The most terrible man-made disasters. The largest man-made disasters in modern Russia

On March 12, 2011, one of the most terrible man-made disasters occurred - the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant. This is a terrible event, the consequences of which humanity is still dealing with today.

The accident occurred as a result of the strongest earthquake in Japanese history and the subsequent tsunami. The elements damaged power supplies and diesel generators, which began a chain of terrible events. It all ended with all the emergency cooling systems of the reactors failing. The result is the melting of their active zones.

The disaster became so large-scale that the whole world felt its consequences: in many countries (Germany, France, USA, South Korea and Russia) radioactive substances unusual for the area were found. A 160-ton reinforced concrete floating pier, carried away by a tsunami from Japan, crossed the entire Pacific Ocean and ended up off the coast of Oregon a year and three months later. US health officials have found traces of radiation in the meat of tuna and other fish caught off the coast of California.

As for Japan itself, TEPCO, the company that owns the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, suffered the most. The government of the country obliged the owners to pay compensation to 80 thousand displaced people in the amount of about 130 billion dollars. At the same time, the value of TERCO shares decreased by 80%, the company itself sharply fell in price by $32 billion and lost its high credit rating. Although the nuclear power plant was insured for several tens of millions of euros (by the German Association of Nuclear Reactor Insurers), TEPCO never received the money. Reason: Germany did not recognize the earthquake and tsunami as an insured event.

Watch the video with footage of the accident that occurred in Fukushima.

Taking this opportunity, the men's magazine MPORT decided to recall several more terrible man-made disasters, the memories of which make one's knees tremble.

Man-made disasters: K-19

K-19 is one of the most famous nuclear submarines of the USSR. This is the first Soviet nuclear submarine armed with ballistic nuclear missiles. But she became famous thanks to something else. These are numerous scrapes that K-19 constantly got into. For this she was even nicknamed “Hiroshima”.

Even before the boat was launched, people had already died in it: in 1959, while painting the holds, a fire broke out and claimed the lives of two people, then a woman painter suffocated there. In 1961, while loading missiles into the submarine's silos, one sailor was crushed to death by the lid. One of the most severe accidents occurred on July 4th in 1961. The aft reactor was damaged, resulting in the death of 8 crew members, the rest were severely irradiated with radiation. On November 15, 1969, K-19 collided with Gato, a US Navy submarine. On February 24, 1972, a fire occurred in two compartments, due to which 30 people died, and nine survivors had to endure real torture: the sailors spent 23 days imprisoned in the aft compartment without light, communications, food, and with meager supplies of water. and air.

This is far from the end of the list of “merits” of K-19. It’s not for nothing that even the American film “K-19: Leaving Widows” is dedicated to this man-made horror with nuclear reactors.

Source: deadlinelive.info

Man-made disasters: Three Mile Island

The events that occurred on March 28, 1979 at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant (Pennsylvania) became one of the largest man-made accidents in the history of nuclear energy (second only to Chernobyl). During the events, the reactor core was seriously damaged, resulting in the melting of part of the nuclear fuel. Although it did not burn through the storage facility and radioactive substances remained inside, the release of dangerous nuclides (iodine-131) was significant. The government spent almost a billion dollars to eliminate the consequences of the accident. The station area was decontaminated and fuel was unloaded from the reactor. But some of the radioactive water has managed to be absorbed into the concrete of the containment shell, and this radioactivity is almost impossible to remove.

Source: blog.nownews.com

Man-made disasters: Bhopal disaster

The Bhopal disaster is the leader in man-made accidents in terms of the number of victims. Occurred on December 3, 1984 at the Union Carbide chemical plant in the Indian city of Bhopal, it claimed the lives of 18 thousand people. The reason was an emergency release of vapors from the pesticide methyl isocyanate, which in the factory tank heated above the boiling point (39 °C), exploded the safety valve and evaporated. The result is that about 42 tons of toxic fumes were released into the atmosphere. Three thousand residents of the town and neighboring slums died immediately, the remaining 15 thousand died in subsequent years from exposure to chemicals on the body. The total number of victims is from 150 to 600 thousand people.

Union Carbide had to pay $470 million to the victims. The company's shares fell by two billion dollars, and already former leaders sentenced to two years in prison and a fine of $2,100.

The Kurenevskaya tragedy occurred in Kyiv on March 13, 1961. On December 2, 1952, a decision was made to create a landfill from construction waste in the notorious site of Babi Yar. This place was blocked by a dam, which protected the Kurenevsky district from waste discharged from brick factories. On March 13, the dam broke, and a mud wave 14 meters high rushed down Teligi Street. The flow was very powerful and washed away everything in its path: cars, trams, buildings.

