Like Whatever Gen-X
Remember the 1980s and 1990s and all things Gen-X. Take a stroll down memory lane, drink from a hose, and ride until the street lights come on. We discuss the past, present, and future of the forgotten generation. From music to movies and television, to the generational trauma we all experienced we talk about it all. Take a break from today and travel back to the long hot summer days of nostalgia. Come on slackers, fuck around and find out with us!
Like Whatever Gen-X
Jimmy's Back; Meltdown Mania
Forty-six years ago, on March 28, 1979, the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant experienced America's most serious nuclear accident. Though officials maintain minimal radiation escaped, the event permanently altered the nuclear industry and public perception. What many don't realize is that President Jimmy Carter—a trained nuclear engineer who had previously helped dismantle a damaged nuclear reactor in Canada—personally visited the site while debates raged about a potentially explosive hydrogen bubble forming above the cooling water.
We dive into the fascinating details of this historic event, examining how Carter's hands-on approach provided crucial leadership during a time of national anxiety. The accident resulted in permanent changes to nuclear industry regulations, with no new reactors ordered for years afterward. Despite the severity of the reactor damage (52% of the core melted down), the official stance maintains that health impacts were negligible—though we can't help but wonder about the long-term effects on Pennsylvania residents.
The conversation shifts to modern concerns as we discuss the critical importance of the United States Postal Service and current threats to its sustainability. Many people don't realize the USPS serves as more than mail delivery—it's a crucial infrastructure component designed to distribute emergency medications nationwide during disasters. Unlike what many believe, the postal service isn't taxpayer funded but relies on revenue from stamps and shipping services to maintain operations.
From nuclear anxieties to postal service advocacy to unexpected wildlife drama (including eagles battling ravens on live webcams and orcas wearing salmon as "hats"), this episode captures the quintessential Gen X perspective on both historical events and contemporary challenges. Join us for a thoughtful, sometimes feisty exploration of the events that shaped our generation and continue to influence how we view the world today.
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Speaker 2:Welcome to Like Whatever a podcast for, by and about Gen X, I'm Nicole and this is my BFF, heather, hello. So this week we want to start off by talking about a couple of collaborations that we are getting into, which is fun and exciting. So this week I want to tell you about a podcast called Free Nights and Weekends. It is a Gen X podcast. It is very funny, ooh, and he has some really good guests on. So we like it and we wanted to share it with you. So here is a little clip from Free Nights and Weekends.
Speaker 4:Hello, like Whatever Pod listeners, my name is Scott and I write comedy and, like the ladies of the podcast you're listening to, I got to grow up in the roaring 80s, but in the middle of the country. My podcast, free Nights and Weekends roaring 80s, but in the middle of the country. My podcast, free Nights and Weekends, covers it all, but from a different perspective. So when you're not listening to Like Whatever and planning family trips around their personal appearances, give us a listen. You can find us at Free Nights and Weekends Podcast on Facebook X and at FNAW Podcastcom Shut up.
Speaker 2:I know, Make sure you check out Three Nights and Weekends when you get a chance.
Speaker 3:So we're giving him a little clip to have on his podcast and we recorded our first commercial Commercial and air quotes, and. I mean we killed it on the first try.
Speaker 3:We really did, I don't know, I hope. Anyway, he might disagree, I guess, but uh, whatever, um he would be wrong. Uh, we also have um. We were contacted by someone who is very into this podcast, which is very exciting because we think it's cool when you people like us, we do. He has a book. His name is Pat Green. The book comes out April 7th. It's called Hearts of Glass Living in the Real World and we got a little advanced copy Excuse us. And it is really good.
Speaker 2:Yes, I mean, I mean, really good, I have not started it yet but I will procrastinate. I am the queen of procrastination and I am on vacation for the next three days, um a relaxing vacation with my mom and sister in virginia beach, so I think I will have plenty of time to sit around and read it then.
Speaker 3:I read it last night.
Speaker 4:Right after we got it, I read it. And I very much enjoyed it.
Speaker 3:So basically, we are going to try and work something out where he comes and entertains you and us. Yeah. As a guest on the show. He really wants to hang out with us for the hour. I don't know why.
Speaker 2:And we want to help him promote his book. Win-win for everybody.
Speaker 3:So we're trying to get it out there. We're trying to do our things, help the community, Because we think we're fucking hilarious. I mean we are fucking hilarious.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, just real quick, I want to remind you to find us wherever you listen to podcasts. Please remember to like, rate and review. That is important for us to get in better standings with all the podcast carriers. And we are on all the socials except for X at LikeWhateverPod. You can look for us on YouTube where we are under LikeWhatever and the L and the W are capitalized. Yes, some people are having issues finding us. We think that might be it, me included, and we are also on TikTok.
