Were There Nuclear Explosions in Chernobyl or Fukushima

22 Were There Nuclear Explosions in Chernobyl or Fukushima  

Nuclear fission can only occur for very few nuclei. Of these, only the 235 isotope of uranium occurs on Earth. An example of a nuclear fission process is given as  

A thermal explosion is entirely different. This can be modeled by boiling water in a elosed container (WARNING Do not try this experiment, it may lead to serious injury.) After enough heat was absorbed by the container, formation of steam results in such a high presstrre irtside that cannot be borne by the walls. To avoid this, all elosed systems eontain safety valves that open at a pre-set pressme limit that is deemed safe and release exeess steam to the envirorunent and prevent the explosion from happening. The first explosion in Chernobyl was of this type because of the cooling water present in the reactor (the water circrrlation was intentionally stopped because of an experiment ). 

A chemical explosion is in essence a reaction that is complete in a very short time and produces a lot of energy. In Chernobyl and Ftrkushima, this was the well know hydrogen-oxygen explosiort, which also caused the tragedy of the Hindenburg dirigible on 6 May 1937  

Finally, it is important to emphasize that the explosiorrs themselves were not the major coneems in either of these aeeidents. It was the radioactive isotopes that were released. 

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