Nuclear reactor explosion?

[Brycesv1]

im in a current discussion with a few individuals and was wondering: would it be at all possible to turn a normal nuclear powerplant reactor into an explosive device? how would you do it?

enphasis on material usage and modification of the core itself.

thnx in advance
-Bryce

 

[Artlav]

Nuclear explosive - no way. You need a highly pure uranium-235 for this, and plants use much poorer one.
No idea about plutonium reactors, if such exist.

Nevertheless, spent fuel is HIGHLY radioactive, and older reactors can be made to overheat, boil and explode in conventional way, spraying radiation all over (think Chernobyl, only uncontained).

 

[jedidia]

A nuclear reactor is just as much an explosive device as any steam engine is (since a nuclear reactor basically is a steam engine on steroids).

So yes, if you close all security valves and let the pressure build up, it will blow up eventually.

You can't turn it into an atomic bomb, however, if that's what you mean (at least as far as I know you can't). The gravest consequences of an explosion is nuclear fallout, not the explosive force itself.

 

[Wishbone]

The gravest consequence of having a nuclear reactor (not all types though) is the ability to transmutate uranium into plutonium and separate it chemically and build a plutonium core.

 

[Urwumpe]

The problem is the containment, most modern reactors have a very strong shell around the reactor to prevent anything from escaping. Even if you just think correctly that a reactor is just a water boiler, the whole building would contain the explosion of the pressure vessel.

It is pretty much impossible to turn a nuclear reactor even just into a dirty bomb, but, you could cause a lot of economic damage by making the inside of the containment a nuclear wasteland. The building would be effectively unusable, building a new containment with reactor at an existing nuclear power plant is a major construction project.

If you want a uncontained nuclear dirty bomb from a nuclear reactor, drop a bunker buster bomb against the containment. Such a bomb would get through, damage the containment too far to survive the exploding pressure vessel (if you hit this as well before all safety systems can react) and spread nuclear materials far over the landscape.

 

[Carmen A]

I'm going to be a bit creative and lets say you were in an alien solar system and you wanted to bomb something using a sacrificial nuclear (fission) starship without any weapons.

Get into the right "bombing" trajectory way in advance, remove all reactor control rods, disable cooling systems (and any other safeguards) and either jettison the reactor or let the melting reactor core just smash through the target's atmosphere hopefully scattering a whole load of superheated heavy radioactive materials on the surface?

Primitive "plasma" weapon? This of course relies on the containment to keep together just long enough that the superheated mass of the melting down core does whatever good stuff to the unwilling recipient. A bit clumsy a 'weapon' because crashing the ship into the target or even just using a heavy, shielded module as a free-flying kinetic energy weapon does yield more destructive force

 

[Wishbone]

Won't work. The disassembly will be very slow, basically a fizzle.

To Artlav: there are mixed-oxide (MOX) reactors on plutonium/uranium oxides. BUT... they are a proliferation concern...

To Urwumpe: reprocessing reactor (dirty) Pu is possible, the hot cell is more expensive though.

 

[Urwumpe]

To Urwumpe: reprocessing reactor (dirty) Pu is possible, the hot cell is more expensive though.

Still you have a containment there in general.

 

[Wishbone]

Yup, just talking about two different ways to use reactor fuel - explosion in situ or building a device for off-site use...

 

[Urwumpe]

Yup, just talking about two different ways to use reactor fuel - explosion in situ or building a device for off-site use...

Practically, there you get the tiny problem, that you can't build a real nuclear bomb in the wild - the precision and quality you need, can't be achieved without proper heavy equipment.

For a dirty bomb, the nuclear waste from a hospital is bad enough, since dirty bombs are not that deadly or harmful at all, they just play with the scare of radioactivity since you can never know where the radiation ended up.

 

[NukeET]

Accidentally attempted by US Army in 1961.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SL-1

Emphasis on steam explosion...

 

[marooder86]

im in a current discussion with a few individuals and was wondering: would it be at all possible to turn a normal nuclear powerplant reactor into an explosive device? how would you do it?

enphasis on material usage and modification of the core itself.

thnx in advance
-Bryce

Who are those individuals? And what are you planning to do:hmm::lol:?

As was mentioned here before, you could overheat the reactor and therefore make it blow up, but this dome that surrounds it would certainly withstand the explosion. This way would only cut off some people of the power.
If you are determined enough, you might also wrap somehow the central core with conventional explosives, detonate them and by this try to force fusion materials from the core to reach critical mass and start the chain reaction (it's basically how A-bomb works). However I'm quite sure this metod won't work too:lol: and as Wishbone said it would be more a fizzle then a real bang.

My conclusion is: You can't turn a normal modern nuclear powerplant reactor into an explosive device, well at least an efficient one.

