nuclear accident
Chernobyl-type catastrophe
A nuclear accident is an unintended event at a nuclear facility—typically a power plant—that releases radioactive material or poses danger to workers, the public, or the environment.
The term covers everything from minor containment breaches to catastrophic meltdowns like Chernobyl and Fukushima.
The plant was shut down after a nuclear accident contaminated nearby groundwater.
- equipment failureMachinery breakdown
- radiation exposureContact with ionizing energy
- radiation sicknessIllness from ionizing exposure
- silent killerAsymptomatic lethal condition
- human errorMistakes by people
safety protocols · Chernobyl disaster · cooling systems · natural disasters · psychological trauma · control rods · health effects · design flaws · Three Mile Island · no-go zone · exclusion zone · dead zone · reactor cores · disaster drills · environmental contamination · cyberattacks · Fukushima · sabotage
- disastersdisaster, earthquake, earthquakes, catastrophe, floods
- accidentsmishap, collision, car crash, motorcycle crash, fumble
- crisescrisis, emergency, disaster, natural disaster, catastrophe
- nuclear radiationradiation exposure, radiation poisoning, radioactive isotopes, fallout, cesium-137
- eco-disastersclimate collapse, oil spill, ocean warming, coral bleaching, biodiversity loss
nuclear, accident, nucleus, nuclei, nucleic, nucleate, nucleated, nucleotide, nucleotides