History Main / ArtisticLicenseNuclearPhysics

** The Void Coefficient is probably deemed too scientific for the general public, so it's conveniently assumed that all reactors will suffer the same from thermal runaway. In real life, most reactors have a negative Void Coefficient, which means that they will reduce their thermal output when gas (steam) bubbles form in the coolant. In contrast, a positive Void Coefficient will increase heat output when gas bubbles form in the coolant. A well known reactor model with a dangerously high positive Void Coefficient is the Реактор Большой Мощности Канальный (High-Powered Channel-Type Reactor). Originally, this model's Void Coefficient was 4.7 beta, but it has been lowered to 0.7 beta after one of the reactors of this model gained negative publicity due to the Chernobyl accident.

** The decay product of I-131 is stated to be another isotope of iodine. That is wrong, since it turns to xenon (β[[superscript:−]] decay to Xe-131).

* ''Series/{{Lost}}'' gets it mostly right -- the 'gun-type' plutonium fusion core of a hydrogen fission bomb is removed from a 1950-era hydrogen bomb by an Iraqi military officer with electronics experience, using the notes of a physicist, both from 2004.
** GoingCritical is {{averted|Trope}} by specifically having it rigged to explode on impact, with the implication that it would not normally. [[spoiler:This fails until it is banged on repeatedly, leading to the implication that there was just some rigged switch that had failed to hit the ground correctly.]]

*** What WOULD be a perfectly clean energy source would be magnetic confined helium-3 fusion, as its byproduct is protons, rather than neutrons. This has two advantages: 1. A proton flux won't make the walls radioactive because it will be contained by the magnetic field. 2. Since protons are charged, a high energy proton flux IS an electric current, so it can generate electricity directly by induction, rather than requiring a steam plant. This avoids the nitrogen-16 problem and also dramatically increases the efficiency of the generator.

* In ''ComicBook/IdentityCrisis'', ComicBook/{{Firestorm|DCComics}} the Nuclear Man, mortally wounded after being impaled through the chest with the Shining Knight's magical sword by the Shadow Thief, detonates like an atomic bomb a short while later. The omniscient narrator, ComicBook/GreenArrow, comments:

** Stop, Drop and Roll educational films told the same story. When you see the flash, jump to the curb and hide your face. Then when it's clear you can get up and walk away. No searing heat, no pressure wave, no radiation, no post-apocalyptic zombie world.
*** When the proper action would have been to ''dive for the nearest shade'' or least flammable thing in sight. See above.

* ''Film/SpiderMan2'' features a ''extremely'' silly depiction of fusion power so that Doctor Octopus's tentacles can take control of his body (they're to manipulate the fusion at a safe distance). Highlights include Doc Ock saying there's only 25 pounds of tritium in the world, a deeply ridiculous open-sided reactor, and dropping an object established to be a miniature sun[[note]]it's clearly a sun as it has a photosphere with sunspots and the occasional flare[[/note]] into a river where it, um, goes out harmlessly. Because fusion plasma does that.

* ''Film/SpiderMan2'' features a ''extremely'' silly depiction of fusion power so that Doctor Octopus's tentacles can take control of his body (they're to manipulate the fusion ). Highlights include Doc Ock saying there's only 25 pounds of tritium in the world, a deeply ridiculous open-sided reactor, and dropping an object established to be a miniature sun[[note]]You can tell it's a miniature sun because it has a miniature photosphere with miniature sunspots, and the occasional miniature prominence or flare[[/note]] into a river where it, um, goes out harmlessly. Because fusion plasma does that.

