Explosion at Philips chemical plant in Texas

Explosion at Philips Petroleum Company chemical plant October 23, 1989 in the state of Texas. Due to the mistake of the employees, an explosion occurred, in terms of its power equivalent to two and a half tons of dynamite. The recorded ground vibrations were 3.5 on the Richter scale, and fragments after the explosion were found within a radius of 10 kilometers. 23 people died, more than 300 were injured, Nasha Niva writes.

Underground coal mine fire in Centralia, Pennsylvania

May 1962 The City Council of Centralia hired five volunteer firefighters to clear the city's garbage dump in an abandoned open mine pit. Firefighters set fire to piles of rubbish. Letting them burn for a while, put out. But because of the incompletely extinguished fire, deeper layers of debris began to smolder and the fire spread through a hole in the mine to other abandoned coal mines in the vicinity of Centralia. As a result, by the end of the 20th century, the city was almost completely resettled, and the underground fire has continued to this day for more than half a century.

Oil train crash at Lac Megantic, Quebec

The disaster happened July 6, 2013 in the east of the Canadian province of Quebec. A train carrying seventy oil tanks derailed and the tanks exploded. Buildings in the city center were destroyed by the explosion and subsequent fire, killing about 50 people.

Texas explosion

April 16, 1947 of the year in the port of Texas City, USA, a fire broke out on board the French ship Grandcamp, which led to the detonation of about 2100 tons of ammonium nitrate, which caused a chain reaction in the form of fires and explosions on nearby ships and in oil storage facilities.

As a result of the tragedy, at least 581 people died, more than 5,000 people were injured, and 1,784 were hospitalized. The port and a significant part of the city were destroyed. Over 1,100 cars and 362 freight cars were damaged. Property damage is estimated at $100 million. These events sparked the first ever class action lawsuit against the US government.

Disaster at Banqiao Dam

August 8, 1975 During the flooding caused by Typhoon Nina, the dam burst, causing 26,000 drowning and hundreds of thousands of victims.

Bhopal disaster, India

As a result of an accident at a chemical plant for the production of pesticides, poisonous methyl isocyanate was released, stored in three containers partially buried in the ground, each of which contained about 60 thousand liters of liquid. As a result December 3, 1984 about 42 tons of toxic fumes were released into the atmosphere.

Three thousand people died on the day of the accident. According to some reports, total number Injured in the accident is estimated at 600 thousand people, due to the high population density in India.

molasses flooding boston

The disaster happened January 15, 1919 at the Purity Distilling Company distillery during Prohibition. For the production of ethanol, molasses was used - black molasses from cane sugar. On the eve of the introduction of a complete ban on the manufacture and sale of alcohol, the owners sought to produce as much alcohol as possible.

Eyewitnesses heard loud pops, reminiscent of machine-gun bursts (probably, the steel sheets of the tank walls fastened with rivets dispersed). The ground shook as if a train had passed. A wave of molasses up to 4.5 m high poured onto the streets of the city. People and horses died from suffocation, unable to get out of the viscous substance. 21 people died, about 150 were hospitalized.

The collapse of a shopping center in the Bangladeshi city of Savar

April 24, 2013 shopping center Rana Plaza (Sawar, Bangladesh) collapsed during rush hour due to non-compliance with building codes. 1127 people were killed, another 2500 were injured.

Accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP, Russia

At the time of the accident August 17, 2009 The HPP carried a load of 4100 MW. The power plant personnel, who were in the engine room, heard a loud bang and saw the release of a powerful column of water. Streams of water quickly flooded the engine room and the rooms below it.

All hydroelectric power plants were flooded, which was accompanied by short circuits. As a result of the accident, 75 people died, and electricity production was suspended. The consequences of the accident affected the ecological and socio-economic situation in the region.

