Someone I know who used to work in the nuclear power industry has been saying that his real worry about Y2K is the issue of spent fuel rods, which have to have a continuous supply of water running over them, or they will explode.

This is scary. Way scarier than the possibility of plants going Chernobyl.

Rick, why aren't people talking about the issue of nuclear waste storage? If power goes bye-bye, it seems as if proper maintenence of nuclear waste stockpiles would be, well, nearly impossible.

-Nick

-- Anonymous, January 02, 1999

Answers

1. Spent fuel (or "active" fuel for that matter) can't explode, no matter what the circumstances.

2. Spent fuel sits in a pool of water that you could equate to a swimming pool. It's a 'closed' system, meaning that the water is simply recirculated within the spent fuel pool cooling system.

Any system that contains high level nuclear waste is a concern to both the people that operate the plants and the NRC. From a Y2k operational perspective, spent fuel cooling systems are honestly the least of my concerns.

-- Anonymous, January 02, 1999

Rick: Why are spent fuel pools the least of your concerns? Reactor containment is designed to contain (obviously) activity from a breach of the coolant system. Assuming no power after the emergency diesels run out of fuel oil, what is to prevent the pools from boiling off?

-- Anonymous, January 09, 1999