* ''Film/SpiderMan2'' features a ''extremely'' silly depiction of fusion power so that Doctor Octopus's tentacles can take control of his body (they're to manipulate the fusions!). Highlights include Doc Ock saying there's only 25 pounds of tritium in the world, a deeply ridiculous open-sided reactor, and dropping an object established to be a miniature sun[[note]]You can tell it's a miniature sun because it has a miniature photosphere with miniature sunspots, and the occasional miniature prominence or flare[[/note]] into a river where it, um, goes out harmlessly. Because fusion plasma does that.
** The typical fusion reactor has the plasma in a vacuum to prevent heat loss and to keep the assembly from being vaporized. Ock's design doesn't, which would have killed everybody in the room, even if it had been functioning perfectly. The tentacles would have been melted, if not vaporized, on contact with the plasma.

* Use of stock footage from nuclear tests is very common in B-movies; these will typically include vertical smoke lines, even when the weapon is supposed to be a battlefield deployment.
** For those who don't know, those smoke lines are from rockets that were launched during nuclear tests to measure the path of the shock front.

* In ''Film/TheSwarm'', a horde of killer bees gets into a nuclear power plant. This somehow causes the plant to [[GoingCritical go critical]] and go up in a gigantic explosion (within seconds!). ''Without'' killing the bees.

** Extremely small plutonium RTGs were used in a series of pacemakers in the early 1970s. More recent designs use lithium-ion batteries that are smaller still and do not require shielding.
** Betavoltaic batteries use nuclear isotopes that release electrons as they decay, producing current directly. They have higher efficiency than RTGs, but they are extremely expensive for anything more than trace amounts of power - a betavoltaic battery containing a gram of tritium and producing less than 1 watt costs tens of thousands of dollars.

** "Critical mass" is a highly misunderstood term. Whether a sample of fissile material will produce an uncontrolled chain reaction is dependent on (roughly) the ratio of mass to surface area. If the ratio is too low (too much surface area) neutrons escape without causing further fission. If it's above the critical ratio, then of the three neutrons produced by each fission, on average >1 will cause another fission (meaning that the rate of reactions will grow). The oft quoted "critical mass" is the critical mass where ''a sphere'' of the material at a given density will go critical on its own. Thus, you can have a solid subcritical chunk of a fissile material of a larger mass than that value, as long as it has a different geometry (e.g. shaped like a rod instead of a sphere).[[note]]This has been the cause of several accidents where workers have transferred material from one vessel to another of a different shape. An amount that's safe in one vessel might go critical in another. When this happens unintentionally it causes a "criticality accident", discussed in the previous section.[[/note]] It's also possible to detonate a bomb with less than the "critical mass" of material -- typically by the use of neutron reflectors.

* ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' features a minuscule plutonium powered fission reactor that barely alters the shape of the famous [=DeLorean=] time machine, has a 1.21 Gigawatt output (greater than many full-sized nuclear power stations), and expends a fuel rod in an instant. The epilogue and sequels show Doc retrofitted a futuristic appliance -- the "Mr. Fusion Home Energy Reactor" -- that looks like a coffee grinder and runs on household waste.

*** The hydrogen bomb or "H-Bomb" is a [[MindScrew fission-ignited fusion reaction]], or a "fission-fusion" bomb. Due to the high initiation temperature required for the fusion reaction to take place, this is known as a "thermo-nuclear" rather than a nuclear device. The term thermonuclear, while often applied to all fission weapons, correctly refers only to the fission-fusion or h-bomb type weapon.

*** {{Justified|Trope}} at first, since it is [[NukeEm armed to destroy the complex.]] But this doesn't excuse the fact that it ''still'' does this when you supposedly disarm it.

-->--'''Dr. Jess Rogers''', ''Film/TheMonsterThatChallengedTheWorld''

*** All of the above applies only to unarmed nukes. Modern nuclear warheads are specifically designed to go boom when armed and subjected to external stimulus, such as being intercepted.

