ADVERTISEMENTS: Essay on Nuclear Accidents and Holocaust! The nuclear plants which control the chain reaction to release energy steadily have their own demerits. They cause thermal pollution—the waste heat from the plants heats up the environment and release highly dangerous radiations into the environment. (A) In 1945 sufficient amount of Plutonium was extracted and a bomb was made. The bomb was exploded on 16 July, 1945 in a desert in Mexico. The 30 m tower on which the bomb was placed completely melted; sand over several square kilometers melted.
ADVERTISEMENTS: The blinding light that spread for a few minutes turned the sun into a pale ball. Frightened to the core by the resulting blast, scientists vehemently opposed using it on Japan. President Truman, to save a few American soldiers who might be the casualties in war with Japan, ordered dropping of the bomb on Japan.
The “Little Boy”—the Uranium bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on 6th August, 1945 which shook Japan and one lakh people were burnt in minutes like moths near a lamp. Just three days later, a plutonium bomb called “Fat Man” reduced Nagasaki into a desert with dead bodies strewn all over. Japan surrendered on 14th August, 1945. The consequences of a bomb blast are: 1. Enormous amount of heat creating a temperature where any life cannot exist. ADVERTISEMENTS: 2.
Devastating shock waves making earthquakes look like pygmies before them and 3. Deadly gamma radiations. The nuclear plants which control the chain reaction to release energy steadily have their own demerits. They cause thermal pollution—the waste heat from the plants heats up the environment and release highly dangerous radiations into the environment.
The radioactive products present a serious problem of disposal. If any accident occurs in the plant, mass destruction of people in the neighborhood is inevitable.
High doses of radiation destroy tissues. Smaller radiation doses produce malignancy years after exposure. Genetic effects are visible in future generations. The cells which are constantly replaced are more susceptible to these radiations. The bone marrow is most important one in this case. Damage of reproductive cells shows abnormalities in future generations.
(B) April 27, 1986 was a tragic day in the history of nuclear power generation as a major accident occurred at an atomic reactor at Chernobyl in the Ukraine areas of former Soviet Union. This had resulted in clouds of radioactive smoke over a large area in Scandinavian countries about 2000 km away and in the Russian region itself.
During the first 10 days after the explosion, over 400 million people were exposed to the radiation. Approximately 1000 were treated for radiation burns and sickness and over a 1, 50,000 people were evacuated from an area inside a 30 km range of explosion. The radiation levels in Western Europe reached 100 times the normal resulting in misery and panic death. The exposure caused ulcerates skin, loss of hair, nausea and anemia. The death toll was expected to be more than 2000.
The explosion in the atomic reactor and the subsequent fire was caused by failure of emergency cooling system in the light water graphite reactor, due to human error. The explosion and hot fire (about 2500 °C) blew large amounts of radionuclides high into the atmosphere. It is expected that the heavy fallout from the mishap could damage Soviet agricultural output for years to come. The intense radiation has already killed several fields, trees, shrubs, plants etc. The immediate damage was put at 10 percent of the crop. The chronic health effects noticed include blood abnormalities, hemorrhagic diseases, thyroid changes, mutagenic and somatic alterations, bone narosis, skin cancer and lung changes.
ADVERTISEMENTS: The prime example of a “major nuclear accident” is one in which a reactor core is damaged and significant amounts of radiation are released, such as in the Chernobyl Disaster in 1986. The impact of nuclear accidents has been a topic of debate practically since the first nuclear reactors were constructed. It has also been a key factor in public concern about nuclear facilities. Some technical measures to reduce the risk of accidents or to minimize the amount of radioactivity released to the environment have been adopted.
Despite the use of such measures, “there have been many accidents with varying impacts as well near misses and incidents”. Sovacool has reported that worldwide there have been 99 accidents at nuclear power plants. Fifty-seven accidents have occurred since the Chernobyl disaster, and 57% (56 out of 99) of all nuclear-related accidents have occurred in the USA. Serious nuclear power plant accidents include the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster (2011), Chernobyl disaster (1986), Three Mile Island accident (1979), and the SL-1 accident (1961).
Stuart Arm states, “apart from Chernobyl, no nuclear workers or members of the public have ever died as a result of exposure to radiation due to a commercial nuclear reactor incident.”. ADVERTISEMENTS: Nuclear-powered submarine mishaps include the K-19 reactor accident (1961), the K-27 reactor accident (1968), and the K-431 reactor accident (1985). Serious radiation accidents include the Kyshtym disaster, Wind scale fire, radiotherapy accident in Costa Rica, radiotherapy, and radiation accident in Morocco, Goiania accident, radiation accident in Mexico City, radiotherapy unit accident in Thailand, and the Mayapuri radiological accident in India.
Two of the major nuclear accidents are as follows: (i) Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster: 26th of April 1986 witnessed one of the world’s worst Nuclear Disaster ever in Chernobyl. Chernobyl is approximately 80 miles (which is 120 kilometers) north of the capital city of the Ukraine, Kiev.
The accident took lives of 30 people immediately and vast evacuation of 135000 people within 20 mile radius of the power plant was carried out after the accident. Causes of the Accident: There was not one cause of this accident, there were several which all contributed to it. This accident happened while testing an RMBK reactor.
A chain reaction occurred in the reactor and got out of control, causing explosions and a huge fireball which blew off the heavy concrete and steel lid on the reactor. These are the causes: 1.
Design fault in RBMK reactor 2. A violation, of procedures 3.
Breakdown of communication. ADVERTISEMENTS: 4.
Lack of a ‘Safety Culture’ in the power plant Consequences of the Accident: 1. Environmental consequences: The radioactive fallout caused radioactive material to deposit itself over large areas of ground. It has had an effect over most of the northern hemisphere in one way or another. In some local ecosystems within a 6 mile (10 km) radius of the power plant the radiation is lethally high especially in small mammals such as mice and coniferous trees. Luckily within 4 years of the accident nature began to restore itself, but genetically these plants may be scarred for life. Health effects: Firstly, there was a huge increase in Thyroid Cancer in Ukrainian children (from birth to 15 years old). From 1981-1985 there was an average of 4-6 patients per million but between 1986 and 1997 this increased to an average of 45 patients per million.
It was also established that 64% of Thyroid Cancer patients lived in the most contaminated areas of the Ukraine (Kiev province, Kiev city, provinces of Rovno, Zhitomir, Cherkassy and Chernigov). Psychological consequences: There has been an increase in psychological disorders such as anxiety, depression, helplessness and other disorders which lead to mental stress. These disorders are not a consequence of radiation, but a consequence from the stress of evacuation, the lack of information given after the accident and the stress of knowing that their health and their children’s health could be affected. Economic, political and social consequences: The worst contaminated areas were economically, socially and politically declining as the birth rate had decreased and emigration numbers had substantially risen which had caused a shortage in labour force.
