World’s Worst Nuclear Accidents

Windscale, Cumberland – Britain(Photo Credit: Wikipedia) On 10 October 1957, an undetermined amount of contamination got released into the air after the graphite core of Britain’s first nuclear reactor, a site at Windscale, Cumberland, caught fire. The incident, known as the Windscale fire, was the worst nuclear accident in England’s history. Five decades later, medical researchers reported mortality and cancer rates for workers involved in the 1957 fire “does not reveal any measurable effect of the fire upon their health.” (You can read the report of a British board of inquiry into the accident here (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/05_10_07_ukaea.pdf). The former Windscale power station was shut down and decommissioned.

Mihama Nuclear Plant – Mihama, Japan(Photo Credit: Getty Images) Steam rises at the no. 3 reactor of the Mihama nuclear plant on August 10, 2004 in Mihama, Japan. A steam leak killed four people and injured seven others. The explosion was traced to a corroded pipe that had not been inspected in 28 years. Japan’s then minister of the economy, Shoichi Nakagawa, had this to say: “To put it bluntly, it was extremely thin, it looked terrible, even in the layman’s view.”

Three Mile Island – Pennsylvania(Photo Credit: Wikipedia) The most serious nuclear accident in United States history occurred at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania on March 28, 1979. About 140,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes after a combination of equipment malfunctions, problems with the design of the reactor and human error led to a partial meltdown of the TMI 2 reactor core. Although the partial meltdown resulted in some contamination within the plant, nobody died or got injured. However, the other casualty was the nuclear energy industry itself. The accident stirred public protest and subsequently led the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to tighten its regulatory oversight over the industry. It also contributed to a freeze in the construction of new nuclear plants in the U.S. over the next three decades.

Nuclear Plant – Erwin, TennesseeOn March 6, 2006, the nuclear plant at Erwin, Tenn., suffered a uranium leak which led to the contamination of 1,000 people.

Monju Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor – Tsuruga, Fukui(Photo Credit: Getty Images) A fire and subsequent cover-up that sparked public anger led to a 14-year shutdown of the Monju Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor in Tsuruga, Fukui prefecture, west of Tokyo. Some 278 people were affected by four successive leaks of radioactivity. The leaks, which also led to the widespread evacuation of local residents, resulted in fall-out levels equivalent to that of more than 200 atomic bombs of the type dropped on Hiroshima at the end of World War 2. The official charged with investigating the cover-up would later commit suicide by jumping from the roof of a Tokyo hotel. He was not involved in the cover-up, but reports at the time said he was distressed by the evidence that came across his desk.

Nuclear Reprocessing Plant – Near The Town of Tomsk, Siberia(Photo Credit: Wikipedia) In April 1993, the Soviets reported an explosion at a secret nuclear reprocessing plant in Siberia near the town of Tomsk. The reactor was believed to have been involved in the production of weapons-grade nuclear fuel but authorities kept a tight lid on the release of information about the accident. The number of casualties is unknown. Despite the end of the Cold War, the area remains closed to non-residents, and visitors must present entry documents at checkpoints, such as the one in the accompanying photo.

Uranium Processing Plant – Tokaimura, Japan(Photo Credit: Getty Images) The Japanese town of Tokaimura was the scene of the world’s worst nuclear accident since the 1986 Chernobyl reactor explosion. On September 30, 1999, an accident at the uranium processing plant killed two workers and more than 600 people got exposed to moderate levels of radiation. A subsequent investigation turned up evidence of fraud and safety lapses.