Word: accidentally
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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The estimated 375 commercial nuclear power plants in operation around the world have now built up more than 3,800 years of experience. But since the first one went on-line at Obninsk in the Soviet Union in 1954, there has always been the fear of an accident. The vast...
...Accidental removal of four control rods at an experimental nuclear power reactor at Chalk River, Canada, near Ottawa, led to a partial meltdown of the reactor's uranium fuel core. A million gallons of radioactive water accumulated inside, but there were no accident-related injuries. Although negligible in comparison with last week's Soviet accident, it was the first known major malfunction of a nuclear power plant...
Oct. 7, 1957. Like the Chernobyl facility, the Windscale Pile No. 1 plutonium-production plant north of Liverpool, England, used graphite to slow down neutrons emitted during nuclear fission. When workers discovered a fire in the reactor, they sprayed it with carbon dioxide but failed to quench the blaze. By...
March 28, 1979. In the biggest U.S. mishap, one of two reactors at Three Mile Island, near Harrisburg, Pa., lost its coolant because of equipment malfunctions and human error. The loss of coolant caused the radioactive fuel to overheat and led to a partial meltdown. Some radioactive material escaped, but...
March 8, 1981. Radioactive waste water leaked for several hours from a tank at a problem-ridden nuclear power station in Tsuruga, Japan. The Workers dispatched to mop it up were exposed to radiation. The problem was not disclosed publicly until six weeks after the accident, when radioactivity was detected...