Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment has campaigned against all aspects of the operation of Sellafield, formally known as which worst nuclear accident in Great Britain's history, ranked in severity at level 5 out of a possible 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale?
e6b88a0bc46bcf1121ddb940c8740194
Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment Cumbrians Opposed to a Radioactive Environment (CORE) is a non-political, non-profit organisation, located in Barrow-in-Furness, which since 1980 has campaigned against all aspects of the operation of Sellafield, formally Windscale and the site of the 1957 reactor fire. Issues of current interest are radioactive air and sea discharges, resultant environmental contamination, and the health detriment to local communities and wildlife. As well as preparing compensation cases for Sellafield workers, CORE has taken part in many direct action campaigns which have resulted in a string of injunctions.
8affc2a7a13e86ec81ad6f71fe544163
Windscale fire The Windscale fire of 10 October 1957 was the worst nuclear accident in Great Britain's history, ranked in severity at level 5 out of a possible 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale. The fire took place in Unit 1 of the two-pile Windscale facility on the northwest coast of England in Cumberland (now Sellafield, Cumbria). The two graphite-moderated reactors, referred to at the time as "piles", had been built as part of the British atomic bomb project. Windscale Pile No. 1 was operational in October 1950 followed by Pile No. 2 in June 1951.
4578185d0e063ecd459c0e2475aa4c21
Wankie coal mine disaster The Wankie coal mine disaster took place on 6 June 1972 when a series of underground explosions occurred at the Wankie No.2 colliery in Rhodesia (now known as Zimbabwe). With 426 fatalities, it remains the deadliest mine accident to date in the country's history.
85ecf868eb4c94bb291b9bde7aebc993
Largest artificial non-nuclear explosions There have been many extremely large explosions, accidental and intentional, caused by modern high explosives, boiling liquid expanding vapour explosions (BLEVEs), older explosives such as gunpowder, volatile petroleum-based fuels such as petrol, and other chemical reactions. This list contains the largest known examples, sorted by date. An unambiguous ranking in order of severity is not possible; a 1994 study by historian Jay White of 130 large explosions suggested that they need to be ranked by an overall effect of power, quantity, radius, loss of life and property destruction, but concluded that such rankings are difficult to assess.
a3bf1bcdc23816b101983b348afb290c
Accident rating of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster Accident rating of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster
9ed16e054e9b03ed381a591f7ee43df6
1931 Dogger Bank earthquake The Dogger Bank earthquake of 1931 was the strongest earthquake recorded in the United Kingdom since measurements began. It had a magnitude of 6.1 on the Richter magnitude scale, and it caused a shaking intensity of III ("Weak") to IV ("Light") on the Mercalli intensity scale. The location of the earthquake in the North Sea meant that damage was significantly less than it would have been had the epicentre been on the British mainland.
1d9f99f305da3e77bac8e3362064f884
Nuclear Power and the Environment Nuclear Power and the Environment, sometimes simply called the Flowers Report, was released in September 1976 and is the sixth report of the UK Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, chaired by Sir Brian Flowers. The report was dedicated to "the Queen's most excellent Majesty." "He was appointed "to advise on matters, both national and international, concerning the pollution of the environment; on the adequacy of research in this field; and the future possibilities of danger to the environment." One of the recommendations of the report was that:
165f5b0bd8ece8f1198d37cc17c62820
Fukushima disaster cleanup The Fukushima disaster cleanup is an ongoing attempt to limit radioactive contamination from the three nuclear reactors involved in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster which followed the earthquake and tsunami on 11 March 2011.
39fc9222c388ef738fcfa3d30004696d
Great Frost of 1683–84 The Great Frost of 1683–84 was a frost across England, reported as the worst in its history. During the Frost, the surface of the River Thames was reported as frozen to the depth of one foot. The Great Frost enabled the first River Thames frost fair. Entertainment on the frozen Thames as result of the Great Frost began the career of Chipperfield's Circus.
802ccaee085258562fe8138207a4898e
Nuclear Accident Magnitude Scale The Nuclear Accident Magnitude Scale (NAMS) is a scale to measure the severity of a nuclear accident. It was proposed by the British nuclear safety expert David Smythe in 2011 as a response to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, where the conventional International Nuclear Event Scale was used in a confusing manner. Furthermore, it wants to bridge the various shortcomings of INES.
2a73ff8012de33bd809dd81080ba28e9
Nuclear warfare Nuclear warfare (sometimes atomic warfare or thermonuclear warfare) is a military conflict or political strategy in which nuclear weaponry is used to inflict damage on the enemy. Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction; in contrast to conventional warfare, nuclear warfare can produce destruction in a much shorter time-frame and can have a long-lasting radiological warfare dimension. A major nuclear exchange would have long-term effects, primarily from the fallout released, and could also lead to a "nuclear winter" that could last for decades, centuries, or even millennia after the initial attack. Some claimed that the result would be that almost every human on Earth could starve to death. Other analysts however dismiss the nuclear winter hypothesis, and calculate that even with nuclear weapon stockpiles at Cold War highs, although there would be billions of casualties, billions more rural people would nevertheless survive.
b2b3e59c4e8ba420140604c03914ca31
Environmental disaster An ecological disaster is a disaster to the  environment due to human activity, which distinguishes it from the concept of a natural disaster. It is also distinct from intentional acts of war such as nuclear bombings.