Although the flood lasted only an hour and a half, during this time the wave of waste managed to claim the lives of hundreds of people and cause catastrophic damage to the entire city. It was not possible to establish the exact number of victims, but this figure is close to 1.5 thousand people. In addition, approximately 90 buildings were destroyed, approximately 60 of which were residential.

The news of the disaster reached the population of the country only on March 16, and on the day of the tragedy the authorities decided not to advertise what happened. For this purpose, international and long-distance communications were turned off throughout Kyiv. Later, an expert commission made a decision on the causes of this accident; they called “errors in the design of hydraulic dumps and dams.”

Radiation accident at the Krasnoye Sormovo plant

Radiation accident at the Krasnoye Sormovo plant, which was located in Nizhny Novgorod, occurred on January 18, 1970. The tragedy occurred during the construction of the K-320 nuclear submarine, which was part of the Skat project. When the boat was on the slipway, the reactor suddenly turned on and operated for 15 seconds at its maximum speed. As a result, radiation contamination of the entire mechanical assembly shop occurred.

At the time the reactor was operating, there were about 1,000 people working at the plant in the room. Unaware of the contamination, many went home that day without the necessary medical care and decontamination treatment. Three of the six victims taken to a hospital in Moscow died from radiation sickness. It was decided not to make this incident public, and non-disclosure agreements were taken from all those who survived for 25 years. And only the next day after the accident, workers began to be processed. Elimination of the consequences of the accident continued until April 24, 1970; more than a thousand plant workers were involved in this work.

Chernobyl disaster

The Chernobyl disaster occurred on April 26, 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The reactor was completely destroyed as a result of the explosion, and environment A huge amount of radioactive substances were released. The accident was the largest in the history of nuclear energy. The main damaging factor in the explosion was radioactive contamination. In addition to the territories located in close proximity to the explosion (30 km), the territory of Europe was damaged. This happened because the cloud formed from the explosion carried radioactive materials many kilometers from the source. The fallout of iodine and cesium radionucleides was recorded on the territory of modern Belarus. Ukraine and the Russian Federation.

During the first three months after the accident, 31 people died, while over the next 15 years, another 60 to 80 people died from the consequences of the accident. More than 115 thousand people were evacuated from the 30-kilometer affected area. More than 600 thousand military personnel and volunteers took part in the liquidation of the accident. The course of the investigation was constantly changing. The exact cause of the accident has not yet been established.

Kyshtym accident

The Kyshtym accident was the first man-made disaster in the CCCR; it occurred on September 29, 1957. It happened at the Mayak plant, which was located in the closed military city of Chelyabinsk-40. The name of the accident was given to the closest city of Kyshtym.

The cause was an explosion that occurred in a special tank for radiation waste. This container was a smooth cylinder made of stainless steel. The design of the container seemed reliable, and no one expected that the cooling system would fail.

An explosion occurred, as a result of which about 20 million curies of radioactive substances were released into the atmosphere. About 90 percent of the radiation fell on the territory of the Mayak chemical plant itself. Fortunately. Chelyabinsk-40 was not damaged. During the liquidation of the accident, 23 villages were resettled, and the houses and domestic animals themselves were destroyed.

No one was killed as a result of the explosion. However, employees who carried out the elimination of contamination received a significant dose of radiation. About a thousand people took part in the operation. Now this zone is called the East Ural radioactive trace and any economic activity in this territory is prohibited.

Disaster at the Plesetsk cosmodrome

On March 18, 1980, during preparations for the launch of the Vostok 2-M launch vehicle, an explosion occurred. The incident occurred at the Plesetsk cosmodrome. This accident led to large quantities human casualties: only in the immediate vicinity of the rocket at the time of the explosion there were 141 people. 44 people died in the fire, the rest received burns of varying severity and were taken to the hospital, four of them subsequently died.

What led to the disaster was the fact; that in the manufacture of filters hydrogen peroxide was used as catalytic materials. It was only thanks to the bravery of the participants in this accident that many people were saved from the fire. The liquidation of the disaster lasted for three days.

In the future, scientists abandoned the use of hydrogen peroxide as a catalyst, which allowed them to avoid such incidents.

Modern technology development provides us with a huge number of new opportunities. Unfortunately, nothing comes for 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 and failure to comply with safety rules, but some of them are associated with testing new types of weapons.

Video: TOP man-made disasters in the world

Toxic cloud in Seveso

The Italian town of Seveso once had seventeen thousand inhabitants. It was located in the valley of the Po River, 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 the chemical plant where most of the residents worked.

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 fall on gardens and residential buildings.

