TOTM- April 2019 Nuclear & Hazmat Dangers Near You

Discussion in 'Survival Topic of the Month' started by Motomom34, Apr 4, 2019.


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  1. Motomom34

    Motomom34 Monkey+++

    Topic of the month will be a time of knowing your threats around you, what to do and how to respond. This is a today threat, not just during SHTF.
    105801548-1552995411787ap_19078024333586.530x298.


    What are your nuclear and chemical refinery threats (think wind...)
    How do you protect against?
    Are you prepared?
    How far do you need to get away from a refinery fire? How far is safe from a nuclear facility?
    How long to shelter in place? Basement, closed room? Are you prepared?

    Do you know where the nearest nuclear plant is to you? How close do you live/work near a nuclear plant, waste plant or hazardous material facility? What about pipelines? These are dangers that can harm us even in normal times. What materials are stored within 50 miles of your home? Like I mentioned above, think wind or with pipelines, what about your water supply.

    The picture posted was of a fire that took place in March at a facility in Texas. The fire went from one tank, two tanks then it was 8 tanks burning. The fire caused emissions of benzene and chemical spills into regional waterways, including Buffalo and Tucker bayous, and the Houston Ship Channel. Residents were told to shelter in place twice plus black ash was falling. Do you wear a mask even after officials say things are okay? What about your pets? If SHTF, stuff like this is going to happen. Imagine having a petrochemical plant burning in summer, sheltering in place due to toxic air…. Have you thought about what to do?

    tab1.

    Nuclear Research and Test Facilities:
    non-power-map-smaller-file.
    Nuclear Research and Test Reactors in the US

    Pipeline Map:
    2016_03_21-PHMSA-US-Pipeline-Network.

    I do not have a refinery and/or hazmat storage map.
     
  2. SB21

    SB21 Monkey+++

    I'm in an area surrounded by a few nuclear plants , and fuel and chemical storage plants/tanks. At the moment , my best prep for that is my evac route. There's no way of knowing which way the wind will be blowing on that fateful day. My AO could be another 3 Mile Island or Chernobyl , in a nuclear meltdown. I've prepped for a good many other scenarios , but not so much for these instances. Not sure I want to be living in a post nuke meltdown wasteland. I'm gettin to old for runnin.
     
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  3. duane

    duane Monkey+++

    The big dangers are the ones you don't know about. While they were not in use when I was at Holloman AFB, the fire fighting foams they used in fire suppression classes have polluted the water under the training area to the point it is 18,000 times the upper limit for drinking. We routinely dumped tce used for cleaning parts, spilled hundreds of gallons of jet fuel in fire fighting training, washed aircraft off after applying paint removal chemicals etc. Then there is always Times Beach and the Love Canal and their problems and the contamination of the ground water in New England etc with the chemicals in gasoline. The major problems DDT, now it looks like Roundup, asbestos, etc, is the chemicals and substances that were ok and now aren't. While being able to run for cover if the local nuke plant blows, or there is a derailment of chemicals on the track near your house, it is much more likely you will die from non Hodgkin's lymphoma after working in an apple orchard or liver cancer after raising alfalfa, then fall out from a refinery fire. Trying to be as chemical free in your house and garden, taking as few drugs as possible, not being a first responder in all new products and also realizing that a lot of old chemicals are very deadly should be part of your every day life as well as preps. The old fluorescent bulbs contained beryllium, a very deadly chemical and welding or forging galvanized metal can kill you. If there is a major spill, chemical attack, etc, I doubt if I would be able to escape before the roads become impassible, and while I have both chemical masks and tyveck chemical gear, I am much more likely to get something from bad fruit or veggies than the meltdown of the nuke plant 90 miles downwind. YMMV.
     
