J. Samuel Walker suggests that the TMI accident incited widespread criticism of nuclear power technology, the nuclear industry, and the NRC. Critics faulted the industry and the NRC for their poor performance both before and after the accident. The international attention garnered by the crisis redoubled the determination of, and enhanced the credibility of, the anti-nuclear movement. Arguably, the United States nuclear industry has never recovered.
Walker reports that studies looking for long-term radiation effects resulting from the accident have reached conflicting conclusions, but it seems that any increase in cancers is slight enough to have occurred by chance.
Windscale fire
The Windscale fire was a devastating fire in Britain's first nuclear reactor at Windscale (now Sellafield) in 1957. The fire spread radioactive fallout over hundreds of miles. Some of the most dangerous contamination was kept secret, and its effects only came to light years later. At the back of the reactor, ruptured fuel cartridges containing uranium are still jammed in the fire damaged core, awaiting safe removal. Official estimates are that up to a hundred people may have died from the contamination. The cleanup cost over a hundred million pounds. The Windscale fire was the first fire in any nuclear facility.
Alan
Alan can be any of the following:
Tokaimura nuclear accident
The Tokaimura nuclear accident was a serious nuclear radiation accident in Japan. It took place at a uranium-reprocessing facility in Tokaimura, northeast of Tokyo, Japan, on 30 September 1999. The accident occurred in a very small fuel preparation plant operated by JCO.
The direct cause of the accident was workers putting uranyl nitrate solution containing about 16.6 kg of uranium, which exceeded the critical mass, into a precipitation tank. The tank was not designed to dissolve this type of solution and was not designed to prevent such accidents to happen. As a result, three workers were exposed to neutron radiation doses in excess of allowable limits. Two of these workers later died.
Many emergency workers and nearby residents were hospitalized and hundreds of thousands of others were forced to remain indoors for 24 hours.
The three workers who worked at the uranium-reprocessing facility were Hisashi Ouchi, Masato Shinohara, and Yutaka Yokokawa. Two of them died of radiation poisoning. Hisashi Ouchi, aged 35, died 12 weeks after the accident. He had lost most of his skin, and was kept alive for 83 days, according to his parents and wife will. Ouchi was closest to the tank when the accident occurred. He ended up as the first victim of this nuclear accident. Seven months after the accident, Masato Shinohara died, aged 40.
Ouchi was reported to have received 17 sieverts (sv) of radiation, Shinohara 10 sv and Yokokawa 3 sv; 8 sieverts is considered a fatal dose, and 50 milli sieverts is the maximum limit of annual dose allowed for Japanese nuclear workers.
Another 83 workers were subjected to higher radiation than normal.
Nuclear accidents in Japan
Nuclear accidents in Japan include the following major cases:
Nuclear energy policy
Nuclear energy policy is a national and international policy concerning some or all aspects of nuclear energy, such as mining for nuclear fuel, extraction and processing of nuclear fuel from the ore, electricity generation by nuclear power, enriching and storing spent nuclear fuel and nuclear fuel reprocessing. Since nuclear energy and nuclear weapons technologies are closely related, military aspirations can act as a factor in energy policy decisions. The fear of nuclear proliferation influences some international nuclear energy policies.
The use of nuclear energy is limited to a relatively small number of countries in the world. As of 2007, only 31 countries, or 16% of the 191 United Nations Member States, operated nuclear power plants. Countries that rely most on nuclear energy were France (with 75% of its electricity generated by nuclear power stations), Lithuania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Sweden, Ukraine and South Korea. The largest producer of nuclear capacity was the USA with 28% of worldwide capacity, followed by France (18%) and Japan (12%). In 2000, there were 438 commercial nuclear generating units throughout the world, with a total capacity of about 351 gigawatts.
Following the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, Germany has permanently shut down eight of its 17 reactors. Italy voted to keep their country non-nuclear. Switzerland and Spain have banned the construction of new reactors. As of 2013, countries such as Australia, Austria, Denmark, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Israel, Malaysia, New Zealand, and Norway remain opposed to nuclear power. Germany and Switzerland are phasing-out nuclear power. Globally, more nuclear power reactors have closed than opened in recent years.
After the 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, China, Germany, Switzerland, Israel, Malaysia, Thailand, United Kingdom, and the Philippines are reviewing their nuclear power programs. Indonesia and Vietnam still plan to build nuclear power plants. Countries such as Australia, Austria, Denmark, Greece, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Israel, Malaysia, New Zealand, North Korea, and Norway remain opposed to nuclear power.
Australia produces no nuclear power. Plans to review whether the country should develop nuclear power were abandoned after Kevin Rudd, who opposed the move, was elected prime minister in 2007.
As of 2006, Finland's nuclear power program has four nuclear reactors. The first of these came into operation in 1977. They now provide 27% of Finland's electricity.
The third Olkiluoto reactor will be the new European Pressurized Reactor. Scheduled to go on line in 2011, it will have a power output of 1600 MWe.
Construction of Olkiluoto 3 started in August 2005. Two and a half years later the project is "over two years behind schedule and at least 50% over budget, the loss for the provider being estimated at €1.5 billion".
After the oil crisis of the early 1970s, the French government decided in 1974 to move towards self-sufficiency in electricity production, primarily through the construction of nuclear power stations. France today produces around 78.1% of its electricity through nuclear power. Because France produces an overall electricity surplus, it exports nuclear-produced energy. Some of this goes to countries which are ostensibly against the use of nuclear energy, such as Germany. The Board of Electricité de France (Électricité de France or EDF) has approved construction of a 1630 MWe European Pressurized Reactor or EPR at Flamanville, Normandy. Construction is expected to begin in late 2007, with completion in 2012.
In the 1970s, an anti-nuclear movement in France, consisting of citizens' groups and political action committees, emerged. There were many large anti-nuclear protests and demonstrations. More recently, targeted campaigns have been conducted, mainly by Greenpeace, and Sortir du nucléaire (France) has called for an official safety inspection of the Areva facilities.