nuclear power in dawn...

[Mike70]

after watching the history channel show "life after people" i wonder if anyone else picked up on the fact that a nuclear power plant could keep functioning for up to 2 years or more without supervision before going into safe mode. the likelihood of a meltdown is remote but once the uranium fuel got reduced to a certain level the plant would automatically go into shutdown/safe mode.

2 years is a bit of time compared to what would happen in areas that were supplied by electricity generated by fossil fuels but then again hydro power could theoretically keep running as long as the machinery was in good enough shape to keep pumping out the juice.

[sandrock74]

Good info, I didn't know that.

[SRP76]

Come on, they let Homer Simpson work in a power plant. So you know the people there aren't really vital.:p

[MikePizzoff]

2 years? I think that's plenty of time, given the right amount of people, to figure out (learn) how to maintain the place every now and then. Who knows, you might be able to keep it going for a decent amount of time.

[Danny]

actually life after people said the nuclear plant would last 2 years, but without any power being consumed it would go into safe mode and shut down in less than 2 days, though the hoover damn would provide the south west with power for as long as it could go without the intake pipes being clogged with those muscle type creatures.

[Legion2213]

actually life after people said the nuclear plant would last 2 years, but without any power being consumed it would go into safe mode and shut down in less than 2 days, though the hoover damn would provide the south west with power for as long as it could go without the intake pipes being clogged with those muscle type creatures.

What he said.

Looks like all our 'merican posters are headed to the Hoover Dam area when zombiegeddon breaks out. :D

"power's still on, must be hydro..."

[Danny]

hey if that place can keep supplying power if you just clean the pipes and lasts for 10,000 years then yeha, might not be a bad idea;)

[Trin]

The problem with Hoover dam is it would quickly get clogged by all the zombies trying to walk under water across Lake Mead.

Oh, wait... zombies have no problem walking under water in spite of the current. :rolleyes:

[bassman]

The problem with Hoover dam is it would quickly get clogged by all the zombies trying to walk under water across Lake Mead.

Oh, wait... zombies have no problem walking under water in spite of the current. :rolleyes:

And I always read that the people that aren't too fond of Dawn04 are constantly taking stabs at it.:bored:

[Mike70]

actually life after people said the nuclear plant would last 2 years, but without any power being consumed it would go into safe mode and shut down in less than 2 days, though the hoover damn would provide the south west with power for as long as it could go without the intake pipes being clogged with those muscle type creatures.


just rewatched the part of this about the nuke plants. you're right i misheard this.

but i am trying to translate this to the scenario in dawn and i think that power and quite a bit of it would still be being pulled from the plant because of things that run either automatically/on timers (like streetlights, lights in bldgs, malls, etc) and due to the fact that i don't think that people fleeing from zombie hordes are gonna think "wait, i need to go back. i forgot to turn off the lights."

i think that in that sort of scenario there would probably be lots of things left running in homes (lights, tvs, radios, computers (in our era of course not the original dawn), air conditioners (if it is summer) that would continue to pull a serious amount of juice from the grid.

[Staredge]

Yeah, but the problem is how long would the infrastructure last? Making power is only half of the battle. The other half is getting it to your lightbulb.

[axlish]

After watching Life After People, I would opt to move to the Hoover Dam, grab a small militia, arm ourselves to the teeth, and use the political power vacuum to take over the world. During dead times, we could have Halo tournaments.

[hadrian0117]

Dawn of the Dead starts just 3 weeks into the outbreak and ends a few months later. It's possible that the power plants aren't even abandoned. World War Z mentions in passing how the government placed small custodial teams at power plants just to maintain the infrastucture.

[Mike70]

Yeah, but the problem is how long would the infrastructure last? Making power is only half of the battle. The other half is getting it to your lightbulb.

i don't think that two years is a long time for infrastructure to hold together. unless some freak storm knocks down lines, i would think that lasting for 2 years would be in the realm of high probability.

[MoonSylver]

The problem, as I understood it, was that the fossil burning plants would run out of fuel with in HOURS to a DAY, with no one to fuel them. The demand for power vs the supply causes a cascade effect across the grids, causing them to blow out/shut down, which in turn after the 2 wk time frame cause to nuke plants to shut down in safe mode.

The bottom line? with out anyone to man the plants (which when it hits the fan I would assume most workers are gonna bail due to family &/or heading for the high ground) the lights aren't gonna stay on as long as we thought...:stunned::eek:

[MikePizzoff]

And I always read that the people that aren't too fond of Dawn04 are constantly taking stabs at it.:bored:

He was actually taking a stab at Land. :annoyed:

[Staredge]

i don't think that two years is a long time for infrastructure to hold together. unless some freak storm knocks down lines, i would think that lasting for 2 years would be in the realm of high probability.


There's a lot of maintenance going on though. 2 years with no activity whatsoever...I'm guessing it isn't going to last.

[bassman]

He was actually taking a stab at Land. :annoyed:

I understand that and I was saying that the Dawn04 lovers always say that the Dawn04 haters are constantly bringing up their hatred when it's not even relevent. In this case, he's bringing up his hatred for Land when it's not relevant.

