I am told, that nuclear power plants require electricity to keep the core cool after being shut down. Is this why they will be shut down July 1999, so that we have 6 mos. of cooling? Can an expert describe what we might expect if we have a meltdown? A Cheyrnoble? And how vulnerable are we?

-- Anonymous, January 02, 1999

Answers

Aurthur,

If you'll scroll down the index of the forum, you'll find a whole topical section devoted to nuclear power and Y2k. You might want to start with this Q&A thread:

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=000GO8

That thread does a pretty fair job of answering your questions on core cooldown times. I think the rest of your questions are answered, in part, by the entire body of correspondence under the Nuclear topic.

Also, you might want to look at the nuclear section of the euy2k.com website (www.euy2k.com/nuke.htm)- there's a layman's description of the issues related to Y2k and nuclear energy, which I hope addresses your concerns about a meltdown.

Hope this helps!

-- Anonymous, January 02, 1999