The Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima Daiichi Accidents and their Radiological Impacts
Abstract
Fukushima Daiichi is the most recent in a series of major power reactor accidents. With Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, Fukushima Daiichi offers another event in which severe fuel damage occurred, fission products were released to the environment, and public evacuations were implemented. Improvements in plant and regulatory performance are required to eliminate major reactor accidents. These events are minimized by protecting the three fission product barriers and focusing attention on preserving these structures. Protection of fission product barriers is a necessary and sufficient requirement to limit the radiological aspects of a power reactor accident.
Keywords
References
U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Population Dose and Health Impact of the Accident at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Station, Washington DC, U. S. Government Printing Office, NUREG-0558 (1979).
U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Investigation into the March 28, 1979 Three Mile Island Accident by the Office of Inspection and Enforcement. Washington DC, U. S. Government Printing Office, NUREG-0600 (1979).
U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, NRC Views and Analysis of the Recommendations of the President’s Commission on the Accident at Three Mile Island, Washington DC: U. S. Government Printing Office, NUREG-0632 (1979).
Woodard K. Assessment of Off-site Radiation Doses from the Three Mile Island Unit 2 Accident, TDR-TMI-116. Washington, DC, Pickard, Lowe, and Garrick (1979).
U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, NRC 1979 Annual Report, Washington DC: U. S. Government Printing Office, NUREG-0690 (1979).
U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Environmental Assessment of Radiological Effluents from Data Gathering and Maintenance Operation on Three Mile Island Unit 2, Washington DC, U. S. Government Printing Office, NUREG-0681 (1980).
U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Three Mile Island, A Report to the Commissioners and to the Public. Edited by Rogovin M., Frampton GT. Washington DC, U. S. Government Printing Office, NUREG/CR-1250, Vols. I-II (1980).
Fabrikant JI. Guest Editorial: Health Effects of the Nuclear Accident at Three Mile Island. Health Physics 40, 151-161 (1981).
U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement related to decontamination and disposal of radioactive wastes resulting from March 28, 1979, accident - Three Mile Island Nuclear Station, Unit 2, NUREG-0683, Vol. 1 and 2 (1981).
EG&G Report GEND-030. Quick Look Inspection: Report on the Insertion of a Camera into the TMI-2 Reactor Vessel Through a Leadscrew Opening, Volumes 1 and 2. EG&G Idaho, Inc., Idaho Falls, ID (1983).
U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Answers to Questions About Updated Estimates of Occupational Radiation Doses at Three Mile Island, Unit 2, Washington DC, U. S. Government Printing Office, NUREG-1060 (1983).
Behlung UH, Hildebrand JE. Radiation and Health Effects: A Report on the TMI-2 Accident and Related Health Studies. GPU Nuclear Corporation, Middletown, PA (1986).
GPU Nuclear Corporation Emergency Plan for the Three Mile Island and Oyster Creek Nuclear Stations, 1000-PLN-1300.01. General Public Utilities Nuclear Corporation, Parsippany, NJ (1987).
GPU Nuclear Corporation Letter, 4410-90-L-0012. Defueling Completion Report, Final Submittal. General Public Utilities Nuclear Corporation, Middletown, PA (1990).
Kuan P, Hanson DJ, Odar F. Managing water addition to a degraded core. Idaho Falls, ID: EG&G Idaho, Inc., EGG-M-91375 (1991).
U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Status of Safety Issues at Licensed Power Plants, Washington DC, U. S. Government Printing Office, NUREG-1435, Vol. 1, 2, and 3 (1991).
Knief RA. Nuclear Engineering – Theory and Technology of Commercial Nuclear Power, 2nd ed. Washington, DC: Hemisphere Publishing Corporation (1992).
U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Lessons learned From the Three Mile Island - Unit 2 Advisory Panel, Washington DC, U. S. Government Printing Office, NUREG/CR-6252 (1994).
IAEA TECDOC-1020. Design Measures for Prevention and Mitigation of Severe Accidents at Advanced Water Cooled Reactors. International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, Austria (1998).
U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Methods and Assumptions for Evaluating Radiological Consequences of Design Basis Accidents at Light-Water Nuclear Power Reactors, Washington DC, U. S. Government Printing Office, Regulatory Guide 1.195 (2003).
