Quote:
Originally posted by Slight
I visited a mothballed Nuclear powerplant for chemistry class in 11th grade and they said the the reactor cores had like 3 feet thick steel around them (it sure looked like it did). The "tour" guide said that the core could take a direct hit from a 747 or an internal nuclear explosion (not both) without being compromised. Wether or not thats true or whether or not old "nuke" plants are built this way who knows?
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Was that before or after Three Mile Island? :-)
I doubt it would be necessary to breech the reactor vessel to cause a boatload of trouble...just the containment building, especially if you managed to damage much of the coolant loops (especially the primary) in the process.
I imagine the thought of what even a moderately-sized aircraft loaded with explosives could do to a typical operating nuke is the cause for concern.