Dr. Conca reports that the Michael Mann cyber-thriller Blackhat, is about the hacking of a nuclear power plant with dire consequences. Please keep in mind that it has nothing to do with reality, and nothing to do with a real nuclear power plant. The first time the film showed the nuclear power plant control room, it really portended how bad this movie was going to be. It had wall-to-wall windows overlooking a vast open pool of steaming water. Nuclear control rooms have NO windows. And they are nowhere near a fuel pool. This control room looked more like a high-tech Press Box. But the open pool of water was ludicrous. It was supposed to be the nuclear reactor. The core was portrayed as long metal pipes in the water. What supposedly were the circulation pumps looked more like ceiling fans out of Casablanca.
In the movie, a malware bug ended up invading this Disney plant computer system, and the fans sped up and flew apart. The metal pipes immediately got red hot and exploded, blowing open the domed containment. It does not matter that nuclear plant operating systems are NEVER connected to the Internet. Or that if cooling systems do fail, it requires days to get hot enough to boil water. Only the Chernobyl reactors could get hot fast enough to explode and no one but the Soviets were stupid enough to build one. And the containment structure is inside additional structures and buildings. And Chinese reactors do not have cooling towers as shown. Even the radiation scenes were nonsense. Consultation from only one nuclear scientist would have legitimized the script.
Our society is highly affected by the various media bombarding us. Hollywood can be educational, entertaining, or grossly misleading. Usually, the consequences are not important. But occasionally they can seriously alter public opinion and national policy. This is one more example of the naive and lame, liberal anti-nuclear and fear-mongering agenda from Hollywood.
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