These areas could not evolve industrially or agriculturally because of strict rules that were introduced because the area was too contaminated. The few products made were hard to sell or export because people were aware that it had come from the Ukraine and so were scared of being affected, this caused a further economic decline.
Socially people have been limited on their activities making everyday life very difficult. Now in the year 2000, everything is looking a lot better and is starting to rise again and probably in about 10 years time almost everything will be as good as normal in the Ukraine. (ii) Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster: The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster was a series of equipment failures, nuclear meltdowns, and releases of radioactive materials at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, following the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami on 11 March, 2011. It is the largest nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl disaster of 1986. The plant comprises six separate boiling water reactors originally designed by General Electric (GE), and maintained by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO).
At the time of the quake, Reactor 4 had been de-fuelled while 5 and 6 were in cold shutdown for planned maintenance. The remaining reactors shut down automatically after the earthquake, and emergency generators came online to control electronics and coolant systems. The tsunami resulted in flooding of the rooms containing the emergency generators. Consequently those generators ceased working, causing eventual power loss to the pumps that circulate coolant water in the reactor.
The pumps then stopped working, causing the reactors to overheat due to the high decay heat that normally continues for a short time, even after a nuclear reactor shut down. The flooding and earthquake damage hindered external assistance. In the hours and days that followed. Reactors 1, 2 and 3 experienced full meltdown. As workers struggled to cool and shut down the reactors, several hydrogen- air chemical explosions occurred.
The hydrogen gas was produced by high heat in the reactors causing a hydrogen-producing reaction between the nuclear fuel metal cladding and the water surrounding them. The government ordered that seawater be used to attempt to cool the reactors this had the effect of ruining the reactors entirely. As the water levels in the fuel rods pools dropped, they began to overheat. Fears of radioactivity releases led to a 20 km (12 mi)-radius evacuation around the plant. During the early days of the accident workers were temporarily evacuated at various times for radiation safety reasons. Electrical power was slowly restored for some of the reactors, allowing for automated cooling.
The, a Japanese nuclear plant with seven units, the largest single nuclear power station in the world, was completely shut down for 21 months following an earthquake in 2007. A nuclear and radiation accident is defined by the (IAEA) as 'an event that has led to significant consequences to people, the environment or the facility.' Examples include, to the, or.'
The prime example of a 'major nuclear accident' is one in which a is damaged and significant amounts of are released, such as in the in 1986. The impact of nuclear accidents has been a topic of debate since the first were constructed in 1954, and has been a key factor in. Technical measures to reduce the risk of accidents or to minimize the amount of radioactivity released to the environment have been adopted, however remains, and 'there have been many accidents with varying impacts as well near misses and incidents'. As of 2014, there have been more than 100 serious nuclear accidents and incidents from the use of nuclear power. Fifty-seven accidents have occurred since the Chernobyl disaster, and about 60% of all nuclear-related accidents have occurred in the USA. Serious accidents include the (2011), Chernobyl disaster (1986), (1979), and the accident (1961).
Nuclear power accidents can involve loss of life and large monetary costs for remediation work. Core meltdown and other mishaps include the (1961), (1965), (1968), (1968), (1970), (1980), and (1985). Serious radiation accidents include the, radiotherapy unit accident in Thailand, and the in India.
The IAEA maintains a website reporting recent accidents. See also:, and One of the worst nuclear accidents to date was the which occurred in 1986 in. The accident killed 31 people directly and damaged approximately $7 billion of property. A study published in 2005 estimates that there will eventually be up to 4,000 additional cancer deaths related to the accident among those exposed to significant radiation levels. Radioactive fallout from the accident was concentrated in areas of Belarus, Ukraine and Russia. Other studies have estimated as many as over a million eventual cancer deaths from Chernobyl.
Estimates of eventual deaths from cancer are highly contested. Industry, UN and DOE agencies claim low numbers of legally provable cancer deaths will be traceable to the disaster. The UN, DOE and industry agencies all use the limits of the epidemiological resolvable deaths as the cutoff below which they cannot be legally proven to come from the disaster. Independent studies statistically calculate fatal cancers from dose and population, even though the number of additional cancers will be below the epidemiological threshold of measurement of around 1%.
These are two very different concepts and lead to the huge variations in estimates. Both are reasonable projections with different meanings. Approximately 350,000 people were forcibly resettled away from these areas soon after the accident. Social scientist and energy policy expert, has reported that worldwide there have been 99 accidents at nuclear power plants from 1952 to 2009 (defined as incidents that either resulted in the loss of human life or more than US$50,000 of property damage, the amount the US federal government uses to define major energy accidents that must be reported), totaling US$20.5 billion in property damages. Fifty-seven accidents have occurred since the Chernobyl disaster, and almost two-thirds (56 out of 99) of all nuclear-related accidents have occurred in the US. There have been comparatively few fatalities associated with nuclear power plant accidents.
Nuclear power plant accidents and incidents with multiple fatalities and/or more than US$100 million in property damage, 1952-2011 Date Location of accident Description of accident or incident Dead Cost ($US millions 2006 ) 57- September 29, 1957, The was a radiation contamination incident that occurred at Mayak, a Nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in the Soviet Union. 6 57- July 26, 1957, Partial core meltdown at ’s. 0 01957- October 10, 1957 aka, A fire at the British atomic bomb project destroyed the core and released an estimated 740 terabecquerels of iodine-131 into the environment. A rudimentary smoke filter constructed over the main outlet chimney successfully prevented a far worse radiation leak and ensured minimal damage. 0 5 61- January 3, 1961, Explosion at prototype at the.
All 3 operators were killed when a control rod was removed too far. 3 22 4 66- October 5, 1966, Partial core meltdown of the Fermi 1 Reactor at the. No radiation leakage into the environment. 0 101969- January 21, 1969, On January 21, 1969, it suffered a loss-of-coolant accident, leading to a partial core meltdown and massive radioactive contamination of the cavern, which was then sealed. 0 5 75- 1975 Sosnovyi Bor, There was reportedly a partial nuclear meltdown in reactor unit 1. 75- December 7, 1975, Electrical error causes fire in the main trough that destroys control lines and five main coolant pumps 0 443 3 76- January 5, 1976, Malfunction during fuel replacement. Fuel rod ejected from reactor into the reactor hall by coolant (CO 2).
2 4 77- February 22, 1977, Severe corrosion of reactor and release of radioactivity into the plant area, necessitating total decommission 0 1,700 4 79- March 28, 1979, Loss of coolant and partial core meltdown due to operator errors. There is a small release of radioactive gases. 0 2,400 5 84- September 15, 1984 Athens, Safety violations, operator error, and design problems force a six-year outage at Browns Ferry Unit 2.
