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It was just more than 30 years ago when no one noticed that a valve had opened in Three Mile Island's Unit 2 reactor allowing reactor coolant to escape. That mechanical failure was followed by a series of bad decisions that led not only to the fuel core starting to melt but also to detectable radiation being released into the air and water. It was the worst nuclear power plant accident in the United States. There were many issues and lessons learned. We thought one of them was the need for honesty and transparency from the owners of the nuclear facility. Former Gov. Dick Thornburgh was in office for just 72 days when the call came about the accident. In 1999, he offered reflections on what happened as events unfolded. One of the things he said was: "The credibility of the utility, in particular, did not fare well. It first seemed to speak with many voices, and then with none at all. On the first day, it made its debut by seeking to minimize the incident - assuring us that 'everything is under control' when we later learned it wasn't, and that 'all safety equipment functioned properly' when we later learned it didn't." And even when company technicians found that radiation levels in the area surrounding the island had climbed above normal, the company neglected to include that information in its statement to the public.

It was just more than 30 years ago when no one noticed that a valve had opened in Three Mile Island's Unit 2 reactor allowing reactor coolant to escape. That mechanical failure was followed by a series of bad decisions that led not only to the fuel core starting to melt but also to detectable radiation being released into the air and water. It was the worst nuclear power plant accident in the United States. There were many issues and lessons learned. We thought one of them was the need for honesty and transparency from the owners of the nuclear facility. Former Gov. Dick Thornburgh was in office for just 72 days when the call came about the accident. In 1999, he offered reflections on what happened as events unfolded. One of the things he said was: "The credibility of the utility, in particular, did not fare well. It first seemed to speak with many voices, and then with none at all. On the first day, it made its debut by seeking to minimize the incident - assuring us that 'everything is under control' when we later learned it wasn't, and that 'all safety equipment functioned properly' when we later learned it didn't." And even when company technicians found that radiation levels in the area surrounding the island had climbed above normal, the company neglected to include that information in its statement to the public.

Gov. Ed Rendell is steamed over a five-hour wait before officials at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant told state officials about a radiation leak. Rendell's letter sent to top Exelon Corp. executives said it is "totally unacceptable" that plant officials waited so long to report Saturday's accident. The accident at the central Pennsylvania plant exposed employees to small amounts of radiation.

Gov. Ed Rendell is steamed over a five-hour wait before officials at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant told state officials about a radiation leak. Rendell's letter sent to top Exelon Corp. executives said it is "totally unacceptable" that plant officials waited so long to report Saturday's accident. The accident at the central Pennsylvania plant exposed employees to small amounts of radiation.

"NEARLY a quarter of a century after the nuclear reactor at Chernobyl in the Ukraine exploded and spewed radioactivity across the world, it has finally stopped making Scottish sheep too "hot" to eat. For the first time since the accident, levels of radioactive contamination in sheep on all Scottish farms dropped below safety limits last month, enabling the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to lift restrictions. Controls on the movement and sale of sheep have been in force since after the explosion in 1986. The Chernobyl reactor near Kiev scattered a massive cloud of radioactivity over Europe after it overheated, caught fire and ripped apart because of errors made by control room staff. It was the world's worst nuclear accident, and has been blamed for causing tens of thousands of deaths from cancers. Peat and grass in upland areas of Scotland were polluted with radioactive caesium-137 released by the reactor, blown across Europe and brought to ground by rain."

At least 20 people have died in an accident on a Russian nuclear submarine when a fire extinguishing system was activated by mistake. Russian Pacific Fleet spokesman Igor Dygalo said both sailors and shipyard workers died in the accident, which occurred during sea trials. The dead were suffocated by freon gas, which is used to put out fires as it removes oxygen from the air.

This study of bone density compares BMD development in 2854 women affected by the Chernobyl nuclear accident with two non-contaminated control groups using the DXL Calscan portable bone densitometer device. By Prof. S.S. Rodionova, CITO (Moscow). A new study has been published in the international journal "Annals of Traumatology and Orthopedics" by a research team led by Prof. S.S. Rodionova, founder of the Russian Osteoporosis Society and Professor of Traumatology at the Central Institute of Traumatology & Orthopedics (CITO). Random bone mineral density testing was performed using the portable DXL Calscan device (Demetech, Sweden) on 2854 women who are now between the ages of 15 and 80 years. The device uses a patented technology of dual energy x-ray and laser (DXL) to better eliminate errors caused by lean soft tissue and fat in DXA devices. The Chernobyl accident of April 1986 caused radioactive contamination to the environment in many communities in the Brjansk region of western Russia, near the Ukraine and Belarus borders. While some specific communities within this region were spared from this contamination, other communities were greatly affected. The effects of the environmental damage caused in the affected communities continue to be seen in the form of health problems for their inhabitants. This study examines the increased risk of osteoporosis and future fragility fractures in affected areas compared to control groups.

