[C2C]

6.
Radiological Weapons

It is feared that a terrorist group could detonate a radiological or "dirty bomb." A "dirty bomb" is composed of any radioactive source and a conventional explosive. The radioactive material is dispersed by the detonation of the explosive. Detonation of such a weapon is not as powerful as a nuclear blast, but can produce considerable radioactive fallout. There are other radiological weapons called radiological exposure devices where an explosive is not necessary. A radiological weapon may be very appealing to terrorist groups as it is highly successful in instilling fear and panic amongst a population (particularly because of the threat of radiation poisoning), and would contaminate the immediate area for some period of time, disrupting attempts to repair the damage and subsequently inflicting significant economic losses.

Nuclear weapons materials on the black market are a global concern,[16][17] and there is concern about the possible detonation of a small, crude nuclear weapon by a terrorist group in a major city, with significant loss of life and property.[18][19]

According to leaked diplomatic documents, al-Qaeda is on the verge of producing radiological weapons, after sourcing nuclear material and recruiting rogue scientists to build "dirty bombs".[20]
Terrorist Groups

Al-Qaeda, along with some North Caucasus terrorist groups that seek to establish an Islamic Caliphate in Russia, have consistently stated they seek nuclear weapons and have tried to acquire them.[9] Al-Qaeda has sought nuclear weapons for almost two decades by attempting to purchase stolen nuclear material and weapons and has sought nuclear expertise on numerous occasions. Osama bin Laden has stated that the acquisition of nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction is a “religious duty.”[21] While pressure from a wide range of counter-terrorist activity has hampered Al-Qaeda’s ability to manage such a complex project, there is no sign that it has jettisoned its goals of acquiring fissile material. Statements made as recently as 2008 indicate that Al-Qaeda’s nuclear ambitions are still very strong.[9]

North Caucasus terrorists have attempted to seize a nuclear submarine armed with nuclear weapons. They have also engaged in reconnaissance activities on nuclear storage facilities and have repeatedly threatened to sabotage nuclear facilities. Similar to Al-Qaeda, these groups’ activities have been hampered by counter-terrorism activity; nevertheless they remain committed to launching such a devastating attack within Russia.[9]

The Japanese terror cult Aum Shinrikyo, which used nerve gas to attack a Tokyo subway in 1995, has also tried to acquire nuclear weapons. However, according to nuclear terrorism researchers at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, there is no evidence that they continue to do so.[9]
Alleged Nuclear Terrorism and Theft of Material

There have been 18 incidences of theft or loss of highly enriched uranium (HEU) and plutonium confirmed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).[21]
Security specialist Shaun Gregory argued in an article that terrorists have attacked Pakistani nuclear facilities three times in the recent past; twice in 2007 and once in 2008.[22]
In November 2007, burglars with unknown intentions infiltrated the Pelindaba nuclear research facility near Pretoria, South Africa. The burglars escaped without acquiring any of the uranium held at the facility.[23][24]
In June 2007, the Federal Bureau of Investigation released to the press the name of Adnan Gulshair el Shukrijumah, allegedly the operations leader for developing tactical plans for detonating nuclear bombs in several American cities simultaneously.[25]
In November 2006, MI5 warned that al-Qaida were planning on using nuclear weapons against cities in the United Kingdom by obtaining the bombs via clandestine means.[26]
In February 2006, Oleg Khinsagov of Russia was arrested in Georgia, along with three Georgian accomplices, with 79.5 grams of 89 percent enriched HEU.[21]
The Alexander Litvinenko poisoning with radioactive polonium "represents an ominous landmark: the beginning of an era of nuclear terrorism," according to Andrew J. Patterson.[27]
In June 2002, U.S. citizen Jose Padilla was arrested for allegedly planning a radiological attack on the city of Chicago; however, he was never charged with such conduct. He was instead convicted of charges that he conspired to "murder, kidnap and maim" people overseas.

