If anyone ever finds themselves all the way down there in Calvert County, I implore you to visit Kim's Key Lime Pies in Solomons. It's the best key lime pie I've ever tasted.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Lots of folks have lived near nuke plants without any problems over the years. But it's a good thing to evaluate the risks of living near a nuclear plant when you're making your decision on buying a house. Accidents of the kind at Three Mile Island and Fukushima don't come along very often so one may live quite happily without incident. But it would be a mistake to act as if they never happen.

TMI had no offsite consequences. No one living nearby was impacted. Fukushima is a different story- but there are lots of differences between that incident and what is probable in the U.S.

BTW- if it matters- there is a plan to build a 2nd reactor at Calvert. It is currently in the licensing process.

Uh, think again about that. Looks like the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board doesn't think too highly of foreign-owned nuclear plants. I believe the owner has 60 days to find a US partner. Good luck with that:
http://www.nirs.org/nukerelapse/calvert/calverlicensedenied.pdf

Anonymous wrote:The nuclear power plant would totally not be an issue for me (in truth, the functional difference between Calvert Cliffs and bunches of other DC suburban communities, in terms of impact, should the zombie apocalypse strike the plant is small) but the traffic on rte 2-4 bears some looking at, if you have a long commute. It's a really charming area, though. The end of year fieldtrip for my MoCo elementary school was always down to Calvert Cliffs state park to collect fossils and sharks teeth. From there, you could also pop over to the summer riverside concert series at St Mary's College and, yes, Solomon's is a very pretty place to get dinner.

(Oh, and the LNG terminal someone mentioned is mothballed - it was built in the uber high energy prices of the '70s, but the price then dropped to the point where it's never made financial sense to use it.)

Actually, the Cove Point LNG plant reopened in 2003, and has been expanded since. With the recent increase in US natural gas production, Dominion has filed for permits to convert the plant to an export facility, and hopes to be exporting by 2015.

The nuclear power plant would totally not be an issue for me (in truth, the functional difference between Calvert Cliffs and bunches of other DC suburban communities, in terms of impact, should the zombie apocalypse strike the plant is small) but the traffic on rte 2-4 bears some looking at, if you have a long commute. It's a really charming area, though. The end of year fieldtrip for my MoCo elementary school was always down to Calvert Cliffs state park to collect fossils and sharks teeth. From there, you could also pop over to the summer riverside concert series at St Mary's College and, yes, Solomon's is a very pretty place to get dinner.

(Oh, and the LNG terminal someone mentioned is mothballed - it was built in the uber high energy prices of the '70s, but the price then dropped to the point where it's never made financial sense to use it.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Lots of folks have lived near nuke plants without any problems over the years. But it's a good thing to evaluate the risks of living near a nuclear plant when you're making your decision on buying a house. Accidents of the kind at Three Mile Island and Fukushima don't come along very often so one may live quite happily without incident. But it would be a mistake to act as if they never happen.

TMI had no offsite consequences. No one living nearby was impacted. Fukushima is a different story- but there are lots of differences between that incident and what is probable in the U.S.

BTW- if it matters- there is a plan to build a 2nd reactor at Calvert. It is currently in the licensing process.

When the NRC held a hearing in Calvert County regarding the new reactor proposal, there were hundreds of residents there to support the new plant. The only people there to oppose drove down from Baltimore.

Anonymous wrote:Talk to the Japanese. They can't get enough nuclear and living near a nuclear power plant is great! .....Wait, what's that you say?....Really?....Oh. Um, never mind.

You really ought not comment on topics you know little to nothing about. You sound like a fool.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Lots of folks have lived near nuke plants without any problems over the years. But it's a good thing to evaluate the risks of living near a nuclear plant when you're making your decision on buying a house. Accidents of the kind at Three Mile Island and Fukushima don't come along very often so one may live quite happily without incident. But it would be a mistake to act as if they never happen.

TMI had no offsite consequences. No one living nearby was impacted. Fukushima is a different story- but there are lots of differences between that incident and what is probable in the U.S.

BTW- if it matters- there is a plan to build a 2nd reactor at Calvert. It is currently in the licensing process.

Beg to differ. TMI Unit II cost an enormous amount to clean up. An expensive nuclear plant was shut down forever and will never generate electricity again. And during the accident pregnant women and small children were urged to evacuate. Luckily, the worst of the partial meltdown was contained. But no one knew at the time whether it would be or not. And frankly I wouldn't want to rely on the containment and safety systems of one of the older nuclear plants in the country to function properly in a freak accident - but that's just me.

What's ironic is that the small event that led to the partial meltdown occurred at another reactor some months before but the consequences were not as dire because the plant was not at full power and the operating personnel realized their mistake within 20 minutes rather than over an hour later. Several officials tried to warn the NRC and B&W, the company that built the plant, that operators needed to be retrained. They were ignored. If someone had listened to these men, TMI Unit II would not be a complete waste today.

And Fukushima officials apparently ignored the warning that they shouldn't have built their emergency electrical generators in the basements of their multiple nuclear plants. Guess they just didn't think this would happen to them, just the way the NRC and B & W must have thought they didn't need to heed warnings about their plant.