/sci/ - Science & Math

[Anonymous No.6544698]

I wonder if any nuclear physicists could help me on this. I'm reading an account of the Chernobyl disaster and in the section about the removal of water from the sections below the reactor there is a translated quote that experts at the time estimated that contact between the corium and water would have produced an explosion of 3-5Mt.

This doesn't really seem possible to me, apart from the inability of nuclear fuel to go prompt critical how would the water have even infiltrated the white hot fuel in the first place? I'm assuming they mean a steam explosion but then the 3-5Mt figure seems way to high. Equally, if they're talking about the amount of fallout generated as being equivalent to a 3-5Mt bomb, that seems far too low considering how much fuel there was (Total nuclear testing in the Pacific released tens of GBq while Chernobyl released EBq).

[Anonymous No.6544723]

Shit, my bad, I took yet another look at literature relating to nuclear testing, I'm confusing Becquerel with Curies, nuclear testing in the Pacific released just shy of a thousand EBq's so they are likely a comparison of radioactive contamination, rather than explosive energy. It is rather interesting that nuclear testing is responsible for more environmental contamination than Chernobyl.