Pakistan

After several incidents in Pakistan in which terrorists attacked three of its military nuclear facilities, it became clear that there emerged a serious danger that they would gain access to the country’s nuclear arsenal, according to a journal published by the US Military Academy at West Point.[28] In January 2010, it was revealed that the US army was training a specialised unit "to seal off and snatch back" Pakistani nuclear weapons in the event that militants would obtain a nuclear device or materials that could make one. Pakistan supposedly possesses about 80 nuclear warheads. US officials refused to speak on the record about the American safety plans.[29]

A study by Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University titled "Securing the Bomb 2010," found that Pakistan's stockpile "faces a greater threat from Islamic extremists seeking nuclear weapons than any other nuclear stockpile on earth."[30]

According to Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, a former investigator with the CIA and the US Department of Energy, there is "a greater possibility of a nuclear meltdown in Pakistan than anywhere else in the world. The region has more violent extremists than any other, the country is unstable, and its arsenal of nuclear weapons is expanding."[31]

Nuclear weapons expert David Albright and author of "Peddling Peril" has also expressed concerns that Pakistan's stockpile may not be secure despite assurances by both Pakistan and U.S. government. He stated that Pakistan "has had many leaks from its program of classified information and sensitive nuclear equipment, and so you have to worry that it could be acquired in Pakistan," [32]

A 2010 study by the Congressional Research Service titled 'Pakistan’s Nuclear Weapons: Proliferation and Security Issues' noted that even though Pakistan had taken several steps to enhance nuclear security in recent years, "instability in Pakistan has called the extent and durability of these reforms into question."[33]
United States

President Barack Obama has reviewed Homeland Security policy and concluded that "attacks using improvised nuclear devices ... pose a serious and increasing national security risk".[34] In their presidential contest, President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry both agreed that the most serious danger facing the United States is the possibility that terrorists could obtain a nuclear bomb.[35] Most nuclear-weapon analysts agree that "building such a device would pose few technological challenges to reasonably competent terrorists". The main barrier is acquiring highly enriched uranium.[36]

Despite a number of claims,[37][38] there is no credible evidence that any terrorist group has yet succeeded in obtaining a nuclear bomb or the materials needed to make one.[35][39] In 2004, Graham Allison, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense during the Clinton administration, wrote that “on the current path, a nuclear terrorist attack on America in the decade ahead is more likely than not".[40] However, in 2004, Bruce Blair, president of the Center for Defense Information stated: "I wouldn't be at all surprised if nuclear weapons are used over the next 15 or 20 years, first and foremost by a terrorist group that gets its hands on a Russian nuclear weapon or a Pakistani nuclear weapon".[19] In 2006, Robert Gallucci, Dean of the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, estimated that, “it is more likely than not that al-Qaeda or one of its affiliates will detonate a nuclear weapon in a U.S. city within the next five to ten years."[40]

Detonation of a nuclear weapon in a major U.S. city could kill more than 500,000 people and cause more than a trillion dollars in damage.[18][19] Hundreds of thousands could die from fallout, the resulting fires and collapsing buildings. In this scenario, uncontrolled fires would burn for days and emergency services and hospitals would be completely overwhelmed.[35][41][42]

The Obama administration will focus on reducing the risk of high-consequence, non-traditional nuclear threats. Nuclear security is to be strengthened by enhancing "nuclear detection architecture and ensuring that our own nuclear materials are secure," and by "establishing well-planned, well-rehearsed, plans for co-ordinated response."[34] According to senior Pentagon officials, the United States will make "thwarting nuclear-armed terrorists a central aim of American strategic nuclear planning."[43] Nuclear attribution is another strategy being pursued to counter terrorism. Led by the National Technical Nuclear Forensics Center, attribution would allow the government to determine the likely source of nuclear material used in the event of a nuclear attack. This would prevent terrorist groups, and any states willing to help them, from being able to pull off a covert attack without assurance of retaliation.[44]

In July 2010 medical personnel from the U.S. Army practiced the techniques they would use to treat people injured by an atomic blast. The exercises were carried out at a training center in Indiana, and were set up to "simulate the aftermath of a small nuclear bomb blast, set off in a U.S. city by terrorists."[45]
Recovering Lost Weapons and Material

