Scott Brinton

What do we do if Indian Point springs a radiation leak?

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At first, sirens would blare for five minutes, a signal that nearby residents must turn on their TVs and radios and listen for Emergency Alert System announcements.

The Rockland County government and State Disaster Preparedness Commission would urge people to shelter in place, with doors and windows closed and locked, and air-conditioners and fans off. Then they would have to sit and wait for more instructions.

It’s a scenario envisioned in the Rockland County government publication “Emergency Planning for Indian Point: A Guide for You and Your Family,” which outlines what people should do in the “unlikely event” that the Indian Point Nuclear Power Plant, in Buchanan, N.Y., melts down, causing a major radiation release. All Rockland County residents living within a 10-mile radius of Indian Point received the 17-page booklet in 2002-03.

Now imagine you’re at home –– and your kids are at school, cut off from you –– in a meltdown. They’re safe, you keep telling yourself, but you can’t stop worrying. Despite the government’s best-laid plans, you cannot contain yourself. Your heart beats faster, and you start to sweat. You panic.

Don’t forget to take a potassium iodide pill to ward off the radiation, you tell yourself. What about your kids? Will they take their pills?

Naturally, you leave your home to try to get to them –– and get caught behind a line of cars filled with parents vying to grab their kids and go. Meanwhile, the radiation plume, carried by the wind, slowly envelopes you.

In your rush, you forgot to take your pill, leaving your thyroid gland open to radiation poisoning.

You have to wonder: Is this how we want to produce energy –– under constant threat of an apocalyptic disaster? Indian Point sits 24 miles north of New York City, on the Hudson River –– at the intersection of two active earthquake zones. The city alone is home to nearly 8.5 million people. Add millions to that figure in surrounding counties.

On Feb. 5, Entergy, which operates Indian Point, reported “alarming levels of radioactivity” –– 65,000 times greater than normal –– in three groundwater wells below the power plant, according to U.S. Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney.

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