Stargate SG-1 - Scorched Earth (4.09)
The model they used is actually the protype Carter made tests on.O’NEILL
How do you make a naquada bomb?
CARTER
Well sir, the reactor was designed specifically to prevent exactly that kind of…
O’NEILL
Carter!
[Carter thinks for a moment, obviously not happy with the situation.]
CARTER
Theoretically if I created a feedback loop, the energy would build up instead of being released. There would be a big explosion sir.
O’NEILL
Big enough?
CARTER
I think so.
O’NEILL
Carter, I’m making a choice to help these people. But if you don’t make that bomb I’m out of options.
CARTER
(quietly)
I know.
O’NEILL
So I have to order you to do it.
CARTER
Yes, sir.
[She walks away to make the bomb. O'Neill looks at Daniel who obviously doesn’t agree with the situation.]
EXT—PLANET
[Carter is preparing the reactor. O'Neill is looking at the ship as it is slowly approaching. They are positioned near to a lake away from the village.]
O’NEILL
How controlled is this going to be?
CARTER
The focus of the blast will be aimed upwards. This ridge should protect the village but this is as close as I would put it. I’ve modified this remote to start the feedback loop. About a minute after you press this button the reactor should reach critical overload and blow.
O’NEILL
Ship's ETA?
CARTER
About five zero minutes sir. But we should detonate before the ship’s directly overhead. There’s no telling what that beam will do to the reactor.
O’NEILL
Okay.
CARTER
There’s one more thing sir.
[Carter stands to look at O'Neill.]
CARTER
Once you detonate the reactor there’s no turning back. The overload can’t be stopped.
O’NEILL
(quietly)
Alright.
[They walk to the edge of the water and get into the small speedboat there. They start it and head across the water to the village.]
In all likelyness, if there was a different with a standard Mark I, it would be less powerful.
The blast would have been directed. How exactly? there's no hardware to deflect such a blast. Maybe there is a valve on the top of the generator, and channeling the plasma through that valve within a microsecond is enough to "direct" the blast, somehow.
This one was calibrated to build energy over one minute. Apparently, the blast would be so powerful that it the ridge would be worth a protection here.
Stargate SG-1 - Allegiance (6.09)
Circumference = Diameter x pi.Scene: The sun is setting (or rising) behind the trees surrounding the compound. Jack, Teal'c, Sam, and others are in a building on the compound, looking at a Naquadah reactor.
Sam: "At first, it seemed like a routing power fluctuation in the cycle output of the Naquadah reactor, but on closer inspection, I discovered that both the absorption port and it's redundancy had been tampered with..."
Jack (his hands both rubbing his face in frustration): "Carter! I haven't had coffee."
Sam: "Sir, no one would have noticed it, if they didn't know what to look for. The reactor would have overloaded."
Jack: "Any chance this was an accident?"
Sam: "Not a chance."
Teal'c: "Would not an explosion caused by such an overload destroy an area several miles in circumference?"
Sam: "Yeah, it would."
Jack: "Who knows about this?"
Sam: "Except for the guards I posted, just us."
Teal'c: "How long would it have taken for this overload to result in explosion?"
Sam: "An hour? Maybe less."
Jack (looks at his watch): "Ahhh..." (into his radio) "Pierce...O'Niell. No one goes within 20 yards of the 'gate till I get there."
Pierce: "Yes, sir."
Teal'c: "What are you considering, O'Neill?"
Jack: "Well, if you'd rigged a reactor to blow...wouldn't you want to get off world before it...blew?"
Teal'c: "Indeed."
Diameter = Circumference / pi.
With a circumference of 2 miles at least (extremely minimal figure), we'd get a diameter of at least 1,024.54 meters (radius of 512.27 meters).
If we understand that by destroy, it means leveled, this would correspond to a yield of 1 kiloton, more or less.
If it's about the fireball radius on ground contact, that's nearly 470 kilotons.
Of course, remember that both figures are based on the smallest circumference possible.
Stargate Atlantis - Hide & Seek (1.03)
The overload will reach a yield of 20 kilotons. It will take 30 seconds to build up that amount of power.SCENE: Control room
Peters at computer, others round him.
PETER: The self destruct system requires two separate codes. Now each code is unique. And everyone here will be required to memorize their code.
MCKAY: well don't bother giving me one. Sorry.
WEIR: As far as we know, this gate is the only Stargate in the Pegasus galaxy that is capable of dialing earth, which would make it the last line of defense against the wraith. If they're going to attack which we must consider a very real threat. We simply cannot let them gain control of this complex.
PETER: If both codes are properly entered the naquada generator will overload. It will take 30 seconds.
FORD: You sure it will do enough damage.
MCKAY: Ever seen a 20 kiloton nuclear explosion?
Unless I miss something, it gives a power of 2.789 terawatts (1 TJ = e12 J; 1 W = 1 J/s).
This is not necessarily peak power.
Obviously, a portable generator comes with a buffer, where energy is dumped before being output.
Actually, this does not prove that 20 kilotons is all of what you can get out of a naqahdah generator mk I: It's only the buffer's energy threshold before overload.
Besides, naqahdah generators can last for quite some time, so we'd need references that would provide combined information about power output and duration. Therefore, we'd know how much energy such a generator can provide, at least. This figure would be based upon the power output calculated above, which we have no way to be sure it's the maximum one.
Stargate Atlantis - Siege Part II (1.20)
EVERETT: We do now. We brought a Mark II naqahdah generator.
MARINE: We found a way to increase the power output by six hundred percent. It won't last nearly as long, but should be able to power the chair for as long as we need it to.
Basically, a Mk II has 6 times the power of a Mk I.INT. Chair room. SHEPPARD runs in.
SHEPPARD: McKay, fire it up!
McKAY: It'll take a minute.
SHEPPARD: We don't have a minute
McKAY: Look, this generator can only power the chair because it operates in a state of barely controlled overload.
McKay is preparing the generator. Considering that there's no evidence that anything else besides the power output has been increased, we'll consider that this element is the only part that's been altered between the two generations.
Otherwise, if, for example, the buffer capacity was also increased, the power figures would become greater.
A barely controlled overload would make the power output be near 20 kilotons per second, or slightly less than 83.68 terawatts. Say 83.6 terawatts.
That would mean that the power output of a Mark I is actually six times inferior to that, and equal to 3.33 kilotons per second, or 13.946 terawatts. Say 13.9 terawatts.
This would reveal that Peter didn't push the Mark I at its max output, back in Hide & Seek.
Next step is to know how long these generators can keep going on at such rates.
We know that activating the chair and firing the drones in Siege Part II almost entirely depleted the Mark II, so much that when they switched it on again, one second later, the power levels were sudenly plummeting.
Timing the sequence from the moment the chair was activated and drones fired, until the last one got destroyed, will be a good indicator of how long the Mark II can stay on.
EDIT: I initially thought, since season 1 aired, that a Mark I could only output a total of 20 kilotons.
Mind you, if the overload actually triggers a quick chain reaction that leads to a yield of 20 kilotons, it would mean that the power figures are considerably lower to those I presented above. Please keep that in mind. ;)