People who inhaled the poison experienced symptoms such as attacks of nausea and the development of eye diseases with weakened vision. Now Seveso is a ghost town where no one has lived for many years; it is called the Italian Hiroshima. In order to disinfect the soil it was necessary to spend many years. The consequences of the chemical release were aggravated by the fact that the plant owners did not immediately tell doctors the reason for the deterioration in the health of city residents.

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

Three Mile Island accident

On March 28, 1979, one of the largest man-made disasters in the world and the history of nuclear energy occurred. The Three Mile Island nuclear power plant was located on the Susquehuanna River near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

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

• Coolant was constantly flowing through the valve of one of the pressure compensator valves. Because of this, the temperature in the discharge pipeline was higher than normal, and the excess medium had to be drained every eight hours.
• The ion exchange resin discharge pipeline was clogged, and workers tried to clear it with water and compressed air.

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

Due to the destruction of fuel rod shells, 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 forced a review of safety standards for the operation of nuclear facilities.

Incident at Love Canal

In the vicinity of Niagara Falls, New York, there was a settlement called Love Canal. It was originally built as a "City of Dreams" - a place where the most environmentally friendly materials were to be used, which is exactly how entrepreneur William Love envisioned it.

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

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

Because the area was designated for low-income people, most residents were unable to leave, even after they realized the dangers of living on the land. Only a few years later, with the help of the involvement of the media, scientists and public figures managed to attract the attention of the US government to this problem. Now Love Canal is a landmark city, still reminiscent of one of the world's worst man-made disasters.

Explosion at the AZF plant in Toulouse

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

Because of now unknown reason Three hundred tons of ammonium nitrate, which was located in a hangar belonging to the AZF chemical plant, detonated. At the site of the explosion there was a crater with a diameter of up to fifty meters and a depth of about five meters.

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

The power of the explosion, the damage caused and the huge number of casualties make this incident one of the worst 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.

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

Disaster of the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station

The accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station is undoubtedly one of the biggest technical disasters in the world. This incident is considered the largest incident in the entire 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 established that the accident occurred as a result of multiple additional loads on the hydraulic unit, which caused fatigue damage to the attachment points. The additional load caused the destruction of the pins that held the turbine cover, resulting in depressurization of the water supply path of the hydraulic unit.

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

In addition to the death of seventy-five people, the accident caused oil from the bearing baths of hydraulic units to enter the Yenisei, which led to the creation of a slick stretching over one hundred and thirty kilometers. The amount of environmental damage is estimated at 63 million rubles.

Disease in Minamata

Minamata disease is a syndrome that causes poisoning by methylmercury and other organic mercury compounds. This disease was first discovered in Minamata City, Kumamoto Prefecture in 1956.

Its symptoms:

• Paresthesia in the extremities;
• Motor skills disorders;
• Speech impairment;
• Weakened hearing and vision;
• Impaired consciousness;
• Paralysis.

This disease is also fatal.

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, anomalies in the behavior of animals began to be discovered, as well as similar symptoms among residents of fishing villages. The disease claimed the lives of fourteen people.

Further investigation revealed that the cause of the pathologies was severe contamination with methylmercury in the seafood that the victims ate. After this, a chemical analysis of the water was carried out, which revealed increased content mercury, lead, thallium, selenium, arsenic. All of these metals were released into the water due to the continuous release of mercury into the water by Chisso. The important point is that 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 largest man-made disasters in the world.

The Chernobyl accident

The events that occurred 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 carried out state commission USSR in 1986 and 1991, INSAG advisory group.

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

• Design flaws of nuclear power plants;
• Silencing the seriousness of the situation in the first days of the incident;
• The desire of employees to conduct an experiment “at any cost”;
• Disablement 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 rescue teams who were at the plant 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 cancer, in particular thyroid cancer. Many pathologies have also been recorded in newborns.

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

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

Fukushima nuclear power plant accident

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

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

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

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

Plus

On March 11, 2011, as a result of the strongest earthquake in the history of Japan and the subsequent tsunami, a major radiation accident of maximum level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale occurred at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant. Financial damage, including cleanup costs, decontamination costs and compensation, is estimated at $100 billion. Since the work to eliminate the consequences will take years, the amount will increase.

A man-made disaster (English: Industrial disaster) is a major accident at a man-made facility, entailing massive loss of life and even an environmental disaster.

One of the features of man-made disasters is their randomness (this is how they differ from terrorist attacks). Usually man-made are opposed natural disasters. However, like natural ones, man-made disasters can cause panic, transport collapse, and also lead to a rise or loss of authority.