Speaker 3:The tickety-tock.
Speaker 2:Heather's favorite. All right, so let's fuck around and find out about the 1979 Three Mile Island accident 46 years ago, on March 28th, which is the day that this podcast will drop. Wow, mm-hmm up, wow. My references are pbsorg and nrcgov, which is the United States Nuclear Regulatory.
Speaker 3:Commission, someone whose website is still up, so that's good.
Speaker 2:Does Homer run that? Probably so. The Three Mile Island accident in 1979 at the three mile island nuclear plant station that was the most serious in the history of the american nuclear power industry. The three mile island power station was named after the island on which it was situated in the susquehanna river near harrisburg, pennsylvania I don't know why I always thought it was new york.
Speaker 3:It's up there, I know, but I don't know why I always thought it was New York. It's up there, I know, but I don't know why. I don't know, I don't know why. Or, like Upper Jersey, I don't know why I thought it was like there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's in a weird spot. I Googled it, good job. I know. At 4 am on March 28th an automatically operated valve in the Unit 2 reactor mistakenly closed, shutting off the water supply to the main water feed system, that is, the system that transfers heat from the water actually circulating in the reactor core.
Speaker 3:No-transcript, whew that was a tongue twister, that was easy for you to say yeah.
Speaker 2:Some of which escaped from the core into the containment vessel of the reactor building. Very little of this and other radioactive gases actually escaped into the atmosphere and they did not constitute a threat to the health of the surrounding population, which I find very hard to believe.
Speaker 2:But nobody believes that In the following days adequate coolant water circulation in the core was restored. The accident at Three Mile Island, though minuscule in its health consequences, had widespread and profound effects on the American nuclear power industry. It resulted in the immediate, though temporary, process of approval for new plants by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was significantly slowed. For years after the accident no new reactors were ordered by utility companies in the United States from 1979 through the mid-80s. The accident increased public fears about the safety of nuclear reactors and strengthened public opposition to the construction of new plants. The unharmed Unit 1 reactor of Three Mile Island did not resume operations until 1985. The cleanup of Unit 2 continued until 1990. Damage to the unit was so severe, however, 52% of the core melted down and it remained unusable.
Speaker 3:wow so I don't remember when was chernobyl?
Speaker 2:man. That movie chernobyl, though, is very good oh my gosh, so good yeah, they have like three-headed dogs and stuff.
Speaker 3:They they still have new that whole area there is uh radioactive, radioactive 86.
Speaker 2:Okay, and I remember um knowing about three mile island my whole life. Yeah, and it made me nervous because where we live at the beach, you can look across the water and see the new jersey yes, nuclear plant you know, and I think I I think that might be why I was confused, because I think I maybe thought that was Three Mile Island. No, we can't see Three Mile.
Speaker 3:Island, I know, not from here. Well, I think that maybe that's why I thought it was Jersey, because I was like, oh, look at that, that's right there. I mean, I guess nuclear is one of the cleaner energies, correct?
Speaker 2:Yeah, until it leaks. Until it leaks, until it's not.
Speaker 3:Then it's really not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, then it's super not Because.
Speaker 3:I think that Chernobyl still has like radioactive.
Speaker 2:Oh it takes I think I want to say tens of thousands of years for it to Radio work, yeah, and it's so creepy to see pictures of that area now because it's just an abandoned yeah city it's so sad what was crazy, though, in that movie was watching. The people just stand there and watch yeah like as it happened.
Speaker 3:You're like oh my god, yeah, they have no idea well, and I think that wasn't that what happened in Fukushima in the tsunami. It was the coolant right, that was the problem with it.
Speaker 2:It was, I think that's, and then they had people going in there they had the old people going in there because the old people knew it was more important to keep the young people alive the good of the many outweigh the good of the few Imagine that Spock.
Speaker 3:Dr Spock, it's the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, oh, okay.
Speaker 2:So I lost my place. I'm sorry I interrupted. No, it's not your fault Health effects, Not your fault my fault.
Speaker 3:It is my fault, everything's my fault. I'm sorry I interrupted. No, it's not your fault. Health effects Not your fault. My fault, it is my fault, everything's my fault.
Speaker 2:All right. The health effects the NRC conducted detailed studies of the accident's radiological consequences, as did the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Health, education and Welfare, now Health and Human Services, the Department of Energy and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Several independent groups also conducted studies.
Speaker 2:The approximately 2 million people around TMI2, too much information to during the accident are estimated to have received an average radiation dose of only about one millirem above the usual background dose. To put that into context, exposure from a chest x-ray is about six millirem and the area's natural radioactive background dose is about 100 to 125 millirem per year for the area. The accident's maximum dose to a person at the site boundary would have been less than 100 millirem above background. I don't want any?
