Major solar storm

[Varmint]

In layman's terms, how big of a problem in the grand scheme of things is a plant meltdown?

I know it's bad, but say Pilgrim went tits up. How much of an area would screwed?

I think it's a minor concern compared to the general mayhem that will accompany a grid-down-for-a-month scenario.

- - - Updated - - -

If all of the spent fuel in the ponds at Pilgrim burned it would be a catastrophe. All of Cape Cod and southeastern Massachusetts would be basically uninhabitable.

While we're amusing ourselves with this, for planning purposes you need to be at least 100 miles downwind of any nuke, 200 miles would be better.

They would dump them in the ocean rather than let them burn.

 

[mibro]

They would dump them in the ocean rather than let them burn.

It's possible I suppose though I think it would be difficult to improvise something like that if you didn't already have a plan and equipment on site. It would definitely work in a movie. IRL you might just end up with stuck equipment, dead operators and a pile of exposed fuel assemblies in the tidal zone.

There are over 3,000 spent fuel assemblies in the pool at Pilgrim each weighing 700 pounds.

 

[Varmint]

It's possible I suppose though I think it would be difficult to improvise something like that if you didn't already have a plan and equipment on site. It would definitely work in a movie. IRL you might just end up with stuck equipment, dead operators and a pile of exposed fuel assemblies in the tidal zone.

There are over 3,000 spent fuel assemblies in the pool at Pilgrim each weighing 700 pounds.

Yeah, the workers might not even show up if things were bad in the home neighborhood - I certainly wouldn't go to work (though my job is hardly essential).

 

[enbloc]

.

 

[jpm]

With the grid down a nuclear power plant has to rely on backup generators to provide power to the pumps that circulate water through the core and through the spent fuel cooling ponds. The cooling ponds are a bigger problem than the core itself as there is so much more radioactive material there. Without a continuous flow of cooling water, the water in the spent fuel ponds will boil and evaporate and the spent fuel will eventually catch fire.

And once they are burning, the smoke carries the radiation from the spent rods to points far and wide. The fire isn't the problem, its the byproducts of the fires like when you burn poison ivy. But in this case calamine lotion won't help.

 

[MaxStravinsky]

So basically, if the grid goes down, folks who live near a nuke plant should bug-out within 30 days (assuming grid is not back up)?

 

[mibro]

So basically, if the grid goes down, folks who live near a nuke plant should bug-out within 30 days (assuming grid is not back up)?

Who knows? Low probability event with difficult to predict consequences.

In any case if the grid is down for 30 days my guess would be that travel would be restricted one way or another.

 

[BenDover]

That map is misleading...northern NH looks safe but there are a number of canadian nuke plants just over the border.

If all of the spent fuel in the ponds at Pilgrim burned it would be a catastrophe. All of Cape Cod and southeastern Mass. would be basically uninhabitable. And if there were sustained winds from the East it would be pretty much bye bye Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut.

While we're amusing ourselves with this, for planning purposes you need to be at least 100 miles downwind of any nuke, 200 miles would be better.

 

[mibro]

That map is misleading...northern NH looks safe but there are a number of canadian nuke plants just over the border.

There are a couple, yes. Anyone who's serious about avoiding the apocalypse would have to add the Canadian nukes to the map.

I don't worry about this at all.