March 28, 1979 – Partial Nuclear Meltdown at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Power Plant in Pennsylvania

On this day in history the Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant near Middletown, Pennsylvania experienced a partial meltdown in one of the two reactors on site, releasing of a small amount of radioactive gases and iodine into the environment. It was the most serious accident in U.S. commercial nuclear power plant operating history. The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission stated in its “Backgrounder on the Three Mile Island Accident”:

A combination of personnel error, design deficiencies, and component failures caused the TMI accident, which permanently changed both the nuclear industry and the NRC. Public fear and distrust increased, NRC’s regulations and oversight became broader and more robust, and management of the plants was scrutinized more carefully.”

After stabilization and clean-up, the TMI-2 reactor was permanently shut down.

Three Mile Island nuclear power plant via Wikimedia Commons

March 11, 2011 – Nuclear Accident at Fukushima Nuclear Plant in Japan

On March 11, 2011, a magnitude-9 earthquake shook northeastern Japan.

Less than an hour after the earthquake, the first of many tsunami waves hit Japan’s coastline. The tsunami waves reached run-up heights (how far the wave surges inland above sea level) of up to 128 feet and traveled inland as far as 6 miles. The tsunami flooded an estimated area of approximately 217 square miles in Japan.

Eleven reactors at four nuclear power plants in the region were operating at the time and all shut down automatically when the earthquake hit. Subsequent inspection showed no significant damage to any from the earthquake, but the tsunami was another story.

Besides resulting in some 15-19,000 deaths, the 49-foot tsunami disabled the power supply and cooling of three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant; all three cores largely melted in the first three days. Four additional reactors were damaged.

After two weeks, the three disabled reactors (units 1-3) were stable with water addition and by July they were being cooled with recycled water from the new treatment plant.

There were no deaths or cases of radiation sickness attributed to the nuclear accident, but over 100,000 people were evacuated from their homes.

You can read more about the nuclear accident on the World Nuclear Association website, here.

December 8, 1953 – Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” Speech

On this day in history, President Dwight Eisenhower delivered a speech to the 470th Plenary Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.

He admitted that the United States no longer held a monopoly of atomic power. He suggested that the knowledge to make weapons of mass destruction then possessed by only a few nations “will eventually be shared by others, possibly all others.”

Nevertheless, he suggested:

… even a vast superiority in numbers of weapons, and a consequent capability of devastating retaliation, is no preventive, of itself, against the fearful material damage and toll of human lives that would be inflicted by surprise aggression.”

Thus, he proposed that the U.S. meet with other countries “to seek ‘an acceptable solution’ to the atomic armaments race which overshadows not only the peace, but the very life, of the world.”

He also proposed that world-wide investigation into peacetime uses of fissionable material be encouraged, while at the same time diminishing stockpiles of atomic weapons.

President Eisenhower addressing the United Nations concerning the Atom Bomb Plan, 1953. (Credit: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

He concluded:

Against the dark background of the atomic bomb, the United States does not wish merely to present strength, but also the desire and the hope for peace.The coming months will be fraught with fateful decisions. In this Assembly, in the capitals and military headquarters of the world, in the hearts of men everywhere, be they governed or governors, may they be the decisions which will lead this world out of fear and into peace.

To the making of these fateful decisions, the United States pledges before you, and therefore before the world, its determination to help solve the fearful atomic dilemma – to devote its entire heart and mind to finding the way by which the miraculous inventiveness of man shall not be dedicated to his death, but consecrated to his life.”

You can read the text of the entire speech here.

August 3, 1958 – U.S. Nuclear-Powered Sub Makes First Undersea Voyage to the Geographic North Pole

In July of 1951, Congress authorized construction of the world’s first nuclear powered submarine. After nearly 18 months of construction, the USS Nautilus was launched on January 21, 1954. Eight months later, on September 30, 1954, the Nautilus became the first commissioned nuclear powered ship in the United States Navy.

On the morning of January 17, 1955, the first commanding officer ordered all lines cast off and signaled the memorable and historic message, “Underway On Nuclear Power.” Over the next several years, Nautilus shattered all submerged speed and distance records.

USS Nautilus

The vessel was the first submarine to complete a submerged transit of the North Pole on this day in history. As the online site of the USS Nautilus museum in Groton, Connecticut recounts:

On July 23, 1958, NAUTILUS departed Pearl Harbor, Hawaii under top secret orders to conduct “Operation Sunshine”, the first crossing of the North Pole by a ship. At 11:15 pm on August 3, 1958, NAUTILUS’ second Commanding Officer, Commander William R. Anderson, announced to his crew, “For the world, our country, and the Navy – the North Pole.” With 116 men aboard, NAUTILUS had accomplished the “impossible”, reaching the geographic North Pole – 90 degrees North.”

The Nautilus was decommissioned in 1980 after a 25-year career that included traveling more than a half-million miles. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1982. The submarine has been preserved as a museum ship at the Submarine Force Library and Museum in Groton, Connecticut, where the vessel receives around 250,000 visitors per year.

June 27, 1954 – World’s First Nuclear Generator Begins Production in Obninsk, USSR

On this day in history, the first nuclear power plant to be connected to an external grid went operational in Obninsk. The city is located on the main rail line between Moscow and Kiev and at the intersection of Kiev and Warsaw highways.

Obninsk APS-1 was the first nuclear power plant in the world.

The plant generated five megawatts, enough power to support two thousand homes, and established Obninsk as a center for Russian research in nuclear physics similar to Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

The original plant in Obninsk had a single water-cooled uranium-graphite channel-type reaction. It operated for forty-eight years, until it was decommissioned in 2002.

In 2000, Obninsk was awarded the status of the First Science City of Russia. Today, the city is still home to twelve scientific research institutes, and has a bandy club called Atom. (Bandy is a team winter sport played on ice, in which skaters use sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team’s goal.)

Bandy in Action

Obninsk claims Oak Ridge, Tennessee, as a sister city. Oak Ridge was a production site for the Manhattan Project — the massive American, British, and Canadian operation that developed the atomic bomb. It is still the site of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which focuses on research in the fields of neutron science, energy, high-performance computing, systems biology and national security.

April 26, 1986 – Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Accident

On this day in history, the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine exploded, creating what has been described as the worst nuclear disaster the world has ever seen.

The four reactors at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant were located about 81 miles north of the city of Kiev, Ukraine.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, the explosion put 400 times more radiation into the Earth’s atmosphere than did the atomic bombing of Hiroshima at the end of World War II. An uninhabitable exclusion zone with a radius of 19 miles still surrounds Chernobyl today.

There are two recent books out about the incident. You can read reviews of Midnight in Chernobyl: The Untold Story of the World’s Greatest Nuclear Disaster by Adam Higginbotham and A Chernobyl Guide to the Future by Kate Brown here.

The reviewer notes that “Adam Higginbotham’s ‘Midnight in Chernobyl’ is a gripping, miss-your-subway-stop read. . . . Higginbotham captures the nerve-racked Soviet atmosphere brilliantly, mostly through vivid details about the participants.” Of the other book he says, “Kate Brown’s ‘Manual for Survival’ has a different style and emphasis. Its aim is to be an exposé of the attempts to minimize the impact of Chernobyl.”