Environmental disasters in Russia

Explosion of a gas pipeline near UFA! 1989

Every year, dozens of terrible man-made disasters occur in the world that cause significant harm to the global environment.
year 2000

Petrobrice is a Brazilian state-owned oil company. The company's headquarters are located in Rio de Janeiro. In July 2000, a disaster at an oil refinery in Brazil spilled more than a million gallons of oil (about 3,180 tons) into the Iguazu River. For comparison, 50 tons of crude oil recently spilled near a resort island in Thailand.
The resulting stain moved downstream, threatening to poison drinking water for several cities at once. The liquidators of the accident built several barriers, but they managed to stop the oil only at the fifth one. One part of the oil was collected from the surface of the water, the other went through specially built diversion channels.
The Petrobrice company paid a fine of $56 to the state budget and $30 million to the state budget.

On September 21, 2001, an explosion occurred at the AZF chemical plant in Toulouse, France, the consequences of which are considered one of the largest man-made disasters. 300 tons of ammonium nitrate (a salt of nitric acid) that were in a warehouse exploded finished products. According to the official version, the management of the plant is to blame for not ensuring the safe storage of an explosive substance.
The consequences of the disaster were gigantic: 30 people were killed, the total number of injured was more than 3,000, thousands of residential buildings and buildings were destroyed or damaged, including almost 80 schools, 2 universities, 185 kindergartens, 40,000 people were left homeless, more than 130 enterprises have actually ceased their activities. The total amount of damage is 3 billion euros.

On November 13, 2002, off the coast of Spain, the oil tanker Prestige was caught in a strong storm, with more than 77,000 tons of fuel oil in its holds. As a result of the storm, a crack about 50 meters long appeared in the ship's hull. On November 19, the tanker broke in half and sank. As a result of the disaster, 63,000 tons of fuel oil ended up in the sea.

Cleaning the sea and shores of fuel oil cost $12 billion; the full damage caused to the ecosystem is impossible to estimate.

On August 26, 2004, a fuel tanker carrying 32,000 liters of fuel fell from the 100-meter-high Wiehltal bridge near Cologne in western Germany. After the fall, the tanker exploded. The culprit of the accident was a sports car that skidded on a slippery road, which caused the fuel tanker to skid.
This accident is considered one of the most expensive man-made disasters in history - temporary repairs to the bridge cost $40 million, and complete reconstruction cost $318 million.

2007

On March 19, 2007, a methane explosion at the Ulyanovskaya mine in the Kemerovo region killed 110 people. The first explosion was followed by four more explosions within 5-7 seconds, which caused extensive collapses in the workings in several places at once. Died Chief Engineer and almost the entire mine management. This accident is the largest in Russian coal mining over the past 75 years.

On August 17, 2009, a man-made disaster occurred at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station, located on the Yenisei River. This happened during the repair of one of the hydraulic units of the hydroelectric power station. As a result of the accident, the 3rd and 4th water pipelines were destroyed, the wall was destroyed and the turbine room was flooded. 9 out of 10 hydraulic turbines were completely out of order, the hydroelectric power station was stopped.
Due to the accident, the power supply to Siberian regions was disrupted, including limited electricity supply in Tomsk, and outages affected several Siberian aluminum smelters. As a result of the disaster, 75 people were killed and another 13 were injured.

The damage from the accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station exceeded 7.3 billion rubles, including environmental damage. Recently, a trial began in Khakassia in the case of a man-made disaster at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station in 2009.

On October 4, 2010, a major environmental disaster occurred in western Hungary. At a large aluminum production plant, an explosion destroyed the dam of a reservoir containing toxic waste - the so-called red mud. About 1.1 million cubic meters of the corrosive substance were flooded by a 3-meter flow in the cities of Kolontar and Dečever, 160 kilometers west of Budapest.

Red mud is a sediment that is formed during the production of aluminum oxide. When it comes into contact with the skin, it acts like an alkali. As a result of the disaster, 10 people died, about 150 received various injuries and burns.

On April 22, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon manned drilling platform sank in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of the US state of Louisiana after an explosion that killed 11 people and a 36-hour fire.