In 2004, the U.S. Global Threat Reduction Initiative (GTRI) was established in order to consolidate nuclear stockpiles of highly enriched uranium (HEU), plutonium, and assemble nuclear weapons at fewer locations.[46] Additionally, the GTRI converted HEU fuels to low-enriched uranium (LEU) fuels, which has prevented their use in making a nuclear bomb. HEU that has not been converted to LEU has been shipped back to secure sites, while amplified security measures have taken hold around vulnerable nuclear facilities.[47]

In August 2002, the United States launched a program to track and secure enriched uranium from 24 Soviet-style reactors in 16 countries, in order to reduce the risk of the materials falling into the hands of terrorists or "rogue states". The first such operation was Project Vinca, "a multinational, public-private effort to remove nuclear material from a poorly-secured Yugoslav research institute." The project has been hailed as "a nonproliferation success story" with the "potential to inform broader 'global cleanout' efforts to address one of the weakest links in the nuclear nonproliferation chain: insufficiently secured civilian nuclear research facilities."[48]

The Cooperative Threat Reduction Program (CTR), which is also known as the Nunn–Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction, is a 1992 law sponsored by Senators Sam Nunn and Richard Lugar. The CTR established a program that gave the U.S. Department of Defense a direct stake in securing loose fissile material inside the since-dissolved USSR. According to Graham Allison, director of Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, this law is a major reason why not a single nuclear weapon has been discovered outside the control of Russia’s nuclear custodians.[49]

7.
Before 1950s

Clarence Madison Dally (1865–1904) - No INES level - New Jersey - Overexposure of laboratory worker
Various dates - No INES level - France - Overexposure of scientists
Marie Curie (1867–1934) was a Polish-French physicist and chemist. She was a pioneer in the early field of radioactivity, later becoming the first two-time Nobel laureate and the only person with Nobel Prizes in physics and chemistry. Her death, at age 67, in 1934 was from aplastic anemia due to massive exposure to radiation in her work,[1] much of which was carried out in a shed with no proper safety measures being taken, as the damaging effects of hard radiation were not generally understood at that time. She was known to carry test tubes full of radioactive isotopes in her pocket, and to store them in her desk drawer, resulting in massive exposure to radiation. She was known to remark on the pretty blue-green light the metals gave off in the dark. Because of their levels of radioactivity, her papers from the 1890s are considered too dangerous to handle. Even her cookbook is highly radioactive. They are kept in lead-lined boxes, and those who wish to consult them must wear protective clothing.[2]
Various dates - No INES level - various locations - Overexposure of workers
Luminescent radium was used to paint watches and other items that glowed. The most famous incident is the Radium girls of Orange, New Jersey where a large number of workers got radiation poisoning. Other towns including Ottawa, Illinois experienced contamination of homes and other structures and became Superfund cleanup sites.
Various dates - No INES Level - Colorado, USA - Contamination
Radium mining and manufacturing left a number of streets in the state's capital and largest city of Denver contaminated.[3]
1927–1930 - No INES Level - USA - Radium poisoning
Eben Byers ingests almosts 1400 bottles of Radithor, a radioactive patent medicine, leading to his death in 1932. He is buried in Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in a lead-lined coffin.[4]

1950s

March, 1957 - No INES level - Houston, Texas, USA - Exposure of workers
Two employees of a company licensed by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission to encapsulate sources for radiographic cameras received radiation burns after being exposed to Ir192(Iridium-192) powder. The incident was reported in Look Magazine in 1961, but investigations published by the Mayo Clinic that same year found few of the radiological injuries claimed in widespread press reports.

