[Mad Dawgg]

I figure most plants wouldn't be a problem if they don't have human supervision and would eventually shut down without catastrophic events such as explosions. But Nuke plants I surmise are a different animal because IIRC those rods need water and if no human ever shows up again eventually that water is going to dissipate and I know that ain't a good thing.

[DannyTN]

So what you are saying is that we need to have trained non-Christians available to take over operations for critical infrastructure components in the event of the rapture.

Because the Rapture is the ultimate in disaster planning.

[nixonsnose]

Watch that show -Life after People-. They went over the Hoover dam in detail.

[Gandalf_The_Gray]

A coal fired plant or a gas fired plant I would surmise would just cease to function once the fuel ran out. Of course I understand once you get a couple of plants offline then the grid would start reacting and I guess it would cause a blackout like we had a few years back.

Coal fired plants pulverize the coal to a powder about as fine as talcum powder. The powdered coal is injected into the boiler with an air blast which if you could see inside looks very much like the flame from either oil or gas. The point being there is no serious amount of unburned fuel stored in the boiler. The plant has large piles of coal on site which require someone driving a crawler tractor to move coal from the storage pile to a conveyor which loads a silo. The silo holds a supply of coal to feed the grinding mills. When the silo empties the plant shuts down.

I would guess that the working storage would be enough for an hour or two at full load. Oil fired plants might last a bit longer because the fuel comes in ready to use. Gas fired plants store no fuel at all on site and would shut down as soon as pressure dropped in the pipeline.

Last year the Discovery channel did a series on the world without people. They predicted that hydroelectric plants would continue running for (hundreds of??) years. (the power grid protects itself by isolating areas that have lost power so plants still running will not experience an overload) The failure mode was brought about by clogging of small intake pipes which bring in river water to cool the oil used to lubricate the turbine bearings. As the oil heats it trips a shut down of that unit. Eventually all the turbine generators go off line, the water level behind the dam rises to the overflow and the river continues on it's merry way. Earth dams would not last much longer but the big concrete dams may last for thousands of years before an earthquake finally destroys them.

Regards,
GtG

[Drrdot]

I cannot answer all your questions, but I know someone in the nuclear industry, who I asked. So with regards to nuclear plants, if no one showed up for work, generally things would be fine until the cooling pumps tripped (which could, and I was told would eventually happen for a variety of reasons). At this point, your only cooling would come from the natural cooling cycle of the water that was being turned to steam. This would not be enough to prevent a core meltdown, and you would get something like Fukushima. But, radiation would be kept to the containment structure unless the core melted through the concrete. In that case, you might get radioactive waste in water sources. That's a pretty rough explanation, but that's all I was given. Hope it helps.

[cqnc]

This is essentially the rapture scenario if you assume all workers are saved. This is written for pressurized water reactors. boiling water reactors fail quicker. I was going to wait till Fellow Traveler had a longer reply, but here goes:

Time Zero - People Disappear.
Loads begin to drop (manually controlled electrical equipment shuts down.

Hour One -
Loading continues to diminish somewhat, then spike as coal powered plants shut down (to the extent than automatic network switching is in place) for those areas requiring manual switching, they go dark, load drops

Hour Two - Rapid changes in system load take some units offline due to turbine overspeed trips. Some plants shut down when loss of all offsite power is detected. Diesel generators on site startup to power emergency core cooling systems. Some plants have gravity-asssited natural circulation ECCS and will shutdown but stay metallurgically intact for days to weeks.

Hours 3-6 Load cycling continues somewhat , load stabilizes below 50% as infrastructure damaged by vehicle collisions burns pit and is isolated. Plants with running functional diesel generators to make up for single lost external supplies may continue to operate. Most plants shut down when loss of all offsite power is detected. Others (e.g. Fukushima) shutdown when the supported subsystems fail. Low level releases of radioactivity are possible.

Hours 6-12 Many plants stay online. Those with offsite power available having functioning automatic feedwater and cooling water systems stay up, but loss of offsite power for ECCS and failures in water subsystems result in many more shutdowns.

Hours 12-24 Out of more than 100 nuclear power plants in US, perhaps a dozen are still on line. Those online and offline with functional offsite power and/or diesel generators have good cooling for reactor and spent fuel storage (SFS).

Day Two
All units are offline, from either loss of offsite power, or various cooling water sensor trips that would have been prevented by human activity (switch intakes, pumps, etc). Units without good offsite power are depending on the diesel generators to keep SFS and core cool.

Day Three on...
When diesel fuel runs out, they join unpowered sites in core temperature increases, fuel pool temperature increases. At about 2012 degrees Fahrenheit, zirconium in the fuel cladding & rods changes from monoclinic to tetragonal(becoming Cubic Zirconia!)and fuel rods can crack. Rods that melt tend to fall away from each other (core slump) not toward a more concentrated grouping (sorry, no China Syndrome)a result of inadvertently good design feature by engineers pointing error in the conservative direction) discovered by analyzing the TMI core. Slight releases of radioactivity to the environment, most is contained.

First Decade -
The sites heat up for a few years, perhaps the first decade, then begin to cooldown over time. Site radiation levels are stable.

First Century -
Sites are essentially overgrown and buried by blowing sand dirt and debris. Sute radiation levels are dropping slowly. The snow always melts first here each year though...

[cqnc]

Please excuse some typos. new computer, weird keyboard.

[Libloather]

Last one to leave, please turn off the lights.

[Ted Grant]

There is a documentary on cable a few years ago, I think it was called After People, or something like that. The premise was that suddenly the earth was not populated by humans.

Anyway, I think the generators would be fine and the electricity would be running for months.

This special may be available online, or at your library. Check it out.

Sre

[Ted Grant]

There is a documentary on cable a few years ago, I think it was called After People, or something like that. The premise was that suddenly the earth was not populated by humans.

Anyway, I think the generators would be fine and the electricity would be running for months.

This special may be available online, or at your library. Check it out.

Sre

[RGSpincich]

I work at a wastewater plant and can guarantee you that $h*t will hit the fan(spinning or not) if people don’t show up. Manhole covers will be popping off downtown as remnants from the bowels of civilization flow through the streets.