The oil leak was stopped only on August 4, 2010. About 5 million barrels of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. The platform on which the accident occurred belonged to a Swiss company, and at the time of the man-made disaster the platform was managed by British Petroleum.

March 11, 2011 in northeast Japan at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant after strongest earthquake The largest accident in the last 25 years since the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant occurred. Following earthquakes of magnitude 9.0, the coast came huge wave tsunami that damaged 4 of 6 reactors nuclear power plant and disabled the cooling system, which led to a series of hydrogen explosions and a meltdown of the core.

The total emissions of iodine-131 and cesium-137 after the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant amounted to 900,000 terabecrels, which does not exceed 20% of the emissions after the Chernobyl accident in 1986, which then amounted to 5.2 million terabecquerels.
Experts estimated the total damage from the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant at $74 billion. Complete elimination of the accident, including dismantling the reactors, will take about 40 years.

NPP "Fukushima-1"

July 11, 2011

On July 11, 2011, an explosion occurred at a naval base near Limassol in Cyprus, which claimed 13 lives and left Island state to the brink of economic crisis, destroying the island's largest power plant.
Investigators accused the President of the Republic, Dimitris Christofias, of neglecting the problem of storing ammunition confiscated in 2009 from the Monchegorsk ship on suspicion of arms smuggling to Iran. In fact, the ammunition was stored directly on the ground on the territory of the naval base and detonated due to the high temperature.

Destroyed Mari power plant in Cyprus

year 2012

On February 28, 2012, an explosion occurred at a chemical plant in the Chinese province of Hebei, killing 25 people. An explosion occurred in a workshop for the production of nitroguanidine (it is used as rocket fuel) at the Hebei Care chemical plant in the city of Shijiazhuang

On April 18, 2013, a powerful explosion occurred at a fertilizer plant in the American city of West, Texas.
Almost 100 buildings in the area were destroyed, from 5 to 15 people were killed, about 160 people were injured, and the town itself began to look like a war zone or the set of the next Terminator movie.

2014 is the year of global aviation disasters

In 2014, a number of events occurred in the world aviation accidents and disasters. According to preliminary data, from the beginning of this year to the present time, approximately 30 plane crashes have occurred around the world, resulting in the deaths of more than a thousand people. Some accidents and disasters occurred due to technical problems, crew errors and natural causes, while others occurred due to deliberate sabotage, which the international community called a “crime.”
The crash site of a Malaysian Boeing 777 plane in eastern Ukraine.
Photo: RIA Novosti

There have been terrible disasters in the history of world aviation. In 1972, more than 3,300 people died in plane and helicopter crashes, the highest number of air crash fatalities. By far the worst disaster in history civil aviation was the crash of a Boeing 747-200 of the Japanese airline Japan Airlines on August 12, 1985, which claimed the lives of 520 passengers and crew members. However, in 2014, a series of domestic and international flight disasters occurred in many countries around the world, which shocked the entire world due to their level of severity, as well as economic damage. These disasters have again raised the issue of aviation safety, as well as global safety.
The worst days for global aviation in 2014
On March 8, 2014, a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 disappeared from the radar screen on flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The disappearance of this passenger plane was unprecedented in modern history world aviation. Many countries around the world made a concerted effort and spent hundreds of millions of US dollars to search for the Malaysian airliner, which became the most expensive search operation in history. Investigations into the reasons for the disappearance of the Boeing are still ongoing, but information about the missing plane and the fate of the 227 passengers and 12 crew members on board remains a mystery.
On May 17, 2014, a military aircraft AN-74 TK300 of the Laotian Air Force crashed. A plane with 19 senior military personnel on board crashed on its way to Xieng Quang province. The delegation was heading to celebrate the anniversary of the second division of the Lao People's Army. The plane crash killed four high-ranking military leaders. July 2014 is considered the worst month for global aviation. On July 7, a Vietnamese Air Force training helicopter crashed due to a technical malfunction, killing 18 military personnel. A week later, a military helicopter crashed during a training exercise in the south of the Cambodian capital of Phnom Penh, killing five people and seriously injuring another. On July 17, a firefighting helicopter crashed in the south of the Republic of Korea, killing all five people on board. On July 23, a Taiwanese passenger plane tried to land at the airport in the city of Magong in the Penghu archipelago. Due to bad weather, the pilots requested a second landing attempt, after which the aircraft lost contact with air traffic controllers. As a result of the disaster, 51 people were killed and 7 others were injured.

