Are You Within a Nuclear Reactor Accident Evacuation Zone?

You might be.  One-third of Americans live within 50 miles of a nuclear reactor.  Check out our new mapping tool to see if you fall within an evacuation zone and are at risk.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) mandates that nuclear operators have plans for a 10-mile radius in the event of an accident.  However, in the ongoing Fukushima nuclear crisis, the NRC recommended a 50-mile evacuation zone for Americans.  Should an accident of the same scale occur in the United States, we have no plans to orderly, quickly, and safely evacuate people within 50 miles of a reactor. 

This new PSR tool can show you both 10-mile and 50-mile evacuation zones as well as the number of individuals that would have to be evacuated, based on current population data.  Imagine evacuating 17 million people from New York City in the event of an accident at Indian Point.  Imagine the economic impact of individuals never being able to return because of long-lived radioactive contamination. 

People are living closer and closer to reactors than they did when the reactors were first constructed.  In the event of a Fukushima-type accident, people could be permanently displaced from their homes and lose their property and possessions. 

We are clearly not prepared for an accident on the scale that we witnessed at Chernobyl nor the scale that we are currently witnessing at Fukushima. 

View the mapping tool here