Major man-made disasters of recent decades
Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant Accident
The worst accident in the history of commercial nuclear power in the United States. On March 28, 1979, a coolant leak occurred at Unit 2 of the nuclear power plant. Plant personnel failed to notice the leak in time, and the nuclear fuel began to overheat dangerously. As a result, up to 50% of the reactor core melted.
The Three Mile Island nuclear power plant was heavily contaminated with radioactive waste, and its employees were exposed to dangerous levels of radiation. No one outside the plant was seriously injured. However, this accident sparked widespread protests against nuclear energy in the United States.
Protests began to frequently take place at the sites of nuclear power plants under construction. Since 1978, not a single new nuclear power plant had been planned, and between 1979 and 2001, construction of 71 previously begun plants was canceled. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which previously issued licenses for nuclear power plant construction, focused entirely on overseeing the operation of existing plants.
Chernobyl
The largest nuclear power plant accident in world history; the main man-made disaster in the history of the USSR and the post-Soviet space.
On the night of April 26, 1986, an explosion occurred during testing at Unit 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, the total power of which was more than 100 times greater than the power of the nuclear weapons used during World War II.
The explosion and subsequent fire completely destroyed the reactor core, releasing significant quantities of radionuclides into the atmosphere.
The Soviet government tried to conceal the scale of the incident: the first short report of the disaster appeared only 36 hours later.
Immediately after the disaster, 31 people died, and 600,000 emergency workers involved in firefighting and cleanup received high doses of radiation. Approximately 155,000 square kilometers of territory in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia were contaminated, and traces of radiation were found in Austria, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and other European countries.
After the war in Ukraine began, Russian troops occupied the Chernobyl zone. Soldiers, without any radiation protection, dug trenches in the Red Forest, which absorbed the largest share of the radioactive dust released during the accident. Soon, reports emerged of the death of one soldier and the serious condition of over 70 others. This information has not been confirmed.
Fukushima
On March 11, 2011, the Great Japan Earthquake struck, shifting Japan's main island eastward by two and a half meters. It also triggered a tsunami up to 40,5 meters high, killing over 20,000 Japanese and triggering a series of explosions at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
Just ten minutes after the first earthquake alarms, three nuclear power plant reactors shut down. But then a tsunami struck, destroying the diesel generators powering the cooling system. Temperatures began to rise, and water began to steam, causing pressure to rise. Explosions occurred in all three units, blowing off the domes of the buildings.
The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant was completely shut down two years after the accident. The emissions amounted to up to 20% of those from the Chernobyl accident. Approximately 80% of the atmospheric emissions were carried far beyond the coastal zone. Not a single case of acute radiation sickness was recorded in Japan.
In 2023, Japan began slowly discharging over a million tons of purified radioactive water from its nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean. This sparked concern in neighboring China and South Korea, but the IAEA stated that "the discharged water will be a drop in the ocean, both in volume and radioactivity," and will have no harmful impact.
Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska
On March 23, 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker spilled off the coast of Alaska, causing approximately 260,000 barrels of oil to spill into the sea, creating a 28,000-square-kilometer oil slick. The oil also contaminated approximately 2,000 kilometers of coastline. Several thousand seals and 250,000 seagulls died.
Attempts to combat the pollution included spraying dispersants and igniting the oil, but these measures were only moderately successful. High-pressure hot water injection into coastal caves where oil had accumulated destroyed the shoreline's bacterial population, which could degrade the oil. As a result, over 98 liters of oil were absorbed into the sandy soils of the shoreline.
The latest water tests conducted in the disaster area continue to indicate significant presence of toxic impurities in the water.
Oil fires in Kuwait
On January 19, 1991, during the Persian Gulf War, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein ordered the dumping of thousands of tons of crude oil into the Persian Gulf and the setting of oil wells on fire to cover the retreat of Iraqi troops from Kuwait.
The total area of the oil spill was approximately 11 square kilometers, and the thickness of the oil film in some places reached 12-13 cm. Of the 940 oil wells in Kuwait, between 605 and 732 were set on fire or damaged, according to various estimates.
