Post holocaust power and you

[Faran Brigo]

Some people have already mentioned it but I think it fits better here than at regular zombie talk, since it's part of survival.

Would you like to be far away from nuclear reactors? Would they meltdown on their own?

Originally Posted by Faran Brigo

I think that's pretty unlikely. They're not going to go "Chernobyl", I think most likely the engineers will just shut down the reactor before they run or become overwhelmed. It's a zombie outbreak, not an earthquake, there's plenty of warning time and shutting down a reactor is a quick process, precisely because this is not the kind of thing you can take long doing.

Some reactors are passively safe, meaning they shut down on their own without electronic or human input, just due to the way they are designed. If that doesn't happen, there's a chance the reaction will die out from nuclear poison (unfissionable elements building up and slowing the reaction down basically). If not, the reactor containment building in most modern nuclear reactors should, at least in theory, hold up as long as there is no excessive gas acumulation.



Considering air currents and fallout distribution, where COULD you escape to anyway? the reactors on the image (red spots) are just pressurized water types, it still leaves out other kinds of commercial power plants, and government reactors (research, weapons manufacture, etc.).

[fester_hicks]

Mexico, Canada and the Dakotas are looking pretty safe

[Faran Brigo]

The last bit referred more to people living on the east coast where the concentration of reactors are high. You could still get away, but it'd be much trickier, you'd have to cross the country with hordes of zeds on the prowl, so if that's the case you reeeally ought to get an early start.

[Subgenius]

The reactor itself is not the main problem. They will automatically, and safely, shut down. That is when the clock starts ticking. So, get out of the State fast because you have ten days and nine hours to escape the nuclear power plant's radius of damage and contamination. The cause of this will be the spent fuel rods building, which must have flowing refrigerated water to keep them cool.

Chernobyl contaminated 50,000 square miles; an area the size of Alabama. That was just one reactor accident. US nuclear power plants and European power plants (75 in the US, and 130 in Europe) will contaminate an area 20 times the size of Chernobyl. Strontium-90 (lasting 300 years) and plutonium radiation (lasting 240,000 years) would radiate out from every ignited spent fuel rods facility.

So, the President of the US, or whomever takes his place if he's dead, would have to secure the 75 nuke plants during that ten day period. They would have to get every drop of diesel fuel sent to those nuke plants to fuel the electric generators that maintain the spent fuel rods building. So, oil wells would also have to be secured and maintained.

This would require something like 100 soldiers per nuke plant to secure it and maintain it. I suppose that ten soldiers might be able to do it, but I would worry about that in a zombie outbreak. Those power plants are located in Zed Central in the East Coast. 44 million people live between Richmond, VA and Boston Mass.

[AN OLD SHOE]

im on the east coast

[UNDEAD FRED]

I guess I better head to Canada

[AN OLD SHOE]

i live in florida...thats a long drive for me...

[Barbara]

OH jesus Im screwed!!!

*look at where im from*

[Behemoth]

interesting one this, in the event of a zombie outbreak, the goverment would attempt to secure the power plants ( coal, waste or nuclear ) in my opinion one problem they would have would be the skilled members of staff wanting to get home, would they be forced to stay? if so would they fabricate a tale to seal up the reactors just to get themselves the heck out? without power the cities would be no go areas, well montana here i come.

[Subgenius]

Originally Posted by Behemoth

interesting one this, in the event of a zombie outbreak, the goverment would attempt to secure the power plants ( coal, waste or nuclear ) in my opinion one problem they would have would be the skilled members of staff wanting to get home, would they be forced to stay? if so would they fabricate a tale to seal up the reactors just to get themselves the heck out? without power the cities would be no go areas, well montana here i come.

It would have to be a "cold hard facts" talk with those nuclear plant workers. It would be a choice: 1) stay and run the equipment in the spent fuel rods building, or 2) immediate execution. Then, I would tell them that no matter where the run in the US, no matter who they know or whatever, they will not escape the effects of the disaster that would follow. And, if they run, then they get no promise of access to an underground military facility with enough food and water to survive the nuclear disaster.

But, the reality of the situation in a zombie outbreak scenario would mean that when the military showed up at the nuclear power plants, then the first thing that they would have to do is kill any zombies inside of the nuke plant perimeter. They would likely be important nuke plant operators, but they would be zombie nuke plant operators, LOL.

There is a solution! The US Navy has a large pool of nuclear experts. I think that the Army and the Air Force also have experts. So, they could assemble their own teams to secure and operate the nuclear power plants.

The real problem here is that the zombies would pose a constant threat to supply lines. If food, water, and (most important) the diesel fuel do not keep flowing to the 75 nuclear power plants, then the game is up, nuke winter, radiation sickness, more zombies, and Hell on earth. How can the military maintain a constant military action against an overwhelming enemy just to keep the nuke plants from ending human existence?

[AN OLD SHOE]

yeah....i would stay where i am until i know the nuke plants are gone...then i would get my ass in a plane or helicopter and go to mexico

[Darkness]

"Note To Self: Take Flying Lessons."

[AN OLD SHOE]

hhaha....well i will just wing it...hopefully its easy...but either way i will die so i guess i will try my wings out

[DarthJoe8]

Man theres a lot to worry about. As if Zeds weren't enough.

[AN OLD SHOE]

yeah i know..i can survive zombies for years and years...but if there is a nuclear meltdown...im prolly dead...unless i haul ass to an underground unker for the next 40 years...