All of the milk from within about 500km of nearby countryside was diluted and destroyed for about a month. 240 cancer cases have since been linked to the fire. The accident occurred when the core of Unit 1вЂ™s reactor caught fire, releasing substantial amounts of radioactive contamination into the surrounding area. The first pile was active from October 1950 with the second close behind in June 1951. The two piles had been hurriedly built as part of the British atomic bomb project. The worst nuclear disaster in Great BritainвЂ™s history occurred on the 10 thВ October, 1957 and ranked at level 5 on the INES scale, The Windscale Fire. Windscale Fire (Sellafield), UK 1957 вЂ“ Level 5 Luckily, epidemiology studies have not linked a single cancer with the accident.Д¤. Small amounts of radioactive gases and radioactive iodine were released into the environment. It was subsequently the worst disaster in commercial nuclear power plant history. Three Mile Island Accident, Pennsylvania USA 1979 вЂ“ Level 5Дў8 thВ March saw two nuclear reactors meltdown. 112,000 people were examined for radioactiveВ contamination'sВ with 249 having significant levels of radioactive material in or on their body.ДҐ. Subsequently it was handled by many people, killing four people. An old radiotherapy source was stolen from an abandoned hospital site in the city. On 13thВ September, 1987 a radioactive contamination accident occurred in the Brazilian state of Goais. The accident released about 80 curies of iodine -131.Д¦. This event is the only known fatal reactor accident in the USA. The cause of this was because of improper removal of the control rod, responsible for absorbing neutrons in the reactor core. On 3rdВ January, 1961 a USA army experimental nuclear power reactor underwent a steam explosion and meltdown killing its three operators. SL-1 Experimental Power Station, Idaho USA 1961 вЂ“ Level 4 This was classified as Level 4 on the INES and to this day remains the most serious civil Nuclear disaster in French history.Д§. On the 17 thВ October, 1969 50 kgВ of uranium in one of the gas cooled reactors began to melt.

Another 17 people outside of the reactor room absorbed doses ranging from 35 rad to less than 1 rad. There was an excursion of 3x10 fissions at the RA-2 facility with the operator absorbing 2000 rad of gamma and 1700 rad of neutron radiation. Buenos Aires, Argentina 1983 вЂ“ Level 4ДЄn operatorвЂ™s errors during a fuel plate reconfiguration lead to him dying two days later. To make matters worse, 21 civilians were also exposed to high doses of radiation and residents within a thousand feet of the plant were evacuated.Д©. Two of the workers eventually died with another fifty six plant workers also being exposed to high levels of radiation. When a group of unqualified workers decided to put more highly enriched uranium in a precipitation tank than was permitted, disaster struck. Process Industry ForumВ have scrawled the web and created a Top 10 for the worst Nuclear disasters of all time: Small incidents occur and can be rectified, but when there are large incidents, the impact can often be catastrophic.Д®ach Nuclear disaster has been given a level on the International Nuclear Event Scale (INES).Д¬lick on the header of each nuclear disaster for a detailed look at each event. With 437 Nuclear Power Plants worldwide, there are bound to be incidents every now and again. It is estimated that Chernobyl wont beВ inhabited for at least another 20,000 years.Дespite the threat of Nuclear disasters, believe it or not, Nuclear Power Plants are prominent and provide approximately 5.7% of the worldвЂ™s energy and 13% of the worldвЂ™s electricity. The long term effects of Nuclear disasters can often spread over thousands of years.

Nuke 10