How safety became the prime issue in nuclear power plant design

There are 440 nuclear power plants worldwide that generate 14 percent of global electricity supply.

Initially developed in the 1940s for military uses, it wasnt until the 1950s when nuclear energy was
first used to generate public electricity supply. The first such nuclear power plant in the Siberian city
of Obninsk in the former Soviet Union was marked by numerous accidents and the release of
radioactivity into the atmosphere.

The worlds first commercial nuclear power plant started operations in 1956 at Calder Hall,
Windscale (later known as Sellafield) in Cumbria, England.

Public opinion

A large proportion of worldwide public opinion opposed nuclear power because of its military
applications. Spent nuclear fuel was used in the manufacture of nuclear weapons. Plant safety came
to the fore as a major public issue in the aftermath of a fire in October 1957 that released dangerous
amounts of radioactivity.

Safety criteria

Safety in nuclear plant design and the potential dangers of the release of radioactive materials into
the atmosphere became paramount. In terms of a plants engineering design this is concentrated on
the following main factors:

Containment of the nuclear reactor. It had to be strong enough to withstand earthquakes,
windstorms and other natural disasters as well as direct aeroplane impact
Cooling of the nuclear reactor to avoid criticality, the point at which a nuclear fission
reaction becomes uncontrollable.

Accidents

However, it is only an accident itself that can test the safety of engineering design and provide the
lessons that can improve the safety design. The most important accidents have been:

The March 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania, U.S. This
was caused by stuck nuclear valves. There was a partial meltdown and a release of iodine
and radioactive gases into the environment. However, the containment system worked and
there was no loss of life

The April 1986 Chernobyl accident in the then Soviet Ukraine was caused by an explosion in
the reactor vessel. The Soviet plant design did not include adequate containment. Radiation
released spread throughout Europe while a large part of the Prypyat region around the plant
remains uninhabitable today. About 4,000 deaths are attributed to the accident with an
unknown number of thyroid and cancer-related illnesses. Since then, such Soviet designed
reactors in the European Union have been decommissioned.

The March 2011 Fukushima Daiichi disaster was triggered by an earthquake and tsunami
that hit Honshu, northern Japan. There was a meltdown in three of the plants six reactors
and release of radioactivity. There were no fatalities from the nuclear accident but later
investigations showed that the plant design was inadequate to withstand the highest
possible earthquake and tsunami risk in the region.

Only Three Mile Island passed the engineering safety test. The Chernobyl and Fukushima plants were
based on old designs.

Today, there is an international cooperation on safety issues between nuclear operators. They
monitor equipment performance, component failure and review maintenance programmes to
achieve international safety standards comparable with the aviation industry.

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