Every year, dozens of man-made disasters of various sizes occur in the world. In this issue you will find a list major disasters that have occurred since the beginning of the century.

year 2000

"Petrobrice" - Brazilian state oil company. The company's headquarters are located in Rio de Janeiro. In July 2000, in Brazil, as a result of a disaster on an oil refining platform, more than a million gallons of oil (about 3,180 tons) leaked into the Iguazu River. For comparison: in the summer of 2013, 50 tons of crude oil spilled near a resort island in Thailand.

The resulting stain moved downstream, threatening to poison the drinking water of several cities at once. The liquidators of the accident built several barriers, but they managed to stop the oil only at the fifth one. One part of the oil was collected from the surface of the water, the other went through specially built diversion channels.

The Petrobrice company paid a fine of $56 million to the state budget and $30 million to the state budget.

year 2001

On September 21, 2001, in the French city of Toulouse, an explosion occurred at the AZF chemical plant, the consequences of which are considered one of the largest man-made disasters. 300 tons of ammonium nitrate (a salt of nitric acid), which were in a finished products warehouse, exploded. According to the official version, the management of the plant is to blame for not ensuring the safe storage of an explosive substance.

The consequences of the disaster were gigantic: 30 people were killed, the total number of injured was more than 3,000, thousands of residential houses and buildings were destroyed or damaged, including almost 80 schools, 2 universities, 185 kindergartens, 40,000 people were left homeless, more 130 enterprises actually ceased their activities. The total amount of damage is 3 billion euros.

2002

On November 13, 2002, off the coast of Spain, the oil tanker Prestige was caught in a strong storm, with more than 77,000 tons of fuel oil in its holds. As a result of the storm, a crack about 50 meters long appeared in the ship's hull. On November 19, the tanker broke in half and sank. As a result of the disaster, 63,000 tons of fuel oil entered the sea.

Cleaning the sea and shores of fuel oil cost $12 billion; the full damage caused to the ecosystem is impossible to estimate.

2004

On August 26, 2004, a fuel tanker carrying 32,000 liters of fuel fell from the 100-meter-high Wiehltal bridge near Cologne in western Germany. After the fall, the fuel tanker exploded. The culprit of the accident was a sports car that skidded on a slippery road, which caused the fuel tanker to skid.

This accident is considered one of the most expensive man-made disasters in history - temporary repairs to the bridge cost $40 million, and complete reconstruction cost $318 million.

2007

On March 19, 2007, a methane explosion at the Ulyanovskaya mine in the Kemerovo region killed 110 people. The first explosion was followed 5-7 seconds later by four more, which caused extensive collapses in the workings in several places at once. The chief engineer and almost the entire mine management were killed. This accident is the largest in Russian coal mining over the past 75 years.

year 2009

On August 17, 2009, a man-made disaster occurred at a plant located on the Yenisei River. This happened during the repair of one of the hydraulic units of the hydroelectric power station. As a result of the accident, the 3rd and 4th water pipelines were destroyed, the wall was destroyed and the turbine room was flooded. 9 out of 10 hydraulic turbines were completely out of order, the hydroelectric power station was stopped.

Due to the accident, the power supply to Siberian regions was disrupted, including limited electricity supply in Tomsk, and outages affected several Siberian aluminum smelters. As a result of the disaster, 75 people were killed and another 13 were injured.

The damage from the accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station exceeded 7.3 billion rubles, including damage caused to the environment.

2010

On October 4, 2010, a fire occurred in western Hungary. At an aluminum production plant, an explosion destroyed the dam of a reservoir containing toxic waste - the so-called red mud. About 1.1 million cubic meters of the corrosive substance were flooded by a 3-meter flow in the cities of Kolontar and Dečever, 160 kilometers west of Budapest.

Red mud is a sediment that is formed during the production of aluminum oxide. When it comes into contact with the skin, it acts like an alkali. As a result of the disaster, 10 people died, about 150 received various injuries and burns.

On April 22, 2010, a manned drilling platform sank in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of the US state of Louisiana after an explosion that killed 11 people and a 36-hour fire.

The oil leak was stopped only on August 4, 2010. About 5 million barrels of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. The platform on which the accident occurred belonged to a Swiss company, and at the time of the man-made disaster the platform was managed by British Petroleum.

2011

On March 11, 2011, in the northeast of Japan at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, after a strong earthquake, the largest accident in the last 25 years after the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant occurred. Following earthquakes with a magnitude of 9.0, a huge tsunami wave hit the coast, damaging four of the six reactors of the nuclear power plant and knocking out the cooling system, which led to a series of hydrogen explosions and melting of the core.

