Fallout from a Nuke Plant

My family and a number of friends live within 10-20 miles of a nuclear power plant. I would assume, should there be problems related to terroroism, the types of problems that could occur would be numerous including steam and particle plums (?).

What are the typical public warnings given if a problem were to occur? Does it vary per nuke site, or are there Government regs followed for communications to civilians at risk?

This older thread touches on the topic a bit. You should contact your utility company for the emergency plans for your own community since they vary. E.g. some places may only do TV/radio broadcasts, some places may add sirens, have police or fire go door-to-door, some places may do automated "reverse-911" telephone calls to every affected neighborhood, etc.

Just a hunch, but the website for your utility company, or maybe even the front of your telephone book may contain a section on what to expect and do in a situation at your local nuclear power plant.

Very good advice, I can't think of anything to add.

Troy

Other than a radiologically enhanced explosive device, there really isn't much to fear from a terrorist attack at a nuclear plant. Unless you are looking at the cheap end of Soviet reactor designs, it's pretty hard to break the containment vessel. You have to drop a fairly large plane on it, and that isn't even gaurnteed.

You are worrying too much about something that isn't really as bad as it is hyped. There are other things at your typical chemical works that are much more scary than a "dirty bomb", which is just a frag device with some interesting psychwar aspects. And I'm willing to bet that if you are near a nuclear power plant, you probably have a chemical works nearby, to. And thier security sucks compaired to power plants. If you are prepped for that going boom, you are ready for fall out.

That's a good point Ironraven.... Right now I'm just checking all the potential local threats.... Starting with nukes and moving on to the chemical plant.... We also have those pesky tornadoes to deal with herre in the Midwest.

Tornados, the ultimate fragmentation munition. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

FEMA has some free online courses on a variety of emergency mgt topics. I've taken many of them and they are pretty good for basic emergency preparedeness. They have a good course on radiological emergencies that covers nuke plants and their mishaps very well. Your local LEPC meetings should be open to the public and you can ask them anything you want.

http://training.fema.gov/emiweb/is/