In Saudi Arabia, approximately 700 kilometers of coastline were contaminated with oil. Coastal areas in Kuwait, Iran, Bahrain, and Qatar were also affected.
Between 50 and 90% of crabs, other crustaceans, and mollusks died out. More than 15 birds died, and dolphins, dugongs, sea otters, sea snakes, and shrimp suffered. Coastal vegetation was severely damaged.
The burning oil wells in Kuwait caused a "nuclear autumn" as most of the sun's rays were blocked from reaching the earth's surface.
Firefighters working to extinguish the blazes called their mission "Desert Hell" - a reference to the military operation "Desert Storm."
Explosion in the Gulf of Mexico
On April 20, 2010, an explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico, followed by a fire. There were 126 oil workers working on the platform at the time of the accident; 11 of them died.
On April 22, the burning platform tilted and sank, the wellhead depressurized, and oil gushed into the sea. An oil slick appeared on the surface, covering 5% of the bay's surface. According to initial estimates, 5–19 barrels of oil per day began flowing into the bay.
The oil spill was stopped only in August 2010. In total, nearly 5 million barrels of crude oil were released into the gulf. The water has yet to be completely cleaned up; most of the spilled oil disappeared after some time, having been digested by Oceanospirillales bacteria.
Recently, scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution discovered that sunlight plays a significant role in cleaning up water pollution: ultraviolet radiation triggers a process called "photodissolution," which causes oil to break down more quickly in water.
Minamata disease
Minamata disease is a syndrome caused by poisoning with organic mercury compounds. It originated in Japan due to the release of methylmercury into Minamata Bay by Shin-Nippon Chisso Hiryo KK, a company producing organic fertilizer and discharging its waste into the water.
Fish and shrimp were the first to suffer, followed by animals whose main diet consisted of food from Minamata Bay. Local cats were nicknamed "dancing cats" due to their strange behavior: they would become aggressive, convulse, and then die.
After some time, people began to fall ill as well. The poisoning resulted in hearing and vision loss, motor impairment, confusion and speech impairment, and, ultimately, death. The disease was transmitted to the fetus in the womb, and children of infected parents were often stillborn.
Officially, 2,2 Japanese people are recognized as victims of Minamata disease, but according to some sources, the number of victims could have been as high as 17.
In January 2013, the UN created the Minamata Convention on Mercury, which developed methods for the safe storage of mercury and environmental protection.
Bhopal disaster
The deadliest man-made disaster in modern history. On December 3, 1984, a methyl isocyanate vapor leak occurred at a fertilizer plant in Bhopal, India. The resulting cloud engulfed nearby slums and the train station.
The release of approximately 42 tons of toxic fumes into the atmosphere killed approximately 5,000 people within the first 24 hours. Another 15,000-18,000 died in the following years from the effects of the chemicals. In total, 150,000-600,000 Indian residents were affected.
This accident wasn't the first at the plant: at least five chemical incidents had occurred there in the previous four years. The plant's union repeatedly complained to the Madhya Pradesh state authorities about the poor state of safety systems, but to no avail.
Cyanide leak in Baia Mare
The Old World's worst environmental disaster since Chernobyl. On January 30, 2000, a dam breach near the Romanian town of Baia Mare resulted in 100 cubic meters of cyanide-contaminated water spilling into the Someș River. The culprit was a plant belonging to the Romanian-Australian gold mining company Aurul, which was discharging toxic waste into the river.
From Someš, the poisoned water flowed into the Tisza, where in some areas up to 80% of living creatures died, and then into the Danube, where in areas where water from the Tisza flows, the cyanide content was 50 times higher than the norm.
Nearly all living things perished near the accident site, and in the Serbian section of the Tisza, 80% of the aquatic flora and fauna perished. In total, approximately 650 tons of dead fish were recovered from the Tisza.
A bill to ban gold cyanidation has been introduced in the Romanian Parliament three times, but all three attempts have been unsuccessful.