Chernobyl accident

The largest accident in the history of the world nuclear energy, which has become a kind of symbol man-made disasters, happened April 26, 1986. After the explosion of the reactor Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine there was a release into the atmosphere radioactive substances, as a result of which a significant part of the territories of Belarus and Ukraine had to be evacuated and resettled.

Directly on the day of the accident, 31 people died, but the number of deaths that occurred from the consequences of the disaster is hard to even imagine. The accident led to irreversible consequences, affecting the fate and health of several generations of people.

10.11.2014

In Russia, there are more than three thousand six hundred chemically hazardous facilities, and one hundred and forty-six cities with a population of more than one hundred thousand people are located in areas of increased chemical hazard.

Today's release in Moscow toxic substances belongs to the category of so-called. non-catastrophic incidents exceeding the norms for the content of any substance in the atmosphere. But mankind survived great amount man-made emergencies associated with chemicals. Here are 8 of the biggest...

1. Seveso, Italy

In 1976, an accident occurred at a chemical plant in the Italian city of Seveso, as a result of which an area of ​​more than 18 km2 was contaminated with dioxin. More than 1,000 people were injured, and mass deaths of animals were noted. The liquidation of the consequences of the accident lasted more than a year.

2. Flixborough, England

On June 1, 1974, an accident occurred at a chemical plant in the UK in the city of Flixborough at the Nipro plant, which was engaged in the production of ammonium. In terms of its power, the explosion was equal to the action of a 45-ton TNT charge if it had been blown up at a height of 45 meters from the ground. As a result of the incident, 55 people died and 75 were injured.

3. Suzhou, China

In China in September 1978, as a result of an accident at a chemical plant in the city of Suzhou, 28 tons of sodium cyanide got into the river. This number is enough to kill 48 million people, but the Zhongguo Qingnian Bao newspaper reported that the death toll was only 3,000.

4. Bhopal, India

One of the most significant global chemical disasters of the 20th century was the explosion at the Union Carbide plant, which occurred on December 2, 1984 in Bhopal (India) and led to the poisoning and death of 4035 people. More than 40 thousand people suffered. From a cloud of 43 tons of toxic gas of methyl isocyanate (the toxicity of methyl isocyanate exceeds the toxicity of phosgene by 2-3 times), which escaped from the territory of the plant, an area 5 km long and 2 km wide was contaminated.

5. Sandoz plant, Switzerland

On November 1, 1986, a fire broke out in a warehouse of a chemical factory in Switzerland. During the extinguishing of a fire, about 30 tons of agricultural pesticides spilled into the Rhine. Millions of fish died and drinking water was contaminated.

6. Yaroslavl, Russia

In 1988, during a railway accident in the city of Yaroslavl, there was a spill of heptyl, which belongs to the AHOV of the first toxicity class. About 3 thousand people were in the zone of possible defeat. About 2,000 people took part in the liquidation of the consequences of the accident, and a large number of technology.

7. Jonave (USSR, Lithuania)

In 1989, a chemical accident occurred in Jonava (Lithuania). About 7 thousand tons of liquid ammonia spilled over the territory of the plant, forming a lake of poisonous liquid with a surface of about 10 thousand square meters. m. From the resulting fire there was an ignition of a warehouse with nitrophoska, its thermal decomposition with the release of toxic gases. The depth of distribution of contaminated air reached 30 km, and only favorable meteorological conditions did not lead to the defeat of people.

8. Mexico

In August 1991 in Mexico during railway accident 32 liquid chlorine tanks derailed. About 300 tons of chlorine were released into the atmosphere. About 500 people were injured in the contaminated air distribution zone, of which 17 people died on the spot. From the nearest settlements over a thousand people were evacuated.

What to do in the event of a dangerous release of chemicals

All this poses a serious danger to people, given the high population density in cities. Therefore, even “after the end of the chemical alarm,” experts advise:

• not to eat fruits and herbs from the garden or any products offered for sale in the open air;
• do not eat eggs, as well as the meat of livestock and poultry, slaughtered after the announcement of the alarm in the infected area;
• do not drink both well water and tap water, since both the source and the water supply may be contaminated;
• avoid drinking milk obtained after an alarm;
• eat canned food or purchased before the disaster.