9aec1dafa69fdde779c086d822777afa
Hazards Campaign The Hazards Campaign is a UK national network established in 1988 to campaign for improved workplace health, safety and welfare, and a reduction in the incidence of work-related injury, ill-health and death. It brings together Hazards Centres, Occupational Health Projects, trade unions, health and safety groups, specific campaigns and individual health and safety activists. Specific campaign groups include the Construction Safety Campaign, the Centre for Corporate Accountability (CCA), the UK WorkStress Network, Families Against Corporate Killers (FACK), asbestos victims' support groups, and RSI Action.
497434612014c1c574284d8a81454915
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (福島第一原子力発電所 , Fukushima Daiichi Genshiryoku Hatsudensho ) is a disabled nuclear power plant located on a 3.5 km2 site in the towns of Ōkuma and Futaba in the Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. The plant suffered major damage from the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan on March 11, 2011. The chain of events caused a nuclear meltdown, radiation leaks, and permanently damaged several reactors making them impossible to restart. By political decision, the remaining reactors will not be restarted.
c2db5f832745b18a9e90768cd5b3db32
1955 United Kingdom heat wave The UK drought of 1955 and associated heatwave were a set of severe weather events that occurred over all parts of the country. The drought was the 7th worst drought in Yorkshire, and worse than the famous 1976 drought and heatwave in the region. The drought followed a period of extremely wet weather previous to the event, limiting the effects. However, the usual impacts were seen with water levels and the water table dropping and reservoirs running low.
25dc93068fc411e2e2046b2649e2ea26
Aberfan Disaster Tribunal The Tribunal of Inquiry into the Aberfan Disaster (the Aberfan Disaster Tribunal), chaired by Lord Justice Edmund Davies, was established in 1966 to inquire into the causes of and circumstances of the Aberfan disaster. The report of the tribunal placed the main blame for the disaster on the National Coal Board.
c789de7eb39aad9bfd8962989c63b0c2
2009 Sayano–Shushenskaya power station accident The 2009 Sayano–Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station accident occurred at 00:13 GMT on 17 August 2009, (08:13 AM local time) when turbine 2 of the Sayano–Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station near Sayanogorsk in Khakassia, Russia, broke apart violently. The turbine hall and engine room were flooded, the ceiling of the turbine hall collapsed, 9 of 10 turbines were damaged or destroyed, and 75 people were killed. The entire plant output, totaling 6,400 MW and a significant portion of the supply to the local electric grid, was lost, leading to widespread power failure in the local area, and forcing major users such as aluminium smelters to switch to diesel generators. An official report on the accident was issued on 4 October 2009.
1fbd845b1ef585646eef26dbca0e2d3e
United Kingdom and weapons of mass destruction The United Kingdom possesses, or has possessed, a variety of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. The United Kingdom is one of the five official nuclear weapon states under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and has an independent nuclear deterrent. The UK has been estimated to have a stockpile of 120 active nuclear warheads and 215 nuclear warheads in total. It had renounced the use of chemical and biological weapons in 1956 and subsequently destroyed its general stocks.
b68d3df1dbcd5da59e3e3d1298a9ee69
List of disasters in Great Britain and Ireland by death toll List of disasters in Great Britain and Ireland by death toll
ca7f743a6127beac07eace18e0431aca
Purley station rail crash The Purley station rail crash was a train collision that occurred just to the north of Purley railway station in the London Borough of Croydon on Saturday 4 March 1989, leaving five dead and 88 injured. The collision was caused by the driver of one of the trains passing a signal at danger and he pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to 12 months in prison plus 6 months suspended, although this was reduced to four months upon appeal, and in 2007 overturned. The Ministry of Transport report noted that the signal had a high incidence of being passed at danger and recommended that an automatic train protection system should be introduced without delay and in the interim a repeater for the signal that had been passed be installed.
5bee27cbac011ef60316450a0d586f29
Cumbria shootings The Cumbria shootings was a killing spree that occurred on 2 June 2010 when a lone gunman, Derrick Bird, killed 12 people and injured 11 others before killing himself in Cumbria, England. Along with the 1987 Hungerford massacre, the 1989 Monkseaton shootings, and the 1996 Dunblane school massacre, it is one of the worst criminal acts involving firearms in British history.
9d6f8c53c4e0a39c16cae67684d1eb23
British nuclear tests at Maralinga British nuclear tests at Maralinga occurred between 1956 and 1963 at the Maralinga site, part of the Woomera Prohibited Area in South Australia and about 800 kilometres north-west of Adelaide. A total of seven nuclear tests were performed, with approximate yields ranging from 1 to . Two major test series were conducted at the Maralinga site: "Operation Buffalo" and "Operation Antler". The site was also used for hundreds of minor trials, many of which were intended to investigate the effects of fire or non-nuclear explosions on atomic weapons.