0 101985- March 9, 1985 Athens, Instrumentation systems malfunction during startup, which led to suspension of operations at all three Units 0 1,801986- April 11, 1986 Plymouth, Recurring equipment problems force emergency shutdown of Boston Edison’s 0 1,001986- April 26, 1986, (Now ), Overheating, steam explosion, fire, and meltdown, necessitating the evacuation of 300,000 people from Chernobyl and dispersing radioactive material across Europe (see ) 30 direct, 19 not entirely related and 15 minors due to thyroid cancer, as of 2008. See also: The vulnerability of nuclear plants to deliberate attack is of concern in the area of., civilian research reactors, certain naval fuel facilities, plants, fuel fabrication plants, and even potentially uranium mines are vulnerable to attacks which could lead to widespread. The attack threat is of several general types: commando-like ground-based attacks on equipment which if disabled could lead to a reactor or widespread dispersal of radioactivity; and external attacks such as an aircraft crash into a reactor complex, or cyber attacks. The United States 9/11 Commission found that nuclear power plants were potential targets originally considered for the attacks. If terrorist groups could sufficiently damage safety systems to cause a at a nuclear power plant, and/or sufficiently damage pools, such an attack could lead to widespread radioactive contamination.
The have said that if nuclear power use is to expand significantly, nuclear facilities will have to be made extremely safe from attacks that could release massive quantities of radioactivity into the community. New reactor designs have features of, which may help. In the United States, the NRC carries out 'Force on Force' (FOF) exercises at all Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) sites at least once every three years. Become preferred targets during and, over the past three decades, have been repeatedly attacked during military air strikes, occupations, invasions and campaigns. Various acts of since 1980 by the peace group have shown how nuclear weapons facilities can be penetrated, and the group's actions represent extraordinary breaches of security at plants in the United States.
The has acknowledged the seriousness of the 2012 Plowshares action. Policy experts have questioned 'the use of private contractors to provide security at facilities that manufacture and store the government's most dangerous military material'. Materials on the are a global concern, and there is concern about the possible detonation of a small, crude nuclear weapon or by a in a major city, causing significant loss of life and property. The number and sophistication of cyber attacks is on the rise. Is a discovered in June 2010 that is believed to have been created by the and to attack Iran's nuclear facilities. It switched off safety devices, causing centrifuges to spin out of control.
The computers of 's nuclear plant operator were hacked in December 2014. The cyber attacks involved thousands of emails containing malicious codes, and information was stolen. Radiation and other accidents and incidents. 2007 ISO danger symbol. The red background is intended to convey urgent danger, and the sign is intended to be used in places or on equipment where exceptionally intense radiation fields could be encountered or created through misuse or tampering.
The intention is that a normal user will never see such a sign, however after partly dismantling the equipment the sign will be exposed warning that the person should stop work and leave the scene Serious radiation and other accidents and incidents include: 1940s. May 1945: was one of several subjects of a, and was injected with without his knowledge or informed consent. Although Stevens was the person who received the highest dose of radiation during the plutonium experiments, he was neither the first nor the last subject to be studied. Eighteen people aged 4 to 69 were injected with plutonium.
Subjects who were chosen for the experiment had been diagnosed with a terminal disease. They lived from 6 days up to 44 years past the time of their injection. Eight of the 18 died within two years of the injection.
All died from their preexisting terminal illness, or cardiac illnesses. None died from the plutonium itself. Patients from Rochester, Chicago, and Oak Ridge were also injected with plutonium in the Manhattan Project human experiments. 6–9 August 1945: On the orders of President, a uranium- bomb, was used against the city of Hiroshima, Japan., a plutonium implosion-design bomb was used against the city of Nagasaki. The two weapons killed approximately 120,000 to 140,000 and instantly and thousands more have died over the years from and related. August 1945: Criticality accident at US.
May 1946: Criticality accident at Los Alamos National Laboratory. 1950s. February 13, 1950: a in northern after jettisoning a. This was the first such in history. December 12, 1952: AECL Chalk River Laboratories, Chalk River, Ontario, Canada. Partial meltdown, about 10,000 Curies released. Approximately 1202 people were involved in the two year cleanup.
Future president was one of the many people that helped clean up the accident. –, Former Soviet Union. Contamination of plant personnel occurred. 1954: The 15 Mt shot of 1954 which spread considerable on many Pacific islands, including several which were inhabited, and some that had not been evacuated. March 1, 1954:, 1 fatality.
September 1957: a fire occurred at the, which resulted in the of Building 71 and the release of plutonium into the atmosphere, causing US $818,600 in damage., Former Soviet Union. Criticality accident in the factory number 20 in the collection oxalate decantate after filtering sediment oxalate enriched uranium.
Six people received doses of 300 to 1,000 rem (four women and two men), one woman died. September 1957:: Nuclear waste storage tank explosion at, Russia. 200+ fatalities, believed to be a conservative estimate; 270,000 people were exposed to dangerous levels. Over thirty small communities were removed from Soviet maps between 1958 and 1991. (INES level 6).
October 1957:, UK. Fire ignites a 'plutonium pile' (an air cooled, graphite moderated, uranium fuelled reactor that was used for plutonium and isotope production) and contaminates surrounding dairy farms. An estimated 33 cancer deaths. 1957-1964: located at the Santa Susanna Field Lab, 30 miles north of Los Angeles, California operated ten experimental nuclear reactors. Numerous accidents occurred including a core meltdown. Experimental reactors of that era were not required to have the same type of containment structures that shield modern nuclear reactors. During the Cold War time in which the accidents that occurred at Rocketdyne, these events were not publicly reported by the Department of Energy.
1958:, Chalk River, Canada., Former Soviet Union. Criticality accident in SCR plant. Conducted experiments to determine the critical mass of enriched uranium in a cylindrical container with different concentrations of uranium in solution.
Staff broke the rules and instructions for working with YADM (nuclear fissile material). When SCR personnel received doses from 7600 to 13,000 rem. Three people died, one man got radiation sickness and went blind. December 30, 1958: at Los Alamos National Laboratory. March 1959:,. Fire in a fuel processing facility.
July 1959:,. 1960s. 7 June 1960: the destroyed a nuclear missile and shelter and contaminated the in New Jersey. 24 January 1961: the occurred near. A carrying two nuclear bombs broke up in mid-air, dropping its nuclear payload in the process. July 1961: accident.
Eight fatalities and more than 30 people were over-exposed to radiation. March, 21 -August 1962:, four fatalities.
May 1962: The was a 13-day confrontation in October 1962 between the and on one side and the on the other side. The crisis is generally regarded as the moment in which the came closest to turning into a and is also the first documented instance of (MAD) being discussed as a determining factor in a major international arms agreement. 23 July 1964: Wood River Junction criticality accident.
