Local Notes

My Nuke

I’m by no means an expert on nuclear power plants and their safety. But I live about 9 miles from one. From my third floor you can see the lights and roof of the containment dome. So if this one melts, I ‘m toast. If it blows up, I probably won’t hear the noise….

Doesn’t phase me a bit. My number is much more likely to come up from something other than a nuke.

I am bothered by the sirens. They test them every couple of months. All the dogs go crazy for 10 minutes. The birds just leave. Most kids under 5 start crying. It’s a noise you can’t escape. Other than the sirens there have been some plans to evacuate folks like me. The local joke is this sign:

When Indian Point blows up we’re supposed to go to this location and wait for a bus. Like some poor bus driver will really show up when the radiation is falling. It’s not a joke, but it is a joke.

 Indian Point is 24 miles north of NYC, right at sea level on the Hudson River. It was built in 1962. The original reactor has been decommissioned. In 1974 IP 2&3 were brought on line. The water-cooled reactors are pushing 40 years old. Indian Point is one mile from a fault-line. The facility was designed to withstand an earthquake of 6.1 (5.1 is estimated to be the highest).

You tell me. What’s so different between Indian Point and those in Japan that are now melting down?

A coalition of people have been trying to shut IP down for as long as I can remember. In 2008 I thought it would happen. Governor Elliot Spitzer and the County Exec, Andy Spano, publicly promised that the operating license for IP would not be renewed. But Spitzer got caught with his pants down and Spano got cremated in an election. So nothing happened with IP. Some recent developments:

• On January 7, 2010, NRC inspectors reported that an estimated 600,000 gallons of mildly radioactive steam was intentionally vented after an automatic shutdown of Unit 2. The levels of tritium in the steam were below those allowable by NRC safety standards.

• On November 7, 2010, an explosion occurred in the main transformer for Indian Point 2. The accident is still being investigated.

My bet? Indian Point will be closed in less than a year. 

One thing about this? IP (when it's running) provides 30% of Westchester/NYC power needs. Electric rates have nowhere to go but up. Big time.

Potholes

I was driving around this weekend. Unbelievable how bad the roads are. I’ve not seen them like this before. The tough winter is the culprit. The potholes are just exploding now that it is warm and wet.

I was cruising on the elevated section of the Bruckner Expressway. This road alternates between being a parking lot and a racetrack, depending on traffic. I was travelling at 60 doing my best to dodge potholes when I fell into a big one. Sidewall blowout. And I’m on a four-lane highway in the South Bronx, wearing a suit. So I swerve off the road and join the other losers who have busted tires.

In my stupid car you can’t replace one tire. Apparently the slightly different road-wear eats up the transmission. So I just got two new tires. Big bucks. I checked with my guy. The same tires are up 30% in price in just the past year. They are going up 3-5 % a month of late:

Yokahama Tire ^ 8% 4/1/2011

Michelin ^ 12% 3/1/2011

Hanook ^ 9% 3/5/2011

Cooper ^ 12% 2/6/2011

Bridgestone ^ 12% 3/1/2011

We’re going to get it both ways on this. In the years to come our roads will be deteriorating. Every budget, from the smallest town to the Federal government, will be cutting back on maintenance. We will blow out more tires as a result. The price of those tires is rising about 15 times faster than the CPI. But actually this will not show up in the CPI that Bernanke is looking at. The end result will be that we will all be a bit poorer. And we will continue to follow a misguided monetary policy. We can’t eat an IPod. And it won’t work as a spare.