Twenty-two years ago, the most serious accident in nuclear history disrupted the lives of millions of people. Massive amounts of radioactive materials were released into the environment resulting in a radioactive cloud that spread over much of Europe. The greatest contamination occurred around the Chernobyl nuclear power station in areas that are now part of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. People in Czechoslovakia were not in acute danger, but like others in the communist block they learnt about the nuclear accident many days after it happened and the media censorship ordered by the communist regime prevented them from taking even the most basic precautions.

Panic gripped many in the city Wednesday after rumors spread that a serious accident had happened at the Leningrad Nuclear Power Station (LAES) in Sosnovy Bor, a town 70 kilometers west of St. Petersburg. The power station operates four Chernobyl-type reactors and has a history of minor accidents.

Twenty-two years ago today the Soviet Union announced that a serious nuclear accident had occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in the Ukraine near the small town of Pripyat 100 kilometres from the capital Kiev. The explosion in reactor number four, which occurred three days before, is the world's worst reactor meltdown, spewing radioactive material across the then Soviet Union and much of northern Europe.

MINSK - Several thousand supporters of Belarus' opposition marched through Minsk on Saturday to commemorate the 22nd anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear accident and protest an alleged government coverup of the disaster's consequences. Many of the 3,000 marchers expressed particular dismay over the government's policy of assigning recent university graduates to work in areas contaminated by the explosion. Reactor No. 4 at Chernobyl, in what is now northern Ukraine, exploded on April 26, 1986, spewing radiation over a large swath of the former Soviet Union and much of northern Europe in the world's worst nuclear accident.

TORONTO, April 25 /CNW Telbec/ - It was safe until the explosion. Tomorrow's anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 recalls all the dangers of nuclear power, vividly portrayed in a new website that poses the question: What if a similar accident happened in Toronto? The site, 30km.ca, superimposes the 30 km evacuation zone that was permanently depopulated after the Chernobyl accident onto the Greater Toronto Area. Using the Pickering nuclear station as the epicenter, the website outlines a disaster scenario that would displace 2.5 million people from Yonge Street to Oshawa.

At a press conference today, the IAEA presented the conclusions of its digest report, "Chernobyl's Legacy: Health, Environmental and Socio-Economic Impacts," just released by the Chernobyl Forum. The digest, based on a three-volume, 600-page report and incorporating the work of hundreds of scientists, economists and health experts, assesses the 20-year impact of the largest nuclear accident in history. According to the Agency "fewer than 50 deaths had been directly attributed to radiation from the disaster, almost all being highly exposed rescue workers, many who died within months of the accident but others who died as late as 2004."

The House of Commons is considering a new law that could increase the liability of companies that operate nuclear facilities if there is an accident. Bill C-20 increases the ultimate cost to a nuclear company from $75 million to $650 million. But the NDP, Bloc and the Liberals are already saying the amount is way too little and want it raised. They point to the limits in other countries, like the U.S., for example, where the ceiling is now $10 billion. All companies there contribute to a fund to help pay for their insurance and potential costs in case of an accident. In Europe and Japan, there is no limit to how much a company would have to pay in the case of a nuclear incident. Under this proposed new bill, any liabilities here over $650 million would be borne by the taxpayer.

Thirty years after the accident at Three Mile Island shattered Americans' trust in nuclear power, lawmakers are touting a nuclear rebirth as a safe, green way to wean the United States off foreign oil. "We have the enormously powerful opportunity for a nuclear renaissance in our country. We need to pursue that aggressively and effectively to meet all of our energy and environmental goals," Senator David Vitter told a hearing of the Senate subcommittee on clean air and nuclear safety this week. No new reactors have been opened in the United States since the accident at Three Mile Island in central Pennsylvania, which began to unfold in the early hours of March 28, 1979 when cooling water started seeping through an open valve in a reactor.

