Life after People
I have had a lot of fun watching this series on the History Channel and plan to buy it when I get the chance. While it works on the premix that people just vanish, the way this decay from neglect is very informative. Even if there are survivors, they are not going to be going we need to get this painted or replace these window, they are going to be trying to survive. Even with people around, the neglected infrastructure will deteriorate much in the way it is depicted in the series. I think it is a good watch for anyone interested in the game.
The one thing that is not touched on is what happens to the nuclear power plants? Even if they are in cold shutdown before they are eventually abandoned, they eventually will be abandoned, most likely within 5 - 10 years after the war. Once no one is minding the kettle the water in the fuel pools is going to start to evaporate. No power means no pumps and emergency cooling will run out of water. Things will heat up. Eventually fuel pools will go dry, the isolation plates will begin to warp from the heat and fall out of place, a fire and then a prompt criticality and you have fuel elements scattered over several miles. Explosions damage equipment and the cores will also begin to heat, slowly at first, but in time they will melt down will no power and no cooling water. There is going to be a 5-10 mile hot zone around every reactor cite in the U.S. and these will most likely be hotter then any of the bomb sites because there are tons of fuel at each reactor cite.
|