This is not intended to incite panic... for panic, see the post "Where is the nearest nuclear power plant to my house that is currently melting down!!!11!!." The purpose of this post is to facilitate addressing a question we've been discussing on my facebook page: If you lived near a nuke plant, would you routinely stock a reasonable supply of iodine/iodide tablets to take, just in case, and why or why not?
If you are in the US, click here. That's the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and they are there to help you find out where your nearest operating nuke plant is. I don't know about the non-operating ones and why that is not included.
The nearest one to me is in Monticello, and it's pretty darn close. That's 37 miles as one drives, but closer to 30 as the wind blows, and it is directly up wind most of the time. Ruh roh. Anybody want to go in with me on some bulk Potassium Iodide Tablets
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The nearest to me is Seabrook, NH at 38 miles, but prevailing winds are away from my home, EXCEPT during a nor'easter.
I suppose I'd have to see if I'm more likely to be exposed to radiation or have my apartment destroyed by a fire or a storm. Not much point in buying and storing pills that are probably going to be destroyed without being used.
I live in Portsmouth and Seabrook is down the road.
No precautions taken. They are very safe and if it REALLY exploded, precautions wont matter much.
BUT if they replaced it with a coal fired plant THEN I would really be worried and looking to move a lot further away.
Now I can't help but wonder what would happen if a tornado hit a nuclear plant.
I have 60 km (about 40 miles) to Cattenom, one of the biggest and notoriously unrliable ones of France. They usually inform the public some days after they've had some serious issues (750+ incidents in about 20 years. They're refusing to tell the number of emergency shutdowns). I don't stock Iodine.
Oh, and I have a wonderful view on a coal fired power plant, that gives me much less worries.
I live up on Bow, NH (Near Concord, NH, you know, the site of the "Shot heard 'round the world"). Can't tell if Seabrook or Yankee is closer...
And 3 out of 4 posters in NH! Do you all make it to the Granite State Skeptics in Manchester on the 2nd Monday of each month? Why haven't I seen you there?
Adn good to see you too Bunny! :)
Doh, Giliell messed up my post by getting in before me. Well in the first six comments, half are form NH then. ;)
I have hypothyroid condition. No potassium iodide for me.
As it is, the FDA doesn't suggest dosing adults over 40 with KI unless they have exposures of over a whopping 500 centiGrays. http://1.usa.gov/e25YHg
G'day, Larian. I just started reading this here blog thingie. Just in time for the atomic tornadoes! o.o;;
The closest one to me is a research reactor in Cambridge, MA. It is a small one, only 5 MW thermal. I have potassium iodide in my lab.
Could have guessed the Monticello plant was closest. Though, I've got to say, Minnesota is a pretty damn safe place to put a nuclear plant in terms of natural disasters. There's no way a tornado is taking that thing down.
I know which is closest to me. Three Mile Island, Middletown, PA
Fortunately, they're down to one reactor, but even one isn't all that reassuring.
Chernobyl power plant is about 60 km from here. A small research reactor is 1 km from here.
I just love this blue Cherenkov glow in the morning!
I'm about sixty miles from San Onofre. Not sure which way the wind blows.
I've got iodine tablets, but that's just a coincidence. I needed some lead sheet for a project and the store I got it from also had Iodine tablets. I'd been playing a lot of Fallout 3 at the time and couldn't resist my own bottle of Rad-X.
Spanish, sorry, Alex FTW.
Unless we have someone from Los Alamos?
dunno if i'm closer to the Savannah River Site or real close to the Tybee Bomb...
(tybee bomb: http://www.tybeetyme.com/tb/index.htm )
(Savannah River Site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savannah_River_Site)
I'm just over 7 miles from the nearest nuclear reactor,
just under 12 miles from the nearest fission reactor and
about 54 miles from the nearest fission power station.
I'm sure that the building that I work in has KI solution somewhere, probably in the one of the chemical stores (not to mention probably more in the teaching labs)
I'm going to just guess that map only shows operating commercial nuclear power generation plants. It shows nothing in Idaho, despite the fact that there are several operating reactors of varying size and type at the INL in the middle of the Snake River Plain.
Ken: You are correct and don't even have to guess, they actually tell us. Only operating commercial nuclear power generation plants.
What are the snake river plain reactors for?
How close is a nuckear power plant to my house. My zip code 48275