Brittle Power- PARTS 1-3 (+Notes) - Natural Capitalism Solutions

Chapter Eleven: Nuclear Power 161Arrows”) have so far averaged about one per year or several per thousandbombs. 152 The breaches in bomb storage security mentioned earlier suggestthat theft may indeed be credible.If terrorists did make or steal a nuclear bomb, what could they do with itat a nuclear facility such as a power reactor? This is too complex a questionto answer precisely, but a rough idea can be gained from published studies ofthe effects of nuclear explosions much larger than the kiloton-range yieldslikely for crude terrorist bombs. 153 The effects of various blast overpressures,and the approximate slant ranges at which ground-burst yields of one and tenkilotons produce those overpressures, are summarized in Table Two.Bombs yielding one and ten kilotons will also form a crater by vaporizingeverything within a fireball range extending to a radius of about two hundred fiftyand six hundred feet, respectively. In addition to vaporizing on the order of onethousand and ten thousand tons of material respectively, the bomb will throw outlarge amounts of rocks and debris at a very high speed. These “ejecta” are probablybig and numerous enough to do serious damage to the containment dome(let alone to weaker structures) much farther away than the range of damage byairblast. 154 Ground-shock, similar to a heavy earthquake, may do the same. Thecombination of electromagnetic pulse and prompt nuclear radiation, airblast andgroundshock, ejecta, high winds, and fires, all in succession, can be expected tocause worse damage collectively than any or all of them separately. 155These considerations strongly suggest that a major release of radioactivitycan be guaranteed by arranging a groundburst even of one kiloton within perhapsa thousand feet or more of a reactor. (It is not difficult to obtain such ayield from a crude bomb.) 156 Shortening the range to a few hundred feetwould release not just most of the core but virtually all of it.Table Two Effects of various Blast OverpressuresOverpressure Range (feet) Expected effects of a blast alone on a typical(lb./sq.in.) 1 kT a 10kT b large pressurized-water reactor2 4,300 9,500 Heavy internal damage to cooling towers3 3,200 7,100 Cooling towers collapse, crushing other parts12 1,300 2,800 Control room, auxiliaries, transformers, water tanksseverely damaged; meltdown likely30 720 1,600 Containment badly damaged; minor damage to primarycoolant loop; meltdown within hours150 280 610 Instant rupture of pressure vessel; at least the volatilefission products released in minutes.a One thousand tons of TNT equivalent.b Ten thousand tons of TNT equivalent.SOURCE: U.S. Atomic Energy Commission; Chester & Chester 1976.