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5 Worst Nuclear Disasters in the World

By: Dave Roos | May 10, 2023

Officials and civilians attend a ceremony honoring the memory of the Chernobyl disaster victims on April 26,
2023 in Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. ANDRIY ZHYHAYLO/OBOZREVATEL/GLOBAL IMAGES UKRAINE VIA GETTY IMAGES

The words "Chernobyl" and "Three Mile Island" are shorthand for the risks of nuclear
power, yet even the worst nuclear disasters pale in comparison to death tolls from
terrorist attacks or natural disasters. The World Nuclear Association — a pro-nuclear
organization — is quick to point out that 8.7 million deaths each year are attributed to air
pollution from burning fossil fuels, including via power plants.

Still, there's something about nuclear accidents that's inherently scary, probably because
we equate nuclear energy with nuclear weapons, humankind's most deadly creation.
Even if the death toll from nuclear disasters is relatively low, the psychological damage
they inflict is very high. Here are the five worst nuclear disasters in history in order of
severity.

1. Chernobyl

The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant explosion is considered the worst nuclear disaster in history.
SHONE/GAMMA/GAMMA-RAPHO VIA GETTY IMAGES

Date: April 26, 1986

Location: Chernobyl, Ukraine
Deaths: 30, plus thousands more from radiation-induced thyroid cancer
Evacuation: 115,000 immediately, plus many more in the months following

The catastrophic failure of the Unit 4 reactor at the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl was
by far the worst nuclear disaster in history. In fact, Chernobyl remains the only accident
at a commercial nuclear power facility to result in deaths from acute radiation poisoning.
The disaster at Chernobyl was the result of human error and a faulty reactor design. The
plant's operators decided to run a safety test while the Unit 4 reactor was temporarily
offline. The test was supposed to determine if the reactor's cooling system could operate
during a loss of electrical power. Instead, poor communication resulted in a sudden
power surge that caused a massive explosion and fire at the reactor.

The 30 deaths at Chernobyl included two workers killed in the explosion and 28 fire
fighters and emergency responders who were exposed to massive levels of radiation
(one died of a heart attack). Wind-blown plumes of radiation from the fire were detected
across the Northern Hemisphere in the weeks that followed.

Hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated from the region surrounding the
damaged plant, known as the "Exclusion Zone." It's been estimated that 7,000 children
and adolescents exposed to radiation from Chernobyl had developed thyroid cancer over
the past 35 years. Fortunately, most were not fatal.

2. Fukushima Daiichi

Date: March 11, 2011

Location: Fukushima, Japan
Deaths: No deaths from radiation; 2,313 indirect deaths during evacuation
Evacuation: 160,000

On March 11, 2011, a 9.0-magnitude earthquake off the northeastern shore of Japan
triggered a deadly tsunami with waves reaching heights of nearly 100 feet (30 meters).
The devastating event, known as the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami, killed more than
19,000 people in Japanese coastal cities and towns.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant was directly in the path of the killer waves
and its backup generators were destroyed by the tsunami. Without power, the plant's
cooling systems were inoperable, causing overheating and meltdowns in three of the
plant's four reactors. There were also hydrogen explosions at the plant.
Fearing a massive radiation leak, Japanese authorities implemented a forced evacuation
of 160,000 in the immediate area, including frail and elderly individuals in hospitals and
nursing homes. The rushed evacuation has been blamed for more than 2,300 deaths.

Thankfully, no deaths or increased cancer diagnoses have been directly attributed to

radiation exposure from the Fukushima Daiichi disaster, according to the U.N. Scientific
Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation.