1970s

1977 — Dounreay, UK — - release of nuclear material

An explosion at the research establishment causes a mixture of unrecorded waste to be leaked from a waste disposal shaft.[5]

July 16, 1979 – Church Rock, New Mexico – release of radioactive mine tailings

An earth/clay dike of an United Nuclear Corporation's uranium mill's settling/evaporating pond failed. The broken dam released 100 million U.S. gallons (380,000 m³) of radioactive liquids and 1,100 short tons (1,000 metric tonnes) of solid wastes, which settled out up to 70 miles (100 km) down the Puerco River[6] and also near a Navaho farming community that uses surface waters. The pond was past its planned and licensed life and had been filled two feet (60 cm) deeper than design, despite evident cracking.

See also: Church Rock uranium mill spill

September 29, 1979 - Tritium leak at American Atomics in Tucson, Arizona at the public school across the street from the plant. $300,000 worth of food was found to be contaminated; the chocolate cake had 56 nCi/L. By contrast, the EPA safety limit for drinking water is 20 nCi/L (740 Bq/L) based on consumption of 2 liters per day.[7][8][9][10]

1980s

July 1981 – Lycoming, Nine Mile Point, New York. An overloaded wastewater tank was deliberately flushed into the waste building sub-basement, filling it to a depth of four feet. This caused some of the approximately 150 55-gallon drums that were stored there to overturn and spill their contents. Fifty thousand U.S. gallons (190 m³) of lesser-contaminated water was discharged into Lake Ontario.[11]
1982 – "International Nutronics" of Dover, New Jersey spilled an unknown quantity of radioactive cobalt solution used to treat gems for color, modify chemicals, and sterilize food and medical supplies. The solution spilled into the Dover sewer system and forced the closure of the plant. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission was only informed of the accident ten months later by a whistleblower. In 1986 International Nutronics was fined $35,000 and one of its top executives was sentenced to probation for failure to report the spill.[12][13][14]
1982 – Radioactive steel scavenged from a nuclear reactor was melted into rebar and used in the construction of apartment buildings in northern Taiwan, mostly in Taipei, from 1982 through 1984. Over 2,000 apartment units and shops were suspected as having been built with the materials.[15] At least 10,000 people are known to have been exposed to long-term low-level irradiation as a result, with at least 40 deaths due to cancer.[16] In 1985, the Taiwanese Atomic Energy Commission covered up the discovery of high levels of radiation in an apartment building by blaming a dentist operating an imaging machine. However, in the summer of 1992, a utility worker for the Taiwanese state-run electric utility Taipower brought a Geiger counter to his apartment to learn more about the device, and discovered that his apartment was contaminated.[16] Despite awareness of the problem, owners of some of the buildings known to be contaminated have continued to rent apartments out to tenants (in part because selling the units is illegal), and as of at least 2003 and likely to the present, no coordinated effort has been made to track down the remaining affected structures. The Taiwan AEC has harassed medical researchers looking into the consequences.[16] Some researchers from Taiwan claimed that the gamma rays from the cobalt-60 had a beneficial effect upon the health of the tenants,[17][18] but their results proved to be based on methodological errors[19][20]
December 6, 1983 – Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, A local resident salvaged materials from a discarded radiation therapy machine carrying 6,000 pellets of 60Co. The dismantling and transport of the material led to severe contamination of his truck; when the truck was scrapped, it in turn contaminated another 5,000 metric tonnes of steel with an estimated 300 Ci (11 TBq) of activity. This material was sold for kitchen or restaurant table legs and building materials, some of which was sent to the U.S. and Canada; the incident was discovered when a truck delivering contaminated building materials months later to the Los Alamos National Laboratory accidentally drove through a radiation monitoring station. Contamination was later measured on the roads that were used to transport the original damaged radiation source. In some cases pellets were actually found embedded in the roadway. In the state of Sinaloa, 109 houses were condemned due to contaminated building material. This incident prompted the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Customs Service to install radiation detection equipment at all major border crossings.[21]
1985 to 1987, Therac-25 was a radiation therapy machine produced by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited. It was involved with at least six known accidents between 1985 and 1987, in which patients were given massive overdoses of radiation, which were in some cases on the order of hundreds of Grays. At least five patients died of the overdoses. These accidents highlighted the dangers of software control of safety-critical systems.
September 13, 1987 – In the Goiânia accident, scavengers broke open a radiation-therapy machine in an abandoned clinic of Goiânia, Brazil. They sold the kilocurie (40 TBq) 137Cs source as a glowing curiosity. Two hundred and fifty were contaminated; four died.[22]
June 6, 1988 – "Radiation Sterilizers" in Decatur, Georgia, reported a leak of 137Cs at their facility. Seventy thousand medical supply containers and milk cartons were recalled. Ten employees were exposed, and three "had enough on them that they contaminated other surfaces," including their homes and cars.[23]
5 February 1989 Three workers were exposed to gamma rays from the 60Co source in a medical products irradiation plant in San Salvador, El Salvador. The most exposed person died while another lost a limb. This was a human error accident where a person made the wrong choice to enter the irradiation room.[24]
In 1989, a small capsule containing highly radioactive caesium-137 was found inside the concrete wall in an apartment building in Kramatorsk, Ukraine. It is believed that the capsule, originally a part of a measurement device, was lost sometime during late 1970s and ended up mixed with gravel used to construct that building in 1980. By the time the capsule was discovered, 6 residents of the building died from leukemia and 17 more received varying doses of radiation.[25] See Kramatorsk nuclear poisoning incident.

