1. Environmental News Channel 24: Past nuclear power plants accident reports starts now.

2. Hello and welcome to News Channel 24, I’m Danielle
Hello and welcome to News Channel 24, I’m Danielle. The explosions and nuclear fuel rods melting at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant, following the Sendai earthquake and tsunami last week, have caused fears of what will happen next. Let’s go back in time to remind people of past disasters. 82
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Danielle
Environmental News

3. 24 Jorgie Environmental News
Good afternoon, my name is Jorgie and I am reporting to you live from Chalk River, Ontario. Back in 1952 the NRX reactor at this plant underwent a violent power excursion that destroyed the core of the reactor, causing some fuel melting. As you can see behind me, the picture taken shows the power plant violently bursting. Unfortunately, the shut-off rods failed to fully descend into the core. A series of hydrogen gas explosions or steam explosions launched the four-ton gasholder dome four feet through the air where it jammed in the superstructure. Thousands of units of radioactive substances of fission products were released into the atmosphere, and a million gallons of radioactively contaminated water had to be pumped out of the basement and "disposed of" in shallow trenches not far from the Ottawa River. 82
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Jorgie
Environmental News

4. 24 Jorgie Environmental News
The core of the NRX reactor could not be decontaminated, but had to be buried as radioactive waste. Over a thousand men were involved in the cleanup. Official AECL reports stress that very few of these men were over-exposed to radiation The reports also imply that no adverse health effects were caused by the exposures received. However, no medical follow-up has ever been done to see whether the population of men involved exhibited a higher-than-normal incidence of cancer later in life. Thanks for listening, now to Christina on other reports. 82
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Jorgie
Environmental News

5. 24 Christina Environmental News
Thank you Jorgie. Hello, my name is Christina and I am standing here in Kyshtym, at Mayak a nuclear fuel processing plant in Russia where a level 6 nuclear catastrophe occurred. The tanks were located underground, and the waste that was stored in them was kept there for a period of up to a year before being reprocessed. A cooling system failure occurred in one of the tanks, which caused all of the coolant in the facility to evaporate. Gradually, the tanks began to heat up, and when the temperature hit degrees C the explosion occurred. It hit with such force that 20 million curies of radiation were released into the immediate area. 82
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Christina
Environmental News

6. 24 Christina Environmental News
The poisonous effects of the radiation were stunning. 10,000 people were evacuated, but by the time that had occurred 270,000 people in the immediate area had been exposed to high amounts of radiation. As the cloud of radioactivity spread, this number grew to 470, people died from firsthand effects of the accident, while thousands of others would grow sick over the ensuing years. Agriculture in the area was also seriously affected, with plants and livestock dying off and the ground essentially polluted beyond recovery and much of the existing food supply in the region had to be destroyed due to contamination by radioactivity. Now over to Jackie who’s live at Three Mile Island. 82
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Christina
Environmental News

7. 24 Jackie Environmental News
Thank you Christina. I’m reporting live at Three Mile Island, a nuclear power plant near Middletown, Pennsylvania in the US. A cooling malfunction caused part of the core to melt and destroying reactor# It occurred when a minor malfunction in the secondary cooling circuit caused the temperature in the primary coolant to rise. This in turn caused the reactor to shut down automatically. The shut down took about one second. At this point, a relief valve failed to close and so much of the primary coolant drained away that the remaining decay heat in the reactor core was not removed. The core suffered severe damage as a result. The operators were unable to diagnose or respond properly to the unplanned automatic shutdown of the reactor. Deficient control room instrumentation and inadequate emergency response training proved to be root causes of the accident. 82
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Jackie
Environmental News

8. 24 Jackie Environmental News
Some radioactive gas was released a couple of days after the accident, but not enough to cause any dose above background levels to local residents. Even though the mishap led to no deaths or injuries to plant workers or members of the nearby community it was still the most serious nuclear power plant disaster in the US. It brought about sweeping changes involving emergency response planning, reactor operator training, human factors engineering, radiation protection, and many other areas of nuclear power plant operations. It also caused the US. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to tighten and heighten its regulatory oversight. Resultant changes in the nuclear power industry and at the NRC had the effect of enhancing safety. Behind me is a picture of the Tree Mile Island power plant. On the left, outlined in red is the deactivated reactor #2. 82
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Jackie
Environmental News

9. 24 Brianna Environmental News
Good evening, I’m Brianna and I’m standing here at Chernobyl, a nuclear power plant in Ukraine where a level 7 tragedy occurred.
Authorized personal were conducting a test procedure
on reactor #4, when an uncontrollable power surge
resulted leading to a powerful steam explosion and fire.
The explosions blew the 2,000-ton lid off the top of the
reactor and destroyed the surrounding building.
Radioactive gases and particles were released
into the atmosphere. Like numerous people at the
Fukushima power plant, an estimated 4,000 people at
Chernobyl had fatalities due to exposure of elevated doses of radiation. 82
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Brianna
Environmental News

10. 24 Brianna Environmental News
Also several people died and like the other power plant disasters, this area received a permanent loss of large areas of habitable land. The next task was cleaning up the radioactivity at the site so that the remaining three reactors could be restarted, and to shield the damaged reactor more permanently. About 200,000 people from all over the Soviet Union were involved in the recovery and clean-up. As a result, they received high doses of radiation. Thank you for listening. 82
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Brianna
Environmental News

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