I guess I didn't phrase it right. I'm still not sure I phrased this right. Have I been drinking?:lol:

[acealive1]

i likes the idea. we all need nuclear power. maybe the other forms of energy would replenish themselves if we switched for a bit

[Staredge]

i likes the idea. we all need nuclear power. maybe the other forms of energy would replenish themselves if we switched for a bit

Gawd, don't let the environmental whackos hear you say that. They'll have you drawn & quartered on Al Gore's lawn. :elol:

[acealive1]

Gawd, don't let the environmental whackos hear you say that. They'll have you drawn & quartered on Al Gore's lawn. :elol:

is aw that film and i know that global warming is real. hell i didnt even have to see it and i know its real. i've lived in los angeles and ohio and i've seen hail in the middle of a 90 degree heat with thunder and i've seen it snow in may so anythings possible.

[Mike70]

Gawd, don't let the environmental whackos hear you say that. They'll have you drawn & quartered on Al Gore's lawn. :elol:

let me take a bit of issue here with the term enviromental whacko. can we be incensed enough about what govts. have let corporations get away with when it comes to the enviroment. i don't think so.

should we be worried that the arctic is freezing over later and later every year - this is a fact, a complete and total fact. not supposition and not made up by al gore. hell yes we should be.

should we be worried that the something like the last 7-10 winters in canada have been warmer than the last and that last winter was the warmest winter in canada since the records have been kept. hell yes we should be.

should we concerned that every single climate indicator from ice thickness, glacier areas, air temp, etc. all indicate without a doubt that the planet is getting warmer and getting warmer quickly? hell yes.

should we be outraged and concerned that the US and china (now the world's largest emitter of CO2) continue to gleefully pump CO2 (the US alone produces 28.7 billion tons of CO2 every year through the burning of fossil fuels) in name of industry and business? hell yes.

let's not put the blinkers on and blame this on some sort of "liberal" "left wing" or "al gore" conspiracy. that sounds like something rush limbaugh would say and he is nothing more than a hypocritical, fat, junkie with a chip on his shoulder.

[Staredge]

Did y'all notice the smiley next to my post????


I'm gonna try real hard not to get involved in a global warming argument. (Yeah, right) I'll just say this: when I was a kid, some 30 years ago, the scientists were all in a panic about the coming global ice age.

(if y'all wanta argue this out, we can start a new post)

So anyway.... to some extent the WWZ scenario lends itself to the best way to keep the power going. Not so much at first, but once you've managed to secure the power stations and substations, you're halfway there. Mostly securing cities would allow you to do a lot of the line maintenance needed to keep service up, and something along the lines of DEAD RECKONING would probably work as a platform to do maintenance.

[MikePizzoff]

I understand that and I was saying that the Dawn04 lovers always say that the Dawn04 haters are constantly bringing up their hatred when it's not even relevent. In this case, he's bringing up his hatred for Land when it's not relevant.

I guess I didn't phrase it right. I'm still not sure I phrased this right. Have I been drinking?:lol:

Okay, I understand... I think...

I have been drinking. [sneaks off] :shifty:

[acealive1]

ok speak of the devil.......... i said somethin earlier about seeing weird stuff living on two diff coasts. so about 20 minutes ago for the last 5 hours we've had a thunder storm and rain and wind everywhere. i JUST went outside and the porch door was FROZEN shut and now we have snow! nice hm?

[SRP76]

i likes the idea. we all need nuclear power. maybe the other forms of energy would replenish themselves if we switched for a bit

Solar power stations would be the way to go. Zero danger, way, way less cost, absolutely no waste produced....

[acealive1]

Solar power stations would be the way to go. Zero danger, way, way less cost, absolutely no waste produced....


true,but god have mercy on the person who didnt charge their panels before it got dark. and with as much energy as we use,we'd have to charge panels for a full year to be able to live good without electricity

[Trin]

In this case, he's bringing up his hatred for Land when it's not relevant.
My JOKE was perfectly relevant to the topic of the Hoover Dam.

I have a hard time believing that the power would stay on for any length of time unless the power station were manned and the survivor base were located within very close proximity. Where I live we can't go more than a couple of storms (ice, hail, thunder, whatever) without people losing power here and there. The infrastructure between the station and the survivor area would be difficult to maintain unless it were in a protected area itself.

In any case I would never rely on power for survival or as part of my zombie defenses. In Dawn they never took steps to secure a power source. I always thought that was odd. In Day the assumption was that the power was part of the base. In Land they assumedly had their own power production in the Green and it must've been relatively stable seeing as the fences relied on it.

[SRP76]

That's the thing: power may go out all over the place, but that doesn't mean the plant itself is down. It just means someone ran their car into a line pole someplace between the plant and your neighborhood.

While the power gets cut off from everywhere, the plant itself will still have lights on and machinery running, no sweat, for quite awhile.

[bd2999]

Big push for nuclear and hydro power in that. People are scared of the word nuclear though. I mean in the documentary like show that you mentioned, it was assuming people just went away and boom.

In a zombie scenerio not only do you have to worry about that but someone running into power lines or a transformer with a car or something while trying to get away. The power source would be fine and running but nothing would be getting out to anyone. Its an interesting idea though. To be honest I always thought that things like nuclear power are good. I mean their is a super small chance of melt down, but it provides vast amounts of power for long periods of time using a small amount of material and produces a small amount of waste product, very bad waste but I am sure it could be dealt with with more research into the matter (some bacterial strains can break it down to less toxic material but it takes a while)

[blind2d]

Yeah, like Homer Simpson!:D