Basic Trope: A reactor has exceeded safe operation limits and is essentially doomed.
- Straight: The Trope Co. Alternative Atomic Power Facility in Tropeton's fusion reactor melts down and explodes, destroying the underground half.
- Exaggerated:
- Every atomic reactor in existence blows up after reaching a very high temperature.
- The fusion reactor explodes and obliterates the Solar System if it so much as goes beyond 500 degrees Celsius.
- Downplayed: The Trope Co. Alternative Atomic Power Facility's reactor melts down, leaking radiation and polluting the chamber.
- Justified:
- The reactor has been hijacked by terrorists.
- Incompetent workers didn't want to manage the reactor, so they left it going unattended.
- The coolant system had a mechanical failure and failed to supply enough coolant to the reactor.
- Inverted: The Trope Co. Alternative Atomic Power Facility sees its fusion reactor going into Absolute Zero and transforming into a black hole, destroying and sucking up half of the facility before it implodes.
- Subverted: As the reactor melts down, Bob pulls the E-Coolant lever, freezing the reactor and shutting it down.
- Double Subverted: The reactor still overheats anyway due to a shortage of the coolant.
- Parodied: The fusion reactor increases in temperatures higher than normal before going back to normal temperatures. Everyone acts as if the entire building is going to explode and immediately evacuates, leaving behind a perfectly normal power facility.
- Zig-Zagged: Bob pulls the E-Coolant lever just before the reactor explodes, but it doesn't appear to work. Then the temperature begins cooling down as the lever was delayed, only for it to rise up as there's not enough coolant to stop the meltdown. Then Alice comes in with extra coolant that seems to stop the meltdown... only to cause the temperatures to go down way too low and turning the fusion reactor into a black hole that sucks up half of the land before imploding.
- Averted: The fusion reactor doesn't melt down and the power facility continues functioning as normal.
- Lampshaded:
- "Quick! Escape the facility, it's going to explode!"
- "Damn it! Reactor's undergoing meltdown! I knew I shouldn't have worked at a nuclear facility!"
- Invoked: Bob, who doesn't like the facility's working conditions, deliberately sabotages the fusion reactor by forcing the coolant's shutdown and making it go into full-power mode to ensure it quickly goes into meltdown.
- Exploited: Emperor Evulz of The Empire spreads the word of Tropeland's power facility undergoing a meltdown to encourage more people to stay in The Empire, as it is "safer".
- Defied: Carlos, the CEO of the Trope Co. Alternative Atomic Power Facility, is full aware of a meltdown scenario and has installed auto-shutdown protocols in case it does happen.
- Discussed: "You know, I've been working here for four years and never have I ever seen it undergo a meltdown like in those disaster movies."
- Conversed:
- "Wow... the SFX team really just wanted to show off their work here, huh?"
- "Look! That was like one of those Roblox core games!"
- "Who directed this again? Michael Bay?"
- Implied:
- Sirens blare in Tropeton and an Emergency Broadcast plays, alerting people of a reactor meltdown in the power plant.
- The Red Alert sounds in a hallway in the Trope Co. Alternative Atomic Power Facility, informing of a reactor meltdown.
- Bob is visiting his uncle, who lives in a town that looks suspiciously like Pripyat.
- Deconstructed: The disaster heavily impacts the whole of Tropeland. The families of the victims sue Trope Co. for failure to implement effective safety measures, and the country is forced to temporarily shut down all nuclear power plants. The area where the half-destroyed facility once stood is closed off an and an exclusion zone had to be set, closing off part of the city until radiation goes to safe levels.
- Reconstructed: Daniel, the President of Tropeland, promises to create more safer protocols for nuclear power plants. He hires more safety inspectors to inspect several power plants in the country and point out their issues. Mechanics are sent in to fix said issues, and after a re-evaluation, the power plants reopen to the public. The families are also given reparations by the government. And when meltdowns do happen, they're dealt with very quickly with the new safety implementations as well as the staff's well-trained skills.
Attention all personnel; core is undergoing meltdown. I repeat, core is undergoing meltdown. Core collapse in 2 minutes 30 seconds. Evacuate immediately to Going Critical.