The total emissions of iodine-131 and cesium-137 after the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant amounted to 900,000 terabecquerels, which does not exceed 20% of the emissions after the Chernobyl accident in 1986, which then amounted to 5.2 million terabecquerels.

Experts estimated the total damage from the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant at $74 billion. Complete elimination of the accident, including dismantling the reactors, will take about 40 years.

NPP "Fukushima-1".

On July 11, 2011, an explosion occurred at a naval base near Limassol in Cyprus, which claimed 13 lives and brought the island nation to the brink of economic crisis, destroying the island's largest power plant.

Investigators accused the President of the Republic, Dimitris Christofias, of neglecting the problem of storing ammunition confiscated in 2009 from the Monchegorsk ship on suspicion of arms smuggling to Iran. In fact, the ammunition was stored directly on the ground on the territory of the naval base and detonated due to the high temperature.

year 2012

On February 28, 2012, an explosion occurred at a chemical plant in the Chinese province of Hebei, killing 25 people. An explosion occurred in a workshop for the production of nitroguanidine (it is used as rocket fuel) at the Hebei Care chemical plant in the city of Shijiazhuang.

year 2013

On April 18, 2013, a powerful explosion occurred at a fertilizer plant in the American city of West, Texas.

Almost 100 buildings in the area were destroyed, from 5 to 15 people were killed, about 160 people were injured, and the town itself began to look like a war zone or the set of the next Terminator movie.

2015

On August 12, 2015, as a result of safety violations when storing explosives, two huge explosions occurred in a Chinese port, which led to a large number victims, hundreds of destroyed houses and thousands of destroyed cars.

April 18 in the American city of West (Texas). From 5 to 15 people were killed, about 160 people were injured. In total, dozens of houses were destroyed. Due to the explosion, power supply in the area was disrupted.

August 25 on the territory of the largest oil refinery in Venezuela, Paraguana Refining Center. A propane vapor fire occurred in the oil storage area. Later, two tanks caught fire. The fire spread to a nearby barracks, pipelines and cars parked nearby. The fire engulfed the third oil tank on the night of August 28. It was only on the afternoon of August 28 that the fire was completely extinguished. As a result of the disaster, 42 people were killed and 150 were injured.

February 28 at a chemical plant in the Chinese province of Hebei, killing 25 people. An explosion occurred in the nitroguanidine production workshop at the Hebei Care chemical plant in Zhaoxian County, Shijiazhuang.

12-th of September at Centraco's radioactive material processing facility in Marcoule, France. One person died, four were injured. The incident occurred in a furnace for transporting metal waste that was weakly irradiated at nuclear facilities. No radiation leaks were detected.

On August 9, 320 kilometers west of Tokyo, on the island of Honshu, an accident occurred at the Mihama nuclear power plant. An extremely powerful release of hot steam (about 200 degrees Celsius) occurred in the turbine of the third reactor. All nearby employees received severe burns. At the time of the accident, about 200 people were in the building where the third reactor is located. Four people were killed and another 18 employees were injured.

On November 13, off the coast of Spain, the oil tanker Prestige was caught in a strong storm, with more than 77 thousand tons of high-sulfur fuel oil in its holds. As a result of the storm, a crack about 50 meters long appeared in the ship's hull. On November 19, the tanker broke in half and sank. As a result of the disaster, 64 thousand tons of fuel oil ended up in the sea.

Complete cleanup of the water area cost $12 billion, but it is impossible to fully assess the damage caused to the ecosystem.

On September 21, an explosion occurred at the AZF chemical plant in Toulouse (France), the consequences of which are considered one of the largest man-made disasters. 300 tons of ammonium nitrate, which were in a finished goods warehouse, exploded. According to the official version, the blame for the disaster was placed on the management of the plant, which did not ensure the safe storage of the explosive substance.

As a result of the emergency, 30 people were killed, the total number of injured exceeded 3.5 thousand, thousands of residential buildings and many institutions were destroyed or seriously damaged, including 79 schools, 11 lyceums, 26 colleges, two universities, 184 kindergartens, 27 thousand apartments, 40 thousand people were left homeless, and 134 enterprises actually ceased their activities. To the authorities and Insurance companies 100 thousand claims for damages were received. The total damage amounted to three billion euros.

In July, a disaster at the Petrobras oil refinery in Brazil spilled more than a million gallons of oil into the Iguazu River. The resulting stain moved downstream, threatening to poison the drinking water of several cities at once. The liquidators of the accident built several barriers, but they managed to stop the oil only at the fifth one. One part of the oil was collected from the surface of the water, the other went through specially built diversion channels.

The Petrobras company paid a fine of $56 million to the state budget and $30 million to the state budget.

The material was prepared based on information from RIA Novosti and open sources