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I tried asking physicists about how much damage can be done by a nuclear power plant in the hands of a bad actor. I wanted to write it into the plot of a story
by seph-reed 7y ago
I tried asking physicists about how much damage can be done by a nuclear power plant in the hands of a bad actor. I wanted to write it into the plot of a story/game I was dreaming up.
The response was ultimately: "way less than you'd think."
https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/501180/how-can-i-find-a-theoretical-maximum-amount-of-radioactively-polluted-water-whic https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/501180/how-can-i...
- jcranmer 7y agoTo put some numbers in perspective: the punchline was that you could contaminate 3 million liters of water. That sounds like a lot, but that's roughly how much NYC consumes in a minute.
- jeremyjh 7y agoYou asked specifically about water contamination. Water isn’t the most destructive method of spreading radioactive fallout. A massive explosion under an exposed core would do far more damage by spreading fallout through the air.
- seph-reed 7y agoLike how much more? 100x, 1000x?
- jeremyjh 7y agoI'd say much worse than that. The total fuel release from Chernobyl was only 1.5 - 3.5%, but radiation was detected hundreds of miles away - in the Scottish Highlands for example. The west learned about the accident from Geiger counters in Sweden. The explosive force of the steam that would have erupted underneath the already exposed reactor is, without a doubt highly debatable. But suppose it only ejected 30% of total fuel - about 20x what happened in Chernobyl. Chernobyl's exclusion zone is - today - about 1000 square miles. Would it have to be 20x that? I don't know. Would very much depend on the weather probably. The wikipedia article on the disaster is a pretty good introduction to the topic. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster#Spread_of_radioactive_substances https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster#Spread_of_r...