Life in the "Ingestion Zone"

. . . 10 to 50 miles from Prairie Island Nuke Plant

I adapted this graphic from this website.

You probably don’t think much about the Prairie Island Nuclear Plant in Red Wing. Just as well. But I learned some interesting things about it recently.

Lesson 1: Dunn County is in the 10 - 50 mile radius of the plant. This is known as the “Ingestion Zone.” That means we probably would not have to evacuate if there was a problem, but we could have some nasty stuff come our way if the wind was right.

Lesson 2: A big piece of dealing with the fallout (excuse the pun) of an accident there involves protecting farm animals and crops. Here is an informative, easy to read document about that.

Wisconsin Radiological Emergency Information for Farmers, Food Processors, and Distributors

Lesson 3: The government’s plan to protect citizens is to evacuate them out of the 10 mile zone (into the Ingestion Zone) and give them Potassium Iodide tablets (KI.) You take KI before exposure and it gets absorbed by your thyroid first, making it too full to take in any bad radioactive iodine. Here is another informative, easy to read webpage where you can buy some KI cheaply and over the counter.

Lesson 4: I found this report which questions the idea that the people within a 10 mile radius are the only ones in need of evacuation and of planning for such an event.

Lesson 5: I casually asked if Dunn County had KI on-hand for an emergency and was told . . .

“Dunn County Emergency Management itself does not have a stockpile but we have resources to get the needed amount if there is ever a situation that would require us to hand that out.” — Melissa Gilgenbach, Director, Dunn County Emergency Communications and Emergency Management

Conclusion:

KI is relatively cheap and legal. I suggest you consider buying some from the link above (which I did) or from another more-reputable-than-amazon source.

I leave you with this really funny (???) video. It is a kiddie field trip where, like drag queen story hour, it is a good thing you don’t understand anything the adults say. Both experiences would probably give a kid nightmares.