2.8.6. Three Mile Island
Several authors [BRO 82, DEW 87] point out that populations near Three Mile Island (TMI) have developed mental trauma due to anxiety created by unnecessary and careless publicity.
The excess percentage of morbidity caused by the accident for the period 1981–1984 (after a latency of 2 years) was estimated per unit dose (associated with the standard deviation). These percentages were 0.020 ± 0.012 for all cancers, 0.082 ± 0.032 for lung cancer and 0.116 ± 0.067 for leukemias. Adjustments for socio-economic variables increase the percentage estimates to 0.034 ± 0.013, 0.103 ± 0.035 and 0.139 ± 0.073, respectively, for all cancers, lung cancers and leukemias [WIN 97].
According to Talbott et al. [TAL 00], standardized mortality ratios are significantly raised for men and women (SMR 109 and 118, respectively). They also found a significant linear trend between breast cancer risk in women and increasing levels of exposure associated with the TMI accident (p = 0.02). In a subsequent study, the same authors [TAL 03] were more reserved about cancer and radioactivity relationships caused by the TMI accident than in their first article.
In a synthesis conducted 25 years after the accident, Osif et al. [OSI 04] estimated that the health effects resulting from the radiation emitted by the reactor accident were minimal. The only significant effects were on the mental health of local populations. However, the studies carried out only concern a part of the population and over a short period of time. Some effects may appear years or even decades later. For example, 30 years after the TMI accident, an increased incidence of thyroid cancer was observed in counties south of the plant and in high-risk age groups. Average incidence rates between 1990 and 2009 were higher than expected in the counties of York, Lancaster, Adams and Chester [LEV 13]. Despite these findings, a direct correlation with the accident remains uncertain, as incidence rates may coincide with other factors, and the original data were limited [LEV 13].
2.8.7. Church Rock
Following the accident at the Church Rock mine retention basin in New Mexico, the dose for the general population over 50 years is estimated at 2.04 mSv for the inhalation of sediment particles from the river. The same dose is estimated at 0.01 mSv in the liver and 0.79 mSv in the bones when eating wild meat. This suggests that the major contribution to human exposure comes from mine dehydration effluent that has been continuously released into the river system for many years [RUT 84].
2.8.8. La Hague
The incident involving the breach of radioactive effluents in the sea at La Hague was the subject of a reconstruction of the radiological impact, based on the consumption of marine products by the GRNC [GRN 99]. The calculations were based on two assumptions, and the differences between the results were in the order of a factor of 7 for the collective ex utero dose and a factor of 8 for the collective risk. Whatever the calculation hypothesis considered, the predicted number of leukemia cases, which was in the order of 0.0014 cases between 1978 and 1996 (taking into account only the consumption of marine products), increases to 0.002 if we look at all the exposure routes to discharges from nuclear installations in North Cotentin. This result illustrates the significant sensitivity of the risk of leukemia down to discharges from nuclear installations, particularly with regard to the incident of pipe breakage [BAR 00].
The consequences on exposure ex utero of the two major incidents that occurred at the site of the La Hague spent fuel reprocessing plant (breaking of the offshore discharge pipe in 1979–1980 and fire at silo 181 containing high-level waste on January 6, 1981) were estimated and are presented in Table 2.2.
Table 2.2. Type and level of exposure of the population of Beaumont-Hague caused by incidents at the La Hague spent fuel reprocessing plant (modified according to [GRN 99]. For each of the accidents, the percentages of the various causes are provided
| Incident | Type of exposure | Dose (myear.Sv) | Percentage |
| Breaking of the pipe | Ingestion (90Sr, 106Ru) | 0.04 | 48 |
| External (106Ru, 125Sb) | 25 | ||
| Inadvertence (244Cm) | 16 | ||
| Spray and spreading (90Sr) | 11 | ||
| Silo fire | Ingestion (137Cs) | 0.14 | 64 |
| External (137Cs, 134Cs) | 35 | ||
| Inhalation | 1 |
2.8.9. Chalk River
The two accidents at the Chalk River Laboratories in Canada required a major clean-up effort involving many civilians and military personnel (approximately 850). Health surveillance of these workers did not seem to reveal any negative impact of the two accidents [WER 82]. However, some cleaning workers who were part of the military contingent assigned to the NRX reactor applied unsuccessfully for a military disability pension as a result of health damage.
2.8.10. Ruthenium 106 releases in Russia in September 2017
Contamination of the food chain by ruthenium 106 is known, with the contamination of laverbread (made from the seaweed Porphyra sp.) around Windscale and beyond in the Irish Sea causing a partial exposure of the population in 1959 of 7 mSv [AMI 13a]. The risk in the case of this Russian accident (Mayak) would be the consumption of mushrooms. The maximum acceptable standard (MAS) for this radionuclide in mushrooms is 1,250 Bq.kg−1. The transfer factor from soil to fungal mycelium is about 102 m2.kg−1. Therefore, to exceed the MAS, it is necessary that the soil be contaminated to more than 2,000,000,000 Bq.m−2, which in this accident represents about a 2 km radius. In addition, for a child (2–7 years old) to exceed the committed effective dose by ingestion of 1 mSv, they would have to eat 32 kg of mushrooms in 1 year [IRS 17c].
2.9. The cost of accidents
For the Simi Valley accident, dismantling costs for the period 1974–1983 amounted to US$16.6 million. This represents about 11% of the cost of the liquid sodium cooled test reactor (estimated at US$150 million, 1982 value) [CAR 83].
For Three Mile Island (TMI), the initial construction cost was US$400 million. In Marc Haumont’s blog, a text is summarized by Cousteau [COU 81] on the cost of the TMI accident. “In 1975, Congress passed the Anderson Act, according to which the American state insured itself against nuclear accidents to the tune of US$560 million. After the accident, the decontamination and reconditioning of the defective reactor was estimated at more than US$500 million. A few months after the accident, 14 law firms representing people living within a 40 km radius of the TMI plant filed lawsuits for ‘negligence or wilful mismanagement’ against the responsible electricity company (Metropolitan Edison). This was the largest trial ever undertaken and the sums claimed amounted to US$560 million. Finally, the expenses generated by the TMI accident, classified at level 5 on the INES, will prove to be more than 1 billion dollars, excluding