Alderaan was a core world. They keep strip mining and waste dumping to planets less likely to cause an uproar in the Senate.

[not that she wasn't outraged by all that regardless, and there wasn't really a Senate anymore either, but that was generally how things work. The core planets are too wealthy and too important to the Empire. But she would've preferred anything to what actually happened. Destroy Alderaan's natural beauty as retaliation, but at least leave the planet there.

But they hadn't and they wouldn't and even though most times she knows better, Leia still blames herself for what happened, as if she could have changed anything. Those strong emotions don't fade at all as she continues, really only getting worse the more she has to explain.]

I mean it literally. The Empire developed a new weapon and tested its full power on Alderaan.