The nuclear powered icebreaker "Yamal" collided with the tanker "Indiga" during ice escort in the Kara Sea last week. The accident occurred in the Gulf of Yenisey on the 16th of March, the Ministry of Transport's Coordination Centre for Salvation Operations at Sea told news agency Sea News. The tanker got a 9.5 meter long crack on the main deck from the impact. The tanker was only carrying ballast at the time, and there was no pollution of the environment in the accident. The 16 168 tons dead weight tanker "Indiga" belongs to Murmansk Shipping Company. It shuttles between the oil terminal in the Gulf of Ob and the floating oil storage vessel "Belokamenka" in the Kola Bay.

Thirty years ago this Saturday, the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania malfunctioned, sparking a meltdown that resulted in the release of radioactivity. It was the worst nuclear accident in US history. The accident at Three Mile Island fueled the nuclear debate in this country that continues to rage to this day. We speak with anti-nuclear activist Harvey Wasserman. [includes rush transcript]

People died--and are still dying--at Three Mile Island. As the thirtieth anniversary of America's most infamous industrial accident approaches, we mourn the deaths that accompanied the biggest string of lies ever told in US industrial history. As news of the accident poured into the global media, the public was assured there were no radiation releases. That quickly proved to be false. The public was then told the releases were controlled and done purposely to alleviate pressure on the core. Both those assertions were false.

"The Swedish government Thursday presented a draft bill that would quadruple the sum owners of nuclear reactors should pay in damages in case of an accident. "The reactor owners should take full responsibility for the security and insurance at nuclear plants," Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren said. At present reactor owners are obliged to cover costs of up to 3 billion kronor (415 million dollars), but the sum should be hiked to 12 billion kronor, according to the government's proposal. The government said reactor owners should sign up to a mutual insurance system, noting that this is in place in other countries. Other options included that the company has to show it has sufficient securities. These would be reviewed by the National Debt Office, Carlgren told reporters. Further, the proposal states that "all assets in a company" could be used to cover the damages, he said. The bill also scraps a previous ban against building new nuclear power reactors, revoking a 1980 referendum decision to phase out nuclear power, Carlgren said but "at most 10 reactors are allowed". "

Count Egon Lamprecht among the thousands of experts still perplexed and haunted by SL-1. Like other experts, Lamprecht has analyzed every detail of the world's first nuclear accident, which on Jan. 3, 1961, killed three men on what's now the site of Idaho National Laboratory. Like them, he knows the improper removal of a control rod from the infamous Stationary Low-Power Reactor Number One, or SL-1, led to a flash heating of water that raised the reactor 9 feet out of its base. In four milliseconds, hundreds of gallons of water were turned into superheated steam.

Count Egon Lamprecht among the thousands of experts still perplexed and haunted by SL-1. Like other experts, Lamprecht has analyzed every detail of the world's first nuclear accident, which on Jan. 3, 1961, killed three men on what's now the site of Idaho National Laboratory. Like them, he knows the improper removal of a control rod from the infamous Stationary Low-Power Reactor Number One, or SL-1, led to a flash heating of water that raised the reactor 9 feet out of its base. In four milliseconds, hundreds of gallons of water were turned into superheated steam.

"There is no doubt that there has been a large increase in thyroid cancer incidence due to Chernobyl. I helped to bring this to public attention in 1992; we later showed that most cases have occurred among those who were young children at the time of exposure to high levels of fallout. This increase, initially seen in children is now occurring in young adults. Your special report on radiation (11 January), using World Health Organisation figures, comments that "only a few children have died of cancers since the accident". Apart from the tragedy of any child's death, measuring the impact only by mortality ignores the morbidity. Thyroid cancer generally has a very high cure rate, but thousands of thyroid operations have been carried out, some followed by multiple treatments and other consequences. The effects on the rest of Europe, largely exposed to low-dose radiation, are much less certain. The widely varying assessments of the numbers of deaths attributable to Chernobyl illustrate the need for a definitive unbiased long-term assessment of the overall consequences of the accident, as well as the need to maintain a sense of perspective."

"Views from the Chernobyl exclusion zone twenty three years after the accident at the nuclear power plant. Communities, families and the land are still suffering after the power plant explosions in 1986. Pripyat, Ukraine. 04/06/2009. On 26 April 1986, the most serious accident in the history of the nuclear industry occurred at Unit 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the former Ukrainian Republic of the Soviet Union. The Nuclear power plants were presented as being an achievement of Soviet engineers, where nuclear power was harnessed for peaceful projects. The slogan "PEACEFUL ATOM" was popular during those times. But, the explosions that rupture the Chernobyl reactor vessel and the consequent fire that continued for 10 days or so resulted in large amounts of radioactive materials being released into the environment."