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As other questions (eg How large would the steam explosion at Chernobyl have been?) regarding that episode 2 of the Chernobyl series, the megaton estimate of the steam explosion looked very improbable to me.

My question is, as some atomic bombs (like Fat Man) are based on compression to obtain criticality: could the huge steam explosion generate so much pressure on the corium so that it makes it supercritical and generates a nuclear explosion?

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    $\begingroup$ Nope, it wouldn't have been within many orders of magnitude of being enough pressure. The plutonium in compression type bombs is right around fermi degeneracy at maximum compression. $\endgroup$
    – zeta-band
    Commented May 16, 2019 at 19:54
  • $\begingroup$ It might be useful to link to the other questions, since you do reference them here. $\endgroup$
    – Kyle Kanos
    Commented May 17, 2019 at 2:39

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