Citizens+Per+3-4

__**Concerned Citizens**__ []
 * Positives?**
 * ­­As of July 2008, there were more than 430 operating nuclear power plants and, together, they provided about 15 percent of the world's [|electricity] in 2007.
 * Negitives?**
 * How the waste gets into our system?**
 * 1) When the nuclear waste leaves the power plant, the waste escapes into our atmosphere. With this waste in the atmosphere we breathe in this waste, and the crops in the land absorbs the waste which harms the food of the crops. Being in the atmosphere it also is exposed to the fish in the water, which we eat.
 * 2) When the nuclear waste leaves the power plant, the waste escapes into our water sources. When the waste goes into the water sources the waste also spreads to not only the water we drink, but also to the water the fish live in (which we eat), and the water our crops take in (which we eat).
 * 3) No matter where the waste is put, it ALWAYS comes back to us.

The Three Mile Island explosion was a Nuclear Power Plant explosion that occured in 1979 and happened on an island about 10 miles away from Harrisburg Pennsylvania. []
 * What is the Three Mile Explosion?**


 * []

[]

In the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Station there are two reactors, Unit 1 and Unit 2. One of them is inoperable. Unit 2 experienced a partial reactor meltdown on March 28, 1979. A partial nuclear meltdown is when the uranium fuel rods start to liquefy, but they do not fall through the reactor floor and breach the containment systems. There are many reasons for the accident, but the two main ones are simple human error and the failure of a rather minor valve in the reactor.

The accident at TMI ( Three Mile Island ) began at about four in the morning with the failure of one of the valves that controlled coolant flow into the reactor. Because of this, the amount of cool water entering the reactor decreased, and the core temperature rose. When this happened, automatic computerized systems engaged, and the reactor was automatically SCRAMmed. The nuclear chain reaction then stopped. This only slowed the rate at which the core temperature was increasing, however. The temperature was still rising because of residual heat in the reactor and energy released from the decaying fission products in the fuel rods.

Because the pumps removing water from the core were still active, and a valve that controlled the cool water entering the core failed, water was leaving the core, but not coming in. This reduced the amount of coolant in the core. There wasn't enough coolant in the core, so the Emergency Core Cooling System automatically turned on. This should have provided enough extra coolant to make up for the stuck valve, except that the reactor operator, thinking that enough coolant was already in the core, shut it off too early.

There still wasn't enough coolant, so the core's temperature kept increasing. A valve at the top of the core automatically opened to vent some of the steam in the core. This should have helped matters by removing the hot steam, but the valve didn't close properly. Because it didn't close, steam continued to vent from the reactor, further reducing the coolant level. The reactor operators should have known the valve didn't close, but the indicator in the control room was covered by a maintenance tag attached to a nearby switch. Because the operators didn't know that the valve had failed to close, they assumed that the situation was under control, as the core temperature had stopped rising with the first venting of steam from the core. They also thought that the coolant had been replaced in the core, because they didn't know that the pump outlets were closed. A few minutes later the core temperature began to rise again, and the Emergency Core Cooling System automatically switched on. Once again, an operator de-activated it, thinking the situation was under control. In reality, it was not.

Soon, because of the coolant lost through the open valve at the top of the reactor, the core temperature began to rise again. At this point the fuel rods started to collapse from the intense heat inside the core. The operators knew something was wrong, but didn't understand what it was. This was about 5 minutes after the initial valve failure. It took almost 2 hours for someone to figure out that the valve releasing steam at the top of reactor hadn't closed properly. During those 2 hours, precious coolant continued to be released from the reactor a meltdown was underway. At approximately 6AM, an operator discovered the valve at the top of the core was open and closed it.

During the day hydrogen gas began to accumulate inside the reactor and caused an explosion later in the afternoon. This explosion did not damage the containment systems, however. Two days later, the core was still not under operator control. A group of nuclear experts were asked to help evaluate the situation. They figured out that a lot of hydrogen gas had accumulated at the top of the core. This gas could have exploded, like the explosion on the first day of the accident, or it could have displaced the remaining coolant in the reactor, causing a complete nuclear reactor meltdown. No one really knew what to do about the hydrogen build-up. A hydrogen recombiner was used to remove some of the hydrogen, but it was not very effective. However, hydrogen also dissolves in water, which is what the coolant was composed of. Thus, over time the hydrogen that had collected at the top of the core completely dissolved in the coolant. Two weeks later the reactor was brought to a cold shutdown and the accident was over

http://library.thinkquest.org/17940/texts/nuclear_disasters/nuclear_disasters.html

