Holly Springs, it's just a little too close for comfort. From here at least I would have a little time to jump on Capital Blvd (U.S. 1) or 401 or 98 or 96, and do 100 mph. outta town (I'm not kidding) I'd get a ticket for that.
But in retrospect, the danger is relatively small. But when that EQ plant thing happened the thought of it being Shearon Harris did cross my mind.
Time to drive away from the radiation cloud? Now that would be a neat trick! You must be BOND, JAMES BOND! If you live within a hundred miles or more you just became a human night light. Besides, the freeways would most likely be at a complete standstill as everyone would at least try to leave. You would probably do better to ride a bicycle out of town.
If you live on the outskirts of town and prevailing winds are not strong, sure you can get out. You would need to leave soon to ensure clear roads of course. If the winds are 10 miles an hour and you live 40 miles from the plant, then you've got traveling time.
If you live ten miles from the plant, you've got less time and since you're closer to the city you're at more risk for gridlock.
To me this is just a common sense issue based upon facts (should something ever happen), much like wearing a seat belt is. But clearly it brings up some emotions on this thread. The only reason anyone would have anything to fear is if they haven't thought ahead and planned a way out.
That's why you see evacuation signs around Raleigh. You can even visit Raven Rock State Park outside Fuquay-Varina and see a notice posted on their park board telling people what to do if the sirens start going off.
This isn't in someone's imagination. It's a reality Emergency Management hopes people will prepare for.
1. Emergency Plans are required by law. They are a response to Three Mile Island. All kinds of other more important and more effective responses to TMI have taken place too: improved safety systems and failure mitigation procedures, redundancy of equipment and power supplies, separation of those redundant "trains" of safety systems, simulator training, operating experience network, self-regulating agencies such as INPO and EPRI, and much much more.
2. The brochure about Potassium Iodide (KI) talked about use of KI for an emergency release. Those 2 doctors mentioned in an earlier post were assuming that living near a power plant that has NOT had an accident like TMI (and there hasn't been one in the US since TMI) could lead to thyroid problems. NO scientific evidence proves them to be correct. I think that the religious fervency of the efforts to prove that commercial nuclear power is BAD would give results if possible.
3. As a part of the emergency plan, the law requires notification of authorities and the public under certain circumstances. The point at which the public is alerted is determined by law and local (city/county/state) representatives, not the power plant. But power plant personnel can act as technical advisors. An evacuation of the segment of the population that is downwind at that time would result in widespread panic and traffic congestion. In my opinion, this would result in far greater loss of life and limb than a "meltdown".
4. Licensed nuclear operators are allowed to operate a power plant in accordance with procedure only. Their license does not allow them to deviate from NRC-approved procedures. Like a driver's license, it can be taken away from an individual or even an entire plant site. In order to maintain that license, extensive continuing training (classroom, simulator, and time in the plant) is required each year.
I have much more to say but cannot due to time constraints. Perhaps it would sufficient to hear it from a radiation protection technician at a commercial nuclear power plant (that's me):
If I lived within 10 miles and I was advised to evacuate, I would not. I would advise my wife and children to remain in our nice safe home. Meanwhile I would probably be at a congregate care center much farther away from the power plant, helping people who are scared, hungry, dehydrated, confused, separated from their loved ones, possibly injured, and most likely NOT EXPOSED OR CONTAMINATED in any way.
NC Warns ..Nuclear Watchdog Group ....are they on to something or NOT?
Well I was all set on the Fuquay-Varina/ Holly Springs/ Apex area. Now I am thinking Raleigh, Wake Forest and Durham. I am trying to get all information so that my husband and I can make a reasonable decision and not rely on what is being told to us, conversations that negates our concerns with reassuring glib remarks about danger being anywhere you go.
I don't know if NC Warns is a "tiptoe through the tulips" green group trying to get there agenda put through by their interpretation of the "stats" or if there is a real danger in incompetence that "NC Warn" is putting out there plus they are inferring that hearings etc are deliberately being kept from public.
Nine key reasons NC WARN opposes early relicensing of Shearon Harris:
1. Fire safety violations. Shearon Harris has been out of compliance with the NRC fire protection rules since at least 1992. In place of physical fire protections required by law, Progress Energy has substituted “interim” compensatory measures that were explicitly reaffirmed as illegal by NRC last March. Its latest projection is to fix the Harris fire violations by 2015, and continue using the illegal interim measures until then.
2. Backup cooling flaws. Progress Energy has delayed fixing a design flaw in its emergency cooling system for another year, although the potential for blocked recirculation of cooling water increases the risk of meltdown by 100-fold, industry-wide, according to NRC data.
3. Future Stability: Neither the financial viability of Progress Energy (with $11 billion of debt), nor the reliability of the Harris plant can be guaranteed until 2046. Years of constant cost-cutting pressures have contributed to numerous shutdowns (Harris ranks worst in the U.S.) and safety and security violations that raise questions about the plant’s future. Also in doubt is whether the billions of dollars are available to ultimately decommission the plant and safeguard its high-level nuclear waste indefinitely.
4. Emergency planning. State and local governments are substantially under-prepared within the 10-mile Emergency Planning Zone surrounding Harris. Last year’s hurricanes and the recent Apex chemical fire demonstrated only a few of the difficulties involving the relocation of thousands of people. Siren failures have persisted at Progress plants for years, while the company keeps promising to install backup power. All 81 Harris sirens were found to be inoperable for several hours on October 30th and again the next day.
5. Safeguards and terrorism. Since 9-11, nuclear plants have been recognized as terrorism targets, but Shearon Harris is unprepared. There are measures that could mitigate risks of various attacks by air, water and ground, but the industry has lobbied NRC not to adopt them, in order to keep costs down.
6. Security force. Harris security remains under investigation. The NRC has confirmed whistleblower charges that vital security equipment was left inoperable for long periods, and in October the State Justice Department confirmed the security contractor had not complied with training rules and other requirements. Harris also suffered two security failures in the late 1990s by allowing unauthorized people into the plant.
7. Permanent storage of waste. The Shearon Harris waste building will likely become a de facto repository, and is already storing the greatest concentration of commercial high-level waste in the U.S. There is no solution in sight for disposal of highly radioactive “spent” fuel rods, although the National Academy of Sciences and other technical experts argue that hardened, dry storage would reduce the risks associated with current high-density cooling pools at each plant.
8. Age-related safety problems will increase. The Harris plant was designed to last for 40 years, until 2026, but many systems and components are already being stressed by radiation, high heat and pressures, and other factors. U.S. plants are suffering from corrosion, large component failures, original design flaws and other unresolved safety issues. At least a dozen U.S. plants have recently discovered radioactive leakage into groundwater from pipes or cooling pools.
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It's actually better...
Look, you'll be more likely to be killed by lightning, tornadoes, flooding, car accident, heart attack, a fall from a ladder, etc.... than by a meltdown at a nuclear plant even if you live a stone's throw away. The way I look at it is, the Lord's gonna take you when it's your time, no matter the circumstances. There are bigger things to worry about, for me anyway. 
NC Warns ..Nuclear Watchdog Group ....are they on to something or NOT?
