10. Three Mile Island – March 28, 1979
Three Mile Island accident (US – 1979)
falls under scale 5 nuclear power plant accidents. On March 28, 1979, in
the wee hours of morning, the Three Mile Island nuclear generating
station witnessed a nuclear meltdown of one secondary loop. This
nuclear accident released 13 million curies of radioactive gases into
the atmosphere and caused a loss of USD 2,400. 10 court cases were also
filed on various authorities, concerning this accident, and they took
15 long years to get settled. Fortunately it led to no deaths or
injuries.
9. Goiania Accident – September 13, 1987
More than 240 people were exposed to
radiation when a junkyard dealer in Goiania, Brazil, broke open an
abandoned radiation therapy machine and removed a small highly
radioactive cake of cesium chloride. The accident occurred on September
13, 1987. The environment and surroundings were seriously contaminated.
Many buildings had to be demolished. 4 died in this accident. Many
children got attracted to the bright blue of the radioactive material,
touched it and rubbed it on their skin, resulting in the contamination
of several city block.
8. Windscale Pile – October 10, 1957
The accident took place on October 10, 1957
when a windscale fire ignited plutonium piles and contaminated
surrounding dairy farms. The radioactive contamination caused 33 cancer
deaths. This was the worst nuclear accident in Britain’s history, ranked
in severity at level 5 on the 7-point International Nuclear Event
Scale. The fire released an estimated 20,000 curies of iodine-131, as
well as 594 curies of caesium-137 and 24,000 curies of xenon-133, among
other radionuclides. The incident produced around cancer cases. In
addition to this, milk farms were seriously contaminated, dropping milk
sales by 15%.
7. Chalk River Nuclear Accident – 1952
6. Castle Bravo – March 1, 1954
5. Soviet Submarine K-431 Accident – August 10, 1985
The Echo II class Soviet submarine K431
suffered a massive explosion during refuelling in Vladivostok, Russia.
The explosion produced a radioactive cloud of gas into the air. Ten
sailors were killed in the incident and 49 people were observed to have
radiation injuries with with 10 developing radiation sickness. Moreover Of the 2,000 involved in cleanup operations, 290 were exposed to high levels of radiation compared to normal standards. TIME magazine has identified the accident as one of the world’s “worst nuclear disasters”.
4. Mayak Nuclear Plant – September 29, 1957
Mayak Nuclear Plant, also known as Chelyabinsk-40 and later as Chelyabinsk-65
is one of the biggest nuclear facilities in the Russian Federation. It
is an integral part of the Russian nuclear weapon program. The
facility has experienced 20 or more accidents affecting at least half a
million people in the past 45 years. The most notable accident
occurred on 29th September, 1957 exposing the Soviets
Regiems secret. The failure of the cooling system for a tank storing
tens of thousands of tons of dissolved nuclear waste resulted in a
chemical (non-nuclear) explosion having a force estimated at about 75
tons of TNT (310 gigajoules), which released some 2 million curies of
radioactivity over 15,000 sq. miles affecting at least 200 people died
of radiation sickness, 10,000 people were evacuated from their homes,
and 470,000 people were exposed to radiation. Victims were seen with
skin ‘sloughing off’ their faces, hands and other exposed parts of
their bodies. A large area was left barren and unusable for decades
and maybe centuries. The accident caused a large number of fatalities,
thousands were injured and surrounding areas were evacuated. It is
categorized as a level 6 “serious accident” on the 0-7 International
Nuclear Events Scale.
3. Chernobyl Disaster – April 26, 1986
The Chernobyl disaster was
a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl
Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian SSR (now Ukraine). The accident
took place in the reactor number 4 near the Pripyat town. There was a
sudden power output surge, and when an emergency shutdown was
attempted, a more extreme spike in power output occurred. This led to a
reactor vessel rupture which caused a series of explosions. Belarus,
Russia, and Ukraine were seriously affected and about 60% of the fallout
landed in Belarus. From 1986 to 2000, 350,400 people were evacuated
and resettled from the most severely contaminated areas of Belarus,
Russia, and Ukraine. World Health Organization (WHO) estimates the
number of deaths to be 4,000 while a Greenpeace report puts this figure
at 200,000 or more. Among these varied figures 31 deaths were
confirmed to be caused by the accident. The World Health Organization
reported the radiation release from the Chernobyl accident to be 200
times that of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombs combined. It is
considered the most serious nuclear power plant accident in history,
and is the only accident classified as a level 7 event on the
International Nuclear Event Scale.
2. Fukushima Disaster – March 11, 2011
A massive 8.9-magnitude quake hit
northeast Japan on Friday, causing dozens of deaths, more than 80
fires, and a 10-meter (33-ft) tsunami along parts of the country’s
coastline. Homes were swept away and damage was extensive. And the
disaster didn’t end with this. Eleven reactors at four sites near
Japan’s northeast coast were shut down per seismic emergency
procedures. Five reactors at two sites in the Fukushima prefecture
declared emergencies due to loss of normal site power and backup
emergency power. According to a British
nuclear expert the explosion at the Fukushima I nuclear plant looks
likely to be a “significant nuclear event” with a bigger impact on
public health than the 1979 meltdown at Three Mile Island. As of 15
March, the Finnish nuclear safety authority estimated the accidents at
Fukushima to be at Level 6 on the INES. On 24 March, a scientific
consultant for Greenpeace, working with data from the Austrian ZAMG and
French IRSN, prepared an analysis in which he rated the total Fukushima
I accident at INES level 7. The accident caused nuclear contamination
in the surrounding environment, water, milk, vegetable and other food
items. People living in surroundings were moved to safe shelters and
food grown in the area was banned for sale. The Japanese government in
handling the situation in the most efficient and amazing way that anyone
can imagine. Screening is being done and people are given proper
medical care. Initially 3 workers were affected by the radiation.
1. Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – World War II, 1945
These nuclear disasters were not accidents
but an ugly example of human wrath and violence. It was a result of
the war between two big powers of the world. During the final stages of
World War II in 1945, the United States conducted two atomic bombings
against the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan, the first on
August 6, 1945 and the second on August 9, 1945. This nuclear disaster
caused innumerable deaths and serious physical, emotional and genetic
problems which were faced by many generations. Families were destroyed
and people lost their loved ones, home and money all in one day. Within
the first two to four months of the bombings, the acute effects
killed 90,000–166,000 people in Hiroshima and 60,000–80,000 in Nagasaki. 15–20%
died from radiation sickness, 20–30% from flash burns, and 50–60% from
other injuries, compounded by illness. Roughly half of the deaths in
each city occurring on the first day. A study states that from 1950 to
2000, 46% of leukemia deaths and 11% of solid cancer deaths among bomb
survivors were due to radiation from the bombs. Even after such a huge
scale disaster and setback, the Japanese people faced this situation
with courage and resolution and made Japan one of the leading countries
of the world.
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