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{{trope}}
{{quote|''(laughs)'' "Oh, meltdown. It's one of those annoying buzzwords. We prefer to call it an unrequested fission surplus."|'''Charles Montgomery Burns''', ''[[The Simpsons (
What any device called a reactor does. May be called "a meltdown", "destabilizing", "going critical", or something more fanciful.
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The failure of an actual nuclear reactor will often be described with the actual term "meltdown", but it will not resemble any meltdown known to science. The resulting explosion will be suspiciously similar to that of an atom bomb, or at least large enough to [[Made of Explodium|blow the vehicle/facility in question to pieces]]. Alternately, if the main result is a release of radiation, it will be described by a huge red circle on a map. The size and danger level of the circle may suggest even more death than an atom bomb would cause.
Sci-fi reactors are usually based on the idea that a nuclear reactor is a continuous nuclear explosion in a ''really strong'' box. By extension, reactors in the future are a different [[Sealed Evil in
These reactors are almost a [[Chekhov's Gun]] situation. Calling any device a "reactor" is your cue to expect a spectacular explosion. A drive [[Dramatic Space Drifting|strands a ship in deep space]], a generator subjects characters to an environmental hazard, a reactor removes something from the plot forever.
In real nuclear physics, "critical" means the reaction sustains itself. A reactor is critical if it's on. Relatedly, "supercritical" simply means the reaction is increasing in power. An explosive surge of power requires the reactor to go '''''prompt''''' ''critical'', something that may have happened only once by accident (in the [[wikipedia:Sl-1|SL-1 reactor accident]] and maybe at Chernobyl, but the consensus is that it was more likely to have been a steam-explosion like an overloaded household water-heater but [[Up to Eleven|
To be specific, making a nuclear explosion not only requires compressing a mass of fissile material - something that emphatically does ''not'' happen in a nuclear reactor - but ''keeping it compressed'' for a long enough time, giving the runaway "prompt critical" reaction the time it needs to build up a bang. This is a very exact science: explosive lenses, drivers, and the fissile core have to be fitted perfectly, using machines so precise that they are overkill for polishing glass lenses. If anything is off by the slightest bit, you wind up squirting fissile material out of the spots of weak pressure in the detonation shockwave, which makes a radioactive mess but doesn't make a bang.
Meltdowns are just that - the fissile core ''melts'' into slag, hot enough to flash coolant into steam (wherein you get the associated bang) and possibly melt through the reactor vessel. Since reactors currently in use are designed with safe failure modes in mind (including the famous manually triggered SCRAM) the worst you really get from
Radiation ''will'' be an issue inside the facility, but widespread fallout of the kind associated with nuclear war won't be a problem unless the containment systems have been ruptured... which,
And in case you wondered, a "reactor" is something where a reaction happens. By no means does it ''
Needless to say, this trope can be considerably more [[Justified Trope|justified]] if you've set your work in a world where the laws of physics are expressly different from those in reality. After all, if the [[
A case of [[Did Not Do the Research]]. See also [[Containment Field]]. When a reactor "goes critical" but is then turned off with no consequences, it's [[Instant Cooldown]].
{{examples}}
== Nuclear Reactors ==
===
* In ''[[Pinocchio]] in Outer Space'', an ancient Martian nuclear plant explodes like an A-bomb (complete with mushroom cloud).
=== [[Film]] - Live Action ===
* In the [[James Bond (
* [[B-Movie]] ''[[The Swarm]]'' had a bunch of killer bees turn a nuclear power plant into a nuclear bomb in less than a minute, somehow.
* At the end of ''[[Resident Evil: Apocalypse
=== [[Literature]] ===
* Averted with the ultimate killer of most defeated starships in ''[[
* Averted in the novel ''[[The Hunt for Red October]]'': a flaw in the manufacture of a Russian submarine causes a meltdown in its reactor, which in turn creates a glob of radioactive slag that melts its way through the bottom of the sub, eventually sinking it.
=== [[Live Action TV]] ===
* ''[[Knight Rider]]'' 2008, "Knight of the Iguana". According to KITT and Doctor Graiman, being hit by the Stolen Military Uber-Missile of the week will cause a California nuclear power plant to
* In the ''[[
=== [[Music]] ===
* The music video of the song "Dancing with Tears in my Eyes" by the band Ultravox features a nuclear power plant accident which should result in an explosion according to some warning signs. The explosion is implied to even hit a house which is in a rather large distance to the power plant. (And killing the family of the plant worker which is the protagonist of the video.)
=== [[Video Games]] ===
* In ''[[Syphon Filter]]: Logan's Shadow'', one level has you aboard a recently sunk nuclear powered navy ship with the nuclear reactor about to "go critical" forcing you to hurry and shut it down by removing the fuel rods instead of inserting control rods as would be done in reality.
