You know that huge conglomeration of high voltage power lines on Second St. near Lindaro in San Rafael? Yes, the one that looks like it could fry you if you walked within ten feet of it? If you think that's bad, the site was originally intended to support a nuclear power plant. But not to worry--people got all charged up (sorry), and yelled that it would be way too close to homes and Sol Food (their green building is nuclear enough). Gasp, even a small earthquake could cause a "China syndrome" with horrible molten radioactive material actually melting through the earth’s crust and leaching into China. Isn't that poor country dealing with enough poisonous substances like lead and cadmium in its toys?
No one ever saw Jane Fonda in her leotard protesting in front of the site (thankfully), because a nuclear power plant for San Rafael was never proposed. But believe it or not, a nuclear reactor was planned for Bodega Head in Bodega Bay. (And you thought Hitchcock's The Birds was scary.) PG&E spent some $4 million on excavation and seismic studies, but in 1964 withdrew its application because of public outrage. One naysayer argument was that--hello--the San Andreas Fault runs smack through the area. A response from the other side: "Oh, we can deal with that by just installing our reactor on roller bearings." But PG&E ended up losing the nuclear war, and after it had already made a big dent in the earth, sold the site to the Department of Parks and Recreation for $1. (The plant was going to be built for $60 million.) And today? No radioactive fallout, no Jack Lemmon running around screaming his head off--just a deep pond with cattails, willows and birds. (No, not those creepy Hitchcock ones.) So if you ever get up to what's now called "Hole in the Head," grab a sandwich (or better yet, some local oysters), find a nice grassy spot and breathe in that lovely (and natural) fog.
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