[F.J. Mitchell]

Very interesting, and I'll bet that passenger jets were not specifically designed to be used for impacting with power plants, either. As the old adage goes though: "There never was a horse that couldn't be rode-never was a cowboy that couldn't be throwed."

[MadIvan]

Frank Herbert said it first, actually.

Regards, Ivan

[scouse]

These plants may not have been originally designed to withstand a hit by an airliner, but most of them have been updated since then. Back in the early seventies I worked for SoCal Edison at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station and at that time there was a threat by some nut who planned to fly a 707 or such into the place. The station was immediately shrouded by a concrete sphere.

[Joe 6-pack]

Suck My Phalanx...

Perhaps the NRC ought to buy a few of these:

Specifications
Primary Function Anti-ship missile defense
Contractor Hughes Missile Systems Company
(formerly General Dynamics' Pomona Division, sold to Hughes in 1992)
Weight 12,500 pounds (5,625 kg)
Later models 13,600 pounds (6,120 kg)
Range Classified
Gun Type M-61A1 Gatling
Type of Fire 3,000 rounds per minute
- Later models 4,500 rounds/min
(starting 1988 production, Pneumatic Gun Drive)
Magazine Capacity 989 rounds
Later models 1,550 rounds
Caliber 20mm
Ammunition Armor Piercing Discarding Sabot (APDS), Depleted Uranium or Tungsten sub-caliber penetrator. Sensors Self-contained search and track radar
Search Radar Ku-band; digital MTI
Track Radar Ku-band; pulse Doppler monopulse
E/O Sensor FLIR Imaging System with Automatic ACQ Tracker
Fire Control Director with closed-loop spotting
Gun Drive Pneumatic
Mount Drive Electric
Date Deployed 1980 (aboard USS Coral Sea)
Later models 1988 (aboard USS Wisconsin)

[Defender2]

Let's not give the enemy any ideas, please.

[OldFriend]

Well, I guess we'll have to shut down all traffic across ALL bridges in the US.....none could withstand the impact of a fully loaded airplane. Let's just get into our caves and only leave to hunt food.

[SSN558]

Chicken Little. The structural work in U.S. Nuclear power plants is designed to codes that are conservative to a fault. I have doing Nuclear structure work for about four years and IMO they will withstand impacts 5-6 times of what they are designed for. Even if burning fuel reduced the modulus of elastisity to 10 or 20% nothing would fall down. The plants located in seismic active areas are even more robust, designed for peak loads of up to 35 G's or more.