Chapter 12 - Experience with Radioactive Contamination Due to Accidents

Abstract

Contamination of the environment by radioactivity has occurred in a number of countries as a result of accidents or from the routine activities of industrial facilities. The nuclear weapons production complexes of the United States and former Soviet Union have been particularly important in this regard, although there are a number of other examples, some of which occurred early in this century in the processing of radium and other naturally occurring substances. As a result of nuclear weapons testing worldwide contamination has occurred… Waste management and the remediation of sites contaminated as a result of deliberate disposal practices or poor operating practices are discussed in this chapter. An example of an accident that caused severe plant damage but neither injury nor environmental contamination was the 1966 meltdown of the small Enrico Fermi reactor located on the western shore of Lake Erie near Monroe, Michigan. Considering the size and complexity of the nuclear energy industry, the occupational safety record in the United States and most other countries has been excellent during its 50-year history. The accidents described in the chapter are selected for either their historical importance or what can be learned from them.