# How close is your nearest nuke power plant? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 18, 2011, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-is-your-nearest-nuke-power-plant/575098 "2011-03-18T01:21:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-is-your-nearest-nuke-power-plant/575098/41 "2011-03-18T12:57:35Z")
> [@BuzzSaw101](#): > > A 7.3 magitude earthquake hit Charleston, S.C. in 1886. Just to be clear, the Savannah River Site isn’t on the SC coast. It’s outside Augusta, GA on the GA/SC border. There is a nuclear power plant on the Georgia side, and a facility that refines nuclear material for use in nuclear weapons on the South Carolina side. ETA: it’s about 130 miles away from Charleston. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-is-your-nearest-nuke-power-plant/575098/42 "2011-03-18T13:17:48Z")
> [@Zyada](#): > > I’m about 55 miles from that plant. I live in Bedford, where do you live? NE Dallas - roughly 635 @ 75 / LBJ @ Central. I just took the 60 miles from Dallas distance that Wikipedia quoted and tacked 10 miles on since I’m about 10 miles north of downtown. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-is-your-nearest-nuke-power-plant/575098/43 "2011-03-18T13:19:38Z")
> [@Sarabellum1976](#): > > I’m about 50 miles from Comanche Peak, home of 2 nuclear reactors. No earthquakes here in North Texas, thankfully. I believe there is another 2 located in South Texas somewhere, but that’s about it for Texas. Actually there have been a series of sub-3 magnitude earthquakes in the past few years in the D/FW area. They think it’s some kind of consequence of all the gas drilling in the area. No damage or anything though. [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27472024/ns/us\_news-life/](http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27472024/ns/us_news-life/) ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-is-your-nearest-nuke-power-plant/575098/44 "2011-03-18T13:26:11Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > About 60 miles downwind of the [largest](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palo_Verde_Nuclear_Generating_Station) Nuke plant in the country. > :eek: I must be neighbors with beowulff. Hi Beowulff! 🙂 I toured the Palo Verde Station last year, and it was fascinating to get up close to these beasts. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-is-your-nearest-nuke-power-plant/575098/45 "2011-03-18T13:41:42Z")
Someplace in Iran I suppose a couple hunded miles. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-is-your-nearest-nuke-power-plant/575098/46 "2011-03-18T13:48:57Z")
In some areas near my house I can see the big white cloud that is produced from the cooling tower. They are supposed to add another reactor to that plant but who knows if that will happen now. The plant opened in 86 and is licensed for 20 more years. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-is-your-nearest-nuke-power-plant/575098/47 "2011-03-18T13:51:15Z")
I live about 60 miles (according to Google Maps) away from the largest nuclear power plant in the United States, the Palo Verde generator. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-is-your-nearest-nuke-power-plant/575098/48 "2011-03-18T13:59:04Z")
I live about 160 KMS from a research reactor, but I work anywhere from inside it to 10 KMS away in my office. ---
**Author:** ![MsWhatsit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/eb8c5e/32.png) [@MsWhatsit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsWhatsit)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-is-your-nearest-nuke-power-plant/575098/49 "2011-03-18T14:04:40Z")
I think Davis-Besse is the closest, near Lake Erie. About 125 miles from my house. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-is-your-nearest-nuke-power-plant/575098/50 "2011-03-18T14:24:09Z")
> [@A Monkey With a Gun](#): > > 60 miles South of the Savannah River Plant (S Carolina coast). I don’t think there’s much chance of an earthquake here though, and it should withstand a hurricane pretty easily if it ever got hit. I don’t believe any of the reactors are online at this point - more of a waste processing place, isn’t it? However, there is indeed a perfectly good fault line under my feet up here in Columbia, maybe 70 miles or so away? The Charleston earthquake will probably happen again at some time and Charleston will be hella fucked, what with all the fill and the bridges and such. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-is-your-nearest-nuke-power-plant/575098/51 "2011-03-18T14:39:38Z")
I can see the steam plumes from the [Beaver Valley Nuclear Generating Station](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaver_Valley_Nuclear_Generating_Station)from my classroom window. ---
**Author:** ![Normal\_Phase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Normal\_Phase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Normal_Phase)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-is-your-nearest-nuke-power-plant/575098/52 "2011-03-18T14:42:57Z")
5 or 10 miles. “Can’t get there from here” (it’s across a river, any bridge is a very long way around), so I’m not positive exactly how far. We’re within the evacuation zone, though. I don’t know why it doesn’t worry me, considering I worry about just about everything else, but it doesn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Azeotrope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/0ea827/32.png) [@Azeotrope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Azeotrope)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-is-your-nearest-nuke-power-plant/575098/53 "2011-03-18T14:54:49Z")
20-ish miles from the PPL Susquehanna plant near Berwick, PA. Got to go on a tour of it once. It was pretty interesting, although the Simpsons references were nonstop. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-is-your-nearest-nuke-power-plant/575098/54 "2011-03-18T14:56:11Z")
About 30 miles from Torness, on the Scottish east coast. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-is-your-nearest-nuke-power-plant/575098/55 "2011-03-18T15:02:34Z")
5 miles from the Salem Nuclear Power Plant. I am in Delaware and it’s across the Delaware River in Salem County, NJ. My neighborhood has sirens and signs as part of the emergency planning, etc. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-is-your-nearest-nuke-power-plant/575098/56 "2011-03-18T15:07:04Z")
Eighty five miles from Entergy’s Nuclear One, in central Arkansas. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-is-your-nearest-nuke-power-plant/575098/57 "2011-03-18T15:27:37Z")
Some of the siren tests are low power so they are not loud. I think once a year they have to do a full power test. I don’t know where the closest siren is to my house. I play disc golf right across the lake from the plant. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-is-your-nearest-nuke-power-plant/575098/58 "2011-03-18T15:44:30Z")
I’m about 50 miles from San Onofre. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-is-your-nearest-nuke-power-plant/575098/59 "2011-03-18T16:09:31Z")
> [@medicated](#): > > I got to stand right beside the reactor core at Darlington, which was the best high school chemistry field trip ever. Er, before it was fueled, obviously:) My girlfriend lives in Whitby, and I’m pretty likely to end up moving there soon. Howdy, neighbour… Hi! 🙂 I took that tour as well. I remember standing in front of the calandria… If you want to know anything about Whitby in the seventies and early eighties, I’m your guy! ---
**Author:** ![FrancisCastle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b4bc9f/32.png) [@FrancisCastle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrancisCastle)\ **Post date:** [March 18, 2011, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-is-your-nearest-nuke-power-plant/575098/60 "2011-03-18T18:07:34Z")
It’s about 20 miles up the road to the first one, and 5 more miles to the second one. I have immediate family members working at both of them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-is-your-nearest-nuke-power-plant/575098.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-close-is-your-nearest-nuke-power-plant/575098.md?page=4)