Movie with nuclear fuel pool?

January 27, 2015 3:59 PM

I'm trying to remember a movie I watched as a kid - it may or may not have been a YA movie - that had a scene where one of the protagonists had to swim in a spent nuclear fuel pool. Any ideas?
posted by dmd to Media & Arts (14 answers total)

Response by poster: And I'm almost sure the protagonist was a child or teenager.
posted by dmd at 4:04 PM on January 27, 2015

Any chance it was actually a game? There was a nuclear reactor in the pool in Maniac Mansion.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 4:10 PM on January 27, 2015

Response by poster: Definitely not a game. Had to be movie or TV, early 80s to early 90s.

I remember it being upsetting; there was maybe some sort of moral choice involved, like maybe the person was saving someone else's life but dying themselves or something like that?
posted by dmd at 4:23 PM on January 27, 2015

Was it a Bond film? Die Another Day has scene in a nuclear sub's fuel room, and Robert Carlysle's character has some kinda disease that is causing him to die.
posted by valkane at 5:29 PM on January 27, 2015

I could swear I've seen whatever movie this is too. Back in the '80s when my stepmother would tape all kinds of stuff off of HBO. Eighties nuclear panic teenage drama moralizing.

The only one I've found that comes close is The Manhattan Project, but I can't confirm. There is no mention of waste pool diving in any description I've read. Maybe it'll be close enough to jog someone's memory. Please.
posted by monopas at 5:42 PM on January 27, 2015 [1 favorite]

Best answer: If it was a book, it matches my previous question.
posted by Jahaza at 6:34 PM on January 27, 2015 [1 favorite]

The Manhattan Project doesn't have a spent fuel pool that I recall - definitely not one that anyone swims in.
posted by spaceman_spiff at 6:56 PM on January 27, 2015

Are you positive it was a spent nuclear pool? What you are describing sounds like a scene from Dante's Peak (1997). The grandma got into a pond that was full of volcano ash (and so the water was extremely caustic) to push the kids in the canoe to safety. She died as a result.
posted by Beti at 7:06 PM on January 27, 2015

K-19: The Widowmaker has a scene where a whole succession of (doomed) sailors have to climb into the reactor cooling fluid to stop a leak.

Sunshine has a scene where Chris Evans has to drop into very cold fluid (that basically kills him) in order to stop some kind of reaction from happening.
posted by Happy Dave at 11:13 PM on January 27, 2015 [1 favorite]

immediately gave me book-vibes a la Jahaza's comment/previous-ask. Omega Station truly comes to mind.
posted by dorian at 3:25 AM on January 28, 2015

I had to actually start watching the movie to confirm, but I think you might be thinking of the first scene in Piranha. (The original 1978 version.)
posted by Mrs. Rattery at 4:40 AM on January 28, 2015

Though, that doesn't really fit with the YA/moral choice business. Still: piranhas!
posted by Mrs. Rattery at 4:44 AM on January 28, 2015

Response by poster: Oops! Yes, it was Omega Station. Good work. I guess I just had a vivid imagination!
posted by dmd at 7:06 AM on January 28, 2015

Just for fun, this What If answer describes what the outcome would be if that happened.
posted by procrastination at 7:43 AM on January 28, 2015