"So, apart from Chernobyl, what fatalities ..."B

[Fledermaus]

In 1999 three workers received high doses of radiation in a small Japanese plant preparing fuel for an experimental reactor.
The accident was caused by bringing together too much uranium enriched to a relatively high level, causing a "criticality" (a limited uncontrolled nuclear chain reaction), which continued intermittently for 20 hours.
A total of 119 people received a radiation dose over 1 mSv from the accident, but only the three operators' doses were above permissible limits. Two of the doses proved fatal.
The cause of the accident was "human error and serious breaches of safety principles", according to IAEA.

At the point of criticality, the nuclear fission chain reaction became self-sustaining and began to emit intense gamma and neutron radiation, triggering alarms. There was no explosion, though fission products were progressively released inside the building. The significance of it being a wet process was that the water in the solution provided neutron moderation, expediting the reaction. (Most fuel preparation plants use dry processes.)

The criticality continued intermittently for about 20 hours. It appears that as the solution boiled vigorously, voids formed and criticality ceased, but as it cooled and voids disappeared, the reaction resumed. The reaction was stopped when cooling water surrounding the precipitation tank was drained away, since this water provided a neutron reflector. Boric acid solution (neutron absorber) was finally was added to the tank to ensure that the contents remained subcritical. These operations exposed 27 workers to some radioactivity. The next task was to install shielding to protect people outside the building from gamma radiation from the fission products in the tank. Neutron radiation had ceased.

The three workers concerned were hospitalised, two in a critical condition. One died 12 weeks later, another 7 months later. The three had apparently received full-body radiation doses of 10-20,000, 6-10,000 and 1-5000 millisieverts (about 8000 mSv is normally a fatal dose). Doses for a further 436 people were evaluated, 140 based on measurement and 296 on estimated values. None exceeded 50 mSv (the maximum allowable annual dose), though 56 plant workers exposed accidentally ranged up to 23 mSv and a further 21 workers received elevated doses when draining the precipitation tank. Seven workers immediately outside the plant received doses estimated at 6 - 15 mSv (combined neutron and gamma effects).

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf37.html

Fictionalized Criticality Accident
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G422z8pDn4

[Name removed]

1. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Dogmudgeon]

2. "Fictionalized Criticality Accident"

If there are so many nuclear accidents from which to choose, why do you need to post a fictional one?

:shrug:

--d!
Particularly one that freezes my browser.

[NNadir]

3. Um, because there is only a very, very, very dim concept of reality among anti-nukes?

Mostly they make stuff up and have a very loose grasp on what is real and what is fiction.

[wtmusic]

4. It's solid proof for a fictionalized point of view

In a weird way, it makes sense. :silly:

[TheMadMonk]

5. And yet again the only thing "proven" here is that despite cowboy procedures...

...the safety systems worked exactly as they were supposed to.

The safest of "blue collar" industries is demonstrably far more dangerous that the entirety of the nuclear industry.

People die making cheap t-shirts. More people die moving them from the docks to the stores.

People die.

The only thing that separates a fatal outcome in a nuclear accident and any other run of the mill fatal industrial accident, is that you get to hear you're going to die soon and horribly, when you feel perfectly fine. As opposed to simply waking up dead, or if unlucky getting a brief opportunity to examine your entrails, before you wake up dead.

Oh and the simple fact that it happens far far less often in the nuclear industry than anywhere else.