1990s

June 24, 1990 – Soreq, Israel – An operator at a commercial irradiation facility bypassed the safety systems on the JS6500 sterilizer to clear a jam in the product conveyor area. The one to two minute exposure resulted in a whole body dose estimated at 10 Gy or more. He died 36 days later despite extensive medical care. See Fool Irradiation[26] for a discussion of this type of event.[27]
October 26, 1991 – Nesvizh, Belarus – An operator at an atomic sterilization facility bypassed the safety systems to clear a jammed conveyor. Upon entering the irradiation chamber he was exposed to an estimated whole body dose of 11 Gy, with some portions of the body receiving upwards of 20 Gy. Despite prompt intensive medical care, he died 113 days after the accident.[28]
August 31, 1994 – Commerce Township, Michigan – David Hahn's experimental reactor was discovered in his mother's back yard. The unshielded reactor exposed his neighborhood to 1,000 times the normal levels of background radiation.[29]
October 21, 1994 – a large 137Cs source was stolen by scrap metal scavengers in Tammiku, Estonia.[30]
May 1998 – Recycler Acerinox in Cádiz, Spain, unwittingly melted scrap metal containing radioactive sources; the radioactive cloud drifted all the way to Switzerland before being detected.[22][31] (See Acerinox accident.)
December 1998 – Istanbul, Turkey – two cobalt-60 teletherapy sources planned for export in 1993 were instead stored in a warehouse in Ankara, then moved to Istanbul, where a new owner sold them off as scrap metal. The buyers dismantled the containers, exposing themselves and others to ionizing radiation. Eighteen persons, including seven children, developed acute radiation syndrome. The exposed source was retrieved, but the other was still unaccounted for one year later.[32]
1999 – A road near Mrima Hill, Kenya was rebuilt using local materials later found to be radioactive. Some workers were exposed to excessive radiation, and many residents of the area were tested for exposure. 2,975 tons[vague] of roadway material were to be dug up to eliminate the hazard.[33]

2000s

February 1, 2000 – Samut Prakan radiation accident: The radiation source of an expired teletherapy unit was purchased and transferred without registration, and stored in an unguarded parking lot without warning signs. [34] It was then stolen from a parking lot in Samut Prakarn, Thailand and dismantled in a junkyard for scrap metal. Workers completely removed the 60Co source from the lead shielding, and became ill shortly thereafter. The radioactive nature of the metal and the resulting contamination was not discovered until 18 days later. Seven injuries and three deaths were a result of this incident.[35]

August 2000 -March 2001; at the Instituto Oncologico Nacional of Panama, 28 patients receiving treatment for prostate cancer and cancer of the cervix receive lethal doses of radiations due to a modification in the protocol of measurement of radiation used without a verification test. The negligence, unique in its scope, was investigated by the IAT on date of 26 May-1 June 2001.[36]

