Nuclear power plant catastrophes

Fukushima, Japan March 11, 2011

Chernobyl, Ukraine April 25-26, 1986

Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania, US March 28, 1979
Including:

• The Disaster: What happened? "No one died": The Biggest Lie Beyond Nuclear, Spring 2014

• Hershey researcher believes new study makes first connection between TMI and cancer A type of thyroid cancer caused by radiation was more common among patients who were near TMI during the 1979 partial meltdown. Pennsylvania Real-Time News, May 31, 2017

• Three Mile Island at 39: What Actually Happened to US? Hour-long audio of panel discussion among journalists who covered the accident as it happened and researchers reporting on the long-hidden medical impact. Nuclear Hotseat, April 11, 2018

Mutsu nuclear powered ship Japan, 1974. While this ship was not a generating station, its failure should have been a cautionary tale.

Fermi (near Detroit) US October 5, 1966

Idaho Falls SL-1, US January 3, 1961

Santa Susana Field Laboratory, California, US 1957, 1959, 1971

Windscale, UK October 10, 1957

For some others, see:

• Top nuclear power disasters Eight of the worst ever, and not just the ones you've heard of. Energy Business Review, July 28, 2017

• For detailed descriptions of nuclear accidents up to 1975, see We Almost Lost Detroit, by John Fuller.

• See also the book Atomic Accidents: A History of Nuclear Meltdowns and Disasters, From the Ozark Mountains to Fukushima By James Mahaffey, 2014 (It is a thorough recounting of dozens of nuclear accidents, large and small. However, the author remains a believer in nuclear power. He does not quite put together that the vast potential for unpredicted technical or human error will continue to lead to vast consequences. It does not seem to have occurred to him that there are cheaper, safer, plentiful alternatives.)