3. SL-1

This image shows the SL-1 reactor before the explosion. WIKIPEDIA

Date: Jan. 3, 1961

Location: Idaho Falls, Idaho, United States
Deaths: 3
Evacuation: None

This explosion at an experimental nuclear power reactor in Idaho remains the only fatal
nuclear disaster in American history.
The SL-1 reactor was one of 52 small reactors being tested by the military as electrical
generators in this remote part of Idaho. On Jan. 3, the three engineers who operated the
SL-1 reactor returned to work after an 11-day shutdown. While attempting to restart the
reactor, 22-year-old Army Specialist John A. Byrnes accidentally pulled out a control rod
too far, causing the reactor to surge to more than 6,000 times its rated power level.

The heat generated by the power surge instantly vaporized the water in the generator
and created a steam explosion that lifted the entire reactor 9 feet (3 meters) off the
ground. Sadly, the explosion killed all three men on duty. The victims, in addition to
Byrnes, were Navy Seabee Richard C. Legg and Army Specialist Richard Leroy
McKinley. The three men were buried in lead-lined caskets to avoid radiation
contamination.

To recover the men's bodies and clean up the site, 790 workers were exposed to
radiation, but no adverse health effects were reported. And given the remote setting, the
public was also spared.
4. Windscale

Date: Oct. 7-12, 1957

Location: Cumbria, United Kingdom
Deaths: No direct deaths; 240 cancer deaths (estimated) from radiation exposure
Evacuation: None

After World War II, the British government strove to join the ranks of the United States
and the U.S.S.R. as nuclear powers, so the U.K. began constructing facilities to build its
own atomic bombs. One of those was a nuclear reactor called Windscale for
manufacturing weapons-grade plutonium.

Since this was a military reactor, the public was largely ignorant of what was happening
at Windscale, which was why no evacuation was ordered in October 1957 when a
reactor failure triggered a massive fire that burned for 16 hours. Luckily, prevailing winds
blew most of the radiation out to the Irish Sea rather than inland toward populated areas.

In the wake of the accident, the only safety precaution taken by the British government
was to monitor radiation levels in local milk and throw away batches that were
contaminated. Given the amount of radiation released during the fire, scientists estimate
that 240 U.K. cancer deaths should be attributed to the disaster, sometimes called
"Britain's Chernobyl."

5. Three Mile Island

The four cooling towers at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant were not operating after a leak in the
cooling system caused the plant to be shut down, March 28, 1979. BETTMANN/GETTY IMAGES

Date: March 28, 1979

Location: Middletown, Pennsylvania, United States
Deaths: None
Evacuation: 200,000 people (voluntary evacuation)
The near-meltdown at Three Mile Island is the most notorious nuclear incident in
American history, although thankfully there were no deaths and no adverse health effects
from radiation exposure. The psychological damage was significant, though, and the
narrowly averted disaster at Three Mile Island set back support for nuclear power in the
U.S. for decades.

The accident at Three Mile Island was caused by both mechanical failures and human
error. It started with an electrical failure at 4 a.m. that prevented proper cooling of the
reactor core. When the core began to overheat, a pressure release valve automatically
opened, but then failed to close. Not only was radioactive steam being released into the
air, but there wasn't enough coolant in the system.

Because of faulty and misleading indicator lights, plant operators didn't realize any of this
was happening. And once they did, they took steps that only compounded the problems.
At one point, the reactor core reached 4,300 degrees Fahrenheit (2,371 C) dangerously
close to a full meltdown.

As news of the unfolding incident leaked to the press, the Pennsylvania governor
advised all "pregnant women and school-age children" to evacuate the area within a 5-
mile (8-kilometer) radius of Three Mile Island. Thousands of panic-stricken residents fled
the greater Harrisburg area fearing a nuclear disaster.

Ultimately, plant operators averted a meltdown and no significant amount of radiation

was released into the air. Decades of studies and reports have confirmed that nearby
residents were not exposed to dangerous levels of radiation in the air or through
contaminated food.

Now That's Terrible

The deadliest energy-related disaster was the tragic 1975
collapse of the Banqiao Hydroelectric Dam in China due to
 torrential rainfall from Typhoon Nina, which resulted in at
least 150,000 direct and indirect (drinking water
contamination) deaths.

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