Living near the Cook nuclear plant

The Cook Nuclear Plant sits on the Lake Michigan shore just north of Bridgman, in Lake Township. It’s an operating power plant — two reactors that have run since the 1970s — owned by American Electric Power and run by Indiana Michigan Power, and overseen by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. If you live in or near Bridgman, there’s a good chance your home falls inside the plant’s emergency planning zone.

That zone is a circle about 10 miles across, centered on the plant. Living inside it doesn’t mean anything is wrong — every nuclear plant in the country has one, and it just means your area comes with a ready-made safety plan. A serious problem at the plant is very unlikely. But because it’s possible, the county keeps a plan so people know what to do.

A few things are worth knowing if you’re inside the zone. Warnings here don’t come from outdoor sirens — they come to your phone, through the federal Wireless Emergency Alert system, and through B-WARN!, a free county sign-up that can call, text, or email you in an emergency (worth doing when you move in). The state also offers free potassium-iodide (KI) pills to people who live within 10 miles; you pick them up ahead of time at a participating pharmacy with a voucher, because they’re handed out before an emergency, not during one. And the county has an online “Know Your Zone” map where you can type in your address and see exactly which area you’re in.

If anything ever happened, you’d be told whether to stay indoors or leave, and which roads to use — and most of the time, people are moved as a precaution well before there’s any real danger.

Know Your Zone map: berriencounty.org/1990 · Cook Energy Information Center, One Cook Place, Bridgman, MI 49106 · cookinfo.com