What would it take for a MAGNOX meltdown/radiation release?

OK. I'm hoping to do an alternate history in which a MAGNOX reactor is damaged in an explosion, which results in a radiation leak, which spreads material 25 miles to the northeast. What sort of explosion would be required?
Yes, I have a specific incident and date in mind (May 1, 1978 (And, no, it's not Socialist, Communist or Pagan), but the amount of explosive may not be enough.
 

CalBear

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OK. I'm hoping to do an alternate history in which a MAGNOX reactor is damaged in an explosion, which results in a radiation leak, which spreads material 25 miles to the northeast. What sort of explosion would be required?
Yes, I have a specific incident and date in mind (May 1, 1978 (And, no, it's not Socialist, Communist or Pagan), but the amount of explosive may not be enough.

That it HASN'T happened, given the DPRK's quality control record is just about a miracle.
 
Actually, the incident in question I have planned as taking place in the UK in 1978. Of course, something similar could happen in the DPRK...

A few questions tangentially related to this AH...

1. If the BBC had caused a significant disaster in 1978, would this result in pressure to privatize the BBC?
2. What effect would a nuclear accident in Gloucestershire have on the 1979 General Elections for Labour or Conservatives? (Or other parties?)
3. What would the effects of the loss of a MAGNOX reactor on the UK's ability to make plutonium for nuclear weapons?
4. Were J.K. Rowling and Banksy living in Gloucestershire in 1978? Any other prominent people living there at the time?

Want me to reveal details about the incident that caused the meltdown?
 
Rats. Doctor Who can't cause a major disaster with the UK MAGNOX design.
(On May 1, 1978, while filming a scene for the Doctor who serial "The Pirate Planet" on the reactor cap at Berkeley Nuclear Power Station, Gloucestershire, a BBC effects technician put a little too much explosive into a prop cabinet that was to explode. The reactor was undamaged, but the BBC was no longer permitted to film Doctor Who at reactors...)

Of course, if it was a different design...
 
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