Gundersen: 26 nuclear plants in area where Hurricane Sandy likely to hit —

[FBaggins]

2. What an irresponsible nutcase

(Not you of course Kolesar)

There were far more people killed by the panic/worry of the evacuation from Fukushima than the reactor radiation killed (still zero) - and this guy (and his ilk) did everything they could to contribute to that irrational fear (all to line their own pockets). Now he decides that the people in the path of Sandy don't have enough to worry about - so he invents something new to fear.

This guy just makes stuff up as he goes along. Is he going to take responsibility for the family that dies in the storm trying to run away from a reactor that poses no actual risk to them?

Let's clarify a few things for those who actually care about the facts:

It's false to say that fuel pools are not cooled by backup diesels. It would be true to say that the regulations don't require them to be... so some aren't. But not because "no one wanted to buy them" (which is ridiculous)... it's because they aren't needed.

What Fukushima taught us is that doesn’t stop the decay heat

Lol! Way to get "Fukushima" in the audience's mind early... but we already knew how decay heat works (unlikely Arnie and so many of his followers who kept insisting that active fission was continuing/recurring for weeks after shutdown).

You need the diesels to keep the reactors cool

The reactors yes, the fuel pools... no.

If recent refuel, hot fuel will throw off more and more moisture from pool - Reactor buildings not meant to handle the high humidity

No idea where he thinks he's going with that. Humidity is dangerous now? Reactor buildings were not "meant to handle" termites either... but that doesn't mean they can't.

Fuel pool liner not really designed to approach boiling water, may unzip if water gets too hot

What a crock. This isn't a vinyl liner in a swimming pool. It's stainless steel over feet of reinforced concrete. Presumably "unzip" means that some seam between two steel plates could open up. So what? Are we supposed to believe that once hot water gets past stainless steel it will magically eat through feet of reinforced concrete?

Need water in around 2 days if hot fuel in pool
That would have to be much "hotter" fuel than they put in SFPs (and more of it). Each pool is a little different and it depends on how much fuel is already in there, but it's far more likely that we're talking a week or more before a SFP would need additional water. And here's the key... that isn't a big deal. See below.

The only fall-back if power is lost is to let fuel pools heat up

And that's the conclusion he wants to leave you with... but it's a flat out lie. That is not the only fallback. All they have to do is add water (within a few days), and they do have "fall-back" plans for that.

Listen folks... this isn't rocket science. It's just running a hose to a swimming pool. The reason it was a big deal at Fukushima is that they had multiple meltdowns in the cores and significant radiation releases. They couldn't just walk up the stairs and run a fire hose to the pool and it took days (due to national infrastructure damage) to even get equipment that could reach the pool from outside.

But anyone who can connect a garden hose and start a lawn mower can hook up a P250 (or similar) and pump water (or just use a fire hydrant).

This is irresponsible fear mongering and he should be ashamed of himself.