In the Wake of Fukushima: A Local Perspective (Part I)
Posted by Ross Pomeroy at Sun, 26 Jun 2011 17:57:32
RealClearScience.com
A Town Like any Other
Situated along the banks of the Mississippi River, Monticello is like most small towns in Minnesota. The citizens work in the growing local industries and businesses, or commute either north to St. Cloud or south to Minneapolis to work in larger metropolises. At the end of the day, they all come home to enjoy the life of a quiet, tight-knit river town.
The people of Monticello can enjoy one of the many beautiful local parks, use one of the state's finest free community centers, watch local high school athletics, and stay up-to-date on community happenings by reading the hometown newspaper - The Monticello Times. Citizens can even pick-up free potassium iodide pills at local drug and grocery stores. Each winter, they can also watch hundreds of handsome trumpeter swans nest near Mississippi Drive Park, where the Mississippi River is warmed from the hot water discharged by the Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant.
The 613 megawatt nuclear power plant, located about forty miles from the Twin Cities metropolitan area, casts a large shadow over the almost 13,000 residents of Monticello, and touches the lives of an additional three million people who live within a fifty mile radius. After the Fukushima-Daiichi disaster, the shadow cast by the facility has grown even bigger. Before the incident in Japan, most citizens in Monticello went about their day-to-day activities with little thought given to the closed-off nuclear facility just the north of town. But after the calamity, you can bet that most families gave their evacuation plans (in case of a nuclear accident at the plant) a thorough refresher.
(Continued here, followed by Part II and Part III.)
RealClearScience.com
A Town Like any Other
Situated along the banks of the Mississippi River, Monticello is like most small towns in Minnesota. The citizens work in the growing local industries and businesses, or commute either north to St. Cloud or south to Minneapolis to work in larger metropolises. At the end of the day, they all come home to enjoy the life of a quiet, tight-knit river town.
The people of Monticello can enjoy one of the many beautiful local parks, use one of the state's finest free community centers, watch local high school athletics, and stay up-to-date on community happenings by reading the hometown newspaper - The Monticello Times. Citizens can even pick-up free potassium iodide pills at local drug and grocery stores. Each winter, they can also watch hundreds of handsome trumpeter swans nest near Mississippi Drive Park, where the Mississippi River is warmed from the hot water discharged by the Monticello Nuclear Generating Plant.
The 613 megawatt nuclear power plant, located about forty miles from the Twin Cities metropolitan area, casts a large shadow over the almost 13,000 residents of Monticello, and touches the lives of an additional three million people who live within a fifty mile radius. After the Fukushima-Daiichi disaster, the shadow cast by the facility has grown even bigger. Before the incident in Japan, most citizens in Monticello went about their day-to-day activities with little thought given to the closed-off nuclear facility just the north of town. But after the calamity, you can bet that most families gave their evacuation plans (in case of a nuclear accident at the plant) a thorough refresher.
(Continued here, followed by Part II and Part III.)
Labels: Minnesota, nuclear power
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