This from CNN’s Glossary for Fukushima Daiichi crises. Three place names to ponder:
Three Mile Island – USA: A nuclear power plant near Middletown, Pennsylvania, which was the site of the worst nuclear power disaster in the United States. A partial core meltdown occurred in 1979. The plant had containment units, so the release of radioactive material into the environment was minimal. The incident caused no injuries or deaths, and only low levels of radiation were found in plants and animals, experts said.
Chernobyl: The site, in northern Ukraine, of the world’s worst nuclear power plant disaster. A meltdown, explosion and fire at the site on April 26, 1986, sent a large radiation cloud over much of Europe and contaminated large areas of then-Soviet Ukraine, Russia and Belarus. Thousands of deaths are said to be attributed to the disaster, and Ukraine’s health ministry estimated that one-sixteenth of its population of 49 million was suffering from grave health disorders related to the incident. The disaster led to thousands of cases of childhood thyroid cancer, according to Dr. Ira Helfand of Physicians for Social Responsibility, which opposes the use of nuclear power.
Fukushima Daiichi, Japan: The location where we find our friends in crises, Nippon.
For other terms like: Boiling-water nuclear reactor, boric acid, control rod, fission, fuel rod, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA; International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale (INES); radiation, reactor core, Sievert (and millisievert), spent nuclear fuel, spent fuel storage pool… go here to see what Aaron Brodie has thrown together at CNN.
~Posted by Horiwood.Com, Hollywood California USA. 3.17.11~