Speaker 3:No, that doesn't seem like it's good.
Speaker 2:It's like how they say well, you can have so much lead in baby food, but just a little bit.
Speaker 3:Well, you can have so many cockroach parts. Yeah, a little bit of rat poop never hurt anybody.
Speaker 2:Okay. So in the months following the accident, although questions were raised about possible adverse effects from radiation on human, animal and plant life in the TMI area, None of your goddamn business.
Speaker 2:None could be directly correlated to the accident. Thousands of environmental samples of air, water, milk, vegetation, soil and foodstuffs were collected by various government agencies monitoring the area. Very low levels of radionuclides could be attributed to releases from the accident. Organizations such as Columbia University and the University of Pittsburgh have concluded that, in spite of serious damage to the reactor, the actual release had negligible effects on the physical health of individuals or the environment. I would like to talk to people in the area well and see how they're so here's how much cancer they've got so
Speaker 3:here's the thing about Pennsylvania period. No offense to the Pennsylvania people, but first of all, you all travel some kind of crazy amounts. Are you ever home.
Speaker 3:Because everywhere I have ever been, ever Vegas, I was on a cruise to motherfucking Alaska and the whole ship was people from fucking Pennsylvania. In Arizona, some lady walks up, starts a conversation when are you from Pittsburgh? Oh, you're from fucking Pennsylvania. Everywhere I go Can't get away from, it's true, anyway. So you, people from Pennsylvania, you got the cancers anyway. I mean that's what my whole family has died of. And they, you people from Pennsylvania, you got the cancers anyway. I mean that's what my whole family has died of. And they're all from Pennsylvania. Yeah, I mean they live right near Sun Oil, so that probably didn't help. They were drinking that Sun.
Speaker 2:Oil, water and all that mining.
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, I mean, how would you know if it was nuclear cancer or minor cancer, oil cancer?
Speaker 2:All right. Impact of the accident. A combination of personal error, design deficiencies and component failures caused the TMI accident, which permanently changed both the nuclear industry and the NRC Public fear and distrust increased. Nrc's regulations and oversight became broader and more robust, and management of the plants was scrutinized more carefully. Careful analysis of the accident's events identified problems and led to permanent and sweeping changes in how nrc regulates its licensees, which in turn has reduced the risk to public health and safety except when you give one to mr burns and he lets homer be in charge.
Speaker 2:It's not good. This stuff always makes me mad anyway, like humans are lazy yes and there is a reason that protection measures and safety measures are put into place. So when you just get bored and lazy and skim on things like this, this shit's going to happen, yeah.
Speaker 3:So shit's going to melt down.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I heard they've been talking about a lot about the Scott Key Bridge again this week because it's the anniversary and that bridge hadn't been inspected in like 50 years. And guess what the bay bridge hasn't had. Like no, thank you proper, don't tell me that. And like no, I know I have to go through the bay bridge tunnel tomorrow. I don't mind the tunnel, so much maybe the bay. My mom hates tunnels so she might make. Just make me do the bridge my sister's driving though, so oh Lord.
Speaker 3:Either way, we don't like bridges around here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, no, no.
Speaker 3:And the sad fact of it is they're literally everywhere. Yeah, we're surrounded by water, so we are on a barrier island.
Speaker 2:Kind of bridgey. So here are some major changes that have occurred since the accident Upgrading and strengthening of plant design and equipment requirements. This includes fire protection, piping systems, auxiliary feed water systems, containment, building isolation, reliability of individual components, pressure relief valves and electric circuit breakers, and the ability of plants to shut down automatically. I mean, if you really think about it though, not to sidetrack. I mean to sidetrack intentionally.
Speaker 3:Yes, so you have really only ever heard of three. I mean I have. I don't know about you.
Speaker 2:Maybe you know more. You would think there'd be a lot more incidents you would, but maybe there are ones we don't know about. True, like if they're happening over there in Russia, china.
Speaker 3:That's true, but maybe not. I don't know.
Speaker 2:Okay. Identifying the critical role of human performance in plant safety led to revamping operator training and staffing requirements, because you know people pay attention in trainings Followed by improved instrumentation and controls for operating the plant and establishment of fitness for duty programs for plant workers to guard against alcohol or drug abuse, I mean duh, that's not a good job to be drunk on.
Speaker 2:I don't think Definitely not Enhancing emergency preparedness, including requirements for plants to do immediate notification to the NRC of significant events and an NRC operations center staffed 24 hours a day. Drills and response plans are now tested by licensees several times a year and state and local agencies participate in drills with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the NRC.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they don't exist anymore. I don't think they cut FEMA.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, Well, it used to be that way.