Resulted in 1 fatality. 1964, 1969:,., where a attack aircraft with a nuclear weapon fell into the sea. The pilot, the aircraft, and the were never recovered.
It was not until the 1980s that revealed the loss of the one-megaton bomb. October 1965: -led expedition abandons a nuclear-powered telemetry relay listening device on. January 17, 1966: the occurred when a of the collided with a during off the coast of. The KC-135 was completely destroyed when its fuel load ignited, killing all four crew members. The B-52G broke apart, killing three of the seven crew members aboard. Of the four type the B-52G carried, three were found on land near, Spain.
The non-nuclear explosives in two of the weapons detonated upon impact with the ground, resulting in the contamination of a 2-square-kilometer (490-acre) (0.78 square mile) area. The fourth, which fell into the, was recovered intact after a 2½-month-long search. January 21, 1968: the involved a (USAF). The aircraft was carrying four when a cabin fire forced the crew to abandon the aircraft. Six crew members ejected safely, but one who did not have an was killed while trying to bail out. The bomber crashed onto in, causing the nuclear payload to rupture and disperse, which resulted in widespread. May 1968: reactor near meltdown.
9 people died, 83 people were injured. In August 1968, the Project 667 A - Yankee class nuclear submarine K-140 was in the naval yard at Severodvinsk for repairs.
On August 27, an uncontrolled increase of the reactor's power occurred following work to upgrade the vessel. One of the reactors started up automatically when the control rods were raised to a higher position. Power increased to 18 times its normal amount, while pressure and temperature levels in the reactor increased to four times the normal amount. The automatic start-up of the reactor was caused by the incorrect installation of the control rod electrical cables and by operator error. Radiation levels aboard the vessel deteriorated., Former Soviet Union. Criticality accident. Plutonium solution was poured into a cylindrical container with dangerous geometry.
One person died, another took a high dose of radiation and radiation sickness, after which he had two legs and his right arm amputated. January 1969: in Switzerland undergoes partial core meltdown leading to massive radioactive contamination of a cavern. 1970s.
1974–1976: Columbus radiotherapy accident, 10 fatalities, 88 injuries from cobalt-60 source. July 1978: was working on, the largest, when he accidentally exposed his head directly to the. He survived, despite suffering some long-term damage. July 1979: in, USA, when United Nuclear Corporation's uranium mill tailings disposal pond breached its dam.
Over 1,000 tons of and millions of gallons of mine effluent flowed into the, and contaminants traveled downstream. 1980s. 1980 to 1989: The happened in Kramatorsk, Ukrainian SSR.
In 1989, a small capsule containing highly radioactive caesium-137 was found inside the concrete wall of an apartment building. 6 residents of the building died from and 17 more received varying radiation doses. The accident was detected only after the residents called in a health physicist. 1980: Houston radiotherapy accident, 7 fatalities.
October 5, 1982: Lost radiation source, Baku, Azerbaijan, USSR. 5 fatalities, 13 injuries. March 1984:, eight fatalities from overexposure to radiation from a lost source. 1984: gained notoriety when it was learned that the plant was releasing millions of pounds of uranium dust into the atmosphere, causing major radioactive contamination of the surrounding areas.
That same year, employee Dave Bocks, a 39-year-old pipefitter, disappeared during the facility's graveyard shift and was later reported missing. Eventually, his remains were discovered inside a uranium processing furnace located in Plant 6. August 1985: accident. Ten fatalities and 49 other people suffered radiation injuries.
January 4, 1986: an overloaded tank at ruptured and released 14.5 tons of uranium hexafluoride gas (UF6), causing the death of a worker, the hospitalization of 37 other workers, and approximately 100 downwinders. October 1986: reactor almost had a meltdown. Died after he manually lowered the control rods, and stopped the explosion.
The submarine sank three days later. September 1987:. Four fatalities, and following radiological screening of more than 100,000 people, it was ascertained that 249 people received serious radiation contamination from exposure to. In the cleanup operation, had to be removed from several sites, and several houses were demolished. All the objects from within those houses were removed and examined.
Magazine has identified the accident as one of the world's 'worst nuclear disasters' and the called it 'one of the world's worst radiological incidents'. 1989: San Salvador, El Salvador; one fatality due to violation of safety rules at irradiation facility. 1990s. 1990: Soreq, Israel; one fatality due to violation of safety rules at irradiation facility. December 16 - 1990:.
Eleven fatalities and 27 other patients were injured. 1991: Neswizh, Belarus; one fatality due to violation of safety rules at irradiation facility. 1992: Jilin, China; three fatalities at irradiation facility. 1992: USA; one fatality. April 1993: accident at the Reprocessing Complex, when a tank exploded while being cleaned with. The explosion released a cloud of radioactive gas. (INES level 4).
1994: Tammiku, Estonia; one fatality from disposed source. August — December 1996:. Thirteen fatalities and 114 other patients received an overdose of radiation. 1996: an accident at research facility in South Africa results in the exposure of workers to radiation.
Harold Daniels and several others die from cancers and radiation burns related to the exposure. June 1997: Sarov, Russia; one fatality due to violation of safety rules. May 1998: The was an incident of in Southern Spain. A source managed to pass through the monitoring equipment in an reprocessing plant. When melted, the caesium-137 caused the release of a radioactive cloud. September 1999: two fatalities at criticality accident at (Japan) 2000s. January–February 2000:: three deaths and ten injuries resulted in when a radiation-therapy unit was dismantled.
May 2000: Meet Halfa, Egypt; two fatalities due to radiography accident. August 2000 – March 2001: of Panama, 17 fatalities. Patients receiving treatment for prostate cancer and cancer of the cervix receive lethal doses of radiation. August 9, 2004: accident, 4 fatalities. Hot water and steam leaked from a broken pipe (not actually a radiation accident). 9 May 2005: it was announced that in the UK suffered a large leak of a highly radioactive solution, which first started in July 2004.
April 2010:, India, one fatality after a research irradiator was sold to a scrap metal dealer and dismantled. 2010s. March 2011:, Japan and the radioactive discharge at the Fukushima Daiichi Power Station. January 17, 2014: At the, Namibia, a catastrophic structural failure of a leach tank resulted in a major spill. The France-based laboratory, reported elevated levels of radioactive materials in the area surrounding the mine.
Workers were not informed of the dangers of working with radioactive materials and the health effects thereof. February 1, 2014: Designed to last ten thousand years, the (WIPP) site approximately 26 miles (42 km) east of Carlsbad, New Mexico, United States, had its first leak of airborne radioactive materials. 140 employees working underground at the time were sheltered indoors.