Crime in the air
However, the most terrible and shocking disaster was the fact that a Malaysian Boeing airliner of Malaysia Airlines, flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was shot down in Ukrainian airspace. The disaster claimed the lives of 298 people. Almost six months have passed, but the investigation into the causes of the plane crash is proceeding very slowly, and the world community is outraged that those who shot down the airliner are not yet known.
Who shot down the Malaysian plane? Why was a passenger plane shot down? Why did the airliner fly over the conflict zone? What information was contained in the black box of flight MH17? Proper answers to these questions have not yet been found. A full-scale investigation into the causes of the plane crash began after the disaster, but it seems that it is gradually being forgotten. Instead of cooperation in the search for the truth, to date, the world community has only seen a protracted “war of words” between interested parties. The Ukrainian government blamed the crash of the Boeing on militias in the east of the country who used a Buk anti-aircraft missile system. Moreover, the local self-defense forces denied the accusation from the Kyiv authorities. When Russia held the Ukrainian government responsible for the crash of the Malaysian airliner, the United States and the West accused Russia of involvement in this tragedy.
The tragedy might not have occurred if peace had been maintained in the region. However, the public doubts that in the modern era rapid development technology investigation into the exact causes of the disaster did not give a definitive result. Who will find justice for the 298 innocent victims of the tragedy? The crash of flight MH17 was further proof of the consequences of war between interest groups, ethnic groups, from which civilians suffer. And humanity once again urgently calls for peace.

From the Internet

Man-made disaster (English: Industrial disaster) - major accident at a man-made site, leading to massive loss of life and even an environmental disaster. One of the features of man-made disasters is their randomness (this is how they differ from terrorist attacks).
Typically, man-made disasters are contrasted with natural disasters. However, like natural ones, man-made disasters can cause panic, transport collapse, and also lead to a rise or loss of authority.

On March 11, 2011, as a result of the strongest earthquake in the history of Japan and the subsequent tsunami, a major radiation accident of maximum level 7 on the International Nuclear Event Scale occurred at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant. Financial damage, including cleanup costs, decontamination costs and compensation, is estimated at $100 billion. Since the work to eliminate the consequences will take years, the amount will increase.

Every year, dozens of man-made disasters of various sizes occur in the world. In this issue you will find a list major disasters that have occurred since the beginning of the century.

year 2000

Petrobrice is a Brazilian state-owned oil company. The company's headquarters are located in Rio de Janeiro. In July 2000, in Brazil, as a result of a disaster on an oil refining platform, more than a million gallons of oil (about 3,180 tons) leaked into the Iguazu River. For comparison: in the summer of 2013, 50 tons of crude oil spilled near a resort island in Thailand.
The resulting stain moved downstream, threatening to poison the drinking water of several cities at once. The liquidators of the accident built several barriers, but they managed to stop the oil only at the fifth one. One part of the oil was collected from the surface of the water, the other went through specially built diversion channels.
The Petrobrice company paid a fine of $56 million to the state budget and $30 million to the state budget.

year 2001

On September 21, 2001, in the French city of Toulouse, an explosion occurred at the AZF chemical plant, the consequences of which are considered one of the largest man-made disasters. 300 tons of ammonium nitrate (a salt of nitric acid), which were in a finished products warehouse, exploded. According to the official version, the management of the plant is to blame for not ensuring the safe storage of an explosive substance.
The consequences of the disaster were gigantic: 30 people were killed, the total number of injured was more than 3,000, thousands of residential buildings and buildings were destroyed or damaged, including almost 80 schools, 2 universities, 185 kindergartens, 40,000 people were left homeless, more 130 enterprises actually ceased their activities. The total amount of damage is 3 billion euros.

2002

Cleaning the sea and shores of fuel oil cost $12 billion; the full damage caused to the ecosystem is impossible to estimate.

