Atomic Accidents: A History of Nuclear Meltdowns and Disasters: From the Ozark Mountains to Fukushima

^{Chapter 9. An aerial shot of the Chernobyl-4 power reactor in Ukraine, USSR, after it had exploded in 1986 and the smoke had cleared. It is completely destroyed and is unrecognizable as a power plant.}

^{Chapter 9. Chernobyl-4 after it has exploded in 1986 but as the fire still burns in what remains of the graphite moderator. This photo was taken by a helicopter flying near and risking a dangerous radiation dose.}

^{This is the author, operating the Emergency Response Data System end of the Safety Parameter Display System (SPDS) in the control room of the E. I. Hatch Nuclear Power Station. It was built to withstand a force-9 earthquake.}

^{Chapter 10. I made this picture inside the reactor vessel of a General Electric BWR/4 with a Mark I containment, exactly as used at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan. I was standing on the steam separator, shooting down at the upper fuel-support plate. The fuel assemblies plug into the round openings in the plate, and cooling water flows upward through the holes. The large hoses are ventilation so we can breathe, and there is a large vacuum cleaner on the support plate to remove the dust we track in.}

^{Chapter 10. I made this picture standing in the wet well of a General Electric Mark I containment structure, exactly as used in reactors at Fukushima Daiichi. You can see the wall curving upward into a large sphere. In the middle is the outlet diffuser for one of eight vent lines, intended to conduct a blast of suddenly escaped steam downward into the torus, where it will be quenched in the pool of cool water. The ladder in the middle gives some perspective.}

^{Chapter 10. I made this picture standing in the torus (wet well) of a General Electric Mark I containment structure. As you can see, it’s as big as a subway tunnel. We were standing on a catwalk, below which is the pool of water. The large tubular structure on the right is the vent header, built to distribute a massive steam pulse coming down the vent lines into 96 smaller pipes that release the steam under the water.}

^{Chapter 10. This cutaway diagram shows the relationships among the dry well “inverted lightbulb,” the wet well or “torus,” and the reactor vessel, which stands upright inside the dry well. The refueling machine runs on rails in the building’s top floor. It was this top floor, having thin walls, that was destroyed in the hydrogen explosions, and not the heavy concrete building that extends one floor underground.}

^{Chapter 10. The Fukushima Daiichi power plant on the east coast of Japan after the earthquake in 2011. This picture was shot by an unmanned drone aircraft flying over the site on March 24, 2011. The reactor buildings of Units 3 and 4 are shown, dismantled by hydrogen gas explosions. The damage, which appears devastating, is not quite as bad as it looks. The top floors of the reactor buildings, which were built only to keep rain off the refueling equipment, have been blown away, but the solid concrete structures that hold the reactors and the fuel pools are all intact.}

Bibliography

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Chapter 1: We Discover Fire

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Chapter 2: World War II, and Danger Beyond Comprehension

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Chapter 3: A Bit of Trouble in the Great White North

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Chapter 4: Birthing Pains in Idaho