After the EMP comes Nuclear Meltdown

emp-nuclear-meltdown

An EMP (electro magnetic pulse), if strong enough (and regardless of the source – weaponized or solar), will potentially fry electronics and electronic systems within its invisible sphere of destruction. Many expert opinions and reports suggest that our electrical power grid could go down.

A large weaponized nuclear EMP detonation (or group thereof) high in the atmosphere will cause a wide ranging debilitating EMP.

A solar super flare (X-50+) and accompanying CME (Coronal Mass Ejection) will zap the surface of the earth with an even longer lasting EMP as it did during 1859 (the Carrington event).

The question is, What will happen to our nuclear reactors following an EMP event? Will we all be facing extermination from hundreds of simultaneous meltdowns?


 
The scenario:

An X-60 solar super-flare leaps off the sun with its coronal mass ejection (CME) heading straight towards earth. The CME (a slower moving cloud of charged particles than the X-ray burst), reaches the earth – and the solar particles interact with earth’s magnetic field to produce powerful electromagnetic fluctuations. It is these fluctuations that produce electrical currents in electrically ‘conductive’ things here on Earth, such as our criss-crossing power lines suspended above our streets. Electrical currents build up during the lasting event, and while some grid circuit breakers trip in an effort to save itself, many transformers and their high number of internal windings of copper wire continue to heat up and overload until they burn up as they exceed their design capacity.

 
The result:

Electricity across the land will be gone. Lights out. Communications and cell phones – down. Gas station pumps – down. Banking and commerce – down. Food distribution networks – down. Transportation grinds to a halt.

Much of the electricity may not be restored for months or even years due to the unimaginable requirements of transformer and electronic infrastructure re-manufacture and replacement.

As if that isn’t bad enough, what happens to our nuclear reactors?

 
Nuclear Meltdown?

While modern civilization will rapidly deteriorate into chaos, the worst of it may be just beginning. What happens to the world’s 440 nuclear power reactors (about 700 if you count all research reactors)?

Nuclear reactors while running normally, are essentially in a state of controlled meltdown as they heat water into steam which turns the turbines that produce electricity. Could it be that the only thing saving us from disaster is the constant supply of fresh cool water that keep the nuclear rods from melting down?

The thing is, the flow of water requires electricity, working pumps, and working electronic systems to control them. If these electronic systems are damaged, or the electricity is OFF, well, remember Fukushima??

The nuclear plant operators will be trying to safely shut down the reactors with whatever backup power they have available to them (a SCRAM). Following that, they will need to keep the nuclear rods cool – even when they are not ‘running’ in the reactor process. The problem though with this process is you can’t shut down all radioactivity with the flip of a switch.

For a reactor that is SCRAMed after holding a constant power level for an extended period, about 7% of the steady-state power will remain after initial shutdown due to fission product decay. A long cool down period will be necessary afterwards. The cool down from the residual heat (of the radioactive decay) requires circulating water and operating pumps. Without cooling, the fuel rods will heat up to the point where they can melt.

How long do the rods need to cool after a SCRAM?

To give you an idea, one bit of research revealed that even a week after being shut down, the heat from a reactor core boils water at a rate of nearly 60 gallons per minute; and after a month it’s still boils off 40 gallons a minute (source).

We’re talking months – years.

Separate from the scrammed rods of the reactors, there is the issue of the spent fuel rod Storage pools of the containment facility. They too need a constant supply of water.

Backup batteries will keep pumps running for a day or so.

Diesel generators (assuming they or their electronics are hardened and not damaged from the effects of the EMP) will keep pumps running as long as there is diesel fuel on hand. A question is, do the nuclear plants have enough stored diesel fuel to keep the cooling pumps operating for months and months afterwards?

The fuel (gasoline-diesel) distribution systems will be down (or mostly), so where will the fuel come from? This will obviously be a high priority for plant managers, but will they all be able to scrounge up what they need?

 
3M Full Facepiece Respirator

 
In conclusion:

It is a foregone conclusion that a Carrington event will happen again. When it does, will we be ready? Will the world’s arsenal of nuclear weapons (and EMP weapons) always remain silent and unused? Will the world’s ‘leaders’ always be sane? There are risks, and this article simply exposes one or two – and presents questions for you to ponder.

