AWR-930W

Unit 1 Lesson 5

Nuclear Power Plant Accidents

The most well-known nuclear power plant accidents occurred at Three Mile Island,
Chernobyl, and Fukushima Daiichi. All of these accidents involved the release of
radioactive material and initiated radiological emergency management efforts. But
not every accident at a nuclear power plant results in public radiation exposure.
Even serious accidents could occur without public exposure.

Here are a couple examples of lower-level contained accidents. Select the links
below for more information about each nuclear power plant accident.

• Athens, Alabama
• Newport, Michigan

Three Mile Island Accident

The worst accident at a U.S. commercial power reactor occurred at Three Mile
Island (TMI) Nuclear Station in Pennsylvania on March 28, 1979. As a result of
equipment failures and human operation errors, the water level in the reactor core
decreased to the point that the fuel was no longer submerged in water. Without the
cooling normally provided by this water, the cladding and some of the fuel pellets
melted. Large quantities of radioactive materials were released into the
containment building.

But the containment building performed as it was designed. The radioactive

releases to the atmosphere that occurred during the TMI accident were very small
and resulted primarily from leaks in systems that were required to operate during
the accident.

At TMI, the defense-in-depth safety systems operated correctly but were shut down
by qualified operators who misinterpreted the chain of events. After TMI, nuclear
power plants have expanded their operator training programs. Plants have also
modified their control room indicators and have modified some plant equipment to
prevent other accidents from occurring.

Chernobyl Accident
Another serious commercial power reactor accident occurred at the Chernobyl
nuclear power plant in the Soviet Union on April 26,1986 which released large
amounts of radioactive fission products into the environment. The Chernobyl
accident was caused by a combination of errors, deliberate failure to follow
procedure, and a poor design. The design of the Chernobyl reactor resulted in a
very rapid increase in power after the water used to cool the core was lost. As a
result, the pressure increased to the point that the reactor was blown apart. Such
an accident is impossible for this type of plant design in the U.S. because such a
loss of water would shut down the reactor.

Fukushima Accident
On March 11, 2011, an earthquake was detected causing the site to automatically
shut down their fission reactors. The earthquake generated a 14-meter-high
tsunami that swept over the plant’s seawall and flooded the plant’s lower grounds
with seawater, knocking out the emergency generators. This led to three nuclear
meltdowns, three hydrogen explosions, and the release of radioactive
contamination.