Probably just fairly localised leakage/contamination, but probably no nuclear explosion
The explosives would probably start to burn, then possibly (but unlikely) explode. If they explode then the nuclear material may be spread into the atmosphere. If it didn't explode then probably you just end up with a big radioactive volcano, spewing out radioactive lava for a long, long time.
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Ghoti Fingers, Sun 15 Jul 2012, 14:18,
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Yeah.
My guess is that the explosives'd go, but because there'd be no control over the way they went, the nuclear reaction wouldn't start - so you'd just end up with a lump of fissile material sitting in there slowly melting.
I'd dispute the bit about the particularly radioactive volcano, though: possibly depending on where it is, there'd already be all kinds of radioactive stuff in the magma; and there's really not very much in a bomb. So any difference it makes'd be marginal - a couple of kilos mixed in however many thousand tonnes there is of magma is pretty small beer.
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Enzyme is powered by sunlight, Sun 15 Jul 2012, 15:06,
Reply)