In article ,
Jim Yanik wrote:


will that plane carry 3000 lbs?
will the entire load of Semtex detonate? That's not such an easy task.
and explosions vent UPwards. The heavy fuel rods will be under water.
I doubt they would be scattered much,if at all.

and where does one FIND Semtex,a Czech explosive,in the US?

Technically any explosive including good ole dynamite would do
the trick at 3K lbs. This is less in tonnage than Controlled Demolition
and similar companies use to pancake buildings, so getting it all to
detonate when it is packed that tightly isn't all that hard. I'd have to
look over my old notes from the 70s, but IIRC once semtex (or C-4 for
that matter) is started, that much go pretty much sympathetic with block
one being initiated by a blasting cap, block 2 initiated by block 1,
etc. However, as I mentioned, it has been about 30 years since I had a
reason to look that stuff up...
Explosions pretty much go in every direction. But, like me, it
tends to concentrate in the path least resistance. Thus the theory
behind shaped charges, but the math and engineering of doing that in
this case is beyond my meager skills. Shaped charges also need to
specifically placed to get the best bang for the buck (so to speak) and
that would be almost impossible in this case.
However, as with much of the terrorism threats, we are
overthinking this scenario. From the T's viewpoint, getting in there and
blowing up anything with the name nuclear before it is enough. As was
noted by that great sage and noted philosopher Vladimir Ilyich Lenin:
"The purpose of terrorism is to terrorize." They don't have to get it
exactly right to achieve their goals.