** ''Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough'': Renard, the film's BigBad [[spoiler:who is actually TheDragon, or at least TheHeavy]] gets hold of the plutonium sphere from a bomb, forms it into a rod, and tries to insert it into the reactor of a submarine and cause a meltdown. Bond and the BigBad[[spoiler:/TheHeavy]] handle the plutonium bar with their bare hands. A rod of Pu that size would weigh at least 50 pounds, which is big enough to be a critical mass. It would be exceptionally hot to the touch, and also would be emitting lots of neutron radiation. To be fair, Renard is both [[FeelNoPain immune to pain]] and suicidal, so the fact that the rods should be scalding hot and emitting lethal levels of radiation might actually be excusable in his case. Bond has no such excuse, though.

** ''Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough'': The BigBad [[spoiler:(who is actually TheDragon, or at least TheHeavy)]] gets hold of the plutonium sphere from a bomb, forms it into a rod, and tries to insert it into the reactor of a submarine and cause a meltdown. Bond and the BigBad[[spoiler:/TheHeavy]] handle the plutonium bar with their bare hands. A rod of Pu that size would weigh at least 50 pounds, which is big enough to be a critical mass. It would be exceptionally hot to the touch, and also would be emitting lots of neutron radiation. To be fair, the villain is both [[FeelNoPain immune to pain]] and suicidal, so the fact that the rods should be scalding hot and emitting lethal levels of radiation might actually be excusable in his case. Bond has no such excuse, though.

** There ''is'' such a thing as a ''criticality accident'', but this is something rather different. A criticality accident occurs when a critical mass of fissile material appears unintentionally. This doesn't happen in reactors; it happens in laboratories and fuel processing plants due to process accidents — and to the people who work in such settings, the possibility of a criticality accident is pretty much their [[NightmareFuel One True Nightmare]]. For more information, see [[http://www.orau.org/ptp/Library/accidents/la-13638.pdf this document]].

# Fission is breaking up a heavy nucleus (usually uranium or plutonium) into two lighter nuclei, plus a few loose neutrons[[note]]which are critically (hee hee) important[[/note]]. Fusion is pretty much the opposite: joining light nuclei (usually hydrogen isotopes) into a heavier one (usually helium). Since fusion and fission-based technology are both atomic, nuclear fusion is depicted as the same as but more than nuclear fission. Plutonium is usually similarly depicted in relation to uranium.

* In Creator/BrianKVaughan's ''[[ComicBook/{{Wolverine}} Logan]]'', during World War II, Logan happens to be hanging out in Hiroshima at the exact same time the atomic bomb detonates. Standing within the bomb's blast radius, within view of the Genbaku Dome, the only structure left standing after the blast, now the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshima_Peace_Memorial Hiroshima Peace Memorial]], Logan survives, because his {{healing factor}} means he's really tough. He shows injuries that look like severe radiation burns, but these are temporary because he has a healing factor. He doesn't show signs of radiation poisoning staying in his body well into modern day, probably because of his healing factor. And he is not disintegrated by "a force equivalent to 12,500 tons of TNT" because... healing factor?

* The nuclear missile in ''VideoGame/ShadowWarrior''. Nothing says {{BFG}} like a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfjqNPaLlXw nuclear bazooka]].

* {{Averted|Trope}}/{{justified|Trope}} in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid''. When Snake reaches the room where the dismantled nuclear warheads are stored, he can't shoot for fear of damaging the nukes -- not because it might cause them to blow up, but because they might breach the radioisotope containers.
** Naturally, the guards will go all Rambo in that very room if Snake is discovered. They're wearing NBC suits and Snake isn't (although in [[VideoGameRemake the remake]], they use airfoil rounds).
* In the ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'' series, the icon for the uranium resource looks like glowing green rocks. (This serves, however, [[RuleOfPerception to distinguish it from iron resources]].)
** In some games in the series, nuclear reactors could be built in your cities for extra production, but they had a small chance to ''spontaneously explode'' (in ''Civ IV'', with the full impact of a thermonuclear missile!). In ''Civ V'', either realism or the fact that [[AwesomeButImpractical hardly anyone used them because of the risk]] led to this feature being quietly removed.