Bevelacqua JJ. Contemporary Health Physics: Problems and Solutions, 2nd ed. Wiley-VCH, Weinheim (2009).
Bevelacqua JJ. Basic Health Physics: Problems and Solutions, 2nd ed. Wiley- VCH, Weinheim (2010).
Bevelacqua JJ. Applicability of Health Physics Lessons Learned from the Three Mile Island Unit-2 Accident to the Fukushima Daiichi Accident. Journal of Environmental Radioactivity 105, 6-10 (2012).
Bevelacqua JJ. Nuclear Regulation in the United States and a Possible Framework for an International Regulatory Approach, International Nuclear Safety Journal 2 (1), 1-14 (2013), Available from http://nuclearsafety.info/international-nuclear-safety-journal/index.php/INSJ/article/view/12/pdf_1.
IAEA Nuclear Energy Series No. NW-T-2.7. Experiences and lessons learned worldwide in the cleanup and decommissioning of nuclear facilities in the aftermath of accidents (STI/PUB/1644). International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (2014).
U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Report on the Accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station, Washington DC, U. S. Government Printing Office, NUREG-1250, Rev. 1 (1987).
Chernobyl Accident Special Edition, Nuclear Safety 28, 1-158 (1987).
U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Implications of the Accident at Chernobyl for Safety Regulation of Commercial Nuclear Power Plants in the United States, Washington DC, U. S. Government Printing Office, NUREG-1251, Vol. I and II (1989).
U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Summary of Chernobyl Followup Research Activities, Washington DC, U. S. Government Printing Office, NUREG-1422 (1992).
Merwin SE, Balanov MI. The Chernobyl Papers, Vol. 1, Doses to the Soviet Population and Early Health Effects. Richland, WA: Research Enterprises, (1993).
Egorov N, Novikov V, Parker F, Popov V. The Radiation Legacy of the Soviet Nuclear Complex. Earthscan Publications, London (2000).
Gollnick DA. Basic Radiation Protection Technology, 6th ed. Pacific Radiation Corporation, Altadena, CA (2011).
Braun M. The Fukushima Daiichi Incident. PEPA4-G, AREVA-NP GmbH, 31 March 2011, Available from http://arcea- dif.fr/20110320_Fukushima.Pdf.
Brumfiel G, Cyranoski D. Quake Sparks Nuclear Crisis. Nature 471, 273-275 (2011).
Brumfiel G. The Meltdown that Wasn’t. Nature 471, 417-418 (2011).
Brumfiel G. Fukushima Set for Epic Clean-up. Nature 472, 146-147 (2011).
Brumfiel G. Fallout or Fear. Nature 493, 290-293 (2013).
Butler D. Radioactivity Spreads in Japan. Nature 471, 355-356 (2011).
Butler D. Fukushima Health Risks Scrutinized. Nature 472, 13-14 (2011).
USNRC Report (2011) The Near-Term Task Force Review of Insights from the Fukushima Daiichi Accident, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C.
National Academy of Sciences Report No.18294. Lessons Learned from the Fukushima Nuclear Accident for Improving Safety of U.S. Nuclear Plants. The National Academy Press, Washington DC (2014).
Weightman M. Japanese Earthquake and Tsunami: Implications for the UK Nuclear Industry – Interim Report. Office for Nuclear Regulation, London (2011).
The National Diet of Japan. The Official Report of The Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission. The Fukushima Nuclear Accident Independent Investigation Commission, Government of Japan, Tokyo (2012).
Los Alamos National Laboratory Report LA-UR-12-20494. Our Next Two Steps for Fukushima Daiichi Muon Tomography. Los Alamos, New Mexico (2012).
Bevelacqua JJ. The Fukushima Daiichi Accident and Its Radiological Impact on the Environment. The Physics Teacher 50, 386-390 (2012).
Bevelacqua JJ. Methodology to Ascertain Core Recriticality Following a Severe Fission Reactor Accident. International Nuclear Safety Journal 2 (1), 52-57 (2013), Available from http://nuclearsafety.info/international-nuclear-safety-journal/index.php/INSJ/article/view/13/pdf_1.
Bromet EJ. Emotional Consequences of Nuclear Power Plant Disasters. Health Physics 106(2), 206-210 (2014).