  4. Motomom34

    Motomom34 Monkey+++

    Since you live in an area surrounded by dangers, have you thought about sheltering in place? I read that one should shelter in a sealed off basement for 2 weeks then evacuate. Is that a better option then trying to evacuate when the roads are jammed with everyone else bugging out? [dunno]
     
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  5. snake6264

    snake6264 Combat flip flop douchebag

    I got it all Nuke Plant a weapons depot underground gas storage and pipeline so take your pick
     
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  6. Seawolf1090

    Seawolf1090 Retired Curmudgeonly IT Monkey Founding Member

    Does that sealed basement have filtered ventilation? Two weeks of tank air would be expensive and bulky. Also CO2 scrubbers.
    One accident I recall back in the 1970s was during my time stationed at Tyndall AFB, Fl. I normally drove home 115 miles to Tallahassee each Friday after work, then back to base early Monday morning.
    One time I delayed the drive home a day. There was a train derailment on Highway 231 just north of Tyndall AFB/Panama City. It caused several tanks of Chlorine gas to spill! Cars stalled due to lack of oxygen, and drivers died. In that situation, even a gas mask is useless, as there was no oxygen to breath - displaced by the heavier chlorine. If it had happened in a city, a lot of people would be endangered.
    That one nap of nuke sites shows one in southeast Alabama - pretty close to me! No refineries or oil storeage close to me.
     
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  7. Motomom34

    Motomom34 Monkey+++

    So do you have a plan? Seems you have all types of threats so what would you do?
     
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  8. SB21

    SB21 Monkey+++

    I don't have a basement , a gas mask might help , not sure how to deal with the radiation without a sealed room , then as others have said , getting fresh air for a period of time could be problematic . I guess you could pump air from outside thru a certified NBC filter .
     
  9. DKR

    DKR Raconteur of the first stripe

    The Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) of 1986 was created to help communities plan for chemical emergencies. It also requires industry to report on the storage, use and releases of hazardous substances to federal, state, and local governments.

    Your local fire department has a list/location of all HAZMAT in your jurisdiction. Most larger depts have a desinated "Community Right to Know' person, usually in the Inspection section of the Dept.

    Worth a call to get an appt and a full run down.
     
  10. 3M-TA3

    3M-TA3 Cold Wet Monkey

    I noticed that INEEL was not included on the nuclear map. Funny how they forgot all about the place where nuclear power was first developed and used. It's also where the infamous breeder reactor was built. If you don't know where INEEL is located, it's near Atomic City, Idaho... must be a coincidence, huh?

    I'm not as worried about the plants themselves as I am about safely storing the waste. IMO spent fuel should be heavily buffered with other materials and then returned to the ground it was originally taken from. Many of the existing areas we use for storage (Like Hanford) potentially expose the materials to rivers (like the Columbia or Idaho's Lost River) where they can cause damage downstream. The Lost River, BTW, resurfaces near Hagerman, ID where the majority of US trout is farmed.

    Great TOTM @Motomom34! I'm glad to see TOTMs revival on SM.
     
    snake6264, Motomom34 and techsar like this.
  11. Seawolf1090

    Seawolf1090 Retired Curmudgeonly IT Monkey Founding Member

    Depends on the warning time. Often crap happens with NO warning, and...... you die.
    Health concerns make bugging out difficult at this time.
     
    snake6264, Motomom34, techsar and 2 others like this.
  12. techsar

    techsar Monkey+++

    Nuke plant roughly 110 mi to the WNW, but of higher concern are three interstate highways, barges on the MS river and trains carrying who-knows-what. Those are more likely to have an incident in my mind.

    PPE is here if needed, along with pieces for a project to provide filtered positive pressure in the house, powered by solar/wind/genset/grid as required.

    But staying in place or bugging out would be determined by what and where the problem was, along with weather and wind.
     
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  13. SB21

    SB21 Monkey+++

    My Dad was an electrical designing engineer for Duke Power , did a bunch of stuff at all the plants around , coal , steam , hydro,and nuclear . In my earlier years , talking with him about nuclear power , he never seemed to be worried about accidents , so I've just followed along with him . If a meltdown happens , i maybe to close to worry about running anyway .
     