* The nuclear missile in ''VideoGame/ShadowWarrior''.
** Nothing says {{BFG}} like a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfjqNPaLlXw nuclear bazooka]].

** Fission equals Fusion:
*** Cold Fusion Reactors (in itself impossible under current physics understanding) in ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerGenerals Generals]]'' and ''Zero Hour'' have Control Rods like Fission Plants. Heightening them (which ''costs money'') enhances the power output by 100% (300% for Superweapon General). At least these reactors don't explode, unlike their Chinese fission counterparts.

* Most games of ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'s'' era tended to have [[NoOSHACompliance open pools of radioactive waste]] as a type of [[GrimyWater hurt floor]], typically shown as being slightly less dangerous than lava. In ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}'' the toxic waste is called nukage and is stored in ExplodingBarrel drums; the game booklet describes the damaging floors as "slime and other radioactive waste". There are radioactive warning signs, while the radiation shielding suit, Toxin Refinery, and Nuclear Plant maps suggest Union Aerospace Corporation was operating a nuclear power plant and waste handling facility on Phobos.

* ''Franchise/TouhouProject'': Utsuho gets a lot of traditional nuclear reactor and meltdown imagery and symbolism despite only having power over ''fusion'' and not ''fission''. Also, the radiation issues are completely ignored in gameplay.
** She has power over both fusion and fission. She has two unique shoes on each foot -- the right one is a rock called the Foot of Fusion, while the left is just a black shoe with a model of an atom floating around it called the Foot of Fission. Her ArmCannon, called Third Leg, controls both (it's mostly AllThereInTheManual). She just uses fusion more often. Her power is based on solar fusion, not deuterium-tritium fusion; heavy hydrogen has neutrons to give off during fusion, while solar fusion uses protium hydrogen which has no neutrons.

* ''VisualNovel/TheBottomOfTheWell'' is towards the realistic end of the spectrum; a lot of the tropes commonly wheeled out for nuclear apocalypses are absent. For example: no glowing green stuff (but plenty of grey radioactive ash); electronics being affected by an {{EMP}}; harm from prolonged radiation exposure rather than people immediately melting; no {{Nuclear Nast|y}}ies.

# It may come as a surprise to many, but nuclear reactors do not actually produce electricity. They just produce heat, nothing else (well, [[NuclearNasty nothing useful that is]]). To convert heat to electricity you need a power plant, usually a steam turbine since the reactor needs water to cool anyway. The reactor and the power plant are always located adjacent to one another, and that's why they are regarded together as "an atomic power plant", but it still doesn't change the fact that the reactor is basically just a boiler. So it doesn't really matter how small, clean or reliable can we make the reactors in the future, they will never turn into magical unlimited batteries. There ARE actual atomic batteries, called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_generator RTG.]] The atomic fuel inside them is also used just as a heater, but they also include some thermoelectric generators to convert heat to electricity. The conversion efficiency is ''very'' low, around single per cents, and the battery cannot "switch off", it will produce heat whether you're currently use it to power something or not. This, together with the prohibitively high prices of such batteries, leave not many fields of use for them. Mostly, they are used for unmanned space probes. The power requirements for them are usually low, and the excessive heat is actually a bonus, since you need to heat the electronics in space anyway. But even if we make such batteries cheap, even if we shield them completely from the radiation, even if somehow ensure its safety, [=RTGs=] will never become a "consumer battery". First, as was said, because of the heat. To produce 100W of electric power it'll have to dissipate ~2kW of thermal energy. That's a small oven worth of heat, while 100W will be barely enough to power a laptop, never mind a car or a [[ComicBook/IronMan powered armor]]. Second problem is the atomic fuel itself. The specific power of the fuel is inversely proportional to its half-life, which means if we want a small and powerful battery, we'll have to deal with reduced lifetime. Polonium, for example, produces 140W/g of heat, but has a half-life of 4 months, which means that just after 4 month its output power will be cut in half. And remember, you can't switch it off, which means the 4 months will start the day it was made, not the day you pick it up in store. By the time you buy it it'll probably be already at 80% or less, and by the time you actually need it it'll be long dead.

