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Nuclear Accidents

Nuclear plant accidents and the scale to measure them
See also Japan nuclear disaster 2011

 

 

Home | Japan 2011 | Reactors | Radiation | Accidents | Lessons | Online | Printables
Nuclear accidents:
    Information
   Safety news
   Images
   Scale of nuclear accidents

See also:
Nuclear reactors and meltdowns
Radiation
Japan nuclear disaster 2011

See also our Japan earthquakes and tsunamis 2011 page
 


 

The Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan appears to have had a partial meltdown, not "a meltdown".  For an explanation of the distinction see Meltdown 101: What is a nuclear reactor meltdown? (csmonitor.com)

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Nuclear accidents:

Information   Japan: Nuclear crisis raised to Chernobyl level (bbc.co.uk)
The severity rating of the Fukushima nuclear accident ahs been raised from 6 to 7.
For more on the scale on which nuclear accidents are measured, see below.

List of nuclear power plant accidents (en.wikipedia.org)

Comparing Japan to Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster (abcnewsradioonline.com)
Advice about the Chernobyl nuclear disaster took days to emerge, and many of the people who helped died as a result.

 
Safety news   WNN: Regulation  and safety (world-nuclear-news.org)
From World Nuclear News.
 
Images   The Worst Nuclear Disasters (time.com)

Top 5 Worst Nuclear Disasters (news.discovery.com)

 
Videos   Chernobyl - Nuclear Meltdown (veoh.com)
"Great Blunders in History." 5-minute preview of a 22-minute video. (Requires installation of software to watch the full video.)

 
Issues to discuss   Nuclear Power and Children's Health: What You Can Do [pdf] (helencaldicott.com)
Symposium proceedings. Includes environmental impact, disasters waiting to happen, accidents that have happened, terrorism, nuclear waste issues.

 


INES - Scale of nuclear accidents

INES
Scale of nuclear accidents
(The International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale)

Level 7 Major release of radioactive material with widespread health and environmental effects Chernobyl, Ukraine, 1986
Fukushima, Japan, 2011
Level 6 Significant release of radioactive material likely to require implementation of planned countermeasures Kyshtym, Russia, 1957
Level 5 Limited release of radioactive material. Severe damage to reactor core. Three Mile Island, US, 1979
Windscale, UK, 1957
Level 4 Minor release of radioactive material. Fuel melt or damage. Tokaimura, Japan, 1999
Saint Laurent des Eaux, France, 1980
Level 3 Exposure in excess of 10 times the statutory annual limit for workers. Severe contamination but with a low probability of significant public exposure. Sellafield, UK, 2005
Vandellos, Spain, 1989
Level 2 Exposure of a member of the public in excess of 10mSv (average annual dose is 1mSv). Exposure of a worker in excess of the annual limit. Significant contamination within the facility. Atucha, Argentina, 2005
Cadarache, France, 1993
Forsmark, Sweden, 2006
Level 1 Overexposure of a member of public. Minor safety problems. Low activity lost or stolen source or device.  

Below Scale (Level 0): No safety significance.

Based on information from the IAEA: IAEA - INES [pdf] with Japan 2011 added.



 

 

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Last updated 6 Dec 2013
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