dpb wrote:
wrote:
On Sat, 26 Jul 2008 13:39:27 -0500, dpb wrote:
I seriously doubt it would do more than make a decent hole; I
think
the chances of it penetrating are minimal at best and "like a
bullet" are like slim and none and Slim left town.
`
It would certainly make a decent sized hole and "bullet" doesn't
even
describe the effect of a well designed shaped charge.
take a look at anti tank rounds on google
Which don't look anything at all like an engine block as a
projectile.
Nor does the containment building look like tank armor so results
aren't particularly similar.
It's difficult to factually discuss much of reactor protection since
scenarios and all are restricted data. Consequently simply can't
say
much more specifically about what has been looked at other than a
significant amount of work has been done to quantify risk and
vulnerabilities in order to deal with contingencies.
An engine block won't do it. A whole effing jet fighter won't do it
(that's been tested with a similar structure). A geezly 707 hitting
flat out won't do it (that was the design criterion when the original
standards were set, and I'm sure the margins were very large). What a
shaped charge will do is another story, but rigging a shaped charge in
kamikaze could be difficult--you'd need to do a good deal of
reengineering on the plane I think to get the explosive charge into
the right place and still have somewhere for the pilot to sit.
Now, if you want a _nasty_ scenario consider some group stealing one
of Virgin Galactic's White Knights and putting a shaped charge on it
in place of the SpaceShip. That gives them 30 tons of payload on a
fully aerobatic airframe and pretty much complete freedom on the
design.
But stealing one of NASA's Shuttle transporters and mounting the bomb
in place of the Shuttle could do even worse--that could give them 75
tons of explosives.
The trouble with both those scenarios though is that they have to
steal a very high profile aircraft and then hide it somewhere (in an
unusually tall and rather larger hangar) while they mount the bomb.
Probably be just as easy to just steal a B-52 and a load of
bunker-busters to begin with.
--
--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)