# It may come as a surprise to many, but nuclear reactors do not actually produce electricity. They just produce heat, nothing else (well, [[NuclearNasty nothing useful that is]]). To convert heat to electricity you need a power plant, usually a steam turbine since the reactor needs water to cool anyway. The reactor and the power plant are always located adjacent to one another, and that's why they are regarded together as "an atomic power plant", but it still doesn't change the fact that the reactor is basically just a boiler. So it doesn't really matter how small, clean or reliable can we make the reactors in the future, they will never turn into magical unlimited batteries.
** That being said, there ARE actual atomic batteries, called [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioisotope_thermoelectric_generator RTG.]] The atomic fuel inside them is also used just as a heater, but they also include some thermoelectric generators to convert heat to electricity. The conversion efficiency is ''very'' low, around single per cents, and the battery cannot "switch off", it will produce heat whether you're currently use it to power something or not. This, together with the prohibitively high prices of such batteries, leave not many fields of use for them. Mostly, they are used for unmanned space probes. The power requirements for them are usually low, and the excessive heat is actually a bonus, since you need to heat the electronics in space anyway. But even if we make such batteries cheap, even if we shield them completely from the radiation, even if somehow ensure its safety, [=RTGs=] will never become a "consumer battery". First, as was said, because of the heat. To produce 100W of electric power it'll have to dissipate ~2kW of thermal energy. That's a small oven worth of heat, while 100W will be barely enough to power a laptop, never mind a car or a [[ComicBook/IronMan powered armor]]. Second problem is the atomic fuel itself. The specific power of the fuel is inversely proportional to its half-life, which means if we want a small and powerful battery, we'll have to deal with reduced lifetime. Polonium, for example, produces 140W/g of heat, but has a half-life of 4 months, which means that just after 4 month its output power will be cut in half. And remember, you can't switch it off, which means the 4 months will start the day it was made, not the day you pick it up in store. By the time you buy it it'll probably be already at 80% or less, and by the time you actually need it it'll be long dead.

See also ANuclearError for policy-related gaffes involving atomic weapons. This trope is frequently invoked by writers for the sake of artistic license. A good portion of these have fallen victim to TheCoconutEffect.

# Walking hand in hand with ArtisticLicenseBiology, instant, [[CursedWithAwesome horr]][[BlessedWithSuck ible]], in-generation [[ILoveNuclearPower mutations caused by exposure to radiation]]. Living organisms simply do not work that way. For starters, where radiation is supposed to "alter" (e.g. damage) DNA/RNA, it would have to introduce the same very specific change in billions, per body cell count, of ''random'' events hitting that DNA. Then, as a functioning body actually has far more regulating systems active, it should somehow alter all of them ''in precisely the same manner'', so we do not get an old, boring RealLife set of radiation symptoms like body systems fighting in an attempt to fix each other. And not the least, the amount of radiation doing all that should somehow fail at destroying/damaging every other body chemical but DNA (rendering the whole organism inoperable) or simply frying the subject in the process.

[[folder: Idea 1: My Nuke is GOING CRITICAL]]

[[folder: Idea 2: Nuke-grenade! FIRE IN THE HOLE!]]

[[folder: Idea 3: Fission = Fusion]]

[[folder: Idea 4: Atomic battery: an unlimited energy source in your pocket]]

[[folder: Idea 5: I Can Touch Radiation!]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheGodzillaPowerHour'', there's an episode where, no joke, exposure to uranium [[TimeTravel sends the protagonists back in time]]. ''To [[EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs prehistoric times]]''.

