How do you put a whole country on stand-by?

[YetAnotherBloodyCheek]

Hi,

as extraordinary good as WA is, there are several things I can not explain, mainly in terms of infrastructure. The U.S. were not in hibernation when the zombie apocalypse broke out in May 2009. For example, there are about 65 nuclear power plants on U.S. territory, each one of them depends on daily maintenance by large group of specialists. Through the sheer force of the pandemie, I do not think that there has been enough time to shut down this plants. Is there not a rather high probability, that the New England states are radioactively contaminated due to the spatial close of this plants? For how long has there been not maintenance - nearly seven months? I guess that this should worry somebody. Especially if your currently located in the vicinity of Denver.

Furthermore, what about the (petro-)chemical industry, the mining companies and so on. They require rather large amounts of environmentally harmful substances. But it is much more serious - they have to store them. Do not get me wrong, I am no a radical environmentalist. But if I were in the same situation, I would be worried about whats in the water that I drink every day.

I think that these aspects have not come up yet. So what are your thoughts on this?

Michael

[LiamKerrington]

Well, I guess ... It all went South ... dunDUN... DUUNNNNNNNN!

No, kidding.

In the WA universe this is probably not dealt with in order to keep the story and situation focussed. I think it could be safe to assume that most facility would have kind of automated shutdown systems that kicked in right in time ...

But in general I agree with you: Considering the fast results of things going wrong is a maddening vision ...

[YetAnotherBloodyCheek]

Hm, I have considered automated shutdown systems as well. However, how good will the control systems work if they are "operated" by zombie who carries a steel rod?

[LiamKerrington]

Why would a zombie carry a rod of steel around? I think zeds would look for some delicious food; and if there is none available, they would just go on and search at different locations. Thus the facility would be left alone.
And yes: Even a nuclear powerplant in shut down provides a lot of danger; there needs to be no less then a simple leakage in the water-circulation, or pumps just need to fail to operate ... And there you go ...
Besides: Don't forget that there are plenty of nuclear power plants at the West Coast of the USA as well; and don't you forget the navy ships with nuclear power plants, some of which are stationed at the West Coast as well ... !

[Cabbage Patch]

It probably helps that we spent the first six months after Z-Day focused in Los Angeles on the West Coast of the United States. In general, the weather comes in from the West and blows East. The Pacific Northwest could burn, the Mid-West could implode and the East Coast could melt down with no impact on Los Angeles. The first indication that LA would have of the problems elsewhere wouldn't happen until the debris cloud has traveled all the way around the globe and approaches from the West.

Of course, that doesn't protect our heroes from the nuke plants, refineries or industrial plants in Southern California, or the massive forest fires that are a fact of life in SoCal every summer. It doesn't mean nothing happened. For all we know there were problems, the prevailing winds blew the results East and it didn't have enough impact to merit reference in the story.

[Kc]

In terms of power plants that are nuclear, there is a fair bit to consider with those. What happens if we just walk away from them? The spent rods take like 4 years to cool down. In what I've found from my research, there would be contamination in areas, but no huge explosions per se. in theory. Would create a sort of "Dead Zone" around them, with contamination.

The closest to LA is San Onofre. For story purposes I considered whoever might be there, seeing what's going on in the outside world, start going into a safe-shutdown mode to minimize the potential leak of radiation. Being somewhat far from civilization and having well armed guards, Nuclear plants have the capabilities to withstand a decent attack.

That's just my 2 cents on it. It's never come up in the story, but just something I've considered.

Oh, and for Boulder, and any reactors? Here's a map for any worse case scenarios:

[LiamKerrington]

It's never come up in the story, but just something I've considered.

Rep +1 ... That's awesome.

[YetAnotherBloodyCheek]

I totally agree with that.

Coming from a relatively small country compared to the just huge U.S. territory, a single meltdown would render large areas uninhabitable in my country. Needless to say, a meltdown or maximum credible accident would be a devastating blow to any country.

[HardKor]

Well it's nice to know that if the shit ever does hit the fan, I'm most likely fucked from radiation....wonderful.

[LiamKerrington]

Wow. Just considering ... Since Germany is in the so-called "west-wind-zone" ... Am just imagining what a major series of meltdowns at the East Coast of the US would mean for us ... It really is hard to wrap ones mind around this ... The picture added by Kc is just incredible ...
YetAnotherBloodyCheek: Did you know that you live only about 75mi away from your next nuclear power plant - Grohnde!