The Three Mile Island Disaster

[knocker]

I think it's worth remembering that thirty six years ago today America flirted with a near disaster, But it was only near and this had some profound effects on future energy policies in the US, UK and many other countries. Then came Chernobyl and that didn't help. But overall nuclear power has very good safety record compared, say, to the chemical industry.

 

http://allday.com/post/2883-the-three-mile-island-disaster-americas-flirtation-with-nuclear-disaster/

[Mokidugway]

Absolutely the Union carbide incident at bopal springs to mind ..

[Crepuscular Ray]

Or the oil industry.

[Mokidugway]

And the coal mining industry , shocking safety record on the global scale ..

[knocker]

And the coal mining industry , shocking safety record on the global scale ..

 

Not forgetting the hundreds of thousands dying prematurely because of pollution. So TMI was quite game changer. In many ways it was a disaster.

Edited March 28, 2015 by knocker

[Mokidugway]

Sellafield disaster in the fifties was the worst accident till three mile island I believe .my dad worked on the tower filters !!.

[knocker]

I have the book on Bhopal, Five Past Midnight in Bhopal by Lapierre and Moro. Appalling and still continuing today. Usual story, just a few hundred thousand Indians so whose worried.

Edited March 29, 2015 by knocker

[mike57]

To be fair the pile fire at Windscale (later Sellafield) had nothing to do with nuclear power, the two air cooled reactors were only used to produce plutonium for the weapons programme. The heat was a waste product. It was the realisation that this heat could be used to generate electricity that promped the construction of Calder Hall power station next door to the Windscale site. Calder Hall went online in 1956, initially operation was geared to producing plutonium, with electricity being a 'by product'

 

The are now reactor designs which are passively safe e.g. pebble bed reactor which avoid the possibilty of a meltdown, which is the worst dase scenario in an accident.