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 plant s . 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 Lord s 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 : " " ) In 1942 , the first official nuclear reactor to be constructed by human s 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 Probe s . 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 " )