* The titular house in ''[[Maniac Mansion]]'' was powered by a nuclear reactor which could explode if it overheated, if the house's power was turned off and the reactor short-circuited, or if the player pressed the [[Schmuck Bait|big]] [[Don't Touch It, You Idiot!|red]] [[Big Red Button|button]] in the pool. Probably [[Justified]] by the fact that the reactor is extremely poorly constructed due to the [[Big Bad]] having a serious budget problem, to the point where he has to use ''his swimming pool'' to cool the fuel rods.
* Averted in ''[[Just Cause (
* ''[[
=== [[Web Comics]] ===
* [[Justified Trope]] in ''[[
{{quote|
=== [[Western Animation]] ===
* ''[[G.I. Joe: Resolute]]'' does the above too, where Cobra has turned a number of nukes into a reactor. Scarlett has no idea how they did that.
* Pretty much any accident or potential accident involving the Springfield Nuclear Power Plant on ''[[The Simpsons (
** In the episode "Homer Defined," the reactor begins to go critical, and Homer (of course) does ''not'' remember his training for what to do during this very event. He picks a button at random with "Eeny Meeny Miney Mo"...and luckily for him, that's the button to initiate the SCRAM procedure. Everyone makes him out to be a hero, but he feels guilty because it was nothing more than a [[Felix Culpa]].
** Another episode "King-Sized Homer" had Homer gain weight so he could be considered morbidly obese enough to work from home. But then he decides to go see a movie, leaving a drinking bird in charge of the computer...which fails, and he has to go to the plant to stop the meltdown. {{spoiler|He nearly falls to his death trying to press the manual shutdown button, but [[No One Could Survive That|falls into a gas vent pipe]], shutting down the reactor and preventing the release of radioactive gas by plugging the hole he fell into with his girth.}}
*** Earlier in that episode, Homer's computer asks "Vent radioactive gas?", when Homer responds no the computer insists "Venting prevents explosion." Which becomes a [[Funny Aneurysm Moment]] when in Fukushima reactor technicians did ''exactly that''. And it still [[Shaggy Dog Story|didn't prevent the explosion]].
== Sci-fi reactors ==
=== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ===▼
* Justified in ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'' and its subsequent sequels where Mobile Suits are powered by [[Minovsky Physics|Minovsky Particle]]
▲== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* Nicely averted in ''[[Cannon God
▲* Justified in ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam]]'' and its subsequent sequels where Mobile Suits are powered by [[Minovsky Physics|Minovsky Particle]] reactors -- which explode when hit by [[Energy Weapon|beam weapons]], but not if they're destroyed by conventional ordinance (In ''[[Gundam F 91]]'' the Shot Lancer is a weapon invented specifically to be able to hit a suit's reactor without making it go up). This became a major plot element in episodes of ''Victory Gundam'' and ''The 08th MS Team''. However, there are some instances of explosions that are just plain silly.
* Third-generation Arm Slaves in ''[[Full Metal Panic
▲* Nicely averted in ''[[Cannon God E Xa X Xion (Manga)|Cannon God E Xa X Xion]]''; one particularly graphic scene features fusion-powered machinery that has been damaged by an explosion. Instead of blowing up real good, the stuff starts leaking hot plasma & horrifically burning anybody who gets near it.
▲* Third-generation Arm Slaves in ''[[Full Metal Panic (Anime)|Full Metal Panic]]'' are said to use palladium reactors (older ones run on diesel/gas turbines). Judging from the Helmajistan ambush, these things pack quite a punch. One might even mistake the self-destructing Codarl at the end of the first season as a meltdown but he explicitly states that he packed a few hundred kilos of high explosive to make sure he can pull off a [[Taking You With Me]]. On the other hand, the onboard AI warned him that if he starts the sequence, there's no cancelling it. So he might have gone for a straight overload spiced with some extra HE for a bigger boom.
** Palladium reactors are a real-life contraptions — they were proposed as vessels for the ([[Science Marches On|sadly debunked]]) cold fusion. The fusion being cold, their best effort in blowing up probably would've been no more than a tank worth of gas. Enough to kill a person, but really nothing to write home about.
=== [[Comic Books]] ===
* In an issue of [[The DCU]] comic book miniseries ''[[Identity Crisis]]'', {{spoiler|[[Firestorm]]}} is skewered by a sword, and is told to fly off for the safety of others as "everybody knows what happens if you puncture a reactor".
=== [[Film]] - Live Action ===
* In the ''[[Star Wars]]'' series, the Death Star's reactor caused a space station the size of a small moon to explode like a plastic model full of gunpowder. Although considering the energy output of the thing was enough to blow up an actual planet just as violently, maybe that's not unreasonable.