 
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Navy Seal Says It’s Amazingly Easy To Take Down Electrical Power Substations
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86 Comments

  1. Four Hundred Chernobyls: Solar Flares, Electromagnetic Pulses and Nuclear Armageddon

    Four Hundred Chernobyls

    mankind hitching their wagon to nuclear power
    was one of the dumbest things we have ever done
    one day it may be our demise

    1. Wise words grasshopper…..Toured the largest and newest Nuclear power plant in the U.S. a few years ago outside Phoenix (it was South West like so many others put in the worst possible location because the wind patterns will blanket the city) the back up generators are like ALL U.S. Nuclear plants are not hardened, forget about manual startup it is all electronic. Our Country and most of us here, think in the now mindset….not in the what will be the reality of a RESET EVENT. Our reality had better be the realization that unless you have a Nuclear, Biological, Chemical preps that would sustain you and yours for months, to allow you to travel through a effected area to get to the Redoubt States that all your preps and effort are for Zippo. I moved from an Estate in Phoenix, to a extremely remote dying mining town in North Central Nv…..I am hundreds of miles from any Nuclear sites or Metro-cities …. my advice is you have time to make your exit to a Redoubt location, there is no excuse not to….your choice do not wait for hindsight and the in your face calamity of not taking action while you had the chance.

      1. I’m with ya we moved to a small town but not out ofor line of the big drift. Guess we need to look at the mapartment of plants and get out while the gettting is good.

  2. Remember Fukushima?

    I believe we will be getting daily reminders from Fukushima for about the next 100,000 years or so.

    Quite right to bring up the Spent Fuel Pools (SFP). Tens of thousands of spent fuel rods of all types cooling, cooling, year after year. Yet I see they are funding new reactors in Georgia, USA.

    Who was more correct, Malthus or Darwin?

  3. I have a few questions!? I know a nuclear bomb is what makes the EMP, but how do you know when to worry about fallout/sheltering (b/c you won’t know if say it was a ground burst in your state or an air burst over the US) ? Also what is the closest safe distance you can live near a nuclear power plant? And if there were an EMP would you just automatically assume the plant would be in meltdown mode? Please help. Any answers would be greatly appreciated!!! Thank you

    1. No a nuclear blast isn’t only thing. A solar flare can cause an emp. Man can cause it all sorts of things can happen. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but check it out

  4. From what I’ve read, yes, if we are near a nuclear plant at EMP event, we are screwed.
    It doesn’t matter the closeness; eventually we all will be effected by the failure to shut down the plants completely–or cool those spent fuel rods.

    1. The winds will spread the radiation from reactor meltdowns around the country. There is no hiding and no matter how much you have prepped, gold, food, guns, and etc, it will eventually end in death.

      1. I doubt that winds can spread radiation everywhere. People will survive. Perhaps not many. The lack of food and water will kill more than radiation from meltdowns.

        On your last point, everybody dies at some point. With or without a catastrophe. The question is when.

        1. Your assumption may be true if only one reactor melts. But what about multiple. There won’t be a centimeter on Earth that isn’t bathed in radiation. Better to enjoy life and even prepare for some things, but if the entire electric grid goes, there will be no survival.

        2. Don’t confuse reactors radiation with bombs. Reactors have over a thousand tons of highly radioactive fuel either in the core or in adjacent cooling pools. Missiles have a few pounds worth. So don’t doubt it. If even a few meltdown you will die of radiation poisoning within days maybe weeks irrespective of where you are.

  5. I was also looking at the link at the bottom about safe distances and noticed that it didn’t include some the smaller reactors at universities and national labs. My alma mater had one and up until 9/11 I don’t think people cared about it much (although they don’t seem to care about it much now either). The reason I bring it up is that these tend to be located right in the middle of urban areas while many of the larger reactors are (or were 50 years ago) located near the edges. Great topic.

  6. I wonder if the skies will be like they are in the movie “Damnation Alley”? Most of all life will be poisoned , or dead if all of the nuclear plants and bombs go off , the only thing that could stop a nuclear plant from going off is if it is shut down and cooled in time , or if when an EMP hits the diesel generators run long enough to cool down the reactor . Be prepared and ready.Keep your powder dry.

    1. Probably more like the sky in ‘A Boy and His Dog’. Damnation Alley was an OK movie, the book was better.

      Personally, I’m less concerned about EMP and the like than I am about the inevitable collapse of the economy.

