Reply #4: I guess they can't just throw a switch or light a match. [View All]

[ben_meyers]

I would imagine that a nuclear plant is a bit more complicated that that.

This incident doesn't appear to be related to the reactors at all. The facility lost external power and an orderly shutdown was performed.

But that doesn't stop an "alarmist" from trying to make more of the situation:

FTA

"If we have in the future an accident where the reactors go critical, I would only pray for Miami-Dade County since there is no way to evacuate the population today compared with in 1972, when the reactors were originally permitted," the president Rhonda Roff of an environmental group called "Save It Now, Glades" told AFP.(snip)
"At least 50 percent of the risk of a reactor accident comes from not having electric power," said Nuclear Information and Resource Services regional president Mary Olson.

"Every nuclear reactor that goes down represents a high risk," she said, explaining that when power goes out, the plant has a battery-powered back-up cooling system that lasts about two hours, after which fuel and radioaction start to leak "in 45 minutes.

Which is why they go to backup power and shut down the reactors! Of course they don't run them without cooling! Olson is overstating the risk by implying that the reactor was "45 minutes" from leaking. Nothing could be further from the truth.