Nuclear Power Stations

Nuclear Safety Research

UK Safety Regulation:

HSE regulates the nuclear industry through its Nuclear Directorate (ND). The Directorate's primary goal is to ensure that those it regulates have no major nuclear accidents. It is responsible for the UK safety regulation of nuclear power stations, nuclear chemical plants, decommissioning, defence nuclear facilities, nuclear safety research and strategy and since 02 April 2007 for civil nuclear operational security and safeguards matters.Our Mission: "To protect people and society from the hazards of the nuclear industry."

Major Accident:

The "Chernobyl disaster", reactor accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, or simply "Chernobyl" was the worst nuclear power plant accident in history and the only instance so far of level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale, resulting in a severe nuclear meltdown. On 26 April 1986 at 01:23:40 a.m. (UTC+3) reactor number four at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant located in the Soviet Union near Pripyat in Ukraine exploded. Further explosions and the resulting fire sent a plume of highly radioactive fallout into the atmosphere and over an extensive geographical area. The plume drifted over parts of the western Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Northern Europe, and eastern North America. Large areas in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia were badly contaminated, resulting in the evacuation and resettlement of over 336,000 people. According to official post-Soviet data, about 60% of the radioactive fallout landed in Belarus.

Chernobyl happened over twenty years ago but it is still a a problem not resolved. It has cost billions to clean up and at the moment the Chernobyl Shelter Fund is building a 2 billion EUR shelter to cover the site.

What we learned: Since Chernobyl every country