If everybody suddenly died what would happen to the nuclear power stations?
A series on TV has nearly everybody dead from flu. Everything has gone off – water, power etc.
Coal and oil powered stations would, presumably, just go out, as it were; but would a nuclear one keep working for a while, just stop like the rest or would it go out of control and explode?
August 31st, 2010 at 7:40 am
They would probably overheat and the automatic fail-safe devices would shut them down…
August 31st, 2010 at 8:13 am
Why would that matter….? It’ll probably explode after a while, but the sheer power of all nuclear energy in the world will not be able to destroy the earth…
At most, it’ll make it a barren place for those regions that were affected, but the earth will repair itself etc. etc.
Plus we’ll be dead D:.
August 31st, 2010 at 8:54 am
it would keep working for a “while” – however, without proper maintenance, it would eventually either stop working, or possibly explode…yikes.
August 31st, 2010 at 9:04 am
it probobly would go out in a couple of days. i hope that wouldnt happen dont think about it that way!
August 31st, 2010 at 9:40 am
I think it would keep working for a while but it would also go out of control sooner or later
August 31st, 2010 at 10:28 am
there will be a steam turbine trip eventually when everyone dies and power consumption has gone off ! Due to increase in steam temperatures and levels in turbine cycle condenser steam turbine will trip , it will finally cause nuclear steam generation also to trip and stop. The main thing is loading of grid and when there is no consumption of power for some time, the system finally trips.
As long as control and protection systems are intact there is no chance of explosion and a sequenced shut down of equipment will happen based on load rejection and protection interlocks of transmitters in the system!
August 31st, 2010 at 11:13 am
If everbody died, who cares what would happen to the nuclear power stations or anything on this earth. Nobody would be here to care.
August 31st, 2010 at 11:58 am
like others have stated the fail-safes built into these facilities will prevent any interesting explosions
The only power plant or refinery operation that could keep going long after humans disappear his Hoover Dam, but even it’s water intake would become clogged preventing flow thus causing overheating and eventual safty shutdown.
The History Channel did a complete show on this subject.
August 31st, 2010 at 12:35 pm
I would have thought that nuclear power stations are fully automated and would continue produceing power until either the fuel rods are spend or one of the systems encounters an error and shuts its self down.
If something was to happen to the cooling systems though before the fuel was spent you would have a melt down on ya hands !
August 31st, 2010 at 12:54 pm
Nuc power stations are provided with additional safety equipments to trip or safely shut down the unit in case of any problem.
So long as the load remains same on the grid,it will run till fuel is finished.But if the load variations are very high, thei control system can not manage, then it will shut down automatically.
August 31st, 2010 at 1:44 pm
to understand the situation properly, you must understand the system, basically, the power is created in a self perpetuating system, as long as the nuclear material is sufficiently radioactive then it will keep producing energy, the fail safes will only work if they are maintained, but the main fail safe is that if power is interrupted, the boron rods are dropped and power production is stopped, preventing explosion. (boron falls into the reactor and stops all reactions, it is pulled out too far we have a melt down, the higher or lower it is the more or less energy created, the fail safe is that they are held in place by electro magnets, power stops and they drop, stopping reactions)
theoretically, the power station will keep going until these systems fail, and you have a choice, about 99% it will just shut down when a fail safe kicks in, and about 1%chance than without maintenance this wont work and it wont shut down, then it will not go nuclear, but i would not like to be within 50 miles when meltdown occurs.
depending on what series of station and how lucky you are, this could take 6 months or 100 years to happen, so lets hope that when we all die and you are the last person alive you live near a very modern and well maintained power station.
February 10th, 2011 at 1:35 pm
I think it depends on the situation. If the fail-safe devices stopped working, the plant might explode. But if not, who knows? Other circumstances could cause reactions with chemicals in the plant and blow it up, or it would just sit there and cease operation. And, as already stated, there wouldn’t be anyone left to care.