Thirteen of these tested positive for internal radioactive contamination increasing their risk for future cancers or health issues. A second leak at the plant occurred shortly after the first, releasing plutonium and other radiotoxins causing concern to nearby communities. Worldwide nuclear testing summary. Radioactive materials were accidentally released from the 1970 Baneberry Nuclear Test at the. Between 16 July 1945 and 23 September 1992, the United States maintained a program of vigorous, with the exception of a moratorium between November 1958 and September 1961.
By official count, a total of 1,054 nuclear tests and two nuclear attacks were conducted, with over 100 of them taking place at sites in the, over 900 of them at the, and ten on miscellaneous sites in the United States (, and ). Until November 1962, the vast majority of the U.S. Tests were atmospheric (that is, above-ground); after the acceptance of the Partial Test Ban Treaty all testing was regulated underground, in order to prevent the dispersion of nuclear fallout. Program of atmospheric nuclear testing exposed a number of the population to the hazards of fallout. Estimating exact numbers, and the exact consequences, of people exposed has been medically very difficult, with the exception of the high exposures of Marshall Islanders and Japanese fishers in the case of the incident in 1954.
A number of groups of U.S. Citizens — especially farmers and inhabitants of cities downwind of the Nevada Test Site and U.S. Military workers at various tests — have sued for compensation and recognition of their exposure, many successfully.
The passage of the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act of 1990 allowed for a systematic filing of compensation claims in relation to testing as well as those employed at nuclear weapons facilities. As of June 2009 over $1.4 billion total has been given in compensation, with over $660 million going to '. See also: The International Atomic Energy Agency says there is 'a persistent problem with the illicit trafficking in nuclear and other radioactive materials, thefts, losses and other unauthorized activities'. The IAEA Illicit Nuclear Trafficking Database notes 1,266 incidents reported by 99 countries over the last 12 years, including 18 incidents involving HEU or plutonium trafficking:.
Security specialist Shaun Gregory argued in an article that terrorists have attacked Pakistani nuclear facilities three times in the recent past; twice in 2007 and once in 2008. In November 2007, burglars with unknown intentions infiltrated the nuclear research facility near Pretoria, South Africa. The burglars escaped without acquiring any of the uranium held at the facility. In February 2006, of was arrested in, along with three Georgian accomplices, with 79.5 grams of 89 percent enriched HEU. The with radioactive polonium 'represents an ominous landmark: the beginning of an era of nuclear terrorism,' according to Andrew J. Accident categories Nuclear meltdown.
Main articles: and A nuclear meltdown is a severe accident that results in damage from overheating. It has been defined as the accidental melting of the core of a nuclear reactor, and refers to the core's either complete or partial collapse. A core melt accident occurs when the heat generated by a nuclear reactor exceeds the heat removed by the cooling systems to the point where at least one nuclear fuel element exceeds its. This differs from a, which is not caused by high temperatures. A meltdown may be caused by a, loss of coolant pressure, or low coolant flow rate or be the result of a in which the reactor is operated at a power level that exceeds its design limits. Alternately, in a reactor plant such as the, an external fire may endanger the core, leading to a meltdown.
Large-scale nuclear meltdowns at civilian nuclear power plants include:. the, Switzerland, in 1969. the in, United States, in 1979. the at, Ukraine, USSR, in 1986.
the following the in Japan, March 2011. Other core meltdowns have occurred at:. (military), Canada, in 1952. (experimental), Idaho, U.S.A., in 1954., Idaho, U.S.A., in 1955.
(military), England, in 1957 (see )., (civilian), California, U.S.A., in 1959. (civilian), U.S.A., in 1966. (civilian), in 1967. (civilian), France, in 1969., (civilian) at, in 1977. (civilian), France, in 1980 Eight have had nuclear core meltdowns or radiation incidents: (1961), (1965), (1968), (1968), (1970), (1980), (1985), and (1985). Criticality accidents A (also sometimes referred to as an 'excursion' or 'power excursion') occurs when a nuclear chain reaction is accidentally allowed to occur in, such as. The is not universally regarded an example of a criticality accident, because it occurred in an operating reactor at a power plant.
The reactor was supposed to be in a controlled critical state, but control of the chain reaction was lost. The accident destroyed the reactor and left a large geographic area uninhabitable.
In a smaller scale accident at a technician working with was irradiated while preparing an experiment involving a sphere of fissile material. The Sarov accident is interesting because the system remained critical for many days before it could be stopped, though safely located in a shielded experimental hall. This is an example of a limited scope accident where only a few people can be harmed, while no release of radioactivity into the environment occurred. A criticality accident with limited off site release of both radiation ( and ) and a very small release of radioactivity occurred at in 1999 during the production of enriched uranium fuel. Two workers died, a third was permanently injured, and 350 citizens were exposed to radiation. In 2016, a criticality accident was reported at the Afrikantov OKBM Critical Test Facility in Russia. Decay heat accidents are where the heat generated by the radioactive decay causes harm.
In a large nuclear reactor, a accident can damage the: for example, at a recently shutdown reactor was left for a length of time without cooling water. As a result, the was damaged, and the core partially melted. The removal of the decay heat is a significant reactor safety concern, especially shortly after shutdown. Failure to remove decay heat may cause the reactor core temperature to rise to dangerous levels and has caused nuclear accidents.
The heat removal is usually achieved through several redundant and diverse systems, and the heat is often dissipated to an 'ultimate heat sink' which has a large capacity and requires no active power, though this method is typically used after decay heat has reduced to a very small value. The main cause of release of radioactivity in the Three Mile Island accident was a on the primary loop which stuck in the open position. This caused the overflow tank into which it drained to rupture and release large amounts of radioactive cooling water into the. In 2011, an and caused a loss of power to two plants in Fukushima, Japan, crippling the reactor as decay heat caused 90% of the fuel rods in the core of the Daiichi Unit 3 reactor to become uncovered. As of May 30, 2011, the removal of decay heat is still a cause for concern.
Transport Transport accidents can cause a release of radioactivity resulting in contamination or shielding to be damaged resulting in direct irradiation. In a defective set was transported in a passenger bus as cargo. The gamma source was outside the shielding, and it irradiated some bus passengers.
In the, it was revealed in a court case that in March 2002 a source was transported from to with defective shielding. The shielding had a gap on the underside. It is thought that no human has been seriously harmed by the escaping radiation. Equipment failure Equipment failure is one possible type of accident. In, Poland, in 2001 the electronics associated with a particle accelerator used for the treatment of suffered a malfunction.
This then led to the overexposure of at least one patient. While the initial failure was the simple failure of a semiconductor, it set in motion a series of events which led to a radiation injury. A related cause of accidents is failure of control, as in the cases involving the medical radiotherapy equipment: the elimination of a hardware safety in a new design model exposed a previously undetected bug in the control software, which could have led to patients receiving massive overdoses under a specific set of conditions. Human error. Main article: Nuclear safety covers the actions taken to prevent nuclear and radiation accidents or to limit their consequences. This covers as well as all other nuclear facilities, the transportation of nuclear materials, and the use and storage of nuclear materials for medical, power, industry, and military uses.