2004

2007

On March 19, 2007, a methane explosion at the Ulyanovskaya mine in the Kemerovo region killed 110 people. The first explosion was followed 5-7 seconds later by four more, which caused extensive collapses in the workings in several places at once. The chief engineer and almost the entire mine management were killed. This accident is the largest in Russian coal mining over the past 75 years.

year 2009

On August 17, 2009, a man-made disaster occurred at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station, located on the Yenisei River. This happened during the repair of one of the hydraulic units of the hydroelectric power station. As a result of the accident, the 3rd and 4th water pipelines were destroyed, the wall was destroyed and the turbine room was flooded. 9 out of 10 hydraulic turbines were completely out of order, the hydroelectric power station was stopped.
Due to the accident, the power supply to Siberian regions was disrupted, including limited electricity supply in Tomsk, and outages affected several Siberian aluminum smelters. As a result of the disaster, 75 people were killed and another 13 were injured.
The damage from the accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station exceeded 7.3 billion rubles, including damage caused to the environment.

2010

On October 4, 2010, a major environmental disaster occurred in western Hungary. At an aluminum production plant, an explosion destroyed the dam of a reservoir containing toxic waste - the so-called red mud. About 1.1 million cubic meters of the corrosive substance were flooded by a 3-meter flow in the cities of Kolontar and Dečever, 160 kilometers west of Budapest.

Red mud is a sediment that is formed during the production of aluminum oxide. When it comes into contact with the skin, it acts like an alkali. As a result of the disaster, 10 people died, about 150 received various injuries and burns.

April 22, 2010

On April 22, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon manned drilling platform sank in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana after an explosion that killed 11 people and a 36-hour fire.

The oil leak was stopped only on August 4, 2010. About 5 million barrels of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. The platform on which the accident occurred belonged to a Swiss company, and at the time of the man-made disaster the platform was managed by British Petroleum.

2011

On March 11, 2011, in the northeast of Japan at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, after a strong earthquake, the largest accident in the last 25 years after the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant occurred. Following earthquakes with a magnitude of 9.0, a huge tsunami wave hit the coast, damaging four of the six reactors of the nuclear power plant and knocking out the cooling system, which led to a series of hydrogen explosions and melting of the core.
The total emissions of iodine-131 and cesium-137 after the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant amounted to 900,000 terabecquerels, which does not exceed 20% of the emissions after the Chernobyl accident in 1986, which then amounted to 5.2 million terabecquerels.
Experts estimated the total damage from the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant at $74 billion. Complete elimination of the accident, including dismantling the reactors, will take about 40 years.

NPP "Fukushima-1".
On July 11, 2011, on July 11, 2011, an explosion occurred at a naval base near Limassol in Cyprus, which claimed 13 lives and brought the island nation to the brink of economic crisis, destroying the island's largest power plant.
Investigators accused the President of the Republic, Dimitris Christofias, of neglecting the problem of storing ammunition confiscated in 2009 from the Monchegorsk ship on suspicion of arms smuggling to Iran. In fact, the ammunition was stored directly on the ground on the territory of the naval base and detonated due to the high temperature.

Destroyed Mari power plant in Cyprus.

year 2012

year 2013

On April 18, 2013, a powerful explosion occurred at a fertilizer plant in the American city of West, Texas.

Almost 100 buildings in the area were destroyed, from 5 to 15 people were killed, about 160 people were injured, and the town itself began to look like a war zone or the set of the next Terminator movie.

2015

On August 12, 2015, as a result of safety violations during the storage of explosives, two huge explosions occurred in a Chinese port, which led to a large number of casualties, hundreds of destroyed houses and thousands of destroyed cars.

The largest man-made disasters of the XX-XXI centuries - page No. 1/1

The largest man-made disasters of the XX-XXI centuries .

Emergencies caused by man-made factors pose a huge threat not only to human society, but also to the environmental situation as a whole. Man is part of the global ecosystem, and any negative change in it harms his health and quality of life. Technical emergencies strike all vital natural environments: air pollution, impact on the hydrosphere, poisoning and degradation of the Earth's surface cover, destruction of biological systems, as well as destruction of buildings, communications, communications and other large-scale disasters.