* The arc reactor in ''[[Iron Man (
=== [[Literature]] ===
* ''[[Blowups Happen]]'' is a science fiction short story by [[Robert A. Heinlein]]. The story is about a nuclear reactor which not only is in danger of exploding at any moment but is discovered to be capable of {{spoiler|destroying all life on Earth by having such a massive explosion that the Earth's atmosphere is blown away.}}
* We also see this in ''[[
** "Stackpoling" is the term in the fandom for a Battlemech's reactor doing this, due to author Michael Stackpole using this trope repeatedly in his novels.
=== [[Live Action TV]] ===
* In ''[[
** The Romulans in ''Star Trek'' use captured quantum singularities (black holes). Whether matter/antimatter is safer or not is something of a moot point.
** In addition to the anti-matter used in warp reactors, impulse (STL) drives are fusion-powered. Apparently, their containment systems are a *lot* better than what the FTL drives use, as impulse reactors never seem to explode (unless deliberately rigged)...
*** Fusion powered reactors can't blow up. However—depending on the design—if they lose containment on the plasma, it will escape. Generally the reaction will cease, since every form of fusion needs to put the plasma under massive pressure...but the plasma might well vaporize the ship as it escapes.
*** In "The Doomsday Machine" (episode of ''[[Star Trek:
* Discussed and averted in the ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' episode "Learning Curve." When a prototype naquadah reactor is powered up, it causes a harmless distortion which sets off an alarm.
{{quote|
* ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'', "Trinity": The team discovers {{spoiler|the Ancient equivalent of the Manhattan Project.}} Rodney tries to make it work, but it fails miserably.
{{quote|
'''Mc Kay:''' Five-sixths, but it's not an exact science.
It becomes a Running Gag:
'''Lt. Col. Sheppard:''' It took Dr. Mc Kay years to figure out all things Ancient and he still doesn't completely understand.
'''Dr. Mc Kay:''' [defensively] I have a very firm grasp of Ancient technology.
'''Lt. Col. Sheppard:''' You've blown up entire planets, Rodney.
'''Dr. Mc Kay:''' That wasn't my fault!
'''Lt. Col. Sheppard:''' Well, it didn't do it by itself! }}
* ''[[Babylon 5]]'' has exploding fusion reactors.
=== [[Tabletop Games]] ===
* In the tabletop game ''[[
** Something like this trope is invoked with Gauss weaponry. The ammo is just an inert metal slug, but the capacitors that power the gun's electromagnets are prone to catastrophic explosion if they get hit.
=== [[Video Games]] ===
* In ''[[Halo]]'', the titular ring, large enough to have its own ecosystem, is broken into pieces by throwing 4 grenades into a starship's engine containment field. "Wildcat destabilization".
** A fusion reactor can't go critical; rather than going out of control, the reaction just ''stops''. However, if, while the reaction is still functioning properly, one were to remove whatever is holding it in place (probably a magnetic field—the hotter fusion rockets would have to use those, rather than a rocket made of matter, because even diamonds would vaporize on contact with the plasma), it would vaporize everything within a very large radius. Of course, it's unlikely one would have the time to get away before that happened.
* In ''[[
** [[Justified]]: The Combine forces were very specifically ''trying'' to get the dark matter reactor to explode.
* Used to a degree in the course of the later games in the ''[[Mechwarrior]]'' series, 3 and 4 to be precise. Previous games had Mechs either explode into pieces or be rendered a standing but inert corpse (most likely as a limitation of the early game engines). 3, however, first introduced dramatic [[Overheating|heat induced deaths]]. One might expect the normal death animation to play where the 'Mech catches fire, its torso goes up in flames, and it falls over amid a shower of ruined internal structures spewing from the machine. Not so. Instead, a Mech destroyed by excess heat goes up in a highly damaging ''mushroom cloud,'' [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q53tQKt7Uog almost certainly invoking this trope.] [[Mechwarrior]] 4 simply had every destroyed Mech spew streams of blue-white light from its core as it fell, before exploding into chunky rubble loosely resembling the original chassis.
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** The second game of the series did it too. There were no huge balls of blue light or mushroom clouds, but the killed mech would be torn apart by a series of fairly small explosions, implied to be caused by weapons ''and'' the reactor. Stepping into the mess would cause damage to your Mech's legs.
* Element Zero core meltdowns are shown to be quite spectacular in ''[[Mass Effect]] 2: The Arrival''. When the cooling system of an "after-market eezo core" was deactivated it could detonate with enough energy to destroy a small planet; and a Mass Relay's core being destroyed has an effect comparable to a supernova.
* This is the goal of the easy path's penultimate level in ''[[
=== [[Western Animation]] ===
* In ''[[
* In ''[[Batman: The Animated Series
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