What to do in case of a chemical accident. Video EMERCOM of Russia

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Catastrophes often occur due to an absurd coincidence of events and lead to irreparable consequences. Lately most often occur environmental disasters, leaving huge scars on the body of our planet. We have prepared a selection of the largest disasters that have cost mankind record amounts. So, to your attention are the 10 largest and most expensive man-made disasters, most of which occurred during the last century.

In the first place is the most global man-made environmental disaster - the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. This catastrophe cost the world 200 billion dollars, despite the fact that the liquidation work is not even half completed. April 26, 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in former USSR the worst nuclear accident in history. More than 135,000 people who lived within a 30 kilometers (19 miles) radius of the destroyed reactor - and 35,000 livestock - were evacuated; around the station, located near the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, an exclusion zone of unprecedented size was created. In this forbidden territory, nature itself had to cope with the high levels of radiation caused by the disaster. As a result, the exclusion zone essentially turned into a giant laboratory where an experiment was set up - what happens to plants and animals in conditions of catastrophic nuclear contamination of the area? Immediately after the disaster, when everyone was worried about the dire consequences of radioactive fallout for human health, few people thought about what would happen to the wildlife inside the zone - and even more so about monitoring what was happening.


The Chernobyl disaster will long remain the largest and costliest environmental disaster. In second place is the explosion of the American shuttle Columbia, which cost $ 13 billion, which is 20 times less in cost, and millions of times less in terms of the consequences of impact on environment.

The Columbia shuttle was the first operational reusable orbiter. It was made in 1979 and transferred to NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The shuttle Columbia was named after the sailboat that Captain Robert Gray explored the inland waters of British Columbia in May 1792. The space shuttle Columbia died in a crash on February 1, 2003, while entering the Earth's atmosphere, before landing. It was the 28th space trip Columbia. The information from Columbia's hard drive was recovered, the causes of the crash were identified, which made it possible to avoid such disasters in the future.

In third place is again an ecological disaster. On November 13, 2002, the oil tanker Prestige exploded, spilling 77,000 tons of fuel into the ocean, making it the largest oil spill in European history. Losses in the course of work to eliminate the oil slick amounted to 12 billion dollars.

Fourth place - the death of the shuttle Challenger. Nothing foreshadowed the tragedy during the launch of the Challenger space shuttle on January 28, 1986, but 73 seconds after launch, it exploded. This accident cost American taxpayers $5.5 billion.

In fifth place The explosion on the Piper Alpha oil platform - occurred on July 6, 1988, which is recognized as the most terrible disaster throughout the history of the oil industry. The accident cost $3.4 billion.


Piper Alpha is the world's only burned-out oil platform. As a result of a gas leak and subsequent explosion, as well as as a result of ill-considered and indecisive actions of the personnel, 167 people out of 226 who were on the platform at that moment died, only 59 survived. Immediately after the explosion, oil and gas production was stopped on the platform, however, due to the fact that the pipelines of the platform were connected to the general network, through which hydrocarbons flowed from other platforms, and for a long time there was no production and supply of oil and gas to the pipeline. decided to stop (waiting for permission from the top management of the company), a huge amount of hydrocarbons continued to flow through pipelines, which supported the fire.

Ecology is in sixth place again. The Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred on March 24, 1989. This is the largest oil spill in human history. More than 11 million gallons of oil entered the water. To deal with the consequences of this ecological disaster$2.5 billion was spent.

Seventh place - the explosion of a B-2 stealth bomber. The crash occurred on February 23, 2008, and cost US taxpayers a million and a half dollars. Fortunately, no one was hurt, only financial costs followed.