Speaker 3:So prepare yourselves for some nuclear meltdown, hey kids. Three Mile Island might happen again.
Speaker 2:I hope it doesn't happen in Jersey. That's too close. I don't know the wind's blowing the right way, we're fucked. I think we close. I don't know the wind's blowing the right way, we're fucked.
Speaker 3:I think we're fucked either way. True.
Speaker 2:Integrating NRC observations, findings and conclusions about licensee performance and management effectiveness into a periodic public report. Having senior NRC managers regularly analyze plant performance for those plants needing significant additional regulatory attention. Expanding NRC resident inspector programs first authorized in 1977, to have at least two inspectors live nearby and work exclusively at each plant in the US to provide daily surveillance of licensee adherence to NRC regulations. Sounds like a fun job. Just go around and tell people what to do. Expanding performance-oriented as well as safety-oriented inspections and the use of risk management or assessment to identify vulnerabilities of any plant to severe accidents. Strengthening and reorganizing enforcement staff in a separate office within the NRC. And then like five more and I'm just not going to run through the rest of them. I'm bored with it. I know you guys are All right, so this was fun. Jimmy Carter was president when three miles.
Speaker 3:She was so goddamn excited about this.
Speaker 2:I was so excited because y'all loved the jimmy carter episode jimmy carter episode is our most listened to episode yeah, by quite a bit. Yes, yeah, so we were excited to plug jimmy carter again. The damaged uh reactor at three mile island was not the first president jimmy. Jimmy Carter had viewed up close. While in the Navy, carter was part of a team that helped dismantle the damaged nuclear reactor at the Chalk River plant in Ontario, canada. Oh yeah, I remember that. So, there's a fourth one. I remember that.
Speaker 4:Because I was blown away by Carter was a trained nuclear engineer.
Speaker 3:I know as a trained nuclear engineer, I know.
Speaker 2:A trained nuclear engineer, Carter worked under famed Admiral Hyman Rickover, the father of the Navy's nuclear program on the Seawolf and atomic submarine. He also studied nuclear physics at Union College in New York. Given his background, Carter had a firm grasp of the potential disaster that would ensue should a nuclear meltdown occur. How convenient is that that that you have? The guy that's in charge actually knows what he's doing.
Speaker 3:That's a novel idea.
Speaker 2:He has expertise on you know what?
Speaker 3:the guy in charge, having expertise on literally anything other than going bankrupt, is a really novel idea yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yep okay, um, as a seasoned politician, he was a lot of soapboxes that I, I am
Speaker 3:oh well, feel free to jump in with one whenever you feel like I can't, because I haven't gotten my email email from elon yet, so I don't have to tell what my three things I did last week was um, yeah, I got a lot of I'm very angry person today, okay, and then she gave me drinks, so now I'm even more angry yeah well, I'll try not to be angry at Jimmy Carter no, it's okay.
Speaker 2:If you do, he would understand I don't think he would.
Speaker 2:As a seasoned politician, he was also aware of the possible panic that would ensue should people come to believe a meltdown was imminent. Upon hearing of the situation at Three Mile Island, carter dispatched Harold Denton, the director of the Division of Nuclear Reactor Regulations at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, to Harrisburg, pennsylvania as his personal representative mission to Harrisburg Pennsylvania. As his personal representative. The president was frustrated by his inability to establish telephone contact with Pennsylvania Governor Dick Thornburg. To solve this problem, he ordered dedicated phone lines to be connected between the White House, the NRC and the State House at Harrisburg. By Saturday, march 31st, carter had decided to pay a personal visit to Harrisburg. Jimmy didn't fuck around no Jimmy was like bitch, I'm coming.
Speaker 2:If you want something done right, do it yourself. The national and international media had given the accident at Three Mile Island front page attention for days, and venerable network newsman Walter Cronkite was speaking of a horror that could get much worse. So it sounds like the media. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Carter believed that the people of Pennsylvania and the nation were looking to him for leadership. So on April 1st Carter inspected the damaged plant inspected it his own damn self. Middletown, pennsylvania Mayor Robert Reed later spoke of Carter's visit as providing a much-needed morale boost. People weren't talking to one another, they were cooped up in their homes and when he came it seemed like everyone came out to see the president and it was really a shot in the arm. Reed recounted to writer Mark Stevens.
Speaker 3:Well, I I imagine that if you live there you have to think like when he shows up well, obviously it can't be as bad as we think it is, because they're letting this guy.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if the president's standing outside breathing the air it must be safe.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you're not going to let that guy hang out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but he was like a superhero. He had already been infused with radioactivity. It was repellent.
