ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at what Harold Denton called the "three unhappy families"-Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima. Like Three Mile Island, the accident in the Ukraine's Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (formerly of the Soviet Union) occurred in the early morning, during a slow shift. In the early morning of April 26, 1986, during a system test, the Chernobyl plant, positioned on the Pripyat River, experienced a series of grievous failures which led to explosions and fires. With the Fukushima disaster, Japan knew the ramifications of nuclear technology from both angles-as a weapon and as a dangerous nuclear power. Fukushima occurred during what some call 'the nuclear renaissance', a time in which renewed and enthusiastic attention returned to nuclear power as a greener solution than other energy sources. However, nuclear power accidents are shared and largely foreshadowed events that many can envisage reoccurring. Those countries that do have nuclear power will share, to some extent, the trauma of nuclear accidents abroad.
