Saw something on the history channel (I think) that said the biggest danger comes from the spent fuel since it remains highly dangerous for a couple thousand years. Is that true? I mean if its totally safe and there's nothing to worry about then why all the fuss over Yucca mountain?

The fuss over the Yucca Mountain Nuclear Storage Facility stems from it's location within seismically active area. The containers are designed to last 300 years and it is thyought that the radioactive material will take 10,000 years to reach the water table, AND it is "hoped" that the radioactive materials will have decayed by then, thus not polluting the fresh water table when it mixes in.

"Have no worries, as others have mentioned modern safty requirements are extremely strict and nuclear plants are very closely monitored."

Yeah, what could possibly go wrong...

Very true. Their goal is not really to do a lot of damage, but to scare and terrorize their enemy's population into demanding that the government give in to their demands. The strategy is to win by fear, not force. Thus, logically, the name "terrorists."

Given the level of fear over nuclear plants and ignorance over radiation in the U.S., I'd be concerned that they could try something. It would, IMO, terrorize and shock the public.

Such a scenario might be something to plan for in your survival scenarios, e.g., thousands of people in a panic, clogging roads to get away because somebody has taken over the plant and is threatening to do "whatever," even if there is little to no "real" danger.

I prepare for nuclear incidents. If I am prepared for that, everything else falls in line.

Bingo.

If you are prepared for extreme events, the minor ones should be less of an issue.

Picking the "biggest danger" is kind of like asking the ETS folks what the best survival knife is. It depends on what you're concerned about.

Did you know that a fuel rod is low-grade enriched uranium pellets contained in a welded tube of some other metal (like stainless steel)?

Spent fuel rods do contain bad stuff in the form of fission products (that's what's left after you break the uranium atoms to get the energy) some of which have very long half-lives (the time it takes for half of the material to undergo radioactive decay and change to some other isotope) and give off some strong radioactive particles or energy when they do. Some of the fission products are bad poison in a chemical sense.

Yucca mountain is all about storing the result of re-processing the fuel rods by separating the remaining uranium (like the 95% that wasn't consumed) for re-use in new fuel rods from the genuinely nasty fission products for safe storage. Many similarities to reusing motor oil with Yucca mountain being where the nasty sludge goes.

Yes, things can go wrong. But the fear-mongers emotionally and vastly overstate the risks. They are in far more danger driving to the rally to protest the plant than they are from the plant itself.

I sat thru the classes. I'm an engineer and I'm a nuclear trained former US Navy submariner. But this is the internet where everyone's opinion is equally weighted.