Origins of Radioactive Girl III

Forgive me, readers, for I have sinned. It has been...oh, well, you do the math...too long since my last post.

Further origins of Radioactive Girl

I can’t remember when I first had an interest in things radioactive. When do we learn about radiation? How? I think it’s something that we absorb from the culture we are immersed in. One thing I do remember is when the Maine Yankee Nuclear Power Plant (right) was built, in my old stomping grounds of Maine. There must have been some controversy- placing a nuclear power right smack on the coast of good ol’ Vacationland. My brother’s Physics class was going to tour the plant before it opened, and I begged the teacher to let me go along. The power plant was right on the water- constructed on the Bailey Peninsula o Wiscassett, Maine. The power plant ran from 1972 to 1996, producing much of Maine’s power. It was and remains Maine’s only nuclear power plant.

When we arrived in Wiscassett, we found that this was actually a press conference and not a tour. There was a viewing window where we could gaze at the power plant across the waters of the bay. I was a bit disgruntled about that! Time Magazine was on hand for the opening. There were refreshments and lots of videos and presentations promoting the power plant, but I really wanted to see the working guts.

To this date I have never toured the inside of a working power plant. The University of Virginia (my employer) had a Nuclear Physics program and a working reactor, but it was decommissioned before I arrived here. It’s just an empty building, now. Where will the next generation of Health Physicists train?

Nighty-night.

-Radioactive Girl