What if you swam in a nuclear storage pool?
Why Hacker News recommends it
Recommended whenever a thread asks how dangerous it is to fall into a reactor or fuel pool.
What it is
Randall Munroe of xkcd answers what would happen if you swam in a spent nuclear fuel pool, and how much radiation you would receive at the surface versus at depth.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2024 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Recommends seanmcdirmid · 2025-10 · on “A worker fell into a nuclear reactor pool”
Doesn’t it depend on how far they sink? I’m pretty sure xkcd did a comic on this. Oh, it’s a video, here it is: [this video] Edit: ok, I’m probably the fiftieth person to point this out. It’s still a good video.
Recommends benmathes · 2025-10 · on “A worker fell into a nuclear reactor pool”
XKCD has a good video about this. The top of the water is remarkably safe, and a life vest would keep you up there! [this video]
Cites throw0101c · 2024-07 · on “A New Specialized Train Is Ready to Haul Nuclear Waste”
> Revell River is a watershed for local communities, and South Bruce is a farming community. Thus, expect to be sued by dozens of folks... Not “if” but “when” the site inevitably leaks like the identical facilities in the US and Germany. Given that the storage will be several hundred metres below the surface and the water table of (e.g.) the Bruce area is at ~35m: * [LINK] Not sure what such an incident would really do. Especially since the Bruce nuclear plant is already storaging spent fuel on-site for about forty years, so it's not much different if that location is picked. > If it was such a great safe idea, why not install it in downtown New York or Washington? Good jobs program right...
Cites cpeterso · 2024-11 · on “The meme-ification of the “Demon Core””
> He took a dip in a pool with a functioning nuclear pile xkcd published a What If? video about the consequences of swimming in a nuclear fuel pool: [this video]