I don’t have any power plant experience, but I’ve worked in and around the oil patch for 30 years and based upon that experience I’d offer the following:
1) Coal fired plants wouldn’t last a week without human attention. The fuel doesn’t walk there by itself; it’s delivered by rail car and there’s a constant process of unloading, storing, positioning, etc. The feeders require daily inspection, calibration, repair and replacement. Pretty labor intensive stuff I’d imagine.
2) Natural gas plants would go on for quite a while. I would think their problem would be turbine surge issues that would eventually, i.e., within a month or so, cause them to “trip” out of service. They also have cooling issues. And if compressors are involved.....that’s just another weak link although that probably isn’t an issue.
3) I don’t understand the process entirely but I’d think that there has to be some degree of daily input into the volume of electricity being produced. From what I’ve read about “the grid” its managed at central “drain” monitoring sites where they’re monitoring usage along the grid at the consumption points and constantly having to balance input such that if one location, (city) is at peak draw, the managers have to order up additional electricity from other parts of the grid. So, it sounds like they’re making calls to various power plants around the system to produce more, or less depending upon the need to move more available power from one segment of the grid to another.
Here’s the real deal however; in our “prepper” classes, its become apparent that when the SHTF, one of the first things people will need to do is locate and go to their nearest area power plant and see if it can be brought back on-line. The “locals” just aren’t going to sit in the dark for weeks on end without attempting to a) findsome one who knows how to keep the plant on-line, or how to get the plant back online.
The Nuke plants are simply a disaster waiting to happen. Unless everyone were beamed off the orb, the Feds would dispatch the Army Corp. of Engineers to take the Nuke plants offline. Hopefully they can before the melt down.
OK but let us say the Fed isn't operating and the Army Corp. of Engineers ain't answering the phone. Can a nuke plant shut down safely automatically AND remain safe after such? Water is vital to keep those rods from overheating. Can that water be maintained indefinitely or will it dissipate over time?