ABSTRACT
Various incidents have shown that the nuclear industry is vulnerable to human mistakes or misconduct. However sophisticated the equipment, however advanced the control systems, the industry ultimately depends upon people – even if the machines are perfect, their operators are rarely so blessed. Human beings are responsible for the design, construction and operation of everything from buildings and machinery, to computer programmes, nuts and bolts. Above all, people make decisions and people are fallible: all the major nuclear accidents to date – from the Windscale fire to Chernobyl – were directly or indirectly caused by human misjudgement. What has been described as the “worst radiological accident in the world” 1 – two years after Chernobyl – occurred at Goiania in Brazil, when a curious scrap metal dealer broke open a capsule of caesium-137 chloride from a defunct radiotherapy clinic. The release of 51.8 TBq of radioactivity resulted in several deaths and extensive contamination as people unknowingly spread radioactive material around. By accident or design, human actions can jeopardise the industry’s operations and endanger the health and safety of the public.