The nuclear power industry has improved the safety and performance of reactors, and has proposed new safer (but generally untested) reactor designs but there is no guarantee that the reactors will be designed, built and operated correctly. Mistakes do occur and the designers of reactors at in Japan did not anticipate that a tsunami generated by an earthquake would disable the backup systems that were supposed to stabilize the reactor after the earthquake. According to AG, the have cast doubt on whether even an advanced economy like Japan can master nuclear safety. Catastrophic scenarios involving terrorist attacks are also conceivable. In his book, says that multiple and unexpected failures are built into society's complex and tightly-coupled nuclear reactor systems. Nuclear power plants cannot be operated without some major accidents. Such accidents are unavoidable and cannot be designed around.
An interdisciplinary team from MIT have estimated that given the expected growth of nuclear power from 2005 – 2055, at least four serious nuclear accidents would be expected in that period. To date, there have been five serious accidents in the world since 1970 (one at in 1979; one at in 1986; and three at in 2011), corresponding to the beginning of the operation of. This leads to on average one serious accident happening every eight years worldwide.
Effects of acute radiation exposure Phase Symptom Whole-body 1–2 2–6 6–8 8–30 30 Immediate and 5–50% 50–100% 75–100% 90–100% 100% Time of onset 2–6 h 1–2 h 10–60 min 10%) Heavy ( 95%) Heavy (100%) Time of onset — 3–8 h 1–3 h 24 h Rapid incapacitation, Latent period 28–31 days 7–28 days. (2009). (2006). (2006). (2011).
(1971). (2004). (1961).
(2013). (2012). (1946).
(1982). (2009). (1999).
(2007). (1975). (1984). (2007). (1997). (1976). (2004).
(1979). (1998). (1982). (2007). (2013) External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to. most comprehensive online list of incidents involving U.S.
Nuclear facilities and vessels, 1950–present. with search function and electronic public reading room. with extensive online library.
Detailed articles on nuclear watchdog activities in the US. Background on ionizing radiation and doses. Extensive, well-referenced list of radiological incidents. Archived from on 2004-12-09. Retrieved 2004-12-09.
List of nuclear accidents. Fritsch, Arthur H.
Purcell, and Mary Byrd Davis (2005)., June 2006. Literature review: what to do in the event of a nuclear accident. Radiation accidents.
Mushroom cloud from the explosion of in 1954. A nuclear holocaust or nuclear apocalypse is a theoretical scenario involving widespread destruction and fallout causing the, through the use of. Under such a scenario, some of the Earth is made uninhabitable by in. Besides the obvious direct destruction of cities by nuclear blasts, the potential aftermath of a nuclear war could involve firestorms, a, widespread radiation sickness from fallout, and/or the temporary loss of much modern technology due to.
Some scientists, such as, have speculated that a thermonuclear war could result in the end of modern civilization on Earth, in part due to a long-lasting nuclear winter. In one model, temperatures following a full thermonuclear war fall for several years by 7 to 8 degrees Celsius on average. The accuracy of such models are often the subject of partisan dispute. Early -era studies suggested that billions of humans would nonetheless survive the immediate effects of nuclear blasts and radiation following a global thermonuclear war.
Some scholars argue that nuclear war could indirectly contribute to human extinction via secondary effects, including environmental consequences, societal breakdown, and economic collapse. Additionally, it has been argued that even a relatively small-scale nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan involving 100 yield (15 kilotons) weapons, could cause a nuclear winter and kill more than a billion people.
Since 1947, the of the has visualized how close the world is to a nuclear war. The threat of a nuclear holocaust plays an important role in the. It features in the security concept of and is a common scenario in.
Nuclear holocaust is a, especially in such as, and. Contents. Etymology and usage The English word 'holocaust', derived from the term 'holokaustos' meaning 'completely burnt', refers to great destruction and loss of life, especially by fire. One early use of the word 'holocaust' to describe an imagined nuclear destruction appears in Reginald Glossop's 1926 novel The Orphan of Space: 'Moscow. Beneath them. A crash like a crack of Doom! The echoes of this Holocaust rumbled and rolled.
A distinct smell of sulphur. Atomic destruction.' In the novel, an atomic weapon is planted in the office of the Soviet dictator who, with German help and Chinese mercenaries, is preparing the takeover of Western Europe. References to nuclear destruction often speak of 'atomic holocaust' or 'nuclear holocaust'. For instance, U.S.
President Bush stated in August 2007: 'Iran's active pursuit of technology that could lead to nuclear weapons threatens to put a region already known for instability and violence under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust'. Likelihood of nuclear war. See also: As of 2016, humanity has about 15,000 nuclear weapons, thousands of which are on. While stockpiles have been on the decline following the end of the Cold War, every nuclear country is currently undergoing modernization of its nuclear arsenal. Some experts believe this modernization may increase the risk of nuclear proliferation, nuclear terrorism, and accidental nuclear war. Kennedy estimated the probability of the escalating to nuclear conflict as between 33% and 50%.
In a poll of experts at the Global Catastrophic Risk Conference in Oxford (17‐20 July 2008), the estimated the probability of complete human extinction by nuclear weapons at 1% within the century, the probability of 1 billion dead at 10% and the probability of 1 million dead at 30%. These results reflect the median opinions of a group of experts, rather than a probabilistic model; the actual values may be much lower or higher. Scientists have argued that even a small-scale nuclear war between two countries could have devastating global consequences and such local conflicts are more likely than full-scale nuclear war. Moral importance of human extinction risk. Main article: In his book, philosopher posed the following question: Compare three outcomes:.
Peace. A nuclear war that kills 99% of the world’s existing population. A nuclear war that kills 100%. (2) would be worse than (1), and (3) would be worse than (2).
Which is the greater of these two differences? He continues that 'Most people believe that the greater difference is between (1) and (2). I believe that the difference between (2) and (3) is very much greater.'
Nuclear Accidents And Holocaust
Thus, he argues, even if it would be bad if massive numbers of humans died, human extinction would itself be much worse because it prevents the existence of all future generations. And given the magnitude of the calamity were the human race to become extinct, argues that there is an overwhelming moral imperative to reduce even small risks of human extinction.
Likelihood of complete human extinction. The United States and /Russia nuclear stockpiles, in throughout the and post-Cold War era. Many scholars have posited that a global thermonuclear war with Cold War-era stockpiles, or even with the current smaller stockpiles, may lead to human extinction. This position was bolstered when nuclear winter was first conceptualized and modelled in 1983. However, models from the past decade consider total extinction very unlikely, and suggest parts of the world would remain habitable. Technically the risk may not be zero, as the climactic effects of nuclear war are uncertain and could theoretically be larger than current models suggest, just as they could be theoretically be smaller than current models suggest.
