Nuclear Disasters & the Built Environment discusses the effects of nuclear disasters on the built environment. The book is comprised of 10 chapters that are organized into three parts. Part I provides an introductory discourse and covers nuclear reactions and radiation. Part II discusses nuclear reactor accidents; this part tackles several concerns such as nuclear safety and risk; contamination of urban areas; and emergency planning. Part III deals with topics concerning nuclear war, such as nuclear weapons, damages, and consequences. The text will be of great interest to readers concerned with the implication of the use of nuclear technology.
Author: National Research Council (U.S.). Committee on Lessons Learned from the Fukushima Nuclear Accident for Improving Safety and Security of U.S. Nuclear Plants
The March 11, 2011, Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami sparked a humanitarian disaster in northeastern Japan. They were responsible for more than 15,900 deaths and 2,600 missing persons as well as physical infrastructure damages exceeding $200 billion. The earthquake and tsunami also initiated a severe nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. Three of the six reactors at the plant sustained severe core damage and released hydrogen and radioactive materials. Explosion of the released hydrogen damaged three reactor buildings and impeded onsite emergency response efforts. The accident prompted widespread evacuations of local populations, large economic losses, and the eventual shutdown of all nuclear power plants in Japan. "Lessons Learned from the Fukushima Nuclear Accident for Improving Safety and Security of U.S. Nuclear Plants" is a study of the Fukushima Daiichi accident. This report examines the causes of the crisis, the performance of safety systems at the plant, and the responses of its operators following the earthquake and tsunami. The report then considers the lessons that can be learned and their implications for U.S. safety and storage of spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste, commercial nuclear reactor safety and security regulations, and design improvements. "Lessons Learned" makes recommendations to improve plant systems, resources, and operator training to enable effective ad hoc responses to severe accidents. This report's recommendations to incorporate modern risk concepts into safety regulations and improve the nuclear safety culture will help the industry prepare for events that could challenge the design of plant structures and lead to a loss of critical safety functions. In providing a broad-scope, high-level examination of the accident, "Lessons Learned" is meant to complement earlier evaluations by industry and regulators. This in-depth review will be an essential resource for the nuclear power industry, policy makers, and anyone interested in the state of U.S. preparedness and response in the face of crisis situations.
“A gripping, suspenseful page-turner” (Kirkus Reviews) with a “fast-paced, detailed narrative that moves like a thriller” (International Business Times), Fukushima teams two leading experts from the Union of Concerned Scientists, David Lochbaum and Edwin Lyman, with award-winning journalist Susan Q. Stranahan to give us the first definitive account of the 2011 disaster that led to the worst nuclear catastrophe since Chernobyl. Four years have passed since the day the world watched in horror as an earthquake large enough to shift the Earth's axis by several inches sent a massive tsunami toward the Japanese coast and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, causing the reactors' safety systems to fail and explosions to reduce concrete and steel buildings to rubble. Even as the consequences of the 2011 disaster continue to exact their terrible price on the people of Japan and on the world, Fukushima addresses the grim questions at the heart of the nuclear debate: could a similar catastrophe happen again, and—most important of all—how can such a crisis be averted?
The explosion on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant and the consequent reactor fire resulted in an unprecedented release of radioactive material from a nuclear reactor and adverse consequences for the public and the environment. Although the accident occurred nearly two decades ago, controversy still surrounds the real impact of the disaster. Therefore the IAEA, in cooperation with other UN bodies, the World Bank, as well as the competent authorities of Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine, established the Chernobyl Forum in 2003. The mission of the Forum was to generate 'authoritative consensual statements' on the environmental consequences and health effects attributable to radiation exposure arising from the accident as well as to provide advice on environmental remediation and special health care programmes, and to suggest areas in which further research is required. This report presents the findings and recommendations of the Chernobyl Forum concerning the environmental effects of the Chernobyl accident.
Underground facilities are used extensively by many nations to conceal and protect strategic military functions and weapons' stockpiles. Because of their depth and hardened status, however, many of these strategic hard and deeply buried targets could only be put at risk by conventional or nuclear earth penetrating weapons (EPW). Recently, an engineering feasibility study, the robust nuclear earth penetrator program, was started by DOE and DOD to determine if a more effective EPW could be designed using major components of existing nuclear weapons. This activity has created some controversy about, among other things, the level of collateral damage that would ensue if such a weapon were used. To help clarify this issue, the Congress, in P.L. 107-314, directed the Secretary of Defense to request from the NRC a study of the anticipated health and environmental effects of nuclear earth-penetrators and other weapons and the effect of both conventional and nuclear weapons against the storage of biological and chemical weapons. This report provides the results of those analyses. Based on detailed numerical calculations, the report presents a series of findings comparing the effectiveness and expected collateral damage of nuclear EPW and surface nuclear weapons under a variety of conditions.
To achieve successful solutions to the problems resulting from local, distant and global radioactive fallout after nuclear explosions and accidents and to achieve successful retrospective analyses of the radiation conditions from recent observations, certain information is needed: the distribution of the exposure dose rate in the atmosphere and in a country; the distribution of radionuclides in natural environments and the nuclide composition of the radioactive fallout; the features of formation of the aerosol particle-carriers of the radioactivity and of the nuclide distribution of the particles of different sizes formed under different conditions; the processes involved in the migration of radioactive products in different zones and environments; the external and internal effects of nuclear radiation on human beings.This monograph is devoted to a number of these problems, namely, to studies of the radioactive fallout composition, the formation of the aerosol particles that transport the radioactive products and to the analysis of the external radiation doses resulting from nuclear explosions and/or accidents. Problems of restoration and rehabilitation of contaminated land areas are also touched upon in the monograph. To solve such problems one requires knowledge of the mobility of radionuclides, an understanding of their uptake by plants, their transportation within the food chain and finally their uptake by animal and/or human organisms.The results of many years of study of radioactive fallout from atmospheric and underground nuclear explosions and accidents are summarized in this book. It is intended for various specialists - geophysicists, ecologists, health experts and inspectors, as well as those who are concerned with radioactive contamination of natural environments.
A concise and current treatment of the subject of nuclear power safety, this work addresses itself to such issues of public concern as: radioactivity in routine effluents and its effect on human health and the environment, serious reactor accidents and their consequences, transportation accidents involving radioactive waste, the disposal of radioactive waste, particularly high-level wastes, and the possible theft of special nuclear materials and their fabrication into a weapon by terrorists. The implementation of the defense-in-depth concept of nuclear power safety is also discussed. Of interest to all undergraduate and graduate students of nuclear engineering, this work assumes a basic understanding of scientific and engineering principles and some familiarity with nuclear power reactors
An examination of the causes and consequences of the explosion at the nuclear power plant at Chernobyl, looking at the events which led up to the accident, the lessons for the future of the industry and featuring first-hand accounts by survivors, rescue workers and eye witnesses.
