Compare Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima Daiichi

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima Daiichi were catastrophic nuclear power plant accidents that spawned a great deal of public anxiety over nuclear power. As a result of mechanical failure and human error, Three Mile Island experienced a partial reactor core meltdown. Most of the radiation remained within the containment building. The incident at Chernobyl was much more extensive and harmful than Three Mile Island. When engineers turned off safety systems to conduct tests, human error and unsafe reactor design caused an explosion that completely destroyed the reactor and released radioactive debris and fallout into surrounding areas for up to 10 days. The accident directly killed 31 people and sickened many more. Atmospheric currents carried radioactive fallout across much of the Northern Hemisphere, and radioisotopes were detected as far away as Sweden. The Soviet government did not admit to the accident until days later. Many cases of thyroid cancer resulted from exposure to radiation from Chernobyl. The nuclear accident at Fukushima Daiichi resulted from a catastrophic earthquake and tsunami. The earthquake shut down power and the tsunami flooded the plant's emergency power generators. The tsunami overtopped the seawall, and the generators were located in the basement of the plant and were thus flooded. Without electricity, workers could not use moderators and control rods to cool the uranium fuel, and the fuel began to overheat as fission proceeded. Several explosions and fires occurred over the next few days, and eventually three reactors experienced full meltdowns. The amount of radioactivity released during and after these events was about one-tenth of that released from Chernobyl. Much of the
radioactivity spread by air or water into the Pacific Ocean.