      1. It appears that we have many things that can go belly up , the economy , another country trying to invade us , our government declaring a civil war ( that is what I would call it if the government tried firearm confiscation ) , martial law (another civil war scenario ) , natural disaster , and a myriad of problems . Yeah you are right “A boy and his Dog “was a good after apocalypse movie . Be prepared and ready.Keep your powder dry.

  7. Thanks JayJay, guess we can’t really prepare for that:( I guess if you had one of those radiation detectors and the levels kept rising maybe you could try to get further away?? What about this question? Any thoughts?how do you know when to worry about fallout/sheltering after EMP (b/c you won’t know if say it was a ground burst in your state or an air burst over the US) ?

  8. “The only thing saving us from disaster is the constant supply of fresh cool water that keep the nuclear rods from melting down. ”

    Wrong. There are a whole host of systems and implements that are used to shut down a reactor. You can poison the reaction with any number of contaminants which will quench the reaction rapidly, and heat exchangers to deal with cool down. Also, water flow seldom relies solely on electric pumps.

    The author needs to do their research and look at how reactors are configured. Comparing the Fukushima incident, which was the result of catastrophic inundation of seawater generating physical damage and incapacitation of the plant as opposed to just loss of electrical supply, is not reasonable when simply considering the effects of EMP. Not all systems on a reactor are electrically driven or controlled, and they are purposely designed that way. Most are designed so that loss of electrical power instantly triggers failsafe mechanisms that shut the reactor down. Beyond that, reserve cooling systems are available to cycle into the plant to deal with heat of decay activity in the reactor.

    There are far greater concerns to consider in the event of a solar based emp. An emp from a nuclear detonation would generally be a pre-cursor to a thermonuclear attack.

    If we lose electrical grid capability, pretty near all of us will have far more pressing concerns to deal with right away than what may happen at a nuclear reactor. With the potential for a long term regional, if not national outage, life as we know it will be done. It will then be time to prepare to defend yourselves.

    1. Benjamin, Please tell the rest of us dumb idiots how a nuclear power plant will be safe after all water is stopped and all electricity is gone. What are all these other host of systems and implements which you didn’t mention? What are the poisons that will react with any number of contaminants (with no flowing water) which will quench the reaction rapidly? What are these heat exchangers and how do they work without any water, pumps or electricity?

      1. Cadmium Sulfate was one of the first poisons. Nowadays they use Sodium Polyborate and Gadolinium Nitrate. There’s a bunch of others, but these seem to be the most common.

        Coolant reservoirs, usually held under pressure, are designed to provide sufficient emergency cooling liquid to prevent core meltdown until the heat of decay has subsided. Additionally, passive circulation circuits provide a means of dissipating the heat in the cooling liquid away from the core. We called this coolant recirculation, sort of how the radiator in your car works to keep the engine from overheating. Different scales. Same principle. You don’t see people driving down the street with a garden hose hooked up to the car. However, a number of reactors did have a type of siphon flow that would keep water flowing through the reactor at a reduced rate if the pumps quit, having access to a close proximity virtual water source (the reactors along the Columbia River had these capabilities).

        Control power loss is easy to anticipate in reactor design, and mitigate. Mitigation design for catastrophic systems failure due to physical damage, such as what happened at Fukushima, has it’s limits. Again, something far more involved than just losing electricity.

        1. It doesn’t matter much if anything can be done, what idiot is going to stay at a nuclear reactor instead of running home to keep their family safe. That cracks me up about ‘how long’ until our grid is repaired…months? years? do they think people will actually wake up and go off to work? Will they leave their vulnerable starving family and start walking? i’m no expert, but just like project x…the movie, people will not act the same.

        2. You have hit the nail on the head. All pro nuclear nuts have this ridiculous notion that somehow someone is maintaining the cool down procedure (which can take years!). They conveniently ignore scenarios where society has collapsed for whatever reason. They have no answers other than to ridicule when you ask the question, what happens if they are unmanned. The short answer is we all die horribly. That is the lunacy of nuclear energy. The risk levels are insane. For a few years worth of electricity we have effectively killed ourselves and most of the planet. The genetic mutations of anything that survives will be horrendous.

        1. Yes, and I’m so glad to find out that none of us need to be concerned that in the event of the power grid going down and diesel backup generators failing for lack of fuel, that all will be well at our nuke plants, even after weeks and weeks or months and months. Phewww… I am relieved. /sarc

          All kidding aside, I don’t doubt there are other cooling backup helper methods, but I do doubt that they will indefinitely and sufficiently cool the reactor and pools after emergency shutdown and power grid – generator failure to avoid dangerous heating and melting. I’m no expert, but Benjamin’s comment almost sounds like saying there’s such a thing as a perpetual motion machine that requires no energy input.