Speaker 3:It just repelled off of him.
Speaker 2:I know I understand that, but I think the bad guys throw balls of radioactive stuff at him and it just throws his forearm up and bounces off.
Speaker 3:I'm a humble peanut farmer. I just I feel like that would certainly would make me feel better, mm, hmm, if the president showed up as a nuclear accident. Yep, it would really make me feel a lot better, a lot Currently. President would show up in a nuclear anyway, I am wound up.
Speaker 2:She is, it's, it's very I love it when she's feisty. Um, in the aftermath of three mile island, president carter ordered the creation of a special commission headed by Dartmouth College President John Kemeny, to review the event. The resultant report found fault with the NRC. Carter ordered a reshuffling of key NRC personnel, but no substantial overhaul. So he went and got rid of the people that weren't doing their job, instead of all the people.
Speaker 3:Just all of them, and then trying to bring him back three days later because you found out what they actually fucking do for real. So I am gonna hold on.
Speaker 2:Okay, I am gonna soapbox it for a second god, I know I was like she can't leave me hanging.
Speaker 3:No, I'm a federal worker right yes, yes, you are Kind of.
Speaker 3:Technically not, but anyway, if you care at all, call your representative or senator or email them. I don't think it's hard to do. I've done it. Just send a little representative email, a senator email, to save the post office, because strange things are afoot at the circle k and um, you know we're, we're all a little on edge about it. Um, I worked very hard to get where I am. Yes, I started the post office in the in the beginning of COVID and worked a lot of hours, a lot, a lot, a lot, because we were delivering when nothing else was open and yeah, so I worked very hard to get where I am. I was excited to finally be able to say I can at some point retire with a pension, and that is now being threatened. So I'll get off my soapbox now.
Speaker 2:No, and I've watched you go through that. And I also have a nephew who will be turning 30 this year and he has chosen to make this his career and he's about the same amount of time as you right, I think we started at the same time. Yeah, I thought so. So he also went through it and has finally gotten to the point where he can relax a little bit and do his job and think about retirement.
Speaker 3:It's funny because there was a few of us that were it's called an RCA. You're the sub, basically, and you do all the grunt work. There was a few of us that have stayed the whole time and there were times where we had, oh, 21 plus 8, 29 routes in our office and like half of them were were empty because, you know, covid went through and all sorts of different reasons and there wasn't enough of us to cover and we were just doing everything we could and I swear I keep, we keep talking about it all the time and we're like I know I have ptsd from that and they're like, yeah, I mean there were times where we were delivering mail until you know 10, 30, o know 10, 30 o'clock, 10, 30, 11 o'clock at night.
Speaker 3:Yep, yeah, so anyway I.
Speaker 2:There was a rally nationwide yesterday and my nephew went to it. I guess maybe in Wilmington, dover, I don't know where he went. Newark Okay, yeah, he went. I haven't heard where he went. Newark Okay, yeah, he went. I haven't heard how it went.
Speaker 3:And you know, obviously there's lots of rumors going around as to what could happen, what they want to have happen, and, from what I'm reading, your nephew will be fine, he'll still have a job, but I don't know. About the rural craft, uh, yeah, we're very expensive yeah, but if it privatizes, you're all screwed. So yeah, well, that's very true, yeah, so soapbox ended everybody that I work with hi all right.
Speaker 2:One last thing that I need to add to that um, the post office is not a business. It is not meant to make money.
Speaker 3:It is a service to the people of the United States. You remember when everybody got three COVID tests and it came to you through the mail? I know because I delivered a bazillion of them of them. That is the plan. If something like three mile island happens, the the plan put through in the government secret plans is that if you need to deliver a large quantity of medication to people, it is the united states postal service that will be that we will be the ones that will be delivering whatever anti-radiation or whatever. That is the whole. One of the things that we would be in charge of is something If something were to happen. We go to every house every day, so that's how they and that's how you got COVID tests. Yep, and they that you know say what you will about the post office being slow and always rate hiking and all that. It's going to get a whole lot more expensive if it privatizes. That's just. You're not going to be able to send a letter for under a dollar.
Speaker 2:No, it's going to be like UPS or yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, that is. They'll be competing with them, right?
Speaker 2:um yeah so I don't know. Yeah, that wasn't even a soapbox, that was just you educating everybody on what's happening and we also.
Speaker 3:Just I don't know. I didn't know this until I first started working there. The usps does not receive any money from the government at all. We do not get government money unless they have to bail it out, which they did bail it out a couple years ago.