Eighth place - Metrolink passenger train crash. The train collision that occurred on September 12, 2008 in California is more about negligence. Two trains collide, 25 dead, MetroLink loses $500 million

In ninth place, the collision of a fuel tanker and a passenger car took place on August 26, 2004 on the Wiehltal bridge in Germany. This catastrophe, which occurred on August 26, 2004, can be attributed to accidents on the roads. They happen often, but this one surpassed everything in scale. The car, passing over the bridge at full speed, crashed into a full fuel truck going to the meeting, an explosion occurred, which practically destroyed the bridge. By the way, the restoration work of the bridge took 358 million dollars.

The death of the Titanic closes the top ten most expensive catastrophes. The tragedy occurred on April 15, 1912 and claimed 1523 human lives. The cost of building the ship amounted to $ 7 million (in today's exchange rate - $ 150 million).

Image copyright RIA Novosti Image caption The accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station claimed the lives of 75 people

Among the largest man-made disasters in recent history Russia - accidents in mines and power plants, the death of aircraft and ships, fires and collapse of roofs of buildings.

December 2, 1997 - methane explosion at the Zyryanovskaya mine

As a result of a methane explosion at the Zyryanovskaya mine in Kemerovo region 67 people died. The accident was reported to have occurred during a shift change at a stope. The human factor was named as the main reason: the combine operator crushed the miner's self-rescuer (personal protective equipment against toxic combustion products), which provoked an explosion of methane gas that suddenly appeared in the face, followed by an explosion of coal dust.

A week before the explosion, there was a gas outbreak at the mine that burned five workers. However, the operation of the mine was not stopped. Experts note that none of management team mine following the results of the investigation was not punished. Over the next ten years, the accident in Novokuznetsk remained the largest disaster in the Kuzbass.

August 12, 2000 - the death of the nuclear submarine "Kursk"

During the naval exercises of the Russian fleet in the Barents Sea, the nuclear submarine K-141 "Kursk" with cruise missiles sank. According to the official version, on the submarine, which was launched in May 1994, a torpedo exploded due to a leak of fuel components. The fire that arose two minutes after the first explosion led to the detonation of torpedoes located in the first compartment of the boat.

The second explosion caused even more damage. As a result, all 118 crew members died. As a result of the operation of lifting the submarine, completed a year later, 115 bodies of dead sailors were found and buried. "Kursk" was considered the best submarine of the Northern Fleet. Among other versions of the death of the Kursk, it was argued that it could have been torpedoed by an American submarine.

July 4, 2001 - Tu-154 crash in Irkutsk

The plane of the airline "Vladivostok Avia", making a flight on the route Yekaterinburg-Irkutsk, crashed while landing. As a result of the tragedy, 144 people died. In the conclusion of the state commission, the erroneous actions of the crew were named as the cause of the disaster. During the landing maneuver, speed was lost, after which the commander lost the ability to control the aircraft

Five years later, on July 9, 2006, when landing at the same airport in Irkutsk, the plane of Siberia Airlines failed to stop on the runway, rolled out of it and crashed into a garage complex. The investigation established the aircraft's engine problems due to crew error. Of the 203 people on board, 124 people died.

November 24, 2003 - fire in the hostel of RUDN University

Fire in one of the hostel buildings Russian University friendship of peoples broke out at night, when most of the students were asleep. The source of the fire was a room that was empty at the time of the fire. The fire spread to four floors. Students and employees of the university, jumping out of the windows on these floors, were seriously injured, some of them crashed to death. The fire claimed the lives of 44 people, mostly foreign students, about 180 people were hospitalized with burns and injuries. Six people were found guilty of the fire, including the vice-rector for administrative and economic activities of the university and the chief engineer of the university, as well as the inspector of the State Fire Supervision Service of the South-Western Administrative District of Moscow, who received the most severe punishment - two years in prison in a colony-settlement.

