On October 19, 2016, the Watts Bar Unit 2 reactor finished its final series of testing and became the newest nuclear reactor in commercial operation in the United States, the first in 20 years. Watts Bar Unit 2 isn’t going to be the last nuclear reactor built in the US, 4 new reactors are currently under construction with 18 more being planned. Globally there are 60 nuclear reactors under construction and 164 being planned. Global emphasis on power technologies with low carbon emissions appears to have brought about a resurgence in nuclear power.

Nuclear energy is not a magic bullet for power generation. It has had its fair share of accidents. Nuclear accidents generally invoke thoughts of contaminated exclusion zones rendered uninhabitable for hundreds of thousands of years. The most recent nuclear accident, Fukushima, was most likely responsible for the changing attitudes of the US population on nuclear energy. For the first time a majority of Americans oppose nuclear energy. This is not surprising, it is likely the average American receives most of their information about nuclear energy from mainstream news sources. Such sources rarely publish routine headlines about nuclear power plants operating properly. Civil infrastructure in general only makes the news when there has been an accident. As a result, nuclear energy only appears in the media when there has been a disaster, most likely leading to a misinformed American public.

After a nuclear disaster, a thorough investigation is conducted and the findings are documented. Understanding why the disaster occurred is essential to ensure the same disaster won’t occur again. This is common sense, but when dealing with potentially dangerous nuclear material, it is essential that mistakes are not repeated. If a disaster occurred once, it logically follows that without any changes, the same disaster could occur again. Therefore, these investigations and the subsequent reports are essential to reactor operators, letting them know what actions their employees may be taking are dangerous. In this case learning from example is much better than learning from experience.

Over the next several weeks, I will examine the worst historical nuclear disasters. Fundamentals of nuclear energy must be covered to give one a base point for understanding what can go wrong. After the background of how a nuclear power plant works has been laid some of the early nuclear accidents will be presented. Early accidents occurred during scientists’ experiments with radioactive materials and show us the dangers that these materials pose. Once one understands those things, one can begin to dissect nuclear disasters, primarily by sifting through the disaster investigation reports. I will cover three major disasters: Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Fukushima. Each disaster had a different set of factors that contributed to its development and each has a different resolution. I hope to cover the entire timeline of the plants, from the time of the disaster up to the present. I feel this segmentation provides one the best chance to understand a comprehensive summary of nuclear disasters without making the entirety of this series feel too glum. If nuclear energy is going to be used more in the future, knowing what went wrong may make all of us a little safer.

To understand nuclear disasters one must first understand how a nuclear power plant generates electricity.