Historical Nuclear Meltdowns

I was reading and putting up blogs here on the recent problems at Three Mile Island nuclear generating Station. So, I looked up "Nuclear Meltdown" at Wikipedia. And what really surprised me is just how many different nuclear meltdowns have occurred both in the U.S. and worldwide since nuclear power was invented during World War II.

Here is the history of known and reported "Nuclear Meltdowns". Of course this doesn't include any secret meltdowns regarding the U.S. or Soviet Union during the Cold War. begin quote.

History

The United States of America

There have been at least eight meltdowns in the history of the United States. All are widely called "partial meltdowns."

1. BORAX-I was a test reactor designed to explore criticality excursions. In the final destructive test of the reactor in 1954, a miscalculation led to the meltdown of a significant portion of the core and the release of nuclear fuel and fission products into the environment.^[24]
   
   

   

   SL-1 core damage after a nuclear excursion.
2. The reactor at EBR-I suffered a partial meltdown during a coolant flow test on November 29, 1955.
3. The Sodium Reactor Experiment in Santa Susana Field Laboratory was an experimental nuclear reactor which operated from 1957 to 1964 and was the first commercial power plant in the world to experience a core meltdown in July 1959.
4. Stationary Low-Power Reactor Number One (SL-1) was a United States Army experimental nuclear power reactor which underwent a criticality excursion, a steam explosion, and a meltdown on January 3, 1961, killing three operators.
5. The SNAP8ER reactor at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory experienced damage to 80% of its fuel in an accident in 1964.
6. The partial meltdown at the Fermi 1 experimental fast breeder reactor, in 1966, required the reactor to be repaired, though it never achieved full operation afterward.
7. The SNAP8DR reactor at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory experienced damage to approximately a third of its fuel in an accident in 1969.
8. The Three Mile Island accident, in 1979, referred to in the press as a "partial core melt,"^[25] led to the permanent shutdown of that reactor.

The Soviet Union

In the most serious example, the Chernobyl disaster, design flaws and operator negligence led to a power excursion that subsequently caused a meltdown. According to a report released by the Chernobyl Forum (consisting of numerous United Nations agencies, including the International Atomic Energy Agency and the World Health Organization; the World Bank; and the Governments of Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia) the disaster killed twenty-eight people due to acute radiation syndrome,^[26] could possibly result in up to four thousand fatal cancers at an unknown time in the future^[27] and required the permanent evacuation of an exclusion zone around the reactor.

Japan

During the Fukushima I nuclear accidents, three of the power plant's six reactors reportedly suffered meltdowns. Most of the fuel in the reactor No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant melted.^[28] TEPCO believes No.2 and No.3 reactors were similarly affected.[2] On May 24, 2011, TEPCO reported that all three reactors melted down.^[29]

Meltdown incidents

A number of Soviet Navy nuclear submarines experienced nuclear meltdowns, including K-27, K-140, and K-431.

• There was also a fatal core meltdown at SL-1, an experimental U.S. military reactor in Idaho.

Large-scale nuclear meltdowns at civilian nuclear power plants include:

• the Lucens reactor, Switzerland, in 1969.
• the Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania, U.S.A., in 1979.
• the Chernobyl disaster at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Ukraine, USSR, in 1986.
• the Fukushima I nuclear accidents following the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, March 2011.

Other core meltdowns have occurred at:

• NRX (military), Ontario, Canada, in 1952
• BORAX-I (experimental), Idaho, U.S.A., in 1954
• EBR-I (military), Idaho, U.S.A., in 1955
• Windscale (military), Sellafield, England, in 1957 (see Windscale fire)
• Sodium Reactor Experiment, (civilian) Santa Susana Field Laboratory, Simi Valley, California, U.S.A., in 1959
• Fermi 1 (civilian), Michigan, U.S.A., in 1966
• Chapelcross nuclear power station (civilian), Scotland, in 1967
• Saint-Laurent Nuclear Power Plant (civilian), France, in 1969
• A1 plant, (civilian) at Jaslovské Bohunice, Czechoslovakia, in 1977
• Saint-Laurent Nuclear Power Plant (civilian), France, in 1980
• Greifswald Nuclear Power Plant (civilian), East Germany, in 1989

end quote from wikipedia under the heading of "Nuclear Meltdown"

Like I said it is amazing just how many nuclear meltdowns there have actually been that were then actually reported to the general public.

But, it is important to note that since World War II there is radioactive Cesium in literally everything on the surface of earth that is alive. So, there are no humans or animals or anything living that do not have radioactive cesium in their bodies and tissues at this point. In fact, the main way to check for  forgeries of Rembrandts and other older works of art is to check for Cesium in the paint. Because all paint also has radioactive Cesium in it now. This wasn't true at the time of Rembrandt.