Speaker 2:But everybody got bailed out a couple years ago.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but the USPS survives on its own. It's its own thing, Right? You know we live off you buying stamps and sending parcels and stuff like that. So technically we're not taxpayer funded, Correct? So there look it up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll go ahead. Harold Denton, director of division of nuclear reactor regulations at the nuclear regulatory commission, was Jimmy Carter's personal representative to Harrisburg for the duration of the problem at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. The arrival of Denton seemed to immediately calm the fraying nerves of public officials and stem the anger of the frustrated press corps. Reporter Steve Liddick of WCMB radio explained to writer Mark Stevens that Harold Denton was trusted because he looked like a regular down to earth kind of guy and people wanted someone to believe.
Speaker 3:So, like you said, and that's, you know, that would. That's the whole point where I think any of the presidents go to these places where disasters just you know, to put the eyes on it and say you know we care, yeah, we know you're here, yeah, we're going to do what we can.
Speaker 2:And plus it's important for them because you can't understand something unless you see it or live through it. You know people who want to make judgment on everything. If you haven't been in that situation, you have no idea. So it's important for the president to go and see how bad it actually is.
Speaker 3:You know when there are disasters and such, so that they really can wrap their head around how much help is needed because, and here's the thing, um so when, when they're showing all this disaster stuff, it is sad and I, you know, I only know hurricanes because we've had a couple um none of them have ever been a big problem, but the thing of it is is a lot of things are built to be destroyed in the situation to again, the good, the, the, uh, whatever dr spock said, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, um, so in order to to save the house, a lot of stuff has to break away.
Speaker 3:Like um, I grew up in a block from the ocean. We had a lagoon in our backyard and the bay was across the street. Everything has to be up on stilts, it has to handle. I think it's a three here, two or three here, because we don't usually get them bigger than that. But when the media is showing you these places that have been, you know, destroyed and, yes, our house being gone, that's sad, but a lot of times it looks a lot worse because it's like you know, siding piled up and all that shit was meant to come off.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or they'll pick like structures that weren't meant for hurricanes at all.
Speaker 3:yeah, and you see the roof halfway across the yard and such, and you're like, oh my god, but you know that's one house and that is of course, not to say that there are definitely damaged areas, but that's one of the reasons why you put eyes on the ground, because if you don't know what it's like to go through that because you know, when I watch that stuff I can be like well, that shed was you know it's a shed right all those boats piled up.
Speaker 3:You have insurance on that because you know that's going to happen especially in the hurricane areas right. Losing the house is although here's my thing about that. How many times are you just going to keep rebuilding your house in the same fucking spot? Yeah and also my issue with it for those of you that live in hurricane prone areas. Why do you not save your plywood? Why are you going to the home depot the day before the? Storm comes in and fighting everyone else for a piece of plywood.
Speaker 2:You know it's funny. My parents live in Fort Myers and they did have a bad hurricane a couple years ago and when I went down and visited them in November, it's been a few years and there is still a lot of damage, like you can still tell that a hurricane came through there and they took me down to one of the popular beaches where there were hotels and restaurants and there's just nothing. It's really crazy. But my point to this is so many houses just left their plywood up, all their windows are plywooded shut and it's all really old, like dark plywood, so it's definitely been there since the hurricane. I'm like, take it down and save it Like really old, like dark plywood, so it's definitely been there since the hurricane. I'm like, take it down and save it. Like your house is dark inside. To save I mean, leaving your christmas lights up all year is one thing, but hurricane season started, starts in like june and goes to november every year.
Speaker 3:it's not a surprise, it's not? Oh my god. You's not, oh my God. You live in an area, if you live in Florida, that hangs off the bottom of the country, you're pretty sure that you're going to get at least one roll through somewhere in your state.
Speaker 2:Yes, you just know. Yeah, somebody's getting hit?
Speaker 3:Why are you going to Home Depot the day before the damn thing hits, fighting other people off for plywood. Just save your plywood.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not that hard. Or just randomly buy it one day if you don't have it, or buy Hurricane Shutters or whatever. Yeah, there you go, there you go.
Speaker 3:If you got an issue all the time, buy some shutters.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm, yeah, so Denton's job was far from easy. It fell to him to inform Thornburg and Carter about a possibility no, possibly explosive hydrogen bubble discovered above the cooling water. That sounds scary.
Speaker 3:Anything possibly explosive, explosive bubble.
Speaker 2:Yeah, explosive bubble At the top of the reactor pressure vessel. The bubble, and whether or not it would mix with oxygen and set off a devastating explosion, proved to be the source of intense debate and fueled nightmarish images of a meltdown. At the time of Carter's arrival on Sunday morning, april 1st, the question as to whether the bubble would explode was still under debate. Jimmy Carter showed up knowing there was an explosive bubble.
