Lets look at hazards after TSHTF

[MikeA]

What worries me is the amount of nuclear power plants we have, most of those on NR's list can be anticipated and prepared for, but if the complex shut-down with presumably skeleton crew the remains in Power Plant X, something is bound to go wrong. Great food for thought though and in my opinion a very accurate timeline, although if the soldiers aren't getting paid I cant see too many of them volunteering to stag on at the local authority premises.

[bigpaul]

one of the reasons we left Somerset was because of Hinckley Point power station, we were 15 miles DIRECTLY down wind of it with no high point in between it and us, now we live south west of it with the prevailing wind away from us and towards Hinckley point and Exmoor in between.

[Skean Dhude]

The issue with nuclear power stations is not shutting them down it is the handling of the spent fuel. It needs continuous cooling and when that fails we have a Fukushima type event.

The cooling system need power, which the station provides and lots of water which is why they are all sited by water. When the station shuts down, no power, no cooling and meltdown.

[NorthernRaider]

Yup I think its the spent fuel rods that are the greatest risk to us, if cooling is lost from the containment ponds there wont be anything to dissapate the heat from the rods and you get a meltdown scenario. But in the reactor chamber providing someone hit the SCRAM button driving the graphite rods into the reactor and thus stopping the reaction there should not be as much of a threat. But either way its a nasty issue we would have to watch after TSHTF.

[Skean Dhude]

and we can't see it either, this is why NBC type stuff is so feared. It is invisible. I have radiation detection but what can you really do in reality.

12 months after an event you hear a noise, you check the counter and it is telling you it is hot. You go to your prepared shelter but all your preps and livestock are out, you have planted your seeds. Sometimes there is really nothing you can do.

[BeardyMan]

(7 August 2013, 11:00)Skean Dhude Wrote: Sometimes there is really nothing you can do.

Depends how flexible you are...

[Lightspeed]

(4 August 2013, 18:45)MikeA Wrote: What worries me is the amount of nuclear power plants we have, most of those on NR's list can be anticipated and prepared for, but if the complex shut-down with presumably skeleton crew the remains in Power Plant X, something is bound to go wrong. Great food for thought though and in my opinion a very accurate timeline, although if the soldiers aren't getting paid I cant see too many of them volunteering to stag on at the local authority premises.

TPTB wil need to retain some form of electrical power generating capability for as long as possible.

Coal power is no longer viable as we have lost the capacity to extract it from the ground.

Oil / gas power is excessively reliant on imports and North sea reserves are almost depleted now.

Wind and wave power is still technology in its infancy. It requires considerable maintenance and is currently delivering only tiny amounts of the national demand.

Maybe it is likely that they have plans to strategically man and defend nuclear power generating plants as they may be the most independently efficient way to keep delivering power for critical state services?