Radiation Hazard

A wispy voice with a hint of New England accent breaks through the static. it’s the first survivor your group has heard in two days.

“What’s the old what quote - when hell is full, yadda yadda yadda. Probably heard that far too much over the past month. I’m sure this is all part of G-ds plan. I don’t mean to blaspheme, but we might need to make a slight change in how these events are playing out. Somehow I don’t think meltdown was mentioned in the bible. Anyone out there hear that? MELT! DOWN!

I’m at the Edward Teller nuclear power facility, ten miles to the north of town. I know that’s a dam long way … forgive my transgressions lord, for though my spirit is strong, I am weak … but its nothing compared to what happens if this thing get any worse. We’re putting out 1250 megawatts - 25% more than that soviet plant that spewed radiation as far as Britain and France. You know - chobbham, cobalt, um.. Oh they’re all probably named after Lenin or something.

In the name of the father, son, and holy ghost - please respond! One of these gauges says twelve hours, another says six, and I don’t know what those gauges I can’t even see on the other side of the room mean. I’m turbine maintenance, I haven’t been within 20 feet of anything radioactive since I started working here! Help!”

GM Notes:

While the Teller facility is indeed safer than the V.I. Lenin Power Plant reactor number four, located in Chernobyl Ukraine*, it is in danger.

*(Yes, it does in fact have a real name, and it was only one of the reactors at the facility, and plans were underway to add two more, making it the worlds largest nuclear power facility. Something scarier than zombies?)

According to the NRC rules, it is ten miles outside of town, not including any travel through what was left of the city. There are roads leading to it, though none of them are major highways. Most of the area around the place is undisturbed, making it seem isolated within a forest preserve.

The actual facility is surrounded by twin chain link fences, the inner one bearing warnings that it is electrified. Birds alighting on the top seem to attest to the fact this is no longer the case. A large number of carrion eaters are present, due to a pile of dead zombies that have broken through the first fence, and shorted out the second with their bodies. A half mile past the checkpoint is a collection of six buildings. The first is a large L shaped office building for those who handle admin and are on standby. A second structure containing the turbine hall - the actual generator machinery, diesel back-ups and so forth. There is also a fire station, two large access buildings almost hiding the reactor domes, and the smaller visitors center and nuclear power museum. Two huge domes contain the actual reactors, and a pair of the ubiquitous cooling towers complete the picture.

Despite an expected staff of a few hundred people for a facility like this, there seems to have been very little activity, zombie or otherwise. Doors and windows are not barricaded, though aside from office building, there are no widows and steel security doors.

Access to the control building and command center will be granted by a rather burned man still swathed in damages. He will explain that he was injured on site before the… outbreak … but that he was in the trauma center on premises. Several other people were present, but he hasn’t been able to page anyone on the intra-building intercom.

While the man admits to knowing fairly little about operating the plant, he does know that its supposed to have at least five operators on hand at any given time, the alarm has been going off on a fairly regular basis, and a few important looking instruments seem to be in the red zone. A more thorough investigation will reveal that reactor two is overheating, but half the control rods - mostly on the right side - are withdrawn. This is an anomaly as normally one side is not favored over the other. Furthermore, given how much of the grid has broken up from other disruptions - failed plants, downed lines, and so forth, there is no need for the reactor to be running like this. Unit one is in cold shutdown (for refueling) and as such, can be used as a sort of baseline.

It shouldn’t take too long to realize that someone - or a group of someones - must actually enter the containment building, and fix the problem.

While within the containment building, there are multiple precautions:

• No guns can be used - any stray shots would surely wreak havoc on the steam pipes, coolant hoses, etc.
• Radiation suits are quite ungainly, uncomfortable, and probably can be done without. However, for a lot of people, stepping into an operating reactor is probably worse than zombies.
• Since the reactor is not shut down - indeed its operating at unsafe levels - it is extremely hot in there - 100-110 degrees fareighnheight (37-43 celcious). Exhaustion, sweating, and fogged visors are to be expected.
• The building is massive. Think football stadium or Movie theater upended, full of catwalks, pipes, and unusual machinery.
• A blue glow emanates from the deep reactor pool - its only cerenekov radiation, but most people don’t know what that is. (Its particles traveling faster than light, producing ripples in the blue to ultraviolet scale. They’re faster, because the water in the cooling pond slows light, not because they’re tachyons)
• The control rods are about the thickness of a baseball bat, and two or three dozen feet long. They are
• Yes, there are zombies in here. Tyveck suits will not protect you from their bites. If they’re still stuck in a suit, then they will settle for attempting to rip a character apart.
• The jam in the control rods is one very much alive zombie.

Further Mystery
In the end, fixing the reactor is probably fairly anti-climatic - clear the jam, and turn the crank. However, looking at the facility afterwards, there’s a number of questions…

• What happened to the staff? There should be several hundred people to run this thing!
• Why didn’t anyone bother to shut it down? When the power grid started acting up, or before the plant was evacuated would have been an excellent time.
• Are there really ham radios in the control room in the first place?
• How did the zombies get there?
• How did one man in the infirmary survive all this?
• Why are all the vehicles either missing - or sabotages?
• Why were so many zombies coming in, that they shorted out an electric fence connected directly to a power source that could run most of a city?

Some Guidance:

I’m not one who relies on pre-made adventures, and prefer to have only an outline to make up as I go along. I would suggest playing up the mysteries surrounding the plant, the screech of the alarm, and the panic of the lone operator. This is also a great excuse to throw exotic/mutated zombies or other creatures at the players. Radiation doesn’t really do this of course, but then again, the undead aren’t a bastion of reality either.