December 2000 – Three woodcutters in the nation of Georgia spent the night beside several "warm" canisters they found deep in the woods and were subsequently hospitalized with severe radiation burns. The canisters were found to contain concentrated 90Sr. The disposal team consisted of 25 men who were restricted to 40 seconds' worth of exposure each while transferring the canisters to lead-lined drums. The canisters are believed to have been components of radioisotope thermoelectric generators intended for use as generators for remote lighthouses and navigational beacons, part of a Soviet plan dating back to 1983.[37]

February 2001 – A medical accelerator at the Bialystok Oncology Center in Poland malfunctioned, resulting in five female patients receiving excessive doses of radiation while undergoing breast cancer treatment.[38] The incident was revealed when one of the patients complained of a painful radiation burn. In response, a local technician was called in to repair the device, but was unable to do so, and in fact caused further damage. Subsequently, competent authorities were notified, but as the apparatus had been tampered with, they were unable to ascertain the exact doses of radiation received by the patients (localized doses may have been in excess of 60 Gy). No deaths were reported as a result of this incident, although all affected patients had to receive skin grafts. The attending doctor was charged with criminal negligence, but in 2003 a district court ruled that she was not responsible for the incident. The hospital technician was fined.[39]

March 11, 2002 - INES Level 2 – A 2.5 metric tonne 60Co gamma source was transported from Cookridge Hospital, Leeds, UK, to Sellafield with defective shielding. As the radiation escaped from the package downwards into the ground, it is not thought that this event caused any injury or disease in either a human or an animal. This event was treated in a serious manner because the defense in depth type of protection for the source had been eroded. If the container had been tipped over in a road crash then a strong beam of gamma rays (83.5 Gy h-1) would have been aligned in a direction in which it would've been likely to irradiate humans. The company responsible for the transport of the source, AEA Technology plc, was fined £250,000 by a British court.

2003 – Cape of Navarin, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia. A radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) located on the Arctic shore was discovered in a highly degraded state. The level of the exposition dose at the generator surface was as high as 15 R/h; in July 2004 a second inspection of the same RTG showed that gamma radiation emission had risen to 87 R/h and that 90Sr had begun to leak into the environment.[3] In November 2003, a completely dismantled RTG located on the Island of Yuzhny Goryachinsky in the Kola Bay was found. The generator's radioactive heat source was found on the ground near the shoreline in the northern part of the island.[4]
September 10, 2004 – Yakutia, Russia. Two radioisotope thermoelectric generators were dropped 50 meters onto the tundra at Zemlya Bunge island during an airlift when the helicopter flew into heavy weather. According to the nuclear regulators, the impact compromised the RTGs' external radiation shielding. At a height of 10 meters above the impact site, the intensity of gamma radiation was measured at 4 mSv/hr. [5]
2005 – Dounreay, UK. In September, the site's cementation plant was closed when 266 liters of radioactive reprocessing residues were spilled inside containment. [6][7]. In October, another of the site's reprocessing laboratories was closed down after nose-blow tests of eight workers tested positive for trace radioactivity. [8]
November 3, 2005 – Haddam, Connecticut, USA. The Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Company reported that water containing quantities (below safe drinking water limits) of 137Cs, 60Co, 90Sr, and 3H leaked from a spent fuel pond. Independent measurements and review of the incident by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission are due to begin November 7, 2005. [9][10][11]
March 11, 2006 – at Fleurus, Belgium, an operator working for the company Sterigenics [12], at a medical equipment sterilization site, entered the irradiation room and remained there for 20 seconds. The room contained a source of 60Co which was not in the pool of water.[13] Three weeks later, the worker suffered of symptoms typical of an irradiation (vomiting, loss of hair, fatigue). One estimate that he was exposed to a dose of between 4.4 and 4.8 Gy due to a malfunction of the control-command hydraulic system maintaining the radioactive source in the pool. The operator spent over one month in a specialized hospital before going back home. To protect workers, the federal nuclear control agency AFCN and private auditors from AVN recommended Sterigenics to install a redundant system of security. It is an accident of level 4 on the INES scale.[14][15][16]
May 5, 2006 – An accidental release of 131I gas at the Prairie Island Nuclear Power Plant in Minnesota exposed approximately one hundred plant workers to low-level radiation. Most workers received 10 to 20 millirads (0.1-0.2 mSv), about the same as a dental X-ray. The workers were wearing protective gear at the time, and no radiation leaked outside the plant to the surrounding area. [17]
Lisa Norris died in 2006 after having been given an overdose of radiation as a result of human error during treatment for a brain tumor at Beatson Oncology Centre in Glasgow (Scotland).[18][19][20]. The Scottish Government have published an independent investigation of this case.[21]. The intended treatment for Lisa Norris was 35 Gy to be delivered by a LINAC machine to the whole of the central nervous system to be delivered in twenty equal fractions of 1.75 Gy, which was to be followed by 19.8 Gy to be delivered to the tumor only (in eleven fractions of 1.8 Gy). In the first phase of the treatment a 58% overdose occurred, and the CNS of Lisa Norris suffered a dose of 55.5 Gy. The second phase of the treatment was abandoned on medical advice, after having lived for some time after the overdose Lisa Norris passed away.
August 23–24, 2008 — INES Level 3 - Fleurus, Belgium - Nuclear material leak