Kouji H, Harada KH. Radiation dose rates now and in the future for residents neighboring restricted areas of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. PNAS, Washington, DC (2014), Available at www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1315684111.
National Academy of Sciences Report No. 18294. Lessons Learned from the Fukushima Nuclear Accident for Improving Safety of U.S. Nuclear Plants. The National Academy Press, Washington DC (2014).
Takahashi S. Radiation Monitoring and Dose Estimation of the Fukushima Nuclear Accident. Springer, Tokyo (2014).
Ahn J, Carson C, Jensen M, Juraku K, Nagasaki S, Tanaka S. Reflections on the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident - Toward Social-Scientific Literacy and Engineering Resilience. Springer Open, New York (2015).
Final Report of the AESJ Investigation Committee. The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Accident. Springer Japan, Tokyo (2015).
IAEA Report. Events and highlights on the progress related to recovery operations at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station. International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (2015). Available at: https://www.iaea.org/sites/default/files/infcirc_japan0215.pdf.
Katata G, Chino M, Kobayashi T, Terada H, Ota M, Nagai H, Kajino M, Draxler R, Hort MC, Malo A, Torii T, Sanada Y. Detailed source term estimation of the atmospheric release for the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station accident by coupling simulations of an atmospheric dispersion model with an improved deposition scheme and oceanic dispersion model. Atmos. Chem. Phys. 15, 1029-1070 (2015).
McCurry J. The Fukushima Daiichi disaster: 4 years on. The Lancet 385, e23-e24 (2015).
Ohto H, Maeda M, Yabe H, Yasumura S, Bromet EE. Suicide rates in the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake in Japan. Lancet 385, 1727-1728 (2015).
IAEA Report. INES - The International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale User’s Manual 2008. International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (2009).
USNRC Report WASH-1400. Reactor Safety Study: An assessment of Accident Risks in U.S. Commercial Nuclear Power Plants. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C. (1975).
U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Individual Plant Examination Program: Perspectives on Reactor Safety and Plant Performance, Washington DC, U. S. Government Printing Office, NUREG-1560 (1996).
IAEA TECDOC-1391. Status of Advanced Light Water Reactor Designs 2004. International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna, Austria (2004).
U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Final Safety Evaluation Report Related to Certification of the AP1000 Standard Design, Washington DC, U. S. Government Printing Office, NUREG-1793 (2006).
FNSA Report. Complementary Safety Assessments of the French Nuclear Power Plants. French Nuclear Safety Authority, Paris (2011).
Nuclear Energy Institute Report NEI 12-05, Rev. B1. Diverse and Flexible Coping Strategies (FLEX) Implementation Guide. Nuclear Energy Institute, Washington, D.C. (2012).
USNRC Regulatory Guide NUREG-1935. State-of-the-Art Reactor Consequence Analyses (SOARCA) Report. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C. (2012).
USNRC Regulatory Guide NUREG-2150. A Proposed Risk Management Regulatory Framework. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C. (2012).
IAEA Publication STI/PUB/1710. The Fukushima Daiichi Accident. International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (2015).
10CFR50. Domestic Licensing of Production and Utilization Facilities. National Archives and Records Administration, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC (2015).
ICRP Report No. 103. The 2007 Recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection. Elsevier, Amsterdam (2007).
U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, PAG Manual. Protective Action Guides and Planning Guidance for Radiological Incidents. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Draft for Interim Use and Public Comment, U. S.
Environmental Protection Agency, Washington DC (2013).
10CFR20. Standards for Protection Against Radiation. National Archives and Records Administration, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C (2015).
U. S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission NUREG-0654/FEMA-REP-1, Revision 1. Criteria for Preparation and Evaluation of Radiological Emergency Response Plans and Preparedness in Support of Nuclear Power Plants. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, Washington, D.C (1980).
Eichholz GG. Environmental Aspects of Nuclear Power, 2nd edition. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL (1985).
Crick M. Nuclear and radiation safety: Guidance for emergency response.
IAEA Bulletin 1, 23-27 (1996).
Gusey I, Guskova A, Metter FA. Medical Management of Radiation Accidents, 2nd ed. CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL (2001).
