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A nuclear explosion is an explosion that occurs as a result of the rapid release of energy from a high-speed nuclear reaction.The driving reaction may be nuclear fission or nuclear fusion or a multi-stage cascading combination of the two, though to date all fusion-based weapons have used a fission device to initiate fusion, and a pure fusion weapon remains a hypothetical device.
A flawed reactor design and inadequate safety procedures led to a power surge that damaged the fuel rods of reactor no. 4 of the Chernobyl power plant. This caused an explosion and meltdown, necessitating the evacuation of 300,000 people and dispersing radioactive material across Europe (see Effects of the Chernobyl disaster). Around 5% (5200 ...
Nuclear reactors line the riverbank at the Hanford Site along the Columbia River in January 1960. This image of the core from the SL-1 disaster, Idaho Falls, Idaho, USA , served as a reminder of the necessity for proper reactor practice and safeguards.
A hydrogen explosion occurred in the reactor core due to a cascade of malfunctions and operator errors. The world's first major nuclear reactor accident. [20] 0: See NRX accident 5 [21] [22] May 24, 1958: CRL, Ontario, Canada: The NRU accident. A fuel rod caught fire and broke when removed, then dispersed fission products and alpha-emitting ...
As the RBMK reactor core is very tall (about 7 m (23 ft 0 in)), the cost and difficulty of building a heavy containment structure prevented the building of additional emergency containment structures for pipes on top of the reactor core. In the Chernobyl accident, the pressure rose to levels high enough to blow the top off the reactor, breaking ...
Its fusion reactor uses a different fuel combination, and the reactor itself is a totally different form factor from tokamaks or stellarators. (A tokamak uses a current to control the sun-hot ...
The accident resulted in the loss of at least 16 thermonuclear warheads, as well as two nuclear reactors. Admiral Vladimir Chernavin, then the head of the Soviet Navy, explained to Soviet ...
The first successful man-made fusion device was the boosted fission weapon tested in 1951 in the Greenhouse Item test. The first true fusion weapon was 1952's Ivy Mike, and the first practical example was 1954's Castle Bravo. In these devices, the energy released by a fission explosion compresses and heats the fuel, starting a fusion reaction.