A gaseous leak of a radioisotope of iodine, 131I, was detected at a large medical radioisotope laboratory, Institut national des Radio-Eléments. Belgian authorities implemented restrictions on use of local farming produce within 5 km of the leak, when higher-than-expected levels of contamination was detected in local grass. The particular isotope of iodine has a half-life of 8 days [22] [23]. The European Commission sent out a warning over their ECURIE-alert system on the 29th of August.[40] The quantity of radioactivity released into the environment was estimated at 45 GBq I-131, which corresponds to a dose of 160 microsievert (effective dose) for a hypothetical person remaining permanently at the site's enclosure.[41]

January 23, 2008- A licensed Radiologic Technologist, Raven Knickerbocker, at Mad River Community Hospital in Arcata, California performed 151 CT scan slices on a single 3mm level on the head of a 23 month old child over a 65 minute period. The child suffered radiation burns (skin erythema) to much of his head. The hospital's nuclear health physicist estimated that the child received a localized dose possibly as high as 11Gy, later analysis concluded it was 7.5 Gy. An independent investigation of the child's blood found that he had severe chromosome abnormalities because of the exposure. The technologist was fired, and her license was permanently revoked on March 16, 2011 by the state of California, citing "gross negligence". [42] The hospital's radiology manager, Bruce Fleck, testified that Knickerbocker's conduct was "a rogue act of insanity".
February 2008-August 2009 - A software misconfiguration in a CT scanner used for brain perfusion scanning at Cedar Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, resulted in 206 patients receiving radiation doses approximately 8 times higher than intended during an 18 month period starting in February, 2008. Some patients reported temporary hair loss and erythema. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has estimated that patients received doses between 3Gy and 4Gy.[43]

2010s

April 2010 - INES level 4 - A 35-year old man was hospitalized in New Delhi after handling radioactive scrap metal. Investigation led to the discovery of an amount of scrap metal containing Cobalt-60 in the New Delhi industrial district of Mayapuri. The 35-year old man later died from his injuries, while six others remained hospitalized.[44][45]

July 2010 - During a routine inspection at the Port of Genoa, on Italy's northwest coast, a cargo container from Saudi Arabia containing nearly 50,000 pounds of scrap copper was detected to be emitting gamma radiation at a rate of around 500 millisieverts per hour. After spending over a year in quarantine on Port grounds, Italian officials dissected the container using robots and discovered a rod of cobalt-60 nine inches long and one-third of an inch in diameter intermingled with the scrap. Officials suspected its provenance to be inappropriately disposed of medical or food-processing equipment. The rod was sent to Germany for further analysis, after which it was likely to be recycled.[46]