February 14, 2004 - the collapse of the roof of the water park "Transvaal"

As a result of the collapse of the roof of a sports and entertainment complex in the south-west of Moscow, 28 people were killed, including eight children, and about 200 more people received injuries of varying severity. At the time of the accident in the water park, opened in June 2002, there were, according to various sources, from 400 to a thousand people, many of whom were celebrating Valentine's Day.

Among the main versions of the collapse, which were considered by the investigation, were violations in the design and construction of the building, as well as its improper operation. The prosecutor's office of the capital came to the conclusion that the chief designer of the water park project, Nodar Kancheli, was guilty, but then dropped the criminal case under an amnesty.

February 23, 2006 - the collapse of the roof of the Basmanny market

Image copyright AFP Image caption The collapse of the roof of the market, according to the commission, was the result of improper operation

Early in the morning in Moscow, the roof of the Basmanny market collapsed on an area of ​​​​about 2000 square meters. meters. A total of 66 people were killed, dozens of people managed to be pulled out of the rubble alive. Two months after the disaster, the Moscow government commission ruled that the incident was the result of the systematic misuse of the building throughout its entire service life.

The floor planner for the market was Nodar Kancheli, designer of the Transvaal Park, whose roof collapsed two years earlier. The commission found that the roof of the market collapsed due to the breakage of one of the cables-cables on which it rested. And the cliff itself was the result of several reasons, among which was corrosion of the cable and unscheduled restructuring of the building.

March 19, 2007 - methane explosion at the Ulyanovsk mine

The accident at the mine "Ulyanovskaya" in the Kemerovo region claimed the lives of 110 people. 93 miners were rescued. Russian federal Service on Environmental, Technological and Nuclear Supervision announced that "gross violations of safety rules" were committed at the Ulyanovsk mine.

The governor of the region, Aman Tuleev, said that on the day of the accident, equipment was being installed at the mine to detect and localize gas leaks. Almost all the management of the mine went underground to check the operation of the system and died in the explosion. Three years later, the investigative committee at the prosecutor's office, after conducting an additional investigation, opened another criminal case into the accident at Ulyanovsk. Accidents with so many victims have never happened before in the mines of the USSR and Russia.

September 14, 2008 - Boeing 737 crash in Perm

An Aeroflot-Nord aircraft flying on the Moscow-Perm route crashed while landing. As a result of a collision with the ground, all people on board were killed - 88 people, including 7 children. Among the dead was the presidential adviser, Hero of Russia, Colonel-General Gennady Troshev.

This crash was the first for a Boeing 737 aircraft in Russia. The systemic cause of the accident was called "an insufficient level of organization of flight and technical operation of Boeing 737 aircraft in the airline." In addition, according to the results of a forensic medical examination, the fact of the presence of ethyl alcohol in the body of the ship's commander before his death was established.

August 17, 2009 - an accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP

The largest hydroelectric power station in Russia and the sixth in the world - Sayano-Shushenskaya - was stopped on August 17, when water poured into the engine room. Three of the ten generating hydroelectric units were completely destroyed, and all the rest were damaged.

Restoration work on the HPP on the Yenisei River is expected to take several years and be completed in 2014 at best. The largest accident in the history of Russian and Soviet hydropower resulted in the death of 75 people. The commission of the Russian State Duma, investigating the causes of the accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station, named the names of about 20 station workers who, in its opinion, were involved in the tragedy.

The deputies recommended dismissing, among others, the general director of the hydroelectric power station, Nikolai Nevolko, and the chief engineer, Andrey Mitrofanov. In December 2010, the already former director of the Nevolko hydroelectric power station was charged with "violating safety regulations and other labor protection rules that resulted in the death of two or more persons."

December 5, 2009 - fire at the Lame Horse Club

Image copyright AP Image caption Most visitors to the Perm nightclub failed to get out into the street

The largest fire in the history of post-Soviet Russia in terms of the number of victims occurred in the Perm nightclub Lame Horse. According to investigators, it began during a pyrotechnic show, when sparks hit the ceiling, made of dry wooden rods, and caused a fire. The club instantly began a stampede, due to which not everyone managed to get out of the cramped room.