Speaker 3:I'm telling you she loves her some Jimmy.
Speaker 2:Carter, I really do. I didn't know how much I loved him until we did that episode. I know I mean I always have loved him because he's always been a good human I just like good humans. But yeah, I didn't realize he was so badass.
Speaker 3:He was a superhero.
Speaker 2:Yes, denton informed the president of the risk just as he was preparing to enter the plant. I briefed the president on this bubble and the possibility of an explosive mixture and tried to give him the two sides that were out there, but we still didn't have single view on that. Denton remembered.
Speaker 3:It's pretty scary Unexplosive bubble yeah.
Speaker 2:Alright, so the current status of Three Mile Island Today, the TMI None of your goddamn business. Two reactor is permanently shut down and 99% of its fuel has been removed. The reactor coolant system is fully drained and the radioactive water decontaminated. And evaporated which I read that the first time and I was like what exactly does that mean? And evaporated, which I read that the first time and I was like what exactly does that mean? The accident's radioactive waste was shipped off-site to an appropriate disposal area.
Speaker 3:I bet it's not appropriate.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean nowhere is appropriate. The moon yeah, that's appropriate. And the reactor fuel and core debris was shipped to the Department of Energy's Idaho Natural Laboratory. No-transcript. Exelon Generation is responsible for decommissioning activities there. So, huh.
Speaker 3:I was going to say that, yeah, are they not using? I don't, yeah, are they not using? I don't know. Are they not using them anymore?
Speaker 2:Not there.
Speaker 3:Where are they getting their electric from?
Speaker 2:Canada, Well they're about to shut it off. Okay, they're about to turn the light switch off. Everybody better get some solar panels on their house, windmill. Here's a little additional information. Further information on the TMI-2 accident can be obtained from NUREG documents, many of which are on microfiche.
Speaker 3:I dare you all to go get some microfiche and see if you can read it, if you have a microfiche viewer is that the thing from the library? How we used to look up news articles when we were kids.
Speaker 2:okay, uh, they can be ordered for a fee from the r, our NRC's public document room, in case you're super bored, at 301-415-4737 or 1-800-397-4209. Or you can email pdr at nrcgov. The PDR is located in Rockville, maryland, or something like that.
Speaker 3:Yeah yeah, I don't know, but yeah okay, so I was, I think. I think nuclear power is scary to us.
Speaker 2:Yes, because of chernobyl, because of three mile island and because we don't have a real understanding of it and because we don't have a real understanding of it.
Speaker 3:Because we're not engineers I am not. I think also it's hard to discern the difference between nuclear weapon and nuclear power, and I think that's where, because we always had to get under a desk and obviously that's not going to help. But so I think that's maybe where all the fear of them.
Speaker 2:Probably.
Speaker 3:Because I do think they're one of the cleaner.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm and safer.
Speaker 3:Safer, yeah, mm-hmm. I mean, yeah, I don't know, I just think they're scary.
Speaker 2:They scare me too. I just I don't get it. I don't understand it. But I knew that I always knew about Three Mile Island. Yeah, like my, I knew that I always knew about Three.
Speaker 3:Mile.
Speaker 2:Island like my whole life, so I wanted to do this and, like I said, when this is coming out on Friday, march 28th, that is the anniversary of the meltdown, and I thought of something that I want to talk about earlier. Did you see the article I sent you about the Great White?
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 2:So off the shores I want to say not far, maybe the carolinas some guys were surf fishing and caught like a 12 foot great white yes, and they brought it up and they had.
Speaker 3:They had to free it yeah, that looks and try to buy those.
Speaker 2:Of course it did yeah, because that's his job. Yeah, and how do you get a hook out of that mouth? They don't, they cut him, oh yeah well, it took them long enough to cut.
Speaker 3:And then the worst part about it a you're not allowed to catch them um, yeah, of course you have to.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they didn't catch it on purpose. No, I know.
Speaker 3:Um the other problem is um sharks. It came up awfully far out of the water and the issue with sharks, I believe, in particular, is that they don't do well being drugged back out. Yeah, they're not good at that, yeah, so.
Speaker 2:He probably didn't make it. He probably didn't make it.
Speaker 3:Did you see the orca, though, off of one of the Carolinas? I did.
Speaker 3:What in the hell? Now they're coming for yachts over here. Yeah, another reason to stay out of the water. Oh, and also, did you see, man? The orcas are wearing the hats again, the salmon hats. They did it for 30 years. They did it 30 years, like in the 90s, they wore dead salmon as hats. This one particular pod wore sam. They would just like tool around with salmon on their head and it was like a hat and it was like they said it was like a trend, it was trendy because they all did it in this one particular pod and then one day they just stopped and then apparently somebody told him it didn't look cool much like people now thinking the 90s have come back.