There could also be indirect risks, such as a societal collapse following nuclear war that can make humanity much more vulnerable to other existential threats. A related area of inquiry is: if a future nuclear arms race someday leads to larger stockpiles or more dangerous nuclear weapons than existed at the height of the Cold War, at what point could a war with such weapons result in human extinction?
Physicist Leo Szilard warned in the 1950s that a deliberate 'doomsday device' could be constructed by surrounding powerful hydrogen bombs with a massive amount of cobalt. Cobalt has a half-life of five years, and its global fallout might, some physicists have posited, be able to clear out all human life via lethal radiation intensity. The main motivation for building a cobalt bomb in this scenario is its reduced expense compared with the arsenals possessed by superpowers; such a doomsday device does not need to be launched before detonation, and thus does not require expensive missile delivery systems, and the hydrogen bombs do not need to be miniaturized for delivery via missile. The system for triggering it might have to be completely automated, in order for the deterrent to be effective.
A modern twist might be to also lace the bombs with aerosols designed to exacerbate nuclear winter. A major caveat is that nuclear fallout transfer between the northern and southern hemispheres is expected to be small; unless a bomb detonates in each hemisphere, the effect of a bomb detonated in one hemisphere on the other is diminished. Effects of nuclear war Historically, it has been difficult to estimate the total number of deaths resulting from a global nuclear exchange because scientists are continually discovering new effects of nuclear weapons, and also revising existing models. Early reports considered direct effects from nuclear blast and radiation and indirect effects from economic, social, and political disruption.
In a 1979 report for the U.S. Senate, the estimated casualties under different scenarios. For a full-scale / nuclear exchange between the U.S. And the Soviet Union, they predicted U.S. Deaths from 35 to 77 percent (70 million to 160 million dead at the time), and Soviet deaths from 20 to 40 percent of the population.
Although this report was made when nuclear stockpiles were at much higher levels than they are today, it also was made before the risk of nuclear winter was discovered in the early 1980s. Additionally, it did not consider other secondary effects, such electromagnetic pulses (EMP), and the ramifications they would have on modern technology and industry.
Nuclear winter In the early 1980s, scientists began to consider the effects of smoke and soot arising from burning wood, plastics, and petroleum fuels in nuclear-devastated cities. It was speculated that the intense heat would carry these particulates to extremely high altitudes where they could drift for weeks and block out all but a fraction of the sun's light. A landmark 1983 study by the so-called TTAPS team (, Thomas P. Ackerman, and ) was the first to model these effects and coined the term 'nuclear winter.' More recent studies make use of modern global circulation models and far greater computer power than was available for the 1980s studies. A 2007 study examined consequences of a global nuclear war involving moderate to large portions of the current global arsenal.
The study found cooling by about 12–20 °C in much of the core farming regions of the US, Europe, Russia and China and as much as 35 °C in parts of Russia for the first two summer growing seasons. The changes they found were also much longer lasting than previously thought, because their new model better represented entry of soot aerosols in the upper stratosphere, where precipitation does not occur, and therefore clearance was on the order of 10 years. In addition, they found that global cooling caused a weakening of the global hydrological cycle, reducing global by about 45%.
The authors did not discuss the implications for agriculture in depth, but noted that a 1986 study which assumed no food production for a year projected that 'most of the people on the planet would run out of food and starve to death by then' and commented that their own results show that, 'This period of no food production needs to be extended by many years, making the impacts of nuclear winter even worse than previously thought.' In contrast to the above investigations of global nuclear conflicts, studies have shown that even small-scale, regional nuclear conflicts could disrupt the global climate for a decade or more.
In a regional nuclear conflict scenario where two opposing nations in the would each use 50 -sized nuclear weapons (about 15 kiloton each) on major populated centres, the researchers estimated as much as five million tons of soot would be released, which would produce a cooling of several degrees over large areas of and, including most of the grain-growing regions. The cooling would last for years, and according to the research, could be 'catastrophic'.
Additionally, the analysis showed a 10% drop in average global precipitation, with the largest losses in the low latitudes due to failure of the monsoons. Regional nuclear conflicts could also inflict significant damage to the ozone. A 2008 study found that a regional nuclear weapons exchange could create a near-global ozone hole, triggering human health problems and impacting agriculture for at least a decade. This effect on the ozone would result from heat absorption by soot in the upper stratosphere, which would modify wind currents and draw in ozone-destroying nitrogen oxides.
These high temperatures and nitrogen oxides would reduce ozone to the same dangerous levels we now experience below the ozone hole above Antarctica every spring. Nuclear famine It is difficult to estimate the number of casualties that would result from nuclear winter, but it is likely that the primary effect would be global famine (known as Nuclear Famine), wherein mass starvation occurs due to disrupted agricultural production and distribution. In a 2013 report, the (IPPNW) concluded that more than two billion people, about a third of the world's population, would be at risk of starvation in the event of a regional nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan, or by the use of even a small proportion of nuclear arms held by US and Russia. Several independent studies show corroborated conclusions that agricultural outputs will be significantly reduced for years by climatic changes driven by nuclear wars. Reduction of food supply will be further exacerbated by rising food prices, affecting hundreds of millions of vulnerable people, especially in the poorest nations of the world.
Electromagnetic pulse. See also: and An (EMP) is a burst of electromagnetic radiation.
Nuclear explosions create a pulse of electromagnetic radiation called a nuclear EMP or NEMP. Such EMP interference is known to be generally disruptive or damaging to electronic equipment. If a single nuclear weapon 'designed to emit EMP were detonated 250 to 300 miles up over the middle of the country it would disable the electronics in the entire United States.'
Given that many of the comforts and necessities we enjoy in the 21st century are predicated on electronics and their functioning, an EMP would disable hospitals, water treatment facilities, food storage facilities, and all electronic forms of communication. An EMP blast threatens the foundation which supports the existence of the modern human condition. Certain EMP attacks could lead to large loss of power for months or years. Currently, failures of the power grid are dealt with using support from the outside. In the event of an EMP attack, such support would not exist and all damaged components, devices, and electronics would need to be completely replaced. In 2013, the US House of Representatives considered the 'Secure High-voltage Infrastructure for Electricity from Lethal Damage Act' that would provide surge protection for some 300 large transformers around the country. The problem of protecting civilian infrastructure from electromagnetic pulse has also been intensively studied throughout the European Union, and in particular by the United Kingdom.
While precautions have been taken, James Woolsey and the EMP Commission suggested that an EMP is the most significant threat to the U.S. The greatest threat to human survival in the aftermath of an EMP blast would be the inability to access clean drinking water. For comparison, in the aftermath of the 2010 Haitian earthquake, the water infrastructure had been devastated and led to at least 3,333 deaths from cholera in the first few months after the earthquake.
