Читать книгу Industrial and Medical Nuclear Accidents - Jean-Claude Amiard - Страница 13

In the first volume of this series [AMI 19], we reviewed the definitions of nuclear incidents and accidents, and provided the American classification for military accidents.

The generally accepted definition of an accident is “a fortuitous event that has more or less harmful effects on people or things”. The term accident frequently implies apparent medical damage, morbidity or even mortality [NÉN 01, NÉN 06, NÉN 07]. When the accident is very serious, the terms catastrophe (the event that causes serious disruption and death) or calamity (a public misfortune where misfortune affects a region, a group of individuals) are used. On the contrary, the term incident refers to “an occurrence, a secondary event, generally unfortunate, that occurs during an action and can disrupt its normal course”.

Nuclear accidents in the civil, industrial and medical fields occur involuntarily following either a major natural event (earthquake, tsunami, etc.) or human error with serious repercussions, or could result from an act of terrorism.

The most serious nuclear accidents cause considerable damage to the environment, flora, fauna and humanity. In addition, their socio-economic impacts can be immense.