How is it safe to have a nuclear reactor on aircraft carriers and submarines when they are a potential military targets?
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A nuclear reactor can kill you in many ways, especially if it’s on a submarine with nowhere to run. (Edit: Modern nuclear reactors are relatively very safe! I’m only listing the dangers here in the spirit of the question.)
A meltdown could obviously be a problem. This is when the nuclear reaction generates so much heat so fast that cooling system can’t keep up and the core melts through its container. This either happens when the coolant system fails or the moderator which is keeping the nuclear reaction slow and controlled is not behaving correctly.
Nuclear subs mostly use reactors that have water as one of the moderators. As water heats up, it actually moderates the nuclear reaction more. This means that meltdowns are unlikely in the reactors most subs use. Also, the control rods in subs are also removed via an electric magnet holding them out. If the electricity fails, the magnet powers down and the control rods automatically insert into the core, shutting down the reaction.
However, even if a reactor is not melting down it can still be very hot (400c) which can obviously create deadly steam or hot gases which can kill you by inhaling them or otherwise burn you to death.
Reactors can also cause some funky chemistry like converting water into hydrogen, which is explosive. This is a problem for many types of nuclear reactors and it’s what caused explosions at Fukushima and it was the fear of a hydrogen explosion that caused panic at Three Miles Island. Reactors can also create poisonous/toxic gases or simply displace oxygen, causing you to asphyxiate when in the reactor area. That’s how the volunteer on K219 died while shutting down the reactor. He asphyxiated when he became trapped in the reactor area and ran out of oxygen in his oxygen tank.
Reactors are obviously radioactive as well but they tend to be shielded and only become a major problem if the shielding is breached and you are standing close to the reactor. Radiation decrease drastically if it is obstructed by anything and the further you are from it. Radioactive contamination becomes more of a problem if the reactor core is blown to pieces and the pieces somehow enter your body (lungs or digestive track) but the core would require being blown to tiny pieces to enter your lungs or digestive track, in which case you’ve got other problems.
The other chance of nuclear contamination from an intact reactor is if the reactor creates radioactive gas as part of the nuclear reaction (basically ionizing radiation during the nuclear reaction might create radioactive gas) and the gas escapes containment. I don’t know the danger level of these gases, whether they can contaminate you easily, and whether we are talking increased cancer risk vs acute radiation sickness vs death. But that’s a risk too.
So yeah, a reactor can kill you in a lot of ways. But during war, a lot of things can kill you.
>“Ryan— be careful what you shoot at, hm? Most things in here don’t react too well to bullets.” Captain Marko Ramius gestured around the nuclear submarine.
>”Yeah. Like me. I don’t react well to bullets.” Jack Ryan replied.
Edit: Soapbox: With all this said, I am pro nuclear power! Yes, nuclear reactors can kill you. But you know what? Fossil Fuels and air pollution kill more people each year than all the nuclear disasters have killed ever, in the history of Nuclear Reactors. So, while Nuclear Reactors can be dangerous, modern technology can mitigate a lot of the danger. And you have to compare nuclear reactors to the alternative. When you do that, wind and solar are nicer than nuclear, but nuclear is much nicer than fossil fuels. It’s all relative and fossil fuels are going to absolutely wrecks us if we don’t move off them quickly.
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