"Sirens intended to warn Pickering residents of a safety risk at the nearby nuclear plant are gathering dust in a warehouse after local politicians refused to install them, calling them Cold War "monstrosities" and a threat to property values." Toronto Star Mar. 3, 2004.
Pickering is a suburb with a great big nuclear power plant on the eastern side of Toronto. This has been quite the hilarious hullaballoo. How about those rusty old reactors bringing down property values? Well they're behind the nice burm, you see, no problem. My friend B. Smiley suggests a design for the sirens: elegant curved poles that bend down to the ground so that the siren itself can be aesthetically buried (muffled, if you will) in a pile of sand.
The Star article has dropped offline, but you can read it here, on the riderfans.com forum (for those of you south of the 49th, Canadian football fans can be scary too). This guy David W. cites the story as an example of civilian foolishness. His surreal quote: "And you wonder why the military is falling apart in this country - and will continue to do so? 'cause Canadians talk a good preparedness story but when push comes to shove they only think of themselves."
jeez. isn't the whole 'property values' thing ridiculous? I guess the residents would rather not know something big is going down at the nuclear power plant? their houses will be really worthless after a disaster... let's hang a big starbucks sign on the local homeless shelter too, while our heads are in the sand.
I heard one resident on the radio saying that traffic is so bad on a normal day, they wouldn't be able to get anywhere even if the sirens did go off, so why bother. I bet it's more about preserving the denial than it is about property values. Who want's to live in fear (even if there's good reason)?
pickering's close to water - keep a book docked, head for the ferry to Rochester and keep going once you're south of the border! no problem.
I used to live in Pickering a few years back. Ontario Hydro was notorious not telling anyone whenever their reactors had a little glitch. If they install warning sirens, I bet they'll never hit the buzzer even if they do have a melt-down.
You know what would be functional? I have always thought that Ontario Hydro should have the kilowatt output from all of their reactors posted live on the internet. That would be cool.
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"Sirens intended to warn Pickering residents of a safety risk at the nearby nuclear plant are gathering dust in a warehouse after local politicians refused to install them, calling them Cold War "monstrosities" and a threat to property values." Toronto Star Mar. 3, 2004.
Pickering is a suburb with a great big nuclear power plant on the eastern side of Toronto. This has been quite the hilarious hullaballoo. How about those rusty old reactors bringing down property values? Well they're behind the nice burm, you see, no problem. My friend B. Smiley suggests a design for the sirens: elegant curved poles that bend down to the ground so that the siren itself can be aesthetically buried (muffled, if you will) in a pile of sand.
The Star article has dropped offline, but you can read it here, on the riderfans.com forum (for those of you south of the 49th, Canadian football fans can be scary too). This guy David W. cites the story as an example of civilian foolishness. His surreal quote: "And you wonder why the military is falling apart in this country - and will continue to do so? 'cause Canadians talk a good preparedness story but when push comes to shove they only think of themselves."
- sally mckay 3-17-2004 8:36 am
jeez. isn't the whole 'property values' thing ridiculous? I guess the residents would rather not know something big is going down at the nuclear power plant? their houses will be really worthless after a disaster... let's hang a big starbucks sign on the local homeless shelter too, while our heads are in the sand.
- MK (guest) 3-17-2004 4:22 pm
I heard one resident on the radio saying that traffic is so bad on a normal day, they wouldn't be able to get anywhere even if the sirens did go off, so why bother. I bet it's more about preserving the denial than it is about property values. Who want's to live in fear (even if there's good reason)?
- sally mckay 3-17-2004 4:59 pm
pickering's close to water - keep a book docked, head for the ferry to Rochester and keep going once you're south of the border! no problem.
- rebecca 3-18-2004 9:59 pm
I used to live in Pickering a few years back. Ontario Hydro was notorious not telling anyone whenever their reactors had a little glitch. If they install warning sirens, I bet they'll never hit the buzzer even if they do have a melt-down.
You know what would be functional? I have always thought that Ontario Hydro should have the kilowatt output from all of their reactors posted live on the internet. That would be cool.
- Von Bark (guest) 3-21-2004 5:59 pm