It is impossible for a nuclear reactor to have an atomic explosion and therefore, a Russian submarine reactor would not be able to “take out” a large part of our coast.
There is certainly enough uranium mass to make an atomic bomb, but it has to do with geometry which prevents that possibility. Specifically the volume vs surface area.
The world’s worst nuclear accident (Chernobyl reactor 4) was a steam explosion, then hydrogen explosion and graphite fire. There was no atomic bomb like explosion.
After Chernobyl reactor 4 exploded in 1986, reactor 2 ran until 1991, reactor 1 ran until 1996, and reactor 3 ran until December of 2000.
All of the units at Chernobyl had a common turbine room building, and units 3 and 4 (like units 1 and 2) had a shared yet segmented reactor building.
Take a look at this overhead:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Chernobyl&sll=48.858278,2.294662&sspn=0.00288,0.010042&layer=&ie=UTF8&z=17&ll=51.389204,30.099814&spn=0.002732,0.013561&t=k&om=1
This is post accident. 4 is on the far left, 3 is to the right of the stack. Scroll right to see 1 & 2, which look a bit different. Unit 5 was nearly complete in 1986, but never finished. I think it is directly north where the cranes are.
The picture doesn’t exactly scream worst nuclear accident in history does it?
Interesting. I’ll bet virtually everyone thinks it was an atomic explosion.
So, basically it was a giant “dirty bomb” instead.
You can rant on all you care to. I’m just retelling what I’ve heard pal.
You can look it up.