Posted on 04/18/2010 1:40:55 PM PDT by Coleus
Spikes of corn stalks are scattered along miles of fog-shrouded fields in Hancocks Bridge on a spring morning an eerie suggestion of the bayonets used in the Revolutionary and Civil War battles that were fought there.
On the horizon is the billowing cooling tower of the Salem Nuclear Power Plant, which is taller than the length of a football field. It is a stark reminder that this historic rural hamlet relies on an industry that is playing a major role in the nations debate over energy policy.
The contrast is not lost on Ellen Pompper. Her family moved to this farming community in South Jersey when she was a girl. She stayed, married a local boy and raised a family in Lower Alloways Creek. For the past six years, she has been mayor in this Salem County township, whose largest employer and taxpayer is PSEG Nuclear.
Pompper and her neighbors accept the nuclear reactors Salem 1, Salem 2 and Hope Creek as a fact of life, despite periodic operating problems since the first one was built in 1977.
"Back in the 90s when they were in shutdown mode for a couple of years, my husband and I wondered what would happen to us if it was closed," said Pompper, whose husband Steve, a control room operator, has worked at the plant for 24 years, and whose son, Phil, has worked there for three.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
I live about 10 miles from the reactors...it is a beautiful area.
That is a huge lie.
Using cooling towers actually would require the plants to draw more water from the river.
Cooling towers are huge evaporators. More water would be drawn from the river because hundreds of thousands of gallons a day would be dumped in to the atmosphere.
Cooling towers are a huge waste of money. The envirofreaks tried to stop the nuclear industry by saying that the plants would dump huge amounts of waste heat in to lakes and rivers and boil the fish alive. The electric companies came up with the cooling towers to placate the nuts.
The plants may draw more water with out towers but it all goes back in the river
I bet this guy is a major share holder in the ACME Candle Company.
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