Clair and Ruth Hoover, Bainbridge

CLAIR: Saturday is when we had a taste in our mouth that wasn’t pleasant. This was probably about ten o'clock. We realized it when we asked for a glass of milk. My wife just about threw up on it. I drank some of it but not much because it didn’t taste good at all. The top of our tongue was kind of burning. I’m not sure if there was anything wrong with the milk. It was probably mainly in our mouth. It was kind of a chalky or powdery, dry taste. It just seemed like you couldn’t taste the food that you were eating. It kind of numbed your senses in the mouth. RUTH: That morning, one of the men that lived with us at the time brought me [that] glass of milk out from the house. I started to drink it. And I just kind of gave it back. l said, “That milk’s spoiled.” And then I looked at the milk. There was nothing wrong with the milk. But I had a bitterness in my mouth. You know, when you drive past an iron foundry or something, it smells of metal like a grit. That’s the taste we had in our mouth. It was like a metallic taste. You couldn’t get rid of it. You could brush your teeth or whatever, but you still had it. It was on your lips, I guess. So I knew that something was in <span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">the air. (Ruth says she thinks this because she tasted it only when she licked her lips drinking the <span style="display: block; font-family: Times; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">milk.) <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">We went out to eat, down to a restaurant in Bainbridge and there was just something about the air. It <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">was bitter on your lips. You could taste it. I can’t really tell you exactly what it tasted like, but it was <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">definitely something bitter in the air that you were getting. We talked to some people in Goldsboro <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">that said they had like this grit. I think they also had more of the fallout than we did on this side. <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">CLAIR: We hadn’t noticed too much on Wednesday and Thursday. But we weren’t out more than we <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">had to. (But) Friday when my wife came back from work, I had a red pick-up truck and she looked out <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">and said, “It’s snowing out there.” She could see the white flakes against my red pick-up. That would <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">have been Friday right before noon time. <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">RUTH: The police had driven up and told us to close the restaurant down and get out. Our owner really <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">got upset. He told us all to get out of the restaurant. So we did. When I came out, I’d seen it. <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">CLAIR: It looked like there had been a bonfire somewhere and there were flakes of burnt paper or <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">something that would have flown up and that were coming back down. They were small, but they <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">were noticeable. They were easily visible. Different people tried to tell us that we didn’t <span style="font-family: Times; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">[laughter], but <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">we saw it then. Up against my red pick-up you could easily see it. It wasn’t like you’d look out and <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">see the things coming down real big or anything. <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">RUTH: It looked like when you burned paper, but it was <span style="font-family: Times; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">really fine. It was real small and white. It looked <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">like real fine snow coming down. It was white or grayish. Kind of a grayish-white. All I know is that I <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">saw it. I looked out and it was just like it was snow, but I knew it wasn’t snow. I don’t think when it <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">was down that you could really see it laying that much. It wasn’t like a blinding snow or anything like <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">that. My daughter had stayed home from school that day and I just said to her, “Look at that Ruthie. <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">It looks like fine snow coming down.” So I’d seen it in the couple of minutes that it took (us to get <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">home from the restaurant). <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">When I came back, I was panicked. I wanted to get out of there get my [other] kids. I ran in the house, <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">grabbed the pillows and sleeping bags, and I was out of there in a matter of minutes. I knew enough <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">of what was going on. I wanted the kids out of the area. <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">(It wasn’t until) a day or two later, when I realized what I had seen. But then the people from Three <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Mile Island came down [later] and said, “No, you didn’t see anything. That’s all imaginary.” But we <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">talked to people across the river. And we started going to meetings. And there’s quite a few over on <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">the other side who had also seen the white stuff coming down. There might have been a couple of <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">people on this side of the river [also]. And NRC says, “Anybody who’s seen it, they’re whackoes. <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">They all imagined it.” I said, “Hey, as long as I live, you’re <span style="font-family: Times; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">never going to tell me I didn’t see it coming <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">down!” I told my daughter later, “You know, that really scares me that we didn’t realize at the time <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">what it was.” It just looked like fine powder, like a snow coming down. But from what I understand, it <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">must have been very spotty. We didn’t even know that at the time, because when I came from <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Bainbridge on up, it was coming down. You could see it in the air. <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">That night we had little red spots on our arms where we didn’t have sleeves on. We went to a motel <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">about 35 miles away, near my mom’s. We saw on TV that night where they said, “Take a shower if <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">you think you had any exposure to anything. To fallout.” I was so scared and I was just glad to be out <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">of there. We never did take a shower until the next morning. I was so emotionally exhausted, all we <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">did that night was just lay there and watch for the news on TV. We talked about it later, that we had <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">little red spots on the arms. We talked to our doctor. He said that it definitely should have been <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">washed immediately. We should have scrubbed it. But, time will tell if anything happens to us. <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">There was quite a few over in Goldsboro (who said they saw the powdery substance). There might <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">have been a couple of people on this side of the river (also). <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But it was <span style="font-family: Times; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">really fine. It wasn’t as large as paper trash or anything like that. It was real fine.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Times; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Marie Holowka

