Nuclear reactor

Nuclear reactors were devices which sped up the rate of decay in radioactive materials in a controlled manner. They were usually found in nuclear power plants.

In 1937, the Tong of the Black Scorpion under Hsien-Ko's leadership secretly constructed a water-cooled fission reactor inside the mountain of T'ai Shan in Shangdong province, China. It was part of a plan to capture and punish Magnus Greel and, unofficially, it made the Black Scorpion the first ever nuclear power on Earth. The reactor threatened to go critical and obliterate Shangdong province when Sung-Chi Li attacked it but the Fourth Doctor stabilised it. After Hsien-Ko and the Tong were defeated, he and Romana I buried the reactor under tonnes of cement transported in the TARDIS. (PROSE: The Shadow of Weng-Chiang)

In 1939, the War Lords used a nuclear reactor to power their base at Drachensberg. The Seventh Doctor set the reactor to overload, destroying the castle and the advanced technology contained in it. (PROSE: Timewyrm: Exodus)

In 1942, the first official nuclear reactor to be constructed by humans was built under a sports stadium in Chicago. (PROSE: The Shadow of Weng-Chiang)

In the 1970s, Sarah Jane Smith, possessed by Eldrad, took his hand into the nuclear reactor room at the Nunton Experimental Complex. (TV: The Hand of Fear)

In 1986, the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl underwent a meltdown. (COMIC: Black Destiny)

Also that year, Snowcap was powered by a nuclear reactor. Ben Jackson helped devise a plan to destroy the Cybermen by using the reactor fuel rods. (TV: The Tenth Planet)

In 1997, the Mars 97 was powered by two nuclear reactors constructed by Donneby's, making the vessel twice as fast as the old Mars Probes. Edward Greyhaven, having been betrayed by Lord Xznaal, programmed the reactors to overload and set the Mars Orbiter on a collision course with the Argyre clan's holdings, destroying them. (PROSE: The Dying Days)

In 2006, Blon Fel-Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen plotted to destroy Earth by having the nuclear reactor at Blaidd Drwg undergo a meltdown. (TV: Boom Town)

Miss Myers connected a member of the metalkind to a nuclear reactor to give them enough power to summon their species to Earth so that they would be destroyed by Sky and the fleshkind would be victorious in their war. Rani Chandra described the complexity of shutting down a reactor to Clyde Langer as "James Bond meets Mario" but the two succeeded in shutting the reactor down before the metalkind arrived. (TV: Sky)

Mariah Learman's palace was powered by a nuclear reactor. (AUDIO: The Time of the Daleks)

In 2199, Lord Haldoran had control of a nuclear reactor. His adviser Estro diverted some of its power to activate DA-17. (PROSE: Legacy of the Daleks)

The planet Poytee was powered by global network of sub-surface atomic generators. When the populace became infected by the Tuloz Virus, the Science Corps wanted to vent the generators' coolant systems and create radioactive clouds to sterilise the planet. This plan was not used as the Fifth Doctor instead synthesised an antidote to the virus. (AUDIO: Urban Myths)

At the time of the Thal-Dalek battle, the Dalek City had a nuclear reactor in addition to a static electricity dynamo. When the Daleks discovered that they had evolved a dependence on radiation, they sought to vent the waste of their reactor into Skaro's atmosphere before they were defeated. (TV: The Daleks) The fighting had rendered the nuclear reactor "beyond recovery" and it was one piece of Dalek technology that the Thals of the Thal City had no interest in claiming or replicating. (AUDIO: Return to Skaro)