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Nuclear powered

We went to the nuclear power plant "community day" open house today.  It was a great time.  One of the best parts was seeing the parents teaching kids about electricity generation, chemistry, biology, energy use, and even the politics of nuclear power.  They almost never stopped teaching, even when they were in the line for the ice cream.  I felt like we were all connected, somehow.

They had a cherry picker out front.  We got in line right after we arrived so Amanda and Luke were both able to get rides.  The biggest problem the people working the exhibit had was putting the grown-up sized harnesses on kid-sized people.  They didn't cinch them up as tightly as usual, since the children's heads were basically the only part peeking over the bucket--- there was hardly any risk of falling.

One of the displays was of energy efficient lightbulbs.  They were giving away CFL's, but when I asked about LEDs the person at the booth said those were much better.  He also explained in detail why they were better---these people love to talk about their jobs!.  Michael picked up lots of LED bulbs on sale, so I expect we have enough lightbulbs now for the next century.  I didn't pick a CFL up, although they did have other swag.

We saw a presentation by one of the workers.  "30% of your toast is nuclear powered!"  She was very knowledgeable and very enthusiastic.  Luke was enthusiastic, too.  When she asked what an atom was made of, he responded "Quarks!"  "We're going to try to stay away from string theory for this presentation," was her brilliant response.

One of the other people attending the open house was someone who worked at Three Mile Island for 30 years.  He said he was in charge of the clean-up after the accident.  That was interesting.  When I asked how they cleaned up, he said, "Mops and sponges," which surprised me.  He thinks that we have too many barriers to nuclear power plants, and that those barriers make the costs of building a plant prohibitive.  He also thinks that storing the spent fuel rods underwater for 20 years is a dumb idea.

I also met a woman coming to attend the open house who had worked down at another nuclear power plant nearby.  I overheard another older gentleman also talking about his time working at a power plant. It made me wonder about the community of people involved with nuclear power and how they stick together.  I certainly learned a lot, both from the exhibits and presentation, and from the people there. 

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