4 ms·

Thought exercise: What would the consequences be of detonating an improvised truck bomb, comparable in size to the Oklahoma City Bombing [0], in the middle of

Thought exercise: What would the consequences be of detonating an improvised truck bomb, comparable in size to the Oklahoma City Bombing [0], in the middle of the spent fuel casks at the Connecticut Yankee plant? [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing

dumbfoundded 5y ago
It depends on what you mean by middle. If you mean just placed in the middle of the configuration, probably not much. A few feet of concrete reinforced steel can resist a lot. Certainly some leaks but probably not too bad outside of the immediate vicinity. If you put the bomb in the middle of one of the casks, it would probably impact 100,000s of people. It'd probably be pretty hard to get it there though and if you could do that, you could probably extract the radioactive material and transport it somewhere else.
reincarnate0x14 5y ago
A truck bomb would do barely anything to those except perhaps crack the ones immediately next to the epicenter. Local cleanup would be required, but nuclear waste containers have been generally over-engineered with things like that in mind. The famous video of a train versus one of the transportation casks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY446h4pZdc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY446h4pZdc
KirillPanov 5y ago
The consequences would be a very confused bomber trying really hard to find the underground parking area beneath those casks.
- pengaru 5y ago
  > The consequences would be a very confused bomber trying really hard to find the underground parking area beneath those casks. In the Oklahoma City bombing McVeigh simply parked the van on the sidewalk in front of the building.
  - octoberfranklin 5y ago
    > He parked the Ryder truck in a drop-off zone situated under the building's day-care center https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_city_bombing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_city_bombing
    - detaro 5y ago
      "Under" as in the day-care being on the second floor, the truck being parked in front of the building.
    - meepmorp 5y ago
      He parked the truck bomb in the street in front of the building. The daycare was on the second floor. It's weird that was so long ago now.
    - pengaru 5y ago
      > 0901: McVeigh parks the truck on the sidewalk in front of the building and walks off From the illustration on the same page, also clearly showing the location in front of the building... https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Timothy_McVeigh%27s_movements_during_Oklahoma_City_bombing.svg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Timothy_...
- bigbillheck 5y ago
  Are you thinking of the 1993 WTC bombing instead?

dumbfoundded 5y ago

It depends on what you mean by middle. If you mean just placed in the middle of the configuration, probably not much. A few feet of concrete reinforced steel can resist a lot. Certainly some leaks but probably not too bad outside of the immediate vicinity. If you put the bomb in the middle of one of the casks, it would probably impact 100,000s of people. It'd probably be pretty hard to get it there though and if you could do that, you could probably extract the radioactive material and transport it somewhere else.

reincarnate0x14 5y ago

A truck bomb would do barely anything to those except perhaps crack the ones immediately next to the epicenter. Local cleanup would be required, but nuclear waste containers have been generally over-engineered with things like that in mind. The famous video of a train versus one of the transportation casks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY446h4pZdc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZY446h4pZdc

KirillPanov 5y ago

The consequences would be a very confused bomber trying really hard to find the underground parking area beneath those casks.

pengaru 5y ago
> The consequences would be a very confused bomber trying really hard to find the underground parking area beneath those casks. In the Oklahoma City bombing McVeigh simply parked the van on the sidewalk in front of the building.
- octoberfranklin 5y ago
  > He parked the Ryder truck in a drop-off zone situated under the building's day-care center https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_city_bombing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_city_bombing
  - detaro 5y ago
    "Under" as in the day-care being on the second floor, the truck being parked in front of the building.
  - meepmorp 5y ago
    He parked the truck bomb in the street in front of the building. The daycare was on the second floor. It's weird that was so long ago now.
  - pengaru 5y ago
    > 0901: McVeigh parks the truck on the sidewalk in front of the building and walks off From the illustration on the same page, also clearly showing the location in front of the building... https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Timothy_McVeigh%27s_movements_during_Oklahoma_City_bombing.svg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/26/Timothy_...
bigbillheck 5y ago
Are you thinking of the 1993 WTC bombing instead?