<span style="display: block; font-family: Times; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">After the TMI accident, Marie was treated for thyroid problems. She was subsequently diagnosed for <span style="display: block; font-family: Times; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">cancer and has since had several operations and is currently receiving chemotherapy. She lives with <span style="display: block; font-family: Times; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">her two sisters and brother. The Holowka’s have had many animal problems on their farm since the <span style="display: block; font-family: Times; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">time TMI began operation in 1974. Here Marie talks about the morning of the accident. [The distance <span style="display: block; font-family: Times; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">from the milk house to the house is a little over 100 feet.] <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I went to the barn around four, four-thirty [in the morning]. We were milking cows. And the barn <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">started to shake. And I heard a rumble like underground. Well, I wouldn’t say an earthquake. But it <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">was going like “brrup, brrup, brrup". And then it shook and shook and we didn’t hear the big rumbles. <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">But every now and then you could hear a rumbling in the ground. And Paul, my brother, was with me <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">and he says, “That’s an earthquake.” I said, “Paul, it don’t sound like earthquake. Earthquake, it just <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">rattles. But you don’t hear the noise, the brrup, brrup.” It just [was] like there was boiling water <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">coming underground. And I said, “l think something happened at Three Mile Island.” Then we kept on <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">milking.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Times; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Betty Farber

<span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I was so nervous and I was crying. And I was trying to get hold of my husband. And of course, with <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">the crying and stuff, I was thinking that the burning was because of my nerves. Because I was upset. <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">I had this little rash, like teeny little ‘pettikieye’ of pimples all over my forehead and down on [both <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">sides of the cheeks]. And I had that on my arms. The first few times that I got it, I got it on the arms <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">too. But now every now and then when they vent, I don’t get it on the arms at all. My eyes were all <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">bloodshot. That again too could have been from being upset, because I was crying. My eyes were <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">really burning. I had my air conditioner on. It was awfully hot in here. And then I heard them say stay <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">indoors and turn your air conditioners off, which I did. And boy, just about roasted. When my husband <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">finally got back home around two, three o’clock I said, “Oh my god! Do you mind your eyes or your <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">face or anything burning? Something’s burning my face.” He said, “No.” He went up and hurried and <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">gave the animals water and feed. I had all this stuff packed, and we went out to my brother’s. <span style="display: block; font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"> <span style="font-family: Times; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 14px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">TMI TODAY <span style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Despite the common patterns in so many of the interviews, the TMI accident is not as yet felt to be a “communal experience.” People are still very isolated from each other. Even those who had “experiences” during and after the accident generally still believe it was something that happened only to them and perhaps a friend or two. We have lost the “village well” or a place to exchange gossip with a wide range of neighbors. Our communities have lost the opportunities to compare and interpret their mutual experience. lt takes time for experience to yield its true meaning. And many things that a person experiences alone can take on a feeling of insignificance, especially when they are not confirmed by others in the community or the media. We are sealed off too much from one another. It is therefore more difficult to realize the relevance or importance of our “isolated” perceptions. In the case of Three Mile Island, when the chorus of authorities began chanting “not enough radiation got out to harm to change, to notice <span style="font-family: Times; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">anything ,” it was particularly difficult for people to counteract this official gospel. And yet I can feel the strength of each individual’s conviction. For I have heard much more than a few times: “<span style="font-family: Times; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">No one, I mean no one can tell me this didn’t happen to me. Because, <span style="font-family: Times; font-size-adjust: none; font-size: 10px; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">I know it did .” []


 * Life as a citizen?**
 * ~**Living a citizen we are constantly in the state of not knowing. We are not informed properly of what is going on in our community to the fullest length. Nuclear power plants are kept VERY secret and kept from the community. Bring this nuclear power plant into Council Bluffs would not be far to the citizens of Council Bluffs, because what citizens want to have more secrets about their community kept from them then we already have. How we talked about earlier, with the stories of what radiation can do to you, would you want your families to be exposed to that sort of danger? Thats why as concerned citizens we are against the nuclear power plant in Council Bluffs.

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