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I was looking at the Apex web cam view this morning and noticed a small cloud above the buildings in downtown Apex. I think the cloud had a bluish color at first but soon I noticed that it had turned to a pink hue. It took me a little longer to realize that the cloud wasn’t moving, and then it dawned on me that this was the Shearon Harris Nuclear Plant venting steam from it’s cooling tower. *And, pretty soon after that, the cloud got much bigger.

In years past it surprised me to find that I could drive relatively close to the nuclear plant. I’ve included a Google StreetView of the plant entrance. There is a guard at the gate.

NOTE: Interesting to note that the above image was cleaned up (by Google) so that you can see the ground around the cooling tower. If you look closely at the rounded top of the cooling tower there appears to be a gray/whitish cloud just inside the top of the tower. But, if you look at the shadow being cast from the cooling tower, you can see a shadow of the tower & the shadow of a tall steam cloud coming from it.