* The HBO movie ''Hostile Waters'' (based on a real life incident involving the Soviet sub K-219) features a Soviet submarine which is leaking seawater into one of the missile tubes. The chief engineer informs the Captain that enough seawater mixed with the rocket fuel will cause an explosion and that the warheads will detonate. While an explosion (which did occur in real life) would be catastrophic, there is no chance that the warheads will go nuclear. In real life, submarine was brought to a nuclear safe condition (as a result of the nuclear reactor not shutting down properly) at the cost of a sailor's life, but the explosion itself caused the submarine and its nuclear complement to sink to a depth of about 18,000 feet.

** Assuming that a reactor SCRAM / shutdown means the absolute end of a casualty. A reactor "shutdown" simply slows down fission events to a subcritical level; the radioactive decay of fission products inside the reactor still produces a significant amount of heat -- enough in the case of Three Mile Island (which was [=SCRAMmed=] very early in the timeline of the casualty) to damage the core and release radioactive material into the environment. The reactors in Fukushima were shut down upon the initial earthquake and still produced enough decay heat days later to cause full meltdown and hydrogen explosions. Even worse, at Chernobyl, the SCRAM signal aggravated the casualty (inside baseball: the control rod followers were made of neutron-transparent graphite, and replaced neutron-absorbing water in the control rod channels, causing a temporary spike in fission events before the even-more-neutron-absorbing boron control rod body was in place, driving the reactor over the edge into prompt criticality).

** ''Film/TheWorldIsNotEnough'': The BigBad [[spoiler:(who is actually TheDragon, or at least TheHeavy)]] gets hold of the plutonium sphere from a bomb, forms it into a rod, and tries to insert it into the reactor of a submarine and cause a meltdown. Bond and the BigBad[[spoiler:/TheHeavy]] handle the plutonium bar with their bare hands. A rod of Pu that size would weigh at least 50 pounds, which is big enough to be a critical mass. It would be exceptionally hot to the touch, and also would be emitting lots of neutron radiation. To be fair, the villain is both [[FeelNoPain immune to pain]] and suicidal, so the fact that the rods should be scalding hot and emitting lethal levels of radiation might actually be excusable. Bond has no such excuse, though.

** In the ''Treehouse of Horror'' episode "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS16E1TreehouseOfHorrorXV The Ned Zone]]", Homer blows up the power plant by simply pressing a button -- implying that ''the plant has a self-destruct mechanism''. The explosion did show a little bit more realism than "The Homega Man" in Ned's future vision [[spoiler:that became true despite Ned's efforts]] by showing what would be left of Springfield after a nuclear explosion, nothing more than a newly formed crater (though, no shockwave, fallout or nearby fires were created from the explosion).

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManTheAnimatedSeries'' had criminals steal a chunk of newly discovered highly potent radioactive isotope. Spider-Man recovers it, runs some tests on it, and after what he learns doesn't mind the criminals taking it back. Turns out the isotope has such an extremely brief half-life that in just a couple of days it has decayed to a solid chunk of lead. It goes completely ignored that such a high rate of decay should mean it is giving off enough radiation to be a death sentence to anyone handling it without protection and also giving off noticeable heat.
* ''WesternAnimation/SupermanTheAnimatedSeries'': The WesternAnimation/{{Batman|TheAnimatedSeries}}[=/=]WesternAnimation/{{Superman|TheAnimatedSeries}} episode [[Recap/SupermanTheAnimatedSeriesS2E16To18WorldsFinest "World's Finest"]]: When the Joker leaves Superman and Batman trapped in one of Luthor's laboratories (with a chunk of kryptonite slowly killing Superman), Batman begins looking for ways to escape. He finds a container of hydrochloric acid. Batman notes that while it will take a week for the acid to eat through the wall of the room they're in, it will [[ArtisticLicenseChemistry destroy the kryptonite]] almost immediately. When the kryptonite dissolves, it doesn't release a burst of kryptonic radiation in typical cartoon-style, the resulting goo no longer contains enough radiation to hurt Superman sufficiently, and there is no longer enough radiation in the environment to prevent Superman from escaping. That is an ''incredibly'' short half-life.