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  14. Dunerunner

    Dunerunner Brewery Monkey Moderator

    Fukushima wasn't really close, but has had an effect.....
     
  15. Ganado

    Ganado Monkey+++

    I'm with snake on this one. I will probably die.

    I have several escape routes the trick is knowing when to go. Timing is everything. I would have to get out of town before other people do or if I'm are too late just hunker down and die if it's nuclear.
     
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  16. snake6264

    snake6264 Combat flip flop douchebag

    Well it really depends on the scenario weapons depot and nuke plant depend on time of year because of prevailing winds one one either side of me the underground gas storage im ten mile but blast wave would be huge pipe is not a care in the world so a plan yeah I gots me many plans just warning time and wind
     
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  17. Lancer

    Lancer TANSTAFL! Site Supporter+++

    Huge set of tank farms and pipeline terminus's ~35 miles semi-upwind, a commercial nuke plant 38 miles downwind. Closest interstate is 10 miles.
    Lots of full cover tyveks, enough NBC respirators to cover family, two geiger counters, and if need be I could quickly rig a limited positive pressure filtered, somewhat, air supply. And we already have a weather tight mud room you'd want as an intermediate transit area if we had to deal with a contaminated atmosphere for any length of time. We're up high so short term contamination of the wells is probably unlikely.
    But as noted - these sorts of things happen very quickly, so odds of my being home at the time, or being able to get home easily are marginal. And my GHB set does not take into account these scenarios. If I have to hoof through a badly contaminated countryside I die. Holing up would probably be the best scenario, but......
     
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  18. 3M-TA3

    3M-TA3 Cold Wet Monkey

    Here is a good article on the relative safety of US nuclear power plants: How Safe Are Nuclear Power Plants? | ANS Nuclear Cafe

    I worked in the energy industry several years ago and our clients included every nuclear plant in the US. Before my "exposure" to the nuclear side of things I had several misconceptions, mostly driven by the MSM sensationalizing stories. The nuclear industry has a tremendous amount of oversight and safety regulation in all aspects.

    You may not be aware that all instrumentation in all nuclear plants is monitored by a redundant system and if any parameter in any reactor goes outside of a narrow operating spec that oversight is automatically implemented. There are at least two "war rooms" where the data is displayed and response is coordinated. The system, by the way, was a response to Three Mile Island in the 1970s.

    Also note that coal plants emit far more radioactive substances into the environment that do nuclear plants and nobody gives is a second thought.

    I'm far, far more concerned about chemical plants and cryogenic gas storage.
     
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  19. Merkun

    Merkun furious dreamer

    There in lays the rub. Facts do NOT count when raving will stir things up based on fiction.

    I did some operating and building, and have seen the tremendous expenses paid to assure the plants are safe as it is possible to politically require (which is usually much more than needed for engineering and real safety reasons.)
     
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  20. arleigh

    arleigh Goophy monkey

    Before nuclear plants were developed the means to deal with the waste should have been in place . Nuclear is wrong in so many ways. Solar , wind and batteries have been around significantly longer and a significantly less threat to the environment .
    And these ,had they been given the attention they deserve, would have evolved in technology way ahead of where we are now.
    Borrowing a phrase from Jurassic park," they were so busy building a thing , never giving thought as to whether they should."

    We laugh at rednecks doing stupid things not having thought abut the consequences, but the laugh now is on humanity, most of which had absolutely no vote in the issue.
    Want to right a wrong SHUT THEM DOWN AND NEUTRALIZE THE WASTE. What, you can't neutralize the waste. looks like you've got a problem .you've got a tiger by the tail and the whole world is paying the consequences of the stupidity of a few .
    Fukushima is still draining radiation into the pacific and it is DEAD now. reports from those that travel the pacific and those that live along the coasts ,and fisheries and the wild life speak volumes. I don't trust any thing the government has to say. .
     
    SB21 likes this.
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