Source: Google ImageAs the situation at the Fukushima plant in Japan continues to deteriorate, here are details of 10 of the worst ever nuclear disasters.
Chernobyl, Ukraine, 1986. The plant blew up when one of four reactors went into meltdown during an experiment. Around 200 people were seriously contaminated and 32 died within three months. More than 350,000 people were resettled. Contamination continues to be a problem and the number who will die as a result is disputed. The accident was only revealed when a giant radioactive cloud was registered moving across northern Europe. INES level seven. Our guide to the scale.
Kyshtym, Soviet Union, 1957. A cooling system failed, causing a non-nuclear explosion of dried waste. Around 10,000 people were evacuated after reports surfaced of people's skin falling off. The radiation is estimated to have directly caused the deaths of 200 people due to cancer. INES level six.
Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania, 1979. About 140,000 people were forced to evacuate their homes when equipment malfunctions, problems with the design of the reactor and human error led to a partial meltdown of a reactor core. Although it resulted in some contamination within the plant, nobody died or got injured. INES level five.
Windscale, Cumberland, 1957. The core of Britain's first nuclear reactor caught fire, releasing a cloud of radioactive material. The sale of certain produces from nearby farms were banned for a month. It was blamed for an estimated 200 cases of cancer in the UK, half of them fatal. INES level five.
Tokaimura, Japan, 1999. A batch of highly enriched uranium was wrongly operated in a precipitation tank, causing a radiation accident that killed two workers. Around 100 workers and local residents were admitted to hospital for exposure to radiation. INES level four.
Mihama, Japan, 2004. Four workers were killed and several others injured when radioactive steam leaked from a broken pipe. One of the three nuclear reactors at the plant shut down automatically.
Tsuruga, Japan, 1981. An estimated 278 people were affected by four successive leaks of radioactivity. It took 14 hours to shut down the site.
Western Siberia, 1993. An explosion at the secret Tomsk-7 plant in western Siberia released a cloud of radioactive gas. The number of casualties is unclear.
Chernobyl, Ukraine, 1995. Serious contamination was reported at Chernobyl during the removal of fuel from one of the plant's reactors. The incident was reported only after an apparent attempt to cover it up.
Tokaimura, Japan, 1997. Work at the experimental treatment was partially halted after a fire and an explosion exposed 37 people to radiation.
