Lea Thompson (Paige's mom) starred in Back to the Future as Marty's mom. In this episode, while she is driving the truck that is being shot at, she says the line "They found me. I don't know how, but they found me." which is the exact same line that Doc says to Marty in the first BTTF movie.
Little did the writers know, a nuclear reactor lacks the fuel concentration to explode in a "Mushroom Cloud." The worst possible scenario would be a reactor meltdown and expelling radiation. No explosion just uncontrolled radiation.
They mention the coolant is liquid metal, Robert Patrick played the T-1000 a liquid metal Terminator in T2 - Judgement Day.