The fire in the Lame Horse resulted in the death of 156 people, several dozen people received burns of varying degrees. In connection with the incident, a number of officials and officials of the fire supervision were fired, and the government of the Perm Territory in in full force resigned his powers. In June 2011, Spanish law enforcement agencies extradited Konstantin Mrykhin to their Russian colleagues, whom the investigation calls the co-founder of the club. In addition to him, eight other people are involved in the case.

May 9, 2010 - an accident at the mine "Raspadskaya"

At one of the largest coal mines in the world, located in the Kemerovo region, with a difference of several hours, two methane explosions occurred, as a result of which 91 people died. In total, about 360 miners were trapped underground, most of the miners were rescued.

In December 2010, 15 people who were in the mine at the time of the accident and were reported missing were declared dead by a court decision. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said that Rostekhnadzor authorities had repeatedly made complaints about the condition of the equipment at Raspadskaya, but the mine management did not react to them in any way.

The director of the mine, Igor Volkov, who was charged with violating safety rules, resigned. The management of Raspadskaya estimated its damage at 8.6 billion rubles.

July 10, 2011 - the death of the ship "Bulgaria" on the Volga

The double-deck diesel-electric ship "Bulgaria", which was sailing from the city of Bolgar to Kazan, sank three kilometers from the coast. One of the factors that allegedly led to the disaster is called the congestion of the ship. According to some reports, after the alteration, the ship was designed to carry 140 passengers. However, tickets for the river trip on July 10 were sold much more. A quarter of those on board were children.

By the morning of July 14, the bodies of 105 of those who died in the crash were found, the fate of another 24 remains unknown. 79 passengers and crew members escaped. In connection with the death of the "Bulgaria", the Vasilyevsky court of Kazan has already arrested two people who are suspected of "providing services that do not meet safety requirements" - Svetlana Inyakina, general director of the ArgoRechTour company, which was the sub-tenant of the ship "Bulgaria", and Yakov Ivashov, senior expert of the Kama Branch of the Russian River Register.

The modern development of technology provides us with a huge number of new opportunities. Unfortunately, nothing is free in this world, because the use of some methods of obtaining energy or resources, as well as improving production, is fraught with potential danger.

As a rule, the largest man-made disasters in the world are associated with human carelessness, non-compliance with safety rules, but some of them are associated with the testing of new types of weapons.

Video: TOP man-made disasters in the world

Poison cloud in Seveso

The Italian town of Seveso once had 17,000 inhabitants. It was located in the Po Valley, at the foot of the hills, surrounded by green forests and fields. The picturesque area attracted a large number of tourists from Milan. However, the main enterprise was a chemical plant, which employed most of the inhabitants.

On June 10, 1976, an explosion occurred at the plant, which was accompanied by a powerful release into the atmosphere of one of the most terrible poisons, known to man- dioxin. The chemical formed a cloud that hung over the city, and over time, the poison began to descend on gardens and residential buildings.

People who inhaled the poison experienced symptoms such as bouts of nausea, the development of eye diseases with impaired vision. Now Seveso is a ghost town in which no one has lived for many years, it is called the Italian Hiroshima. It took many years to decontaminate the soil. The consequences of the release of chemicals were aggravated by the fact that the owners of the plant did not immediately tell the doctors the reason for the deterioration in the well-being of the residents of the city.

The cause of the accident was non-compliance with the temperature regime - temperature chemical reaction was overstated because refrigeration instructions were not followed.

