WHITEFORD, Md. — Its two nuclear reactors three miles north of the Maryland state line power two million homes, but for all of its benefits, the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station comes with an inherent risk.
WATCH: Free tablets within 10 miles of Peach Bottom Nuclear Power Plant
The potential threat of radioactive contamination requires people within a 10-mile radius to have potassium iodide tablets on hand, which could block it from impacting their thyroids.
“Were you ever worried that you’d have to take them?” we asked Suzy Vogtman who works at the library in Whiteford.
“Maybe. Yes,” she replied, “Especially after 9/11 when it got a little scary, you know, and they had guard up there so, yes, that’s about it.”
Commonly referred to as KI, their chemical formula, the tablets will be made available to those in the impacted area at North Harford High School on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and people are instructed to dispose of their old stock in their household trash, not by flushing them down a toilet or sink.
Even though there’s never been an incident at the plant, health officials say they certainly draw plenty of telephone calls every time they advertise one of these distribution events.
“We definitely get calls, because there are a lot of the community members that are unsure that we do this every two years,” said Ronya Nassar of the Harford County Health Department, “but this is a public health preparedness event that we do and it’s really just to make sure that we are prepared as a community if anything were to occur.”
It’s a point not lost upon Kerri Gomez, a longtime teacher at Delta Peach Bottom Elementary School, which actually borders the nuclear plant’s property who says she would have moved on a long time ago if it wasn’t safe.
“I wouldn’t be there for 15 years,” said Gomez, “and they actually use to bring our school in, prior to COVID. We haven’t done it since COVID, but they use to typically give us tours and they brought the community in so, yes, it’s a great facility.”
