Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Although not linked to the exploitation of nuclear energy, in 1979 there was
another serious technological disaster, the so called Sverdlovsk anthrax leak. The
accident occurred when there was an accidental release of anthrax spores from a
military facility for treatment of biological weapons located in the city of Sver-
dlovsk in the Soviet Union. The
nal death toll was about a hundred victims.
Although the Soviet Union authorities denied, because of military secrecy, the
Sverdlovsk incident was one of the
rst documented cases of contamination by
biological agents.
8.6 Technological Disasters During the World Risk Society:
From Bhopal to Fukushima
The accident in Bhopal, the worst technological disaster ever happened instead was
the
rst example of industrial disaster in the age of globalization. On the night of 2
December 1984 a deadly cloud of methyl isocyanate, leaked from the Bhopal
chemical plant in India, owned by American multinational Union Carbide, and
resulted in the following days about 20,000 deaths and a number of intoxicated that
was calculated between 200,000 and the half-million. That of Bhopal has been
considered a component failure accident, a disaster caused by a series of deliberate
omissions, disorganization and of sloppy management. Despite some earlier epi-
sodes, in fact, the plant continued in producing and stocking large quantities of
highly toxic chemicals that were later the cause of the disaster. 27
The case of Bhopal has thus helped to develop a different sensibility towards this
type of disasters that lead to the adoption of some legislation that impose an
assessment of the possible harmful consequences of the processing of toxic
chemicals, taking into account the so-called worst-case scenario. Moreover, despite
the resistance of Union Carbide, the incident has raised the issue of the proper
taking of responsibility by the large multinational corporations for accidents with
catastrophic consequences for the population and the environment occurred in their
industrial facilities.
Apart from being one of the most serious technological accidents ever occurred
in history, the accident at Chernobyl, in its dynamics, was also a paradigmatic event
not only from the point of view of the emergency management. The incident
happened April 26 1986 in the nuclear power station at Chernobyl, in Ukraine, then
in the Soviet Union and was caused by overheating of a reactor during a test. The
heat and the excessive pressure caused an explosion then a
re. In the same time, a
cloud of highly radioactive material was released in the environment. 28
Although Soviet authorities were aware of the seriousness of the accident, they
organized operations of
re containment and control the leakage of radiation from
27 Shrivastava ( 1987 ).
28 Mould ( 2000 ).
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