        2. Well, if a reactor is scrammed this way, the pile will be rendered useless. Some types of poisons will deteriorate, some won’t. Then there’s the issue of dealing with a dead reactor full of radioactive material, maintaining the plant for who knows how long, without electricity to do that work, being able to monitor conditions in the plant without electricity would be a big problem. Assuming nothing happens to the coolant system during the cool down period and beyond, you can’t just walk away from it. So as civilization falls down, who is going to continue going to work to deal with it?

          Even if the plant survives the EMP and SCRAM, it will continue to be a problem for a long time that we had better stay on top of. I don’t see that happening if we are struggling for years just to survive. Someone told me once we can’t just undo technology and go back to the stone age. There are things we’ve done that are not so easily undone. Nuke plants are one of those things.

        3. Exactly. We have built the Doomsday machine. Unfortunately there is an entire army of trolls (are they even human?) out there hell bent on spreading disinformation and ensuring this issue never sees the light of day. F&ck em all.

        4. The use of multisyllabic words and technical definitions to convey a superficial understanding of what transpires during reactor meltdowns does NOT negate the dangers associated with an EMP. Anyone who states otherwise is a fool or a shill.

    2. Is it not true that after a couple of months of operation (insertion into the reactor (pile)) the fuel rods have accumulated enough radioactive daughter products so as to generate sufficient heat to result (if cooling capability is lost for whatever reason (LOCA or something else)) in a meltdown?

      Years ago Bob Pollard (of the Union of Concerned Scientists) told me that the rough rule of thumb for estimating the heat output with the reactor shutdown, was 1% of the thermal output of the plant (i.e., roughly 30mW). So basically, you had maybe 3 days before it would get hot enough to start melting/catch on fire. As I understand it, the risks run from contamination of water and air from these breached or melting fuel rods to a small chain reaction when the material collects at the bottom of the unit and takes on a physical geometry (i.e., a blob as opposed to long cylinders) more conducive to sustaining a few generations of such a reaction.

      The result of course is more contamination and dispersal of the contamination, with Strontium and Cesium isotopes being the real problem given the tendency of organisms to use them as they would calcium and potassium.

      Can you shed some light on this. It appears you have a nuclear engineering background.

      Also, is it true that the rods can be pulled from water storage and put in dry cask storage after about 5 years?

      Thanks,

    3. Absolute nonsense. After scram the reactor WILL meltdown and breach containment if left unattended.

    4. Actually you are depressingly wrong. First of all your false hope is based on the premise that the reactor is actually manned. So on an individual reactor basis and assuming all other services are functioning you may have some valid points. But in the event of a global catastrophic event it highly unlikely they are manned and very few can function without backup diesel generators for more than a days. Even ones with natural water flow have huge AC powered filtration plants and the filters require cleaning regularly. Stopping criticality (scram) does not stop meltdown. It stops the reaction but the core will remain extremely hot for month if not years due to decay heat. Don’t get me started on the cooling pools right next to the reactor! In any event it spells extinction. Totally absurd but hey, welcome to capitalism. Profit and greed are good at the expense of logic and the planet.

  9. Anybody else have any thoughts on this??I know a nuclear bomb is what makes the EMP, but how do you know when to worry about fallout/sheltering (b/c you won’t know if say it was a ground burst in your state or an air burst over the US) ? Also what is the closest safe distance you can live near a nuclear power plant? And if there were an EMP would you just automatically assume the plant would be in meltdown mode? Please help. Any answers would be greatly appreciated!!! Thank you!

    1. Hi Shawn,

      If you check out the survival blogs on the net you will come across more info on nuclear scenarios to answer your questions. From memory, not all reactors are built like those at fukushima which used an early design. Newer units have more failsafes built into them. Still, it could be a crap shoot as to how you come out. If you have one downwind, learn about it’s design and prevailing wind patterns. Get a geiger counter of some sort and if it’s showing 100 rads its probably time to bugout unless you have 3′ of concrete on your roof. Check those prevailing winds to see if you head north or south.

