On The Effect Of Zombies On The Power Grid

Eric McErlain at NEI Nuclear Notes has a funny-but-interesting post up about an apocalyptic event: what if a Dawn Of The Dead type event struck and flesh-eating zombies took over? How long would the lights stay on? The answer is, it depends, with coal and gas-fired plants probably going offline first, followed by nuclear (after a year or so, depending on where they were in their fuel cycle), and then hydro. The moral: either move to Canada (where most electricity is generated by hydro), or get yourself a flatbed full of gasoline-powered generators and a couple tankers of gasoline, and sit tight.