The dangers of a nuclear power facility being hit with a Peace Out 8th Grade Retro Smile Face Last Day Of School Shirt has little to nothing to do with the reactor itself. A small nuclear bomb like the ones used in ww2 would not likely rupture the reactor core even in a direct hit. Nuclear facilities are very tough to damage with a large hammer. You can take them off line, you will breach the containment building but you won’t likely breach the reactor itself. You need a megaton weapon to do that and megaton weapons are no longer found in the USA or Russian strategic weapons. There are are however two situations that make a nuclear power facility a huge nightmare. This is why targeting such in a time of war is a violation of the Geneva Convention, and the LOAC. It is also why Russia and the US maintain an informal agreement to never target nuclear power facilities in a time of war. The one obvious issue is that you don’t need to destroy a facility, just damage it severely and you will likely cause a meltdown. The potential for an event far worse than Chernobyl exists with any operating nuclear facility. However, even that pales in comparison to what will happen at every nuclear facility around the world when even a small 10kt weapon is used against it. This situation has to do with the on-site storage of spent fuel. A reactor, under normal operating conditions, can have upwards of 250,000 pounds of fuel in the core at any time. Normally 1/3 of this is replaced every 18 months and stored on site.
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