      The bomb info didn’t seem that bad assuming you weren’t directly under it. China just showed the world a map of the sites in the USA it would nuke. Any big military base would get it. Again, check your map to see which way the wind blows from the base. You will have to stay under shelter for at least two weeks to let the really hot stuff decay. Because of Hiroshima, etc, we have a lot of data on what it takes to survive a nuclear blast. The same survival web sites will have articles on that too.

      The preps needed for nuclear fallout are some of what you would already have; tape, plastic, masks, raingear, etc. If you think you may have to bugout check ahead of time for regional shelters at city halls to see where your best chances are. That way you are ahead of the other 99%.

      Tough topic, nothings going to be good after a nuke disaster but with a little planning, luck and the grace of God, many will survive.

      SJ

      1. I think you will find most reactors are old and extremely unsafe. For example, all US reactors were built in the 70s. i.e. their concrete and steel containment structures must already be suffering from severe embrittlement. Of possible bigger concern though is the hundreds of thousands of tons of spent fuel in cooling pools. They have no containment other than the water they are in. You guessed it. Completely dependent on backup diesel generators.

  10. Don’t forget our nuclear navy , and every other reactor in the world as the radiation would grow to such high levels so quickly world wide , The People of Europe would have to go underground due to the jet stream carrying radiation across the Atlantic Ocean .And their nations power grids and fuel resupply lines will fail then their reactors will meltdown , and this will spread across Russia and China and the Middle East over the next few weeks to months . Soon every reactor on Earth would go critical and the end of Mankind would follow within months , It really does not matter what caused the meltdown be it EMP acts of Terrorism or a Nuclear War the overall effect would remain the same , Mutual .Assured . Destruction . know as MAD .

  11. In the unlikely event someone involved in regulating nuclear powerplants reads this:

    Diesel engines do not need electronics – they can be purely mechanical. It would be prudent for the backup generators at nuclear powerplants to be purely mechanical, with no electronics – because another Carrington event is inevitable, if unpredictable.

    1. most nuclear power plants are on a river for a reason. They have the capability to open up a channel and let the water flow in to cool the reactor. Water is free that way. And they are set up that way in the US for a reason. Also, most of them do use diesel power. Some of the plants may melt down, due to idiocracy, but most have plans in place for this. If you are really worried about it move away from the plant, but I urge you to talk to someone who actually knows something about a subject before just jumping off the deep end with fear mongering.
      My husband has worked in the nuclear field his whole career and we have had MANY conversations about this. I know that he would not let us stay here if he felt it was not safe. And I trust him. Any argument you have against that is invalid.
      I believe that this could happen, but I think you need to be working on how you will get water and medicines to your family before you worry about a nuclear meltdown.

      1. Rivers flood. The inlet water must be filtered and the filters replaced regularly or they block up. So forget an emp. If left unmanned for whatever reason, say a pandemic we are stuffed. Mankind has built the world’s biggest doomsday machine and the truly laughable part is we don’t even realise it.

    2. If they purely mechanical how do they automatically start up in an emergency? All 450 of them?

    3. If they are purely mechanical and assume everyone is dead or has left, how do they start up and run automatically for 3 years!!

  12. Whomever sets off that EMP will also be affected ! Just like the stupid
    pilots that are using chemtrails !
    MAN is destroying the Earth!

  13. In 1936, Tesla, in front of hundreds of reporters, industry officials, etc, gave the following demonstration:

    He installed a 75hp “electric” motor in a car, ran two wires through the firewall to the front seat – went to the “corner hardware store” and purchased some vac. tubes and some electrical components – assembled them in a shoe box size container on the front seat of the car, connected the two wires onto two metal rods sticking out of the box – pushed the rods down and said – “now we have power”. Her ran the car for a week on “nothing” but that box and electric motor at speeds of up to 90mph. Tesla said the the energy or power came from the sun and the magnetic pole flux around the earth. He said you can run your car or your whole house on this small shoe box size container with a couple of components from the local hardware store – forever, day and night.

    The media attacked Tesla and accused him of foolery, witchcraft, and fraud. The media at the time – as even more so now – was owned by the Oil, gas and electric company’s, Rockefeller, Rothchilds and the Jewish bankers.

    Tesla took his invention and retired to his work, never bringing it out again in disgust.

    So, we know even today that something exists, that can fit in a little shoe box, that can run our homes, cars, industry, day and night, for free, no wires, no bills, but no profits for the elites. One day soon that “invention” will surface again.

