BartSimpson BartSimpson:
When a nuclear weapon detonates above ground (like in Hiroshima) the fissile material is near instantly dispersed into the atmosphere and in a matter of a few weeks (or days if it's the rainy season) it's safe to enter the area again for short periods.
Not quite so. When uncontrolled fission ocurrs, the matter in the material is mostly converted to energy. What's left afterward is some of the radioactive material, and some of the byproduct from the fission reaction.
BartSimpson BartSimpson:
When a reactor ruptures, explodes, or etc. the fissile material can be ejected in high concentrations or it can escape in a super heated plume. Heavier particles will tend to fall in the immediate vicinity of the reactor rendering it unapproachable for perhaps millenia. Lighter particles will fall as they cool and in the case of Chernobyl they can cause near as much contamination hundreds of kilometres away as the particles about the reactor did.
So I say we nuke the Fukushima reactor site and just get it on.
BartSimpson BartSimpson:
If it were up to me? I'd let this drama play out and see what happens. But at the point this thing were to 1) threaten Tokyo or 2) no longer have any hope of being controllable I would absolutely put dispersement on the table.
Pick a day when the winds are blowing out to sea with some force - pull civilians back 100 miles, military and etc back as far, too.
Then smack it with a ground-penetrating and high efficiency 5 kiloton device.
By using a ground penetrator most of the force of the explosion could be directed up from underneath the facility blowing the fissile material up into the air and out to sea. And fallout from the bomb would also go out to sea.
Worst case scenario with this is the area is uninhabitable for 10-20 years.
Right now the potential for a big chunk of Japan being uninhabitable for the balance of this millenium is on the table.
I think my idea is actually the less radical plan.
Except your idea is based on the premise that the reactors will somehow spew radioactive material into the atmosphere during a melt down, like Chernobyl did. However, there is no graphite in these reactors, unlike Chernobyl. These cores are fissile material coated with a ceramic coating to prevent them from coming in close enough proximity to generate excessive heat.
They should only ever get hot enough to turn to liquid, and drip to the large concrete and steel floor, allowing them to cool. As they were designed to do. Then they will only be a local hazard.
Your plan spreads that hazard out over a large area, much larger than if things are just left alone to progress as they were designed.
CKA Uber 
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