what would happen if someone nuked a nuclear power plant?
446553
Lots of fallout.  LOTS.\n\nHere's a fun fact; the accident at Chernobyl plant released 200 times the radiation of both atomic bombs dropped on Japan.  The radiation reached every corner of Europe.  And that was just one reactor out of four.\nSo a bomb dropped on a nuclear plant would probably be the end of everything within 500 miles.
339908
A nuclear plant is efficient and very clean. They probably dont cost that much more than any other sort of plant. The disadvantages are straight forward, if anything goes wrong then they go very wrong.
332248
Look, a 1000 megaton detonation (whether it was due to a nuclear device or due to a meteor impact) would blow the line-of-site atmosphere into space.  We'd all suffer direly if that happened.\n\nA 10,000 megaton (or 10 gigaton) device would locally shatter the crust, and produce a surface wave that would do major damage to the crust all across the world.  Think of a bell: whack it hard enough anywhere and the whole thing rings, and if the whack is hard enough, the temporary standing waves would possibly shatter or crack the bell.  If you don't believe me, look at the Liberty Bell--that crack is (supposedly) due to it being rung hard enough.  Imagine that with the crust of the earth!  Pretty, it ain't.\n\nFrankly, nuclear weaponry is a silly approach to such an effort.  Throw rocks from orbit--you can get nuclear grade energies easily, and you can do it without any radiation.
445580
http://science.howstuffworks.com/nuclear-bomb.htm
668346
They prevent pollution from oil and other fossil fuels, and thus help reduce CO2. \nBut they also pose the problem of radioactive waste that we have to get rid of properly. I don't think that there is any radiation outside the plant, unless it explodes, which is very unlikely, but possible. In that case a lot of land around it will be uninhabitable for like 500 years or so (I am guessing according to the half life or Uranium). I am NOT making this up it happened in Russian many years ago. Can't remember the date or place but it did and wasn't good.
548164
Your question is a very good one and everyone here is trying to help. Let me wade in with what I hope is a clear answer or two.\n\nCommercial reactors do not have the configuration to do what a nuclear bomb does: go promptly critical and thus have a large-scale supercritical nuclear explosion. Even Chernobyl (may the 40 or so people who died from it rest in peace) was mostly a steam explosion with a burning of the graphite core. The RBMK reactors like Chernobyl have mostly been shut down now - folks in the former Soviet Union may chime in now as to their status. \n\nModern commercial nuclear reactors (unlike the RBMK design) have large concrete domes called containments over them. The containment structures are designed to hold large amounts of pressure to guard against an accidental release of radiation. Even if the reactor core (part with the nuclear fuel) should become uncovered and thus lose its cooling, the containment will hold most of the radioactive material inside. That is precisely what happened at Three Mile Island. Most of the fuel and fission products were in the containment basement and plated out on the walls.\n\nThe most credible accidents are practiced for often at every power plant. Drills exercise the staff from the control room to the folks who go out into the field to survey for radiation. Those drills are graded not just by the plant, not just by the NRC, but by the county and state. \n\nNuclear reactors do not become nuclear bombs. If you were to take used fuel from nuclear reactors and chemically reprocess it - separating out the plutonium that is made in small amounts in the fuel - you could eventually make a bomb. We do not do reprocessing of commercial nuclear fuel in the US. There is a worry that some countries may do that. Of course, that is precisely what the military does do.\n\nMy job? I am a Health Physicist. I teach radiation protection, nuclear physics, and radiation chemistry. In the event of an accident, I read remote monitors and figure out what the pathway the radionuclides are taking out, how much, and what dose might be delivered to the population downwind. My predictions are used to advise the county about evacuation of persons living in a 20 mile radius of the power plant. I have a Bachelors of Science in biology from Baylor University, Masters in Applied Nuclear Science from Georgia Tech, and my PhD work was in leukemia research at Baylor Col. of Medicine. I was part of the Three Mile Island Recovery Team.
37875
Wha...? This question is badly malformed, but I'll take a stab at answering it.  No, I don't think any industrial power would risk open nuclear war against what is essentially a relatively small band of stateless terrorists.
91551
There isn't any danger. Because IAEA is observing all nuclear activities in these two countries. So, Will there be any danger? But there are some countries that are making nuclear weapons but no one prohibit them of countinuing their destructive plans. Honest!
512801
If all the nuclear weapons in the world went off at the same time the world would not end, and every one would not die.  Many, even most, people would die, and the planet may suck more than it does now but I would spend 30 Min doing my best to ensure that I was not one of the ones who would die.
559232
There is a huge problem with the pollution. I don't want to start glowing bright green. With Nuclear power plant comes Nuclear targets for the enemy too. You can't hide them, they glow in the dark.
364014
I think we need to act.  An air strike targeting uranium enrichment plants combined with covert operations to discover and destroy any hidden nuclear threats would probably work best.  That would minimize civilian casualties and set the nuclear program back for years.  We could then encourage the people to overthrow the current regimen.
226918
This is a debate we're going to have to have here in the US soon...are the risks of nuclear power worth the benefits.  I think there's nothing wrong with nuke power, having worked around it for several years in the early 90's.  I think irrational fear is nuclear power's biggest obstacle.  People fear what they cannot understand.  They see Chernobyl and think that's going to happen all over again in their backyard, when the fact of the matter is that modern nuke plants are as safe as any other industrial facility handling volatile materials.  The UK would be well served by building new nukes and opening up research on alternative power sources simultaneously.
1081757
This is said by C3PO to R2D2. "Did you hear that? They shut down the main reactor. We'll be destroyed for sure. This is madness."
730255
Everyone who owns a luminous watch, countless doctors and hospital employees with x-ray machines and drugs made with radio-isotopes, the sterilization industry, the hazardous waste treeatment facilities...\n\nWe'd be executing a lot of people, maybe we should rephrase that to say that anyone with no legitimate reason to have the radioactive material goes to jail.  If the radioactive material is used for a murder or terrorist activity they can be prosecuted under existing laws.
836741
Russia 17,000 \nUnited States 10,000 \nChina 410 \nFrance 350 \nBritain 200 \nIsrael 100 \nIndia 70 \nPakistan 44 \n\nThe above are operational and deployed nukes.... \n\n"How bad" are these weapons....depends.\n\nDepends on the kiloton yield of the detonation (ie, tactical or strategic), method of delivery (ie, ground or air burst), and number of detonations, \n\nIn a full scale nuclear exchange between the superpowers (Russia, US or China), in the first 30 minutes, 1.1 billion souls will be lost.  Another 1 billion will die from radiation poisoning.  This will mostly be in the US, Russia, Europe, China and Japan.  The Northern Hemisphere will be plunged into prolonged agony and barbarity.\n\nEventually the nuclear winter will spread to the southern hemisphere where all plant and animal life would be extinguished in two years.  Those surviving will have been in deep shelter with enough water and food to last for two years....not very many, i assure you.
641194
Hiroshima was nuked, you need to rephrase your question.
1122346
Cf: atomic bombs and nuclear power plants. They use the conversion of a tiny amount of mass to lots and lots of energy.