  14. The NWO plan to destroy humanity is about to reach fruition.
    I cry for the wino net animals of the planet but will be happy to see humans gone as they seem happy to commit any evil.

  15. I’m hoping benjammin is right, at least about the nuke plants,as far as someone nuking us after why bother, everyone will be killing each other for whatever resources they can find, most will die within the first year,whoever’s left will deal with an invading army who emp’d us in the first place.

  16. Even if there were no chance for nuclear meltdown in a power grid collapse, the majority of people will probably die anyway because without a grocery store down the street with shelves of food, they will starve to death. Most people depend on electricity for almost everything and they wouldn’t survive without it.

  17. It doesn’t have to be nuclear or weaponized! Just wait for a meteorite the size of a bowling ball to blow up over the United States!:
    On January 18, 2000 in Canada’s Yukon Territory a meteor (tiny asteroid) the size of a bowling ball exploded at an altitude of 25 km with a force of 3 kilotons. In ‘burning up’ in Earth’s atmosphere it generated an Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) similar to that of a nuclear bomb, knocking out the power over one third of the Territory.

  18. Let’s see now… a large explosion over a Russian city enough to have 1500 people injured cased by a meteorite a few months back… funny how I didn’t hear of any power losses or EMP burst????? Maybe there is and then again maybe it’s theory to get people to buy “stuff”??

  19. You Forget the 10,000 nuclear missiles in Submarine’s and in ground Silos.

    The EMP flash will destabilize all of them and finally meltdown with tragic effects in hole planet.

    What happen if the EMP flash hit a Submarine when patrols in Pacific or Atlantic Ocean ?

    Do I mention the thousands military satellites over the earth witch operate with nuclear reactors ?

    If Solar EMP happens, forget at first USA, Russia, UK, France,Germany, Ghina, Japan, India, and off course all the countries they use Nuclear power, for electricity or military purpose !!

    1. I’m guessing that submarines are hardened against EMP’S. Just a guess.

  20. Don’t worry. An asteroid the size of Texas will hit us first.

    1. Economic collapse followed by total collapse. Same affect as an asteroid and guaranteed.

  21. Just my opinion, I think in the long run everyone who is left after the rapture of the “body of Christ” is gonna be in a very bad way. Make sure you are saved from being one of them.

  22. Finally some sense. Survivalists, preppers, whathaveyou, better be sure to have plenty of buckets to douse 100,000 tons of nuke waste and reactor cores… Good Luck with that.

    1. LOL, spot on. We have some serious geniuses in charge of this planet. If I was in charge they would all be lined up and shot. Then, dismantle every single friggin reactor.

  23. My, there are a lot of opinions out there. Nuclear-generated EMP kills electronics. CMEs, don’t. CME kills transformers, the large, high voltage transformers used at power stations. The fissile materials in nuclear weapons will be quite stable, and will be just fine. No cooling is required for these. EMP is a line-of-sight phenomena, and will not impact the entire globe. Research reactors are not nearly the problem that industrial power units could be, but there are redundant cooling systems in place on most of the world’s reactors. Communications will not be knocked out by a CME if backup power is available…radio, etc. The grid will likely be scrammed to preserve the large high voltage transformers, at least in Europe. American power generators are still unsettled on contingency planning regarding CMEs. Hopefully, they will joint the Europeans on the planning side of things and follow their lead on planning for a CME.

    With a nuclear-generated EMP, comm and the (US)grids will go down. Hard. It won’t be for months, either. It will be years before normal power is restored. Water, as in drinking water and the lack thereof, will kill many more Americans than will radiation from nuclear plants. Starvation will be the next highest killer. Radiation will be a problem in some areas, but won’t be the killer many fear….plain old shortages of clean water and food will kill more than the radiation problem. Government experts expect a 70% to a 90% die-off from starvation after an EMP…not from nuke plant radiation. There is a lot you can do on your own to protect yourself…food and water filtration should be your first bulwark against this scenario. Shelter comes after food and water, unless you live in the shadow of a nuke plant. Each person’s location will determine priorities, but food, water, and meds are the first and easiest things ordinary people can work on as a hedge against this sort of disaster. Start with bulk stocks of beans, rice, veg oil, salt, sugar, etc. Cheap and dense for storage, they can keep you alive and healthy for years for little money. Look into serious water filtration capacity, such as the Lakewater Filter (I don’t sell these). Solar, wind, and hydro power will function just fine after a CME. Have spare charge controllers for EMP.