Accident on Three Mile Island

On March 28, 1979, one of the largest man-made disasters in the world and the history of nuclear energy occurred. Nuclear power plant"Three Mile Island" (Three Mile Island), located on the Saskehuanna River near the city of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

On the night of March 27-28, the second power unit operated at 97% capacity. Shortly before the accident, all systems were operating normally. However, two problems were known to exist:

• The coolant constantly flowed through the shutter of one of the pressure compensator valves. Because of this, the temperature in the discharge pipeline was above normal, and the excess medium had to be drained every eight hours.
• The ion exchange resin discharge line was clogged and workers tried to blow it out with water and compressed air.

These issues resulted in the operators experiencing a sudden shutdown of the reactor, with two deviations from the standard scenario followed by the staff.

Due to the destruction of the fuel rod cladding, radioactive materials were released, namely xenon-133 and iodine-131 gases. Due to the fact that the filter elements were not changed on time, a large amount of radioactive gases entered the atmosphere.

Despite the fact that serious human casualties were avoided, this accident made it necessary to revise the safety standards for the operation of nuclear facilities.

Love Canal Incident

In the vicinity of the city of Niagara Falls, New York State, there was a settlement called Love Canal. Initially, it was built as a "City of Dreams" - a place where the most environmentally friendly materials should be used, this is how entrepreneur William Love envisioned it.

Unfortunately, due to the Great Depression, construction had to be stopped, and instead of a beautiful city for many years, there were only a couple of houses and a giant pit that was used to dump chemical waste. In 1953, this dump was simply buried with earth and forgotten about. After some time, it was decided to roll up the area under the asphalt and start building a new residential area.

The first children went to the district school in 1957, and their parents, not even suspecting what was under their feet, were surprised at the strange puddles that appeared near the houses. In 1976, water analyzes showed a huge content of benzene, dioxins and other toxic substances. Children began to be born with hydrocephalus, cases of cancer and asthma became more frequent. About 60% of the area's residents had a birth defect.

Due to the fact that this area was intended for poor people, most of the residents could not leave, even after they realized the dangers of living on this land. Only a few years later, with the help of attracting the media, scientists and public figures brought the issue to the attention of the US government. Now the Love Canal is a sign city, still reminding of one of the worst man-made disasters in the world.

Explosion at the AZF factory in Toulouse

On September 21, 2001, a monstrous explosion occurred in Toulouse, which caused the death of thirty people and the injury of thousands of people, the destruction of a huge number of buildings and structures.

Due to a still unknown cause, three hundred tons of ammonium nitrate were detonated, which was located in a hangar belonging to the AZF chemical plant. A crater with a diameter of up to fifty meters and a depth of about five meters remained at the site of the explosion.

Production facilities were seriously damaged, several thousand people received bodily injuries of varying severity. Over the next eleven years, AZF were forced to pay two billion euros to the victims.

The power of the explosion, the damage caused and the huge number of victims make this incident one of the most terrible man-made disasters in the world.

Chemical disaster in Bhopal

On December 3, 1984, one of the most famous man-made disasters occurred - the Bhopal tragedy. Due to the accident that occurred at the plant of the American company "Union carbide", more than eighteen thousand people died.

Officially, the cause of this tragedy has not yet been established. There are many different versions, including violation of safety regulations, negligence and targeted sabotage. Nevertheless, it was definitely established that the company's management put pressure on the employees of the plant, forcing them to cut costs, including through security measures, which could not but affect the likelihood of this disaster.

The disaster of the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station

The accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP is undoubtedly one of the biggest technical disasters in the world. This incident is considered the largest incident in the history of hydropower and its consequences affected not only the social and economic situation in the region, but also the ecology of the water area adjacent to the power plant.

As a result of a thorough investigation, it was found that the accident occurred as a result of repeated additional load on the hydraulic unit, which resulted in fatigue damage to the attachment points. The additional load caused the destruction of the studs that held the turbine cover, as a result of which the water supply path of the hydraulic unit was depressurized.

The parliamentary commission, in its final report, also noted such factors as abuse of power by the station's management, low professionalism and responsibility of employees.

