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The disaster began during a systems test on 26 April 1986 at reactor number four of the Chernobyl plant, which is near the city of Pripyat and in proximity to the administrative border with Belarus and the Dnieper River. There was a sudden and unexpected power surge, and when an emergency shutdown was attempted, an exponentially larger spike in power output occurred, which led to a reactor vessel rupture and a series of steam explosions. These events exposed the graphite moderator of the reactor to air, causing it to ignite.[4] The resulting fire sent a plume of highly radioactive fallout into the atmosphere and over an extensive geographical area, including Pripyat. The plume drifted over large parts of the western Soviet Union and Europe. From 1986 to 2000, 350,400 people were evacuated and resettled from the most severely contaminated areas of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine.[5][6] According to official post-Soviet data,[7][8] about 60% of the fallout landed in Belarus. Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus have been burdened with the continuing and substantial decontamination and health care costs of the Chernobyl accident...
The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster (福島第一原子力発電所事故 Fukushima Dai-ichi (About this sound pronunciation) genshiryoku hatsudensho jiko?) was an energy accident at the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, initiated primarily by the tsunami that was triggered by the Tōhoku earthquake on 11 March 2011.[6] The damage caused by the tsunami produced equipment failures, and without this equipment a loss-of-coolant accident followed, resulting in three nuclear meltdowns and the release of radioactive material beginning on 12 March.[7] It is the largest nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl disaster of 1986 and the second disaster to be given the Level 7 event classification of the International Nuclear Event Scale.....
Chernobyl disaster[edit] 4,000 fatalities[1][2] – Chernobyl disaster, Ukraine, April 26, 1986. 56 direct deaths (47 accident workers and nine children with thyroid cancer) and it is estimated that there were 4,000 extra cancer deaths among the approximately 600,000 most highly exposed people.[3] Estimates of the total number of deaths potentially resulting from the Chernobyl disaster vary enormously: Thirty one deaths are directly attributed to the accident, all among the reactor staff and emergency workers.[4] A UNSCEAR report places the total confirmed deaths from radiation at 64 as of 2008. The World Health Organization (WHO) suggests it could reach 4,000 civilian deaths, a figure which does not include military clean-up worker casualties.[5] A 2006 report predicted 30,000 to 60,000 cancer deaths as a result of Chernobyl fallout.[6] A Greenpeace report puts this figure at 200,000 or more.[7] A disputed Russian publication, Chernobyl, concludes that 985,000 premature cancer deaths occurred worldwide between 1986 and 2004 as a result of radioactive contamination from Chernobyl.[8]
originally posted by: EternalShadow
What's the half-life of coal?
Exactly.
chernobyl 2013: the hospital basement with highly contaminated clothes
originally posted by: strongfp
a reply to: AlienView
Maybe if we weren't so energy hungry we wouldn't need nuclear power. But guess what, the demand got so high that coal, gas, etc couldn't keep up.
You are strawmanning against old, outdated plants, sort of pop up plants to meet energy demands.
Gas produced by decaying human waste is a potentially major source of energy, providing electricity for millions of homes while improving sanitary conditions in developing countries, says a UN report. Biogas—about 60 percent methane—can be produced by having bacteria break down human feces. And it would be worth the equivalent of $9.5 billion in non-renewable natural gas, the UN Institute for Water, Environment and Health said on Tuesday. Residues from treated waste could yield two million tons a year of "solid" fuel worldwide that could reduce charcoal use and the number of trees being felled, which would help in global warming reduction efforts, the report added........