    1. EMP is just one scenario. There are many more imminent ones that are far more likely and result in a complete collapse of society as we know it. Nit picking what an EMP may or may not do is not really the point. The simple fact is this. If they are left unmanned (and don’t forget the thousands of tons of HLW in cooling ponds) we are quite literally doomed. Every single one of us. We have already committed suicide, the trigger has been pulled, now we just waiting for the bullet to hit.

  24. Paul Seyfried thank you for the in depth info! How many miles would you say is ” in the shadow” of a power plant?! And how do you know if the EMP is a ground burst close by in your state or say an air burst over the US? (In case you need to shelter vs not shelter for fallout) any thoughts are appreciated!

  25. Nuclear power plants have a manual backup shutdown procedure. The fuel rods are suspended on silk ropes. An ordinary fire ax is used to cut them and the rods drop into the core by gravity.

    1. That’s what they used to do back in the 1940s. That’s where the term SCRAM comes from. Doesn’t work like that any more. Usually a natural gravity drop or hydraulics or some other mechanical fail safe is used. But definitely not a fire ax. Not anymore thank G_d!

    2. That’s the old original scram you are describing. The concept is the same today but the method is different. scram prevents a catastrophic explosion of the reactor. It does not prevent eventual meltdown of the core in the absence of cooling. It is not that simple. So mankind is walking the razor blade with nuclear energy.

  26. Thank goodness my family and I live a good 3 or 4 hundred miles from a nuclear power plant in a foreign country. All of the power I use is hydro electric generated.

  27. Many power reactors also store on site spent fuel rods which have to be cooled as well.. great system, eh.

  28. Could you hook up the Diesel engine to a wood gas generator or gasification unit? I guess someone would have to be willing to run it instead of running away. I have seen where this system can power a vehicle, not sure if it could really power a “power plant” lol.

    1. LOL, there are hundreds of reactors and HLW cooling ponds not to mention during complete societal collapse who would be manning the nuclear reactors. Are you volunteering for radiation poisoning. Watch your flesh disintegrate and fall off you in writhing agony.

  29. This may sound stupid but dont they make electricty?
    Why not make them self powered???
    Just a thought.

    1. When you scram a reactor you are shutting down power to the grid. Does that answer the question.

  30. All I know is that out of all those reactors…something will go wrong at least once…and that is scary.

    1. The problem is people don’t really comprehend how dangerous it actually is. If they did they would go back to candles and wood fires rather than use nuclear. The concept of nuclear is fantastic. However it relies far to heavily on a perfect world of constants. We don’t live in a perfect world of constants.

  31. Yes, John in Maryland. I was thinking the same thing. I would think that since the Nuclear plants are producing power, they would be immune to “power failures”.

    Now, I suppose if the electronics that control the power plant’s infrastructure and computer based control systems, are not hardened then they wouldn’t be able to support their own “life”, so to speak, and would present some of the issues discussed above.

    Does anyone really “KNOW” what will happen? Lots of theories out there. Can’t exactly plan for all of them.

    1. Nuclear power generation is not the problem, its the components that will fail, transformers, circuit boards, etc thats why they should have required a hardening of all on site backup components….but as usual the profit margin was the bottom line not a safety backup…oh my those are the things we do not talk about until after the incident happens. I am amazed that a terrorist attack has not taken place at a U. S. facility. Also as was discussed a couple of months ago out of approx 100 commercial Nuclear here in the U.S over 80 of those are in the Eastern half of the U.S. the overlap blanket effect would be hard to even calculate in a total mass failure scenario. So prepping to move to another locale in the North Western States might be job one, not excuses like well my career, my relatives, etc it is your choice now, dont wait till there are no choices. Time is short and not in our favor, pray for guidance and get in gear.

      1. Yeah, and the spent nuclear fuel is stored in the west. After all, we wouldn’t want that stuff close to a significant population (I actually saw that argument used) or contaminating groundwater for same.

      2. You can’t escape that level of radiation. It actually makes the concept of nuclear war laughable. Say China and US exchange missiles. The fallout is bad but the rest of humanity soldiers on. But what about the unmanned nuclear power plants and the thousands of tons of HLW in cooling ponds. Nope. Survivalists have always been united by one common theme. Hope. I’m afraid the geniuses in charge have managed to take that away from us to. There is no hope. Enjoy life while it lasts.

