More bad news from TEPCO Japan today

That's really not how that works. Put simply it would disperse even more radioactive material over a larger area and aerosolize it into the atmosphere to be spread even further. And instead of it being released slowly into the enviroment it would happen all at once and then some because of the additional fallout from the warhead used.

Granted, I guess if you completely vaporized an area you wouldnt have to worry about cleanup there. As you'd just consider it a nuclear wasteland akin to the nevada test site. It's like deciding the best way to clean your house is to use a massive amount of C-4. Sure you eliminated the clutter and trash but now you've sent all the rubble across the neighborhood and into your neighbor's yards.


To explain why a "clean" fusion reaction or even fission reaction is possible is hard to convey here but in short it requires all the material to be compressed together with precise timing before the mass of nuclear material can "fizzle" and only partially consume the nuclear core. The failure of this reaction is at it's most crude as a dirty bomb. If you want a more in depth explanation I suggest researching how fusion and fission weapons really work especially vs. Failed criticality/dirty bombs.

originally posted by: beyondknowledge
They should have detonated a nuclear bomb at that plant within a week of the disaster. It would have burned up the remaining radioactive fuel and would have had probably less then a thousandth of the contamination that has leaked from there. The cleanup would probably be over by now.