Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Because nuclear power plants are large and complex, accidents on site tend to be relatively expensive. [ 7 ] The 1979 Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania was caused by a series of failures in secondary systems at the reactor, which allowed radioactive steam to escape and resulted in the partial core meltdown of one of two reactors at the ...
Soviet submarine K-19 reactor accident 1961, July 4 More than 30 people were over-exposed to radiation when the starboard reactor cooling system failed and the reactor temp rose uncontrollably. Emergency repairs ordered by the captain successfully cooled the reactor and avoided meltdown, but exposed the workers to high levels of radiation. [17] 8
Nuclear reactors line the riverbank at the Hanford Site along the Columbia River in January 1960. This image of the core from the SL-1 disaster, Idaho Falls, Idaho, USA , served as a reminder of the necessity for proper reactor practice and safeguards.
Nuclear power plants cannot be operated without some major accidents. Such accidents are unavoidable and cannot be designed around. [149] An interdisciplinary team from MIT have estimated that given the expected growth of nuclear power from 2005 to 2055, at least four serious nuclear accidents would be expected in that period.
Recent concerns have been expressed about the safety of nuclear reactors. In 2012, the Union of Concerned Scientists, which tracks ongoing safety issues at operating nuclear plants, found that "leakage of radioactive materials is a pervasive problem at almost 90 percent of all reactors, as are issues that pose a risk of nuclear accidents". [31]
September 30, 1999 – Tokaimura nuclear accident, nuclear fuel reprocessing plant, two fatalities. [9] August 9, 2004 – Mihama Nuclear Power Plant accident. Hot water and steam leaked from a broken pipe. The accident was the worst nuclear disaster of Japan up until that time, excluding Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Five fatalities. [9]
The Soviet icebreaker Lenin [citation needed], the USSR's first nuclear-powered surface ship, suffered a major accident (possibly a nuclear meltdown – exactly what happened remains a matter of controversy in the West) in one of its three reactors. To find the leak the crew broke through the concrete and steel radiation shield with ...
Date Location Type Description June 23, 1942 Leipzig, Nazi Germany: Steam explosion and reactor fire Leipzig L-IV experiment accident: Shortly after the Leipzig L-IV atomic pile – worked on by Werner Heisenberg and Robert Doepel – demonstrated Germany's first signs of neutron propagation, the device was checked for a possible heavy water leak.