Question:
Can a nuclear power plant give off a nuclear mushroom cloud explosion?
Reverand F@ Boy
2008-03-15 22:55:31 UTC
Support your answer with proof.
Ten points to right answer.
Six answers:
technidigm
2008-03-17 19:59:36 UTC
The textbook answer is "no" of course, but it is not that simple. The fission bomb described by others (not thermonuclear, which would generally be even more powerful) instantly reaches millions of degrees as well as atmospheres of pressure, resulting in the classic "mushroom" cloud that rises rapidly and flattens out in the stratosphere. Based on evidence from the first test, the Trinity test in 1945, even "small" atomic/nuclear weapons such as that can leave behind notable radioactive contamination (on the ground) that would stretch over an area from Washington, DC to Philadelphia.



As mentioned by others, the nuclear power plant could give off a significant explosion, but with less blast and less of a mushroom cloud since it only reaches a few thousand degrees and a few thousand pounds per square inch of pressure, mostly inside the reactor coolant system rather than in the atmosphere.



Unfortunately, the cloud from the nuclear power plant can easily contain more radiation due to the buildup of "fission products" in the fuel, a highly radioactive dispersal being possible over several days, as at Chernobyl in 1986. This is why it is very important to have good nuclear power plant designs and safe operation of every nuclear power plant in the world. There are hundreds of them, and they now offer the best bet to replace fossil fuels, especially if the industry can get high temperature gas cooled reactors to work at high temperatures, which is handy for separating water into hydrogen and oxygen efficiently.



So, while there are many supposed scientists and engineers out there eager to convince everyone that a nuclear power plant "can explode like a nuclear weapon" that is a basic scare tactic aimed at the emotions of the average person, who does not know the difference between atomic bombs from World War 2 and thermonuclear weapons, and even less about nuclear power plant safety issues. Most of those folks have doctorate degrees in physics, which is not very helpful.
2008-03-15 23:53:20 UTC
To get a thermonuclear explosion, you have to concentrate a certain amount of U235 or Pu239 in a tight ball without impurities. If you bring it all together too slowly or asymetrically, it will melt and fizzle before it is concentrated enough for a big explosion. There are two ways this can be accomplished.



One method, which works with U235 only, is to fire a plug of U235 from a small canon into a hole in a sphere of U235. This is the method used for the first A-bomb over Hiroshima.



The other method, which works with both U235 and Pu239, is implosion. A solid sphere of U235 or Pu239 is centered inside a larger hollow sphere of the same material. The outer shell is surrounded by a special lens made of aluminum. The outermost shell is a specially shaped charge of plastic explosive with about 20 evenly spaced detonators. All of the detonators must fire at the exact same instant. The aluminum lens is precisely shaped to focus the expanding spherical shockwaves so that they become inward spherical shockwaves. When the 20 shockwaves reach the boundary between the aluminum and the nuclear fuel, they merge into one inward moving spherical shockwave. This compresses the hollow sphere so that all the empty space between it and the inner sphere disappears in a fraction of a millisecond, and all of the nuclear fuel is combined into one solid sphere before it has time to get hot. All this must happen exactly right or there will be no mushroom cloud. If one of the wires to the detonators is just a little too long, the electrical signal will arrive too late, the explosion will be lopsided, and there will be no thermonuclear explosion.



The fuel used in a nuclear power plant is not pure enough to make an A-bomb, and the reactor core is not designed like an A-bomb. The worst that can happen is that the fuel gets too hot, melts and forms a big pool of spattering liquid metal which burns its way thru the bottom of the reactor and keeps on burning deeper into the ground. This is called China syndrome, though obviously it isn't going to come out the other side of the Earth in China.
David D
2008-03-15 23:57:21 UTC
Probably not because the "explosion" would usually be a steam explosion from a failure of the cooling system. The failure of a nuclear power plant would cause massive clouds of smoke and radiation but would not create the atmosphere dynamics that would result is a "mushroom" cloud.
2008-03-15 23:10:33 UTC
A nuclear power plant that exploded in Soviet union sent out radiation and radioactive clouds but not thermal. I think most of them have different types of explosions depending on what kind of accident happened: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_and_radiation_accidents

Look under accident types.



The previous answer was about nuclear testing, not a power plant.
2014-09-14 10:37:59 UTC
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alex_lexz
2008-03-15 23:06:58 UTC
Yes,obviously.

Sorry,i only have the proof.


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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