When I was a kid growing up in New York, my family and I went on a Saturday outing to tour a nuclear power plant — the Indian Point Energy Center, to be exact. My parent’s didn’t want me to fear nuclear energy. My father was a scientist and my mother always looked more to the future than the past.
Fast forward to the summer of 2016
Bob and I were spending days at a time scouring the Philadelphia suburbs for a great apartment. Our daughter, who was in grad school, said it would be nice to have us nearby. We were planning on moving from New Jersey and thought it would be lovely to take her up on her invitation before we found our next permanent home.
We made several trips to Philly so we could find the best apartment for us and our two dogs. There was one enticing listing about 45 minutes away by back roads — 20 minutes by highway. We thought it was probably further away than we wanted. But it sounded so enticing we decided to see it.
The trip to the apartment from our daughter’s place was long. Did you ever notice when you’re unfamiliar with the roads the trip always seems longer?
After what seemed like hours, but was probably only 30 minutes, we drove through an expanse of farmland.
The scenery was pretty, but the feeling was “remote.” In fact, to me, it felt like we reached the ends of the earth. You can take the girl out of Brooklyn, but you can’t take Brooklyn out of the girl.
Finally, the navigator announced we were five minutes away from our destination. I found that amusing since I was sure we were smack in the middle of nowhere. Then, the navigator said to make a quick left turn, and so I did.
And then . . . I saw them. There in the near distance . . .
I’m talking about the two nuclear power plant cooling towers that suddenly jumped into view!
Uh, oh.
Actually, it was quite funny. I though we would have been more likely to encounter a purple cow. Who would have expected this remote and pristine farmland to be so close to a nuclear power plant? And the way it suddenly appeared out of nowhere. But, that can happen when you’re driving. And the cooling towers weren’t going to stop us.
We continued five minutes more to the apartment development, which was on the outskirts of a mid-sized town. How that town sprang up out of nowhere I will never know.
Once there, we met up with the real estate agent. She was lovely, and represented the complex very well. The apartment we saw was perfect.
Time to say good-by
Unfortunately, we had already decided that the location was too far from our daughter’s apartment – but the apartment was nice. The spacious two-bedroom unit had a new kitchen, plenty of sunshine, and just enough architectural features to be interesting. And the price was right too. In fact, it was the nicest apartment we had seen so far.
We wanted to be persuaded.
Once back at the renal office, we made small talk about New York City with another agent. We felt more and more at home.
We then learned that our rental agent had lived in that very town since her birth.
“Such a great place to live,” was the message. And we ate it up.
We really wanted to be convinced to move there.
Someone had to say it
“Finally,” I thought, “someone has to address the elephant in the room.”
And so, I did.
“Are those smokestacks from a nuclear power plant?” I blurted out.
The amicable rental agent answered coyly, “I don’t think so.”
In my head, I screamed, “ARE YOU KIDDING ME!” Out loud I quietly offered, “Oh, they do look like cooling towers.”
Our rental agent excused herself for a moment. She needed to get answers about rental fees from her central office.
When she returned, she had the information we requested. And then she volunteered, she had checked, and “Yes, it was indeed a nuclear power plant next door.”
Maybe she had also been checking on her legal obligation to disclose the truth to potential tenants. A lifelong resident surely would have known the facts. It was disappointing.
Time to Google
That night, back at our daughter’s apartment, I researched that particular power plant. It was in Limerick — the town next door. And it had been quite well received by the neighboring town. In fact, to show support, the town had thoughtfully distributed free potassium Iodide tablets to area residents who lived or worked within a 10-mile radius of the Limerick Nuclear Power Plant. Imagine that.
(In the event of a nuclear mishap, taking potassium iodide prevents thyroid cancer.)
Our apartment search had to continue
We decided, whatever we thought about nuclear power, there was no need to move so far away from our current home to still be 45 minutes away from our daughter.
I will leave the merits of nuclear power up to public debate. What is not up for debate, though, is this:
Your good word is your most precious asset. Treat it well.
