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From The Complete Idiot's Guide to Submarines by Michael Dimercurio: Prompt Critical Rapid Disassembly -- -- The disappointing condition in which a nuclear reactor has so much reactivity in it that its chain reaction can be sustained on prompt neutrons alone, which means that it is highly supercritical and its power level will escalate severely to the point that the coolant will be unable to accept the high levels of thermal energy transfer from the core, and the result is the coolant “flashing” from liquid to vapor with consequent rapid pressure rise, and the pressure rises much higher than the mechanical strength of the core and piping systems, and the system rapidly comes apart (disassembles). The above description is by definition an “explosion,” but nuclear engineers hate that word because the media keeps trying to say that nuclear reactors can explode like nuclear weapons, so the disassembly term is used. While most civilian nuclear reactors cannot achieve a prompt critical rapid disassembly but would merely melt down, naval reactors with their bomb-grade uranium can go prompt critical. The disassembly would be a simple steam explosion 999 times out of 1000, but there is a small chance that a naval reactor undergoing a prompt critical condition could experience a nuclear weapon-type detonation, although it would be many orders of magnitude weaker than a Hiroshima bomb. A Russian submarine being refueled on the Kamchatka Peninsula experienced a prompt critical rapid disassembly that blew enough radiation to the environment that it required the permanent abandonment of a six mile stretch of land and the refueling pier. They can indeed explode.
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