In history, only two cases have been labeled as “Level 7” nuclear accidents, the classification used by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to denote major events with widespread health and environmental consequences. The first accident - at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant - is considered the worst nuclear accident in the world. The second, at Fukushima, is often described by scientists as even more destructive. The Three Mile Island accident occurred in the United States and received "Level 5". Let's compare them with each other.
Chernobyl disaster claimed more lives than Fukushima disaster
Although the assessment of human losses from a nuclear catastrophe is a difficult task, the scientific consensus is that Chernobyl is superior to other accidents (we do not consider the use of nuclear weapons here) in destructiveness.
This catastrophe, which was once again discussed thanks to the HBO series, unfolded on April 26, 1986, when the reactor core at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant opened and jets of radioactive material entered the air. The poisonous fumes not only contaminated local vegetation and water supplies near Pripyat, but also poisoned nearby residents, some of whom developed cancer.
Within three months of the accident, more than 30 people died from acute radiation sickness. According to today's estimates of scientists, tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people were seriously affected by the accident.
Fukushima was not nearly as destructive - at least based on what we know. On March 11, 2011, the Thoku earthquake and the resulting tsunami led to three melts and multiple explosions of hydrogen at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear reactor in Japan. As a result of the event, no one died directly from the explosions, however, about 1,600 people died from stress (mostly elderly people) after the accident.
Promotional video:
The environmental impact was also less severe. A 2013 study at Colorado State University found that the Fukushima station released about 520 petabecquerels of radioactive material, compared to the 5,300 petabecquerels released by the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. While Chernobyl radiation spread throughout Europe, most of Fukushima's radiation ended up in the Pacific Ocean.
Three Mile Island was less destructive
Chernobyl and Fukushima are in a separate category from Three Mile Island, which Corhill said was "completely different, not of such a terrible scale."
This incident occurred on March 28, 1979, when a system failure caused the partial destruction of a reactor at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant, near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. There were no deaths, injuries or adverse health effects as a result of this event, according to the World Nuclear Association, although some local residents disputed these findings.
About 36,000 people were living within a 5-mile radius of the plant when the partial collapse occurred. Corhill says that the release of radioactive gases happened at the station, but did not enter the environment. Therefore, the danger existed for the workers, but not for the general public.
The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission reported that about 2 million people were immediately exposed to radiation as a result of the incident, but the average radiation dose was lower than the dose received on chest x-rays. However, the evacuation statistics were similar to those of Chernobyl. Both incidents had evacuation zones of about 30 kilometers, and in each of them more than 100,000 people fled their homes.
The Chernobyl accident was the worst nuclear in the world
It is worth considering that the residents of Three Mile Island eventually returned home, but the residents of Pripyat did not.
Today, Chernobyl still has an exclusion zone of more than 1,500 square kilometers, which limits tourist access. But there are several families living there and people over 18 are allowed to visit, however most of the area is still polluted.
The Fukushima exclusion zone is much smaller: about 200 square kilometers. Most of the 200,000 evacuees have returned, but 43,000 remain outside, unwilling to return.
The Chernobyl accident is by far the worst of all. The combination of an explosion that released radiation into the air and a fire that spread these radioactive particles for miles is simply terrible. It is still possible to catch a "huge dose of radiation", for example, in reactor number five - Corhill talks about such an incident.
Ilya Khel