[Dead Corpse]

Does it make anyone else nervous when there are "unusual events" at nuclear power plants? I live about 10 miles from Monticello in Minnesota.

I want everything that happens there to be 100% normal.

[justa-hairyape]

Post 38 was a response to your post. Sorry about that.

[OCCASparky]

Does it make anyone else nervous when there are "unusual events" at nuclear power plants? I live about 10 miles from Monticello in Minnesota.

Look at what it takes to declare an unusual event and there are lots and lots of things that have nothing to do with nuclear power that can cause that to occur. I'll be willing to bet that St. Lucie or some other southern plants will probably be declaring UE's based solely on wind come this weekend.

[ScubieNuc]

There is nothing to fear with a report of an Unusual event. It’s just what it sounds like, an event that doesn’t normally happen. The NRC wants records kept of everything and to have them and the public informed of any things “out of the normally expected parameters.”

Things like tornado warnings within 10 miles of a nuclear power plant can activate an “unusual event” notification.

Here is a little guide to think about....if you were exposed to 400 Rems or more of radiation, you would be facing possible death. In a typical year you will recieve from the sun and background radiation about .003 Rem. Occupational Nuclear Power Plant workers are only allowed to recieve a maximum of 5 Rem per year.

Exel Energy is an outstanding company and I’m sure that the Monticello plant is in excellent hands. That being said, with the above guide you should be able to judge, based on accurate reporting, that if an accident were to happen, what your potential dangers were.

Hope that helps.

P.S. I work in the Nuclear power industry. I have for over 25 years and I haven’t gone over 5 Rem total in my lifetime. Nuclear plant workers are actually quite concerned about not just protecting themselves but their surrounding communities, which contains their families. If you have any questions, I’m sure Monticello has a place where you can contact people with your concerns.

[ScubieNuc]

Oops, correction to my last post....NOT .003 Rem but .3 Rem. The point was that you are exposed to radiation on a daily basis, but it is very small. Radiation at a nuclear power plant is higher but extensively monitored to not only protect the surrounding communities but the workers themselves.

A couple of the problems I had with the Japanese disaster was threefold:
1) Many in the press are ignorant about even the basics of Nuclear power/energy, therefore bad or misleading reporting
2) There are many different labels for measuring Radiation (Rems, Grays, Roentgen, Sieverts, etc.) that it gets confusing. http://www.stevequayle.com/ARAN/rad.conversion.html
3) Most of the public doesn’t have a basic understanding of nuclear power.