What would happen if a nuclear power plant is bombed?

Answer 1

It's essentially impossible to answer the question, as the answer depends on the size, nature, and specific location of the explosion.

It's probably important to clear up a misconception here. Nuclear power plants do not explode like nuclear bombs. They simply cannot do so. There can be explosions at a nuclear plant, but these are chemical explosions like you could potentially get at any factory.

The problem with an explosion at a nuclear plant is that, even though it's caused by a chemical reaction and not a nuclear one, it tends to spread radioactive material around.

The worst case scenario is that radioactive material would be released into the area around the reactor... again, how large an area depends on how big the explosion is, and how bad this would be depends on part in what precise radioactives were released. For example, while the Three Mile Island accident released a considerable amount of radioactive material, several scientific studies have concluded that there were no measurable adverse health effects and that the average person within a ten-mile radius of the plant got about the equivalent radiation dose of one extra chest x-ray that year. Certain elements are more dangerous than others because of their role in the body's biochemistry... radioactive iodine and strontium, for example, are dangerous because the body concentrates them (in the case of iodine) or incorporates them into bone structure (in the case of strontium).

Answer 2

It would be destroyed, possibly releasing radioactive material in the process. There would not be a nuclear explosion.