A man-made disaster is dangerous because during its culmination, uncontrollable forces are released, causing colossal destruction. Such cataclysms develop rapidly and have extreme colors. As a result of a man-made emergency, there is usually a lot of loss of life and destruction. The consequences of disasters are sometimes irreversible. Man-made disasters are usually classified depending on their destructive factors. Emergency situations are distinguished with:

Fires;

Explosions;

Release of dangerous poisonous and toxic substances into the environment;

Destruction of immovable structures and structures;

Floods;

Destruction of transport

Breaking and destroying communications and messages.

IN various programs For civil defense, more detailed classifications of emergency situations can be distinguished:

Transport disasters. Transport disasters include accidents on railway transport, including freight trains, subways, as well as ordinary and high speed trains and commuter trains. In addition, these are emergency situations in road transport, including in tunnels, at crossings and bridges. Included in this group are sea and river accidents involving cargo and passenger ships, any displacement, and plane accidents. Pipeline accidents should also be included in this group. Transport accidents are those that occur at airfields and piers. With the participation of means of transport.

Disasters accompanied by explosions, fires, as well as their threat. These include explosions and fires in real estate, household and industrial purposes, as well as accidents involving equipment and stationary vehicles, discovery or loss of military ammunition and explosive weapons.

Chemical accidents. Here we mean any accidents associated with the release of chemical reagents that have dangerous properties, or the threat of such a release.

Radioactive disasters. This group includes any extreme situations at facilities nuclear power, as well as the use, testing or discovery of nuclear weapons, including the threat of such accidents.

Biological emergencies. This refers to disasters associated with the release and uncontrolled spread of hazardous biological components of the environment, as well as the threat of their release and spread.

Destruction of real estate objects. Destruction of single-standing structures for domestic or industrial purposes or an array of buildings, as well as the threat of such a cataclysm. This category includes destruction of transport highways, bridges, tunnels, other transport structures, as well as communications.

Disasters in the electric power industry. This group of emergency situations includes accidents at substations, breakage and destruction of transmission lines electrical energy, as a result of which the population is deprived of the opportunity to receive it for a long time.

Utility accidents. This type of disaster is represented by rupture of communications, sewer emissions, as well as loss of water supply systems and depressurization of other utility systems, and others.

Man-made disasters involving treatment facilities Such disasters include the release of contaminated wastewater into the environment, the threat of such a release, as well as the malfunction of treatment facilities, resulting in the systematic discharge of contaminated or contaminated objects.

Accidents of hydraulic origin. The main ones are destruction and breakthroughs of dams and dams, causing flooding, flooding, accompanied by erosion of fertile surface layers of soil, as well as destruction of buildings and communication networks. This group also includes flooding without the specified consequences.

List of the largest and most expensive man-made disasters .

Disasters often occur due to an absurd coincidence of events and lead to irreparable consequences. Recently, environmental disasters have occurred most often, leaving huge scars on the body of our planet. So, here is a list of the largest and most expensive man-made disasters, most of which occurred over the last century.

Explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. This disaster cost the world $200 billion, despite the fact that the liquidation work is not even half completed. April 26, 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in former USSR The worst nuclear accident in history occurred. More than 135,000 people living within a 30-kilometer (19-mile) radius of the destroyed reactor - and 35,000 head of livestock - were evacuated; An exclusion zone of unprecedented size was created around the station, located near the Ukrainian-Belarusian border. In this forbidden territory, nature had to cope with itself. high level radiation caused by the disaster. As a result, the exclusion zone essentially turned into a giant laboratory where an experiment was carried out - what happens to plants and animals in conditions of catastrophic nuclear contamination of the area? Immediately after the disaster, when everyone was worried about the dire consequences of radioactive fallout on human health, few thought about what would happen to wildlife inside the zone - and even more so about monitoring what is happening

Explosion on the Piper Alpha oil platform - occurred on July 6, 1988, which is recognized as the worst disaster in the history of the oil industry. The accident cost $3.4 billion. Piper Alpha is the only oil production platform in the world that burned down. As a result of a gas leak and subsequent explosion, as well as as a result of ill-conceived and indecisive actions of personnel, 167 people out of 226 on the platform at that moment were killed, only 59 survived. Immediately after the explosion, oil and gas production on the platform was stopped, however, due to the fact that the platform’s pipelines were connected to a common network through which hydrocarbons flowed from other platforms, and on those, the production and supply of oil and gas to the pipeline for a long time They did not dare to stop (they were waiting for permission from the top management of the company), a huge amount of hydrocarbons continued to flow through the pipelines, which fueled the fire.