IAEA Safety Standards Series No. NS-G-1.7. Protection Against Internal Fires and Explosions in the Design of Nuclear Power Plants Safety Guide. International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (2004).
IAEA Safety Standards Series No. NS-G-1.11. Protection Against Internal Hazards other than Fires and Explosions in the Design of Nuclear Power Plants Safety Guide. International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (2004).
IAEA Safety Standards Series No. GS-G-2.1. Arrangements for Preparedness for a Nuclear or Radiological Emergency. International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (2007).
IAEA General Safety Guide GSG-2. Criteria for Use in Preparedness and Response for a Nuclear or Radiological Emergency. International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (2011).
FEMA Program Manual, Radiological Emergency Preparedness, Federal Emergency Management Agency, Washington DC (2013).
National Academy of Sciences Report No. 19002. The Science of Responding to a Nuclear Reactor Accident: Summary of a Symposium. The National Academy Press, Washington DC (2014).
Meteorological Information and Dose Assessment System (MIDAS) Code, http://www.absconsulting.com/midas.cfm.
Radiological Assessment System for Consequence Analysis (RASCAL) code, http://www-rsicc.ornl.gov/codes/ccc/ccc7/ccc-783.html.
Adler PS, Kranowitz JL. A Primer on Perceptions of Risk, Risk Communications and Building Trust, The Keystone Center (2005), available at http://www.eyeofthestormleadership.com/pg21.cfm.
IAEA Publication IAEA/PI/A.87 Rev.2 / 06-09181. Chernobyl’s Legacy: Health, Environmental and Socio-economic Impacts and Recommendations to the Governments of Belarus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine, The Chernobyl Forum: 2003–2005, Second revised version. International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (2006).
IAEA Report. Fukushima Daiichi Status Report 28 June 2012. International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (2012).
IRSN Report. 22 March 2011 Information Report. Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire, Paris (2011).
NEA 3508. Chernobyl: Assessment of Radiological and Health Impact -
Update of Chernobyl: Ten Years On. Nuclear Energy Agency, Paris (2002).
ICRP Report No. 2. Permissible Dose for Internal Radiation. Pergamon Press,
Oxford (1959).
ICRP Report No. 26, Recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection. Pergamon Press, Oxford (1977).
ICRP Report No. 60. 1990 Recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection. Pergamon Press, Oxford, England (1991).
ICRP ref 4825-3093-1464. Statement on Tissue Reactions, Approved by the Commission on April 21, 2011. International Commission on Radiological Protection (2011), http://www.icrp.org/docs/icrp%20statement%20on%20tissue%20reactions .pdf.
Department of Energy Report DOE/HS-0001; ANL/EVS/TM/09-1. Preliminary Report on Operational Guidelines Developed for Use in Emergency Preparedness and Response to a Radiological Dispersal Device Incident. U.S. Department of Energy, Washington, D.C. (2009).
ICRP Report No. 63. Principles for Intervention for Protection of the Public in a Nuclear Emergency. ICRP Publications, Oxford, England (1993).
ICRP Report No. 96. Protecting People Against Radiation Exposure in the Event of a Radiological Attack. Elsevier, Amsterdam (2005).
10CFR835. Occupational Radiation Protection. National Archives and Records Administration, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. (2015).
NCRP Report No. 116. Limitation of Exposure to Ionizing Radiation. NCRP Publications, Bethesda, MD (1993).
Bevelacqua JJ. Health Physics Aspects of Generation IV Reactors. International Nuclear Safety Journal 3(1), 13-17 (2014), http://nuclearsafety.info/international-nuclear-safety-journal/index.php/INSJ/article/view/20/pdf_1.
Bevelacqua JJ. Radiation Protection Considerations for Nuclear Power Expansion to Nations with Limited Technical Infrastructure. International Nuclear Safety Journal 3 (3), 8-24 (2014), http://nuclearsafety.info/international-nuclear-safety-journal/index.php/INSJ/article/view/37/pdf.
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
"No endorsement" policy: Unless explicitly stated otherwise, the opinions, analyses, discussions, views and recommendations outlined in the articles published in the International Nuclear Safety Journal (INSJ) are solely those of their respective authors and not of the editors, owners or publishers of the INSJ.