Risk of LWRs - The Risks of Nuclear Energy Technology - page 167

Hurricanes
Floods
Earthquakes
Avalanches, Landslide
Volcanic eruptions
Arrows indicate upper
limits of respective
frequency of occurrence
Fatalities
Fig. 8.2 Fatalities (deaths) occurring in natural disasters
In the nuclear industry various accidents occurred with radioactivity releases,
causing either no or—e.g. in case of Chernobyl—a high number of casualties (see
Sect. 9.2 ) . These are the accidents of Windscale England), Tomsk, Lake Karachay,
Chelyabinsk (Russia) and Three-Mile-Island (USA). These reactor accidents are
overshadowed by the severe nuclear accidents of Chernobyl (Ukraine) and
Fukushima (Japan) described in Chap. 9 .
8.3 Natural Disasters
It is interesting in this connection to have a look also at the consequences of natural
disasters mankind must suffer as inescapable (Fig. 8.2 )[ 4 ]. These are
- natural disasters,
- hurricanes,
- floods, including tsunamis
- earthquakes,
- avalanches and landslides,
- volcanic eruptions.
The frequency of occurrence of such natural disasters is far higher than, e.g., that
of major accidents in power generation systems. They can cause up to 10 5 deaths
[ 4 , 6 , 11 ].