Reply #10: the cooling ponds where waste is stored lost their cooling

[northernlights]

Each reactor has a cooling pond with as much as 20 years worth of spent fuel rods stored under water. Those rods are hotter than active fuel and if uncovered by cooling water they can heat up quickly and catch fire. They are a greater risk of spewing radiation into the atmosphere than the reactors are. And the pool at Reactor #2 is said to be boiling. The cooling pond there failed and the rods were exposed for a number of hours (12? 24? I forget now...).

A nuclear engineer who works in an identically designed plant in Vermont yesterday told the WaPo in an interview that they have the potential for "Chernobyl on steroids."