Explosion at MAL Zrt's Ajkai Timfoldgyar Zrt alumina refinery October 4, 2010, which is located in Hungary near the city of Kolontar, 160 kilometers west of Budapest. The explosion destroyed the dam of a reservoir containing toxic waste - the so-called red mud. After the explosion, approximately 1.1 million cubic meters of toxic substances spilled from the reservoir, which flooded several nearby communities. As a result of the disaster, 10 people died, about 150 received various injuries and burns.

The death of the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform. On April 22, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon manned drilling platform sank in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana (USA) after a 36-hour fire that followed a powerful explosion that killed 11 people.

The oil leak was stopped only on August 4. About five million barrels of crude oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico. The platform on which the accident occurred belonged to the Swiss company Transocean. At the time of the accident, the platform was operated by British Petroleum.

The ship recovers oil after the Deepwater Horizon explosion on April 28, 2010. (Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

NPP "Fukushima-1". On March 11, 2011, in the northeast of Japan at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant, after a strong earthquake, the largest accident in the last 25 years after the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant occurred. Following the earthquakes of magnitude 9.0, a huge tsunami wave came to the coast, which damaged 4 of the 6 reactors of the nuclear power plant and disabled the cooling system, which led to a series of hydrogen explosions, melting the core. The total volume of emissions of iodine-131 and cesium- 137 after the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant amounted to 900,000 terabecrels, which does not exceed 20% of emissions after the Chernobyl accident in 1986, which then amounted to 5.2 million terabecquerels.

Experts estimated the total damage from the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant at $74 billion. Complete elimination of the accident, including dismantling the reactors, will take about 40 years.

The process of measuring radiation levels.

Disaster at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station .On August 17, 2009, a man-made disaster occurred at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station, located on the Yenisei River. This happened during the repair of one of the hydraulic units of the hydroelectric power station. As a result of the accident, the 3rd and 4th water pipelines were destroyed, the wall was destroyed and the turbine room was flooded. 9 out of 10 hydraulic turbines were completely out of order, the hydroelectric power station was stopped.

The accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station is considered one of the most significant in the history of world hydropower. 75 people died. The consequences of the accident affected the ecological situation of the water area adjacent to the hydroelectric power station, as well as the social and economic spheres of the region.

Bhopal disaster. In the early morning of December 3, 1984, an accident occurred at a chemical plant in the Indian city of Bhopal. The Bhopal disaster was called the Hiroshima of the chemical industry. In just one hour, more than half a million people were poisoned. About 4,000 people died on the day of the accident, 8,000 within two weeks. This is according to official statistics, but according to unofficial estimates, between eight and ten thousand died in the first days of the accident. Nature was dying and poisoned; leaves fell from the trees, the grass turned yellow, and animal corpses lay everywhere. Over the next few years, almost 16,000 more people died. Tens of thousands went blind. And today, twenty-nine years later, thousands of people are suffering from the consequences of the world's largest man-made disaster.

Cause terrible disaster in Bhopal has not yet been officially established. The versions are dominated by gross violation of safety regulations and deliberate sabotage of the enterprise. It is known for certain that on the fateful night from December 2 to 3, a deadly gas leak occurred at the Union Carbide chemical plant, which specialized in the production of products for exterminating insect pests. A poisonous cloud passed through the neighboring territories, sleeping residents woke up from an unbearable burning sensation in their throats and eyes.

A series of explosions at a mine in the Kemerovo region. On March 19, 2007, a methane explosion at the Ulyanovskaya mine in the Kemerovo region killed 110 people. The first explosion was followed by four more explosions within 5-7 seconds, which caused extensive collapses in the workings in several places at once. The chief engineer and almost the entire mine management were killed. This accident is the largest in Russian coal mining over the past 75 