Black Body Radiation Experiment Pdf Files

Beichner: Physics for Scientists and Engineers with Modern Physics. 5th Edition, Vol. 2, Ch.40, Saunders College Publishing (A Division of Harcourt College. Publishers), 2000. 2) PASCO Instruction Manual and Experiment Guide for the Blackbody Radiation. Experiment, PASCO Scientific. When matter is heated, it emits radiation. A blackbody is a cavity with a material that only emits thermal radiation. Incoming radiation is absorbed in the cavity. Blackbody radiation is theoretically interesting because the. Exercise 3-6: An experiment shows that when electromagnetic radiation of wavelength.

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. Nokia 5233 Maze Lock Download Mobile9.

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. Juan Carlos Alvarado Fuego Raritan. 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.