DiscussWorldIssues - Socio-Economic Religion and Political Uncensored Debate - View Single Post - chernobyl: steam explosion or self contained nuclear explosion?

**phenterminediett** · 03-12-2010, 11:03 PM

as i said , the west say it was a steam explosion , whereas the east say otherwise.....

If you're talking about a nuclear explosion in the traditional sense, such as an atomic or nuclear bomb, I don't think that's even physically possible with a nuclear reactor. Perhaps someone like Neeyik can clarify, but the fissionable material used in reactors isn't weapons grade, and wouldn't be pure enough to cause a true nuclear explosion. It also wouldn't have the triggering mechanism, which would also be necessary I think.

03-12-2010, 11:03 PM	#5
phenterminediett Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 500 Senior Member	as i said , the west say it was a steam explosion , whereas the east say otherwise..... If you're talking about a nuclear explosion in the traditional sense, such as an atomic or nuclear bomb, I don't think that's even physically possible with a nuclear reactor. Perhaps someone like Neeyik can clarify, but the fissionable material used in reactors isn't weapons grade, and wouldn't be pure enough to cause a true nuclear explosion. It also wouldn't have the triggering mechanism, which would also be necessary I think.
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