Speaker 3:If you've seen any of the clothes out today, everybody is dressing like it is 1996. Yeah, the mom jeans have you seen Low Rise are coming back. No, thank you. Anyway, they all started the pod and another pod, like completely different from them are all now wearing Sam and his hats again.
Speaker 2:They must have had a picture of, like their grandma with a salmon hat. I were like it's totally weird. Yeah, I watched. You just reminded me I watched the second episode of the Americas with Mexico, so I saw what you meant about not needing to see the circle of life. Yeah, yeah, and it involved orcas, but that one was brutal it was, but it was also, on the flip side of that, amazing to watch them work as a group and it's.
Speaker 3:It's funny because I can't watch that, but I can watch. Um, I became obsessed with these two fucking eagles and, oh yeah, the big bear. So shadow and jackie I have been watching these damn eagles for like three years, and the last time they produced a chick was in 2022, prior to me watching them so then they had two years where they did not um.
Speaker 3:Their eggs did not hatch. Apparently they do grieve. It's very sad. When they gave up the nest the first time, it took them a while to because, um, I don't know if you know or care about bald eagles they stay at the same nest and they just keep making them bigger and bigger and bigger, yes, so, um, eventually they ended up realizing that the eggs were not going to hatch, so they just give up. And then there's a squirrel that lives underneath of them, called Fiona. And she came and stole the eggs Anyway.
Speaker 3:so this year Jackie and Shadow in fact did lay three eggs and all three hatched. They did. Now the drama has been one day it still snows there, because it's it's very cold, I guess. Um, so when jackie was getting up one day one of the chicks was stuck to her leg and almost lost it out of the, out of the nest oh, no but it rolled back in and then it started snowing really, really hard.
Speaker 3:Um and jackie, those two, they're hilarious, I know shadow comes with sticks and he hits her in the head all the time. It's friends of big bear. If you ever want to check these eagles out, it's. It's really, it is anyway. Um, something happened. One of the chicks froze to death after the snow yes, it didn't make it through, and it was the one that was like super feisty, like it was the oldest one, I think, and it was super feisty Like the parent would sit on the nest and it would like pop its little head out and everything, anyway, it must have gotten caught up in one of their feathers.
Speaker 3:Out on the outside, it's nature's way. Yeah, it's got you know whatever. Yeah, so there's two. Well, drama has happened again because yesterday jackie had a fish hook stuck in her mouth. Oh no, yeah, she did end up getting it out, but everybody on there was like they need to intervene and of course, the people were like we, we don't it's it's nope, it is what it is you know, just because you're watching it doesn't mean my point to that was. There's these ravens that fly over their heads and you can see on their um.
Speaker 3:I don't know what the hell kind of balls these ravens have I don't know if they're trying to get to the chicks or they're trying to get to the eggs or what they're doing, but they fly around and they drive them insane, like you'll see her duck down and like she's yelling, and then shadow will come and try and hit. Anyway, they have several cameras up and the one is like a long distance camera, so the other day you can see the raven flying over and then all of a sudden you see jackie or shadow I don't remember which one come out of fucking nowhere, swoop through, grabs the raven and both of them go out of view of the camera, in, I mean not even a second, it was just like she just came in and took that bitch out and then she shows up at the nest with a dead raven.
Speaker 3:It was pretty impressive. She had had enough. She had had enough. It was impressive, I was Wow. She had had enough. She had had enough. It was impressive, I was Wow.
Speaker 2:Nature is something else it really is.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, this is probably this is going to be a little shorty, a little shorty, short. 50 minutes is short. Nicole has today. We are we usually record on Tuesdays, but this week we had to do it on Monday, which is a heavy day for the post office.
Speaker 2:So, again.
Speaker 3:We're at my mom's house recording because Nicole was going away with her mom and sister all week so we could not record on her normally scheduled programming and now she has an hour drive back home and all that horse shit. So we were cutting it a little short today. I hope you don't mind. Plus, I'm cranky as fuck. I don't know.
Speaker 3:I know why it's been a week. So thank you for listening. Thank you, you can like share rate review. You can do that. You know it won't kill you, probably, no, it might. You can find us wherever you listen to podcasts, as you are listening now. You can even like, you know, if you say to your friend, hey, there's this podcast I listen to. You should try sometime. Then you can say you can find it wherever you listen to podcasts. Exactly, you can follow us on all of the socials at likewhateverpod except X. You can send an email to likewhateverpod at gmailcom. And don't forget to head on over to Free Nights and Weekends and listen to our amazing commercial.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Or don't Like whatever.
Speaker 2:Whatever, bye.
