The small town of Gaffney, S.C. is welcoming with open arms all the benefits of nuclear energy. My first experience with nuclear plants - besides seeing them in the headline news as disasters - was landing in Harrisburg, PA, October and asking the passenger seated next to me, a Pennsylvanian, "Do they keep those Christmas lights up year round?" After finding out it was the infamous Three Mile Island, I was a little uncomfortable.
Going straight to my motel in Carlisle, I opened up the telephone book to check out the restaurants in the area only to find in the blue section of the phone directory the emergency instructions on what to do in case of a 'nuclear melt-down'. Now I was starting to panic. At least in Florida when you open the directory, the hurricane emergency instructions tell you that you have a few days to get supplies and hunker down.
In working and talking to the businesses and residents in the area, they weren't concerned and were open about discussing the safety issues with strangers. It still was odd to drive the roads, looking at the beautiful, expensive homes directly across from the Susequehanna River wondering how those homeowners could sleep at night. But they did.
The residents of Gaffney, SC need to be commended and recognized for their honesty, their good sense, and initiative in helping the world protect our resources and use alternative energy sources. In this day and age of "NIMBY", the majority of citizens would rather talk the talk, than walk the walk that goes hand in hand with protecting the environment and that means that all Gaffney residents should be able to sleep well at night.
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