In addition to the death of seventy-five people, the accident caused oil to enter the Yenisei from the baths of the thrust bearings of hydroelectric units, which led to the formation of a spot stretching for one hundred and thirty kilometers. The amount of environmental damage is estimated at 63 million rubles.

Disease in Minamata

Minamata disease refers to a syndrome that causes poisoning with methylmercury and other organic compounds mercury. The disease was first discovered in Minamata City, Kumamoto Prefecture in 1956.

Its symptoms:

• Paresthesia in limbs;
• Motility disorders;
• Speech deterioration;
• Weakening of hearing and vision;
• Disturbances of consciousness;
• Paralysis.

This disease also causes death.

Doctors first encountered this disease in April 1956, when a five-year-old girl was admitted to them with symptoms that indicated an unknown nervous disease. Gradually began to detect anomalies in the behavior of animals, as well as similar symptoms among the inhabitants fishing villages. The disease claimed the lives of fourteen people.

Further investigation revealed that the cause of the pathologies was a strong contamination of seafood with methylmercury, which the victims ate. After that, a chemical analysis of the water was carried out, which made it possible to detect an increased content of mercury, lead, thallium, selenium, and arsenic. All of these metals were released into the water due to the continuous release of mercury into the water by Chisso. An important point is that the microorganisms that lived at the bottom of the sea processed mercury, turning it into methylmercury, which is more toxic and accumulated in the body. This incident is one of the biggest man-made disasters in the world.

The Chernobyl accident

The events that took place on April 26, 1986 are rightfully considered the largest man-made disaster in the world, and one of the most significant events in the history of nuclear energy.

Currently, there are many versions of the Chernobyl disaster, which appeared as a result of investigations conducted by the USSR State Commission in 1986 and 1991, the INSAG advisory group.

The most likely factors that contributed to the accident at the nuclear power plant are:

• Design flaws of nuclear power plants;
• Hushing up the seriousness of the situation in the early days of the incident;
• The desire of employees to conduct an experiment "at any cost";
• Decommissioning of serviceable technological protections that could shut down the reactor in time.

Due to the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, 134 employees and members of the rescue teams who were at the station during the explosion died from radiation sickness. In addition, a powerful release of radiation led to the development of a huge number of cases of oncological diseases, in particular thyroid cancer. Many pathologies in newborns have also been recorded.

Approximately five million hectares of land were withdrawn from agricultural circulation, and an exclusion zone with a radius of thirty kilometers was created around the power plant. I had to bury hundreds of small settlements, as well as the city of Pripyat.

In addition, the consequences of the accident seriously affected the ecological situation in the area. The highest concentration of cesium-137 was found in top layer soil, from which it enters fungi and plants, through which pollution is transmitted to birds and animals. Radioactive fallout fell in remote areas such as Mordovia, Chuvashia and the Leningrad region.

Fukushima nuclear accident

The disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which occurred on March 11, 2011, can hardly be called a man-made disaster in its pure form, because it was caused by natural disaster, namely the earthquake and the resulting tsunami. This is what caused the failure of the power supply system, which stopped the process of cooling the reactor with the subsequent release of radioactive substances.

The lack of sufficient cooling caused a strong increase in steam pressure, followed by a release into the containment. In order to prevent the destruction of the hermetic shell, it was necessary to dump steam into the atmosphere. Over time, the pressure nevertheless managed to be relieved, but at the same time a large amount of hydrogen penetrated into the lining of the reactor compartment.

In addition, due to an accident in sea ​​water a large amount of cesium-137 and iodine-131 got into. Because of this, the radioactivity of water increased 4385 times. The additional spread of contamination was facilitated by the fact that marine fish carried radioactive materials in themselves.

In order to disinfect the soil, it will take several more years and quite large financial injections. Already, experts estimate the cost of restoration work at more than one billion dollars, and over time this amount will only grow.