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What if you swam in a nuclear storage pool?

xkcd's What If? · explainer · Watch on YouTube

Nuclear power & fusionEveryday physics & science demos

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.

Why Hacker News recommends it

Recommended whenever a thread asks how dangerous it is to fall into a reactor or fuel pool.

  • 2 people recommended it
  • 1 different months
  • 0 strong recommendations
  • first 2024, last 2025

What HN commenters said

  1. “It’s still a good video.”

    Answers how dangerous falling in a reactor pool is

    seanmcdirmid, 2025-10 · Recommendation · in “A worker fell into a nuclear reactor pool”

  2. “XKCD has a good video about this.”

    Top of pool water is remarkably safe

    benmathes, 2025-10 · Recommendation · in “A worker fell into a nuclear reactor pool”

Excerpts from Hacker News comments, linked to the originals. Summaries and labels were written by a language model from those comments.

Topics: xkcd, what if, radiation, nuclear, spent fuel

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