    2. Okay, again. In an emergency you have to scram the reactor. So power won’t be generated to the grid. Trust me. EMP is just a remote possibility. There are many certainties that are far worse heading our way.

  32. You should research Chernobyl. I was pro nuclear until I read about that. And that was just one reactor and it was within minutes of taking out all of Europe! France has 58 nuclear power stations so around 200 reactors! You don’t need an emp either. Any disaster such as a virus or a societal collapse due to economic implosion (happening as we speak) and we have a serious problem. It doesn’t matter where you live or bug out to. You can’t escape that level of radiation.

    1. Exactly Greg, we’re in a whole world a chit.
      The U.S. being one of the shoulders holding up this house of cards can collapse at any time, it’s all over after that.
      The domino effect is in place, one way is just 2 well placed devices and the domino falls.
      The old world wouldn’t survive since we’re about 100% internationally dependent.
      All reactors would melt eventually with no ability to stop any of it.

      Mankind is not very bright.

    2. Pretty sure I saw the same special. Sure opened my eyes in a hurry. Can’t believe mankind was so stupid, we have literally sealed our collective fate.

    3. Sorry, correction. They (France) have 58 reactors (and thousands of tons of spent fuel in cooling pools). Doesn’t change the outcome but the trolls out there love to nit pick.

  33. I think people are missing the salient point. If any catastrophic event occurred such as an emp or a virus outbreak, essentially anything that caused reactors to be unmanned for more than a day or two and it’s extinction level event. There is no automatic fail safe shut down for a nuclear reactor. It is a huge myth that reactors safely and quickly shut down. I have no idea how the myth started but it’s nonsense. The core takes years to cool down even after criticality has stopped by scram. They take years to shut down safely. Backup diesel generators to run the critical cooling system can run for around a week but after that two problems occur. They run out of diesel and need refueling and there is only on average 7 days worth of diesel on site. Unfortunately it gets worse. Almost without exception all reactor spent fuel rods are stored on site in cooling pools. They also require active cooling or they meltdown depending on age. That said they all stored together irrespective of age. Just one pool can have hundreds of tons of spent fuel. Global estimates put spent fuel in cooling pools at around 250,000 tons. So you see, ANY event that causes reactors (even if just say the US (99) or France(58) ) to be unmanned and it an extinction event in the literal sense of the word. Worldwide there are 451 reactors.

    1. How do we stop this madness! When I watched Dr Strangelove I thought it was a work of fiction. I remember thinking, whew, thank God mankind is not that stupid. 30 years later and it turns out that I was watching a documentary and actually we are far far more stupid than anyone could have ever imagined! The anything for a buck mantra has doomed us all to a horrible death. It really is just a question of time. SPREAD THE WORD FOLKS. It’s downright scary how many people are not aware of this. Every Zombie/apocalypse move you have ever watched is total BS. Possibly even propaganda. Nothing would survive the meltdown. Not even the zombies.

  34. The amount of radiation released from unmanned, uncontrolled meltdowns of all nuclear reactors/spent fuel pools will release a ton of radiation. But, it is still survivable if far away from nuclear power plants.

    Here’s the analysis.

    In the years after Fukashima, most people on earth receive about 200 banana equivalent doses (BED) of radiation per year from it. It takes 35 million BED to kill you, assuming you get the dose over a short time. Much more if spread out.

    So, assuming each uncontrolled meltdown releases 100x more cesium 137 than Fukashima, that’s 200 BED x 100 = 20,000 BED. Nest, assume all 400 plants worldwide meltdown. That’s 20,000 BED x 400 = 8,000,000 BED per year. That’s still a lot less than needed to kill you. It’s a dose also expressed as 0.8 sieverts per year. That may result in a 3-4% cancer risk attributable to the radiation. But, starvation and disease will still be the far bigger concern.

    This all assume of course you quickly get to a part of world that isn’t disproportionately contaminated with radiation… In other words, you’d be dead many times over in the DC/Ph/NYC/Boston corridor or in Chicago area.

  35. Dear Sirs, some of your guests asked “how to stop the madness?”. There simply was no avalanche of answers to the question that everyone was desperate to hear. Nope, just the little old e-mail that I sent in. Edit it from front to back, completely re-write it if you wish, add critical remarks aplenty — but why not present my offering?
    Bill of Kansas — a.k.a. William C. McKee

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