Other countries would similarly see the resurgence of previously non-existent diseases as clean water becomes increasingly scarce. The risk of an EMP, either through solar or atmospheric activity or enemy attack, while not dismissed, was suggested to be overblown by the news media in a commentary in. Instead, the weapons from rogue states were still too small and uncoordinated to cause a massive EMP, underground infrastructure is sufficiently protected, and there will be enough warning time from continuous solar observatories like to protect surface transformers should a devastating storm be detected. Origins and analysis of extinction hypotheses As a result of the extensive of the 1954 nuclear detonation, author wrote the popular novel which was released in 1957, in this novel so much fallout is generated in a nuclear war that all human life is extinguished. However the premise that all of humanity would die following a nuclear war and only the 'cockroaches would survive' is critically dealt with in the 1988 book by nuclear weapons expert.
In 1982 activist published, which is regarded by many to be the first carefully argued presentation that concluded that extinction is a significant possibility from nuclear war. However, the assumptions made in this book have been thoroughly analyzed and determined to be 'quite dubious'. The impetus for Schell's work, according to physicist Brian Martin, was to argue that 'if the thought of 500 million people dying in a nuclear war is not enough to stimulate action, then the thought of extinction will. Indeed, Schell explicitly advocates use of the fear of extinction as the basis for inspiring the 'complete rearrangement of world politics'.
The belief in 'overkill' is also commonly encountered, with an example being the following statement made by nuclear disarmament activist in 1971 – 'Both the US and the Soviet Union now possess nuclear stockpiles large enough to exterminate mankind three or four – some say ten – times over'. Lauterbach license crack. Brian Martin suggested that the origin of this belief was from 'crude linear extrapolations', and when analyzed it has no basis in reality. Similarly, it is common to see stated that the combined explosive energy released in the entirety of was about 3 megatons, while a nuclear war with warhead stockpiles at Cold War highs would release 6000 WWII's of explosive energy.
An estimate for the necessary amount of fallout to begin to have the potential of causing human extinction is regarded by physicist and disarmament activist to be 10 to 100 times the megatonnage in nuclear arsenals as they stood in 1976; however, with the world megatonnage decreasing since the Cold War ended this possibility remains hypothetical. According to the 1980 report General and Complete Disarmament: Comprehensive Study on Nuclear Weapons: Report of the Secretary-General, it was estimated that there were a total of about 40,000 at that time, with a potential combined explosive yield of approximately 13,000. By comparison, in the when the volcano erupted in 1815 – turning 1816 into the due to the levels of aerosols and ash expelled – it exploded with a force of roughly 800 to 1,000 megatonsand ejected 160 km 3 (38 cu mi) of mostly rock/, which included 120 million of sulfur dioxide as.
A larger eruption, approximately 74,000 years ago, in produced 2,800 km 3 (670 cu mi) of tephra, forming, and produced an estimated 6,000 million tonnes (6.6 ×10 9 short tons) of sulfur dioxide. The explosive energy of the eruption may have been as high as equivalent to 20,000,000 megatons (Mt) of TNT, while the, connected with the extinction of the dinosaurs, corresponds to at least 70,000,000 Mt of energy, which is roughly 7000 times the maximum arsenal of the US and Soviet Union. However, it must be noted that comparisons with are more misleading than helpful due to the different released, the likely fuzing height of nuclear weapons and the globally scattered location of these potential nuclear detonations all being in contrast to the singular and subterranean nature of a supervolcanic eruption. Moreover, assuming the entire world stockpile of weapons were grouped together, it would be difficult due to the effect to ensure the individual weapons would go off all at once. Nonetheless, many people believe that a full-scale nuclear war would result, through the nuclear winter effect, in the, though not all analysts agree on the assumptions inputted into these nuclear winter models. See also.
References.
NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST: NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST Nuclear holocaust refers to a possible nearly complete annihilation of human civilization by nuclear warfare. Under such a scenario, all or most of the Earth is made uninhabitable by nuclear weapons in future world wars. The English word 'holocaust', means 'completely burnt', is commonly defined as ‘a great destruction resulting in the extensive loss of life, especially by fire.’ Nuclear physicists and others have speculated that nuclear holocaust could result in an end to human life, or at least to modern civilization on Earth due to the immediate effects of nuclear fallout. NUCLEAR ACCIDENTS AND HOLOCAUST: NUCLEAR ACCIDENTS AND HOLOCAUST The use of nuclear energy in war has had devastating effects on man and earth.
The Hiroshima and Nagasaki incident during world war II, the only use of nuclear power in war in history, is one of the worst disasters in history. In 1945, the U.S dropped atomic bombs in Japan over the towns of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These two atomic bombs killed thousands of people, left many thousands injured and devastated everything for miles around. The effects of the radiation from these nuclear bombs can still be seen today in the form of cancer and genetic mutations in the affected children and survivors of the incident. NUCLEAR ACCIDENTS AND HOLOCAUST: NUCLEAR ACCIDENTS AND HOLOCAUST Nuclear weapons causes holocaust: If the nuclear weapons in the world were used, then all of humanity would most like be destroyed.
This is for several reasons. Firstly, most major cities would be destroyed by incoming warheads. However, this would leave some areas untouched. These areas would most likely be reached by radioactive fall-out blown by the wind. These would be the immediate repercussions. Later, the world would go into what is called 'Nuclear Winter'.
Global temperatures would drop significantly, as well as the amount of sunlight received by the earth. This is very similar to what is believed happened to the dinosaurs.
It is believed that a large asteroid collided with the earth, and stirred up a lot of dust into the atmosphere. This blotted out the sun, and plants died. With very few plants to eat, the dinosaurs (and many other animals) went extinct. Nuclear winter would be a lot like this. The only difference is that there the dust would be raised up by impacting nuclear warheads and their explosions. Additionally, the dust would be radioactive.
The combination of radioactivity, lack of food, and lowering temperatures cause a Nuclear Holocaust, with the chances of humans surviving it very low. Tragic Results On Hiroshima And Nagasaki: Tragic Results On Hiroshima And Nagasaki In August 6, 1945 the first atomic Bomb ‘little boy’ dropped in history exploded approximately 580 meters above the city of Hiroshima. Three days later, 'Fat Man' was dropped onto Nagasaki. In an instant of time, the atomic bomb exploded this explosion Furthermore, the large amount of radiation that instantly descended upon the earth penetrated deeply into people's bodies, destroying cells. The death toll of Hiroshima was approximately140,000.
Nagasaki approximately lost 70,000 of its citizens. An increase in cancer was also common. Survivors might have experienced thyroid, lung, or salivary gland cancer. These are the atom bombs dropped in the cities of hiroshimi and nagasaki.