Nuclear Power Is Safe

A Nuclear Power plant CAN NOT Explode like a Nuclear Bomb:

Bombs are completely different from reactors. There is

nothing similar about them except that they both need fissile

materials. But they need DIFFERENT fissile materials and

they use them very differently.

A nuclear bomb "compresses" pure or nearly pure fissile

material into a small space. There is no other material in

the volume containing the nuclear explosive. The fissile

material is either the uranium isotope 235 or plutonium. If

it is uranium, it is at least 90% uranium 235 and 10% or less

uranium 238. There is no isotope separation problem if the

fissile material is plutonium. These fissile materials are

metals and very difficult to compress. Because they are

difficult to compress, a high explosive [high speed

explosive] is required to compress them. Pieces of the

fissile material have to slam into each other hard for the

nuclear reactions to take place.

A nuclear reactor, such as the ones used for power

generation, does not have any pure fissile material. The

fuel may be 2% to 8% uranium 235 mixed with uranium

238. A mixture of 2% or 8% uranium 235 mixed with

uranium 238 cannot be made to explode no matter how

hard you try. A small amount of plutonium mixed in with

the uranium can not change this. Reactor fuel still cannot

be made to explode like a nuclear bomb no matter how

hard you try. There has never been a nuclear explosion in

a reactor and there never will be. [Uranium and plutonium

are flammable, but a fire isn't an explosion.] The fuel is

further diluted by being divided and sealed into many small

steel capsules. The fuel is further diluted by the need for

coolant to flow around the capsules and through the core so

that heat can be transported to a place where heat energy

can be converted to electrical energy. A reactor does not

contain any high speed [or any other speed] chemical

explosive as a bomb must have. A reactor does not have

any explosive materials at all.

As is obvious from the above descriptions, there is no

possible way that a reactor could ever explode like a

nuclear bomb. Reactors and bombs are very different.

Reactors and bombs are really not even related to each

other.