8.
1970s

17 April 1970 — Tonga Trench

The SNAP 27 radioisotope thermoelectric generator aboard the Lunar Module Aquarius reentered the Earth's atmosphere. The LM had been used as a "lifeboat" to help the Apollo 13 crew return to Earth after the Command Module lost electrical power. The vehicle was targeted for the Pacific Ocean to reduce the risk of contamination in the event the RTG broke up, but it is believed to have survived reentry and water impact intact. Periodic radiation checks of the area have found no signs of leakage.

22 March 1975 — Browns Ferry Nuclear Power Plant, AL, United States

A fire caused by careless technicians cut off many control circuits for two nuclear power reactors of the Tennessee Valley Authority at Browns Ferry Station in Alabama. The fire burned uncontrolled for 7.5 hours and the two operating GE nuclear reactors were at full power when the fire began. One of them went "dangerously out of control" for several hours and was not stabilized until a few hours after the fire was put out.[2] There was some concern about a meltdown, but this did not occur and there was no radioactive contamination.[3]

March 1977 — Toledo, OH, United States

An electromagnetic relief valve stuck open following a reactor scram at the Davis-Besse nuclear power plant near Toledo, OH. The valve was noticed by operators, and the reactor, manufactured by Babcock & Wilcox, was only slightly damaged.[3]

1990s

27 December 1999 — Blayais Nuclear Power Plant, France

Flooding at the Blayais Nuclear Power Plant caused by a combination of high tides and a storm caused damage to equipment and failure of power supplies, leading to a Level 2 event on the International Nuclear Event Scale.

2000s

July, 2002 — Chapelcross nuclear power station, UK

UK Authorities blamed an incident at a Scottish nuclear plant on "procedural and hardware deficiencies". Fuel rods falling to the floor were deemed responsible for the incident.[4]

September and October, 2005 — Dounreay, UK

In September, the site's cementation plant was closed when 266 litres of radioactive reprocessing residues were spilled inside containment.[5] In October, another of the site's reprocessing laboratories was closed down after nose-blow tests of eight workers tested positive for trace radioactivity.[6]

July 25, 2006 -INES Level 2 – Forsmark Nuclear Power Plant, Sweden

Mains power lost to reactor 1 after an electrical fault. Two of four diesel generators fail, problems related to computer systems[7] (e.g. readings of core water levels) due to earlier electrical fault SCRAMed.

4 June 2008 — Krško Nuclear Power Plant, Slovenia – Loss of coolant

Emergency response system ECURIE (European Community Urgent Radiological Information Exchange) received an alert message following a loss of coolant accident at the Krsko Nuclear Power Plant.[8]

2010s
See also: 2011 Japanese nuclear accidents and Timeline of the Fukushima nuclear accidents

March 11–13, 2011 – INES Level needed, Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant, Japan – Turbine damage, possible radioactivity emergency
After the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami of March 11, a fire from the turbine section of the Onagawa Nuclear Power Plant following the earthquake was reported by Kyodo News.[9][10][11] The blaze was in a building housing the turbine, which is sited separately from the plant's reactor,[12] and was soon extinguished.[13]
On 13 March the lowest-level state of emergency was declared regarding the Onagawa plant by TEPCO, as radioactivity readings temporarily[14][15] exceeded allowed levels in the area of the plant.[16][17] TEPCO stated this was due to radiation from the Fukushima I nuclear accidents and not from the Onagawa plant itself.[18] Events are still developing.
March 11–13, 2011 – INES Level needed, Tōkai Nuclear Power Plant, Japan – Reactor cooling pump damage
Following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami the number 2 reactor was one of eleven nuclear reactors to be shut down automatically.[19] It was reported on 14 March that a cooling system pump for the number 2 reactor had stopped working.[20] Japan Atomic Power Company stated that there was a second operational pump and cooling was working, but that two of three diesel generators used to power the cooling system were out of order.[21]