Saturday, April 14, 2012

Radioactive water spill at Limerick

I read this story on Friday, and at first I felt concern, then I laughed about it discussing it with a friend that lives close to the plant, then finally I became angry at the way this information was released at a snails pace to the public.   Did they really need to wait 23 days to report a spill? 
Yes I know, the radiation levels are low this time, but I am old enough to remember what happened at Three Mile-Island back in the '70s. 

What would happen if there was a significant leak?  Would we be told to take precautions right away, or would they be taking their time to study the issue?  So far, I have not heard of many problems at this plant, it seems as though it does have a good record for safety.

I know that being a nation of nuclear power dependent consumers, we live with little concern for safety for these plants. There was some talk generated about the older design of some of these plants when earthquakes occur, especially reading about the Earthquake and Tsunami that hit the coast of Japan.  I did not want to promote paranoia, just wish the NRC and Excelon would be a little quicker letting us know what is going on.


Please read the story from The Times Herald here ; http://www.timesherald.com/article/20120413/NEWS01/120419781/1006&pager=full_story

If you have any comments regarding what I wrote or about the article in the paper,  please leave the comments below and don't be shy..

Image from "The Mercury"

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Earthquake & Tsunami Warning 4/11/2012

Today at 4:37AM Eastern Daylight time  the United States Geological Survey reported a very strong Earthquake and a Tsunami warning off the west coast of Northern Sumatra.  Damage from the initial earthquake has not been fully reviewed to be reported.

Please see the video below from Sky NEWS





Sunday, April 8, 2012

Dual Pole Radar + Storm Spotters = Improved Alerts

South East PA  has little severe weather compared to other parts of the country, we follow the weather enough to find out if it will rain or snow tomorrow.  There are a few out there that do follow the weather nationally, some of these folks are weather fans like myself.   I joined Skywarn last year, and since then I have really not had much of an opportunity to report weather events because of the lack of severe weather.   However this causes us to get too comfortable and ignore safety warnings, Verizon has started a program in certain cities to send alert via cell phones, but this has not yet reached our local city yet.  Besides buying a battery powered NOAA Weather Alert Radio, we can still use old fashioned AM/FM, TV or the internet to stay informed.  I do need to point out that when sever weather does occur, we have to keep in mind that the loss of electrical power from strong winds may knock out our ability to access communication sources such as weather and public safety updates.

I wanted to post this video showing how Dual Pole radar helps to detect severe storms and even tornadoes, storm spotters are used to help the National Weather Service under the Radar beam to report truth on the ground as to what is occurring and call this important information in to the local NWS office.

Please take a moment to see this video, and remember to keep you and your family safe by learning how to be weather aware.