For new reactors in the United States, the NRC requires an explicit assessment of the impact of a large commercial aircraft, with the goal of maintaining essential functions such as core cooling, containment, and spent fuel cooling. IAEA standards also address extreme external events. No structure is absolutely invulnerable, but the idea that a plane would necessarily cause a nuclear disaster is not supported by modern design criteria.
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5.
What happens if a plane crashes into a nuclear power plant?
It depends on the plant and the scenario; it is not automatically a catastrophe.