 

[Keatah]

As a brief note, I found it interesting to visualize how a hydrogen bomb works. For an instant in time, all the components turn to a gas, but yet continue to function as if they were totally solid!

 

[PhantomCruiser]

Lemme get this straight. You want to turn a commercial nuclear power plant and have it explode? Like a bomb... Intentionally? Not possible. At least no possible with the plant for which I work.
As mentioned, what you'd have to rely on is every single safety system to fail. Even then what you'd have is a very big boiler explosion, as long as containment holds, all you are left with is now an extremely worthless power plant. If you do manage to get a LOCA (loss of containment accident), you'd get the results already mentioned.

The commercial reactors that I've encountered are designed to "not" work (hard to explain maybe...). It's the operators controlling the process, that make the plant operational. If an operator doesn't pay attention for a long enough time, then the plant will react and the engineered safeguards will begin to shut the plant down. 2 methods, 'safe' shutdown, or 'trip'. Safe shutdown has the operators involved, trip means the plant reacts and says (basically) "I'm outta here", unit trips off-line and the aforemention safeguards intervene to bring the plant down in a safe manner. There is also the "oh-crap" kind of shut-down. Safeguard bring the plant down so fast and in such a manner that it'll never be usable again without $$$$$$$$ spend to replace everything that sacrificed itself to safe the reactor.
I don't know if this is any kind of answer to what you asked. I don't think it can be done, not post TMI and Chernobyl. I don't know if I'd continue to ask around either, too may inquiries along these line might bring the MIBs to your door.

 

[T.Neo]

I don't know if I'd continue to ask around either, too may inquiries along these line might bring the MIBs to your door.

Hmm... ok, how about;

Kidnapping David Copperfield, sneaking into the Whitehouse, arrange an impromptu meeting with the president of the US, get Copperfield to hypnotise the president to demand an immediate trip to Area 51 and stuff you in his luggage, then exit the presidential luggage once aboard Air Force One and infiltrate the landing gear, then depart the plane once on the base, use a stolen humvee to travel to the secret mineshaft storage facility, use easy hypnotic tricks learned from Mr Copperfield to let a guard open the vault, and precede to steal a captured alien spacecraft. Next, fly to the Moon in the spacecraft with a high resolution camera of your choosing, attempt to take detailed shots of the Apollo landing sites, and then recover a sizable lunar boulder. Upon returning to Earth, disseminate the images to news agencies and lunar hoax accusers around the world, to finally put an end to those pesky hoax accusations. And drop the boulder on Bart Sibrel's car- if you wish. Otherwise you can chip pieces off of it and sell them as million dollar paperweights.

Anyone know how to do that, exactly?

I'm sure the MIB won't mind if we discuss it...

 

[PhantomCruiser]

:rofl: Elements of that sound quite easy.... Count me in.
But, what are we going to do after lunch?

 

[Urwumpe]

I'm sure the MIB won't mind if we discuss it...

Don't be too sure - the USA are really strange about discussions of nuclear technology. They claim that all patents in that field belong the government of the USA... if you have done any research there in Germany, and travel to the USA to hold a lecture on Russian spaceflight reactors, prepare for a lot of complications with your lecture notes, which would be perfectly harmless in Germany.

 

[T.Neo]

Elements of that sound quite easy.... Count me in.
But, what are we going to do after lunch?

Disprove the Apollo 20 hoax with an egg beater and some string?

Don't be too sure - the USA are really strange about discussions of nuclear technology. They claim that all patents in that field belong the government of the USA... if you have done any research there in Germany, and travel to the USA to hold a lecture on Russian spaceflight reactors, prepare for a lot of complications with your lecture notes, which would be perfectly harmless in Germany.

Well yes, but... what would those complications be? Would they attempt to make your research the property of the US government, just because you introduce that info onto US soil or you plan to talk about it there? And if you are not a US citizen?

 

[Urwumpe]

Well yes, but... what would those complications be? Would they attempt to make your research the property of the US government, just because you introduce that info onto US soil or you plan to talk about it there? And if you are not a US citizen?

What I do know for sure is, that some kind of technology theft is a common problem, because you can't just patent such technology in the USA. Siemens does deliver stuff for power generation, like turbines, and some components for control systems, but all technology related to the nuclear reactor itself is limited to Europe then.

Don't ask me about the specifics, this is out of my field, I just remember that there had been really conference people requiring a special NDA about the lecture. Despite the stuff hardly getting past what you can today read on Wikipedia. Had been a bit detailed on neutron fluxes and burn rates, but nothing that you can't deduct yourself if you wanted to.

 

[Wishbone]

Re: Russian spaceflight reactors - please bear in mind that the said government had no qualms to examine Topaz'es

And re: MIB. Please refrain from any discussion of physical protection and security measures at any nuclear site. E.g., containment is a good topic to discuss, while security sensors are not.