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Emergency preparenes 2 of 2 parts
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Emergency preparedness 2 of 2 Parts
San DiegoCounty is known as a nuclear community in Sacramento. Personally I don’t like the name, but it is what it is. Knowing that San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) is an aging reactor we should take some precautionary measures to protect our families the best we can if there is an accident during the new steam generator installations. We as a community should also be ready if the electricity we get from SONGS is interrupted for an unknown time because of a workplace mistake. According to a little survey of 1200 San Diego residents; two-thirds of them feel it is highly likely they will be affected by a major disaster.
Here are some suggestions to minimize radiation exposure.
<ol><li>Do not evacuate if you are at home unless you are advised to do so. This is called “in-place sheltering”.</li>
<li>Tune in to your battery-operated radio, Ipods or television for information. Charge your batteries, or have some new ones handy.</li>
<li>The thyroid gland is vulnerable to the radioactive release that occurs from a nuclear power plant. Take your Potassium Iodine tablets when directed by State or local public health authorities in the event of a radiation emergency. Check tablets expiration date.</li>
<li>Turn off sources to outside air, your air conditioners, vents, fans, furnaces, fireplace dampers, windows.</li>
<li>Bring in your pets. When people returned after the Three Mile Island fire, and left their pets, they were dead when they returned.</li>
<li>If you have a sealed basement go there.</li>
<li>If you have been outside, take off your clothes & shoes (outside if you can) place them in a sealed container. Store them as far away from your family as possible and take a shower. In an evacuation you will go to Carlsbad High School, 3557 Lancer Way, Carlsbad. If you are tested positive for radiation and are contaminated you will be issued paper gowns to wear in exchange for your contaminated clothing. So pack some clothes too.</li>
<li>Stay where you are. There is no place to run.</li>
<li>Wait to hear from authorities to say it is safe.</li>
<li>The heavier and denser materials you have between you and the source of radiation, the better off you will be.</li></ol>
Know where your children have been taken if their school is near the nuclear reactor and there is a radioactive emergency. Contact the school and find out. Locate the Emergency Alert System (EAS) in advance there may be a decontamination center near you.
Emergency brochures are available in print at San Diego County OES. Call for a copy 858-565-3490
If SONGS gets re-licensed to run for another 25 years,(think about all the problems of a 50 year old car has in repairs & no new technology). Then these preventative suggestions become more important. Preventive action for the future is to stop the production of highly radioactive waste as soon as possible by phasing out these dangerous dinosaurs we use for 16% of our energy. In the last energy crisis in San Diego, through conservation we stop using 16%. Support safe “renewable energy”. With safe energy, no evacuation plans are needed. What are your thoughts? Contact me svaine@cox.net, Twitter/Solarshirley Read “No Harm to the Public”http://SolarShirely.wordpress.com, www.A4NR.org
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