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Wow. How do they design them to withstand a strike from a 747? That seems really difficult.



They shot an F4 target drone at a block of "reactor grade" concrete wall back in the 80s and they took measurements and did science on the resulting lack of damage and concluded that a reactor can shrug off one of anything. They didn't change containment buildings to be plane proof. It's just a side effect of the design required to contain a melting down reactor with a sufficient safety factor.



A whole lot of concrete, mostly.


Yes. A NRC requirement for utility scale reactors after 9/11. One wonders why nuclear reactors are so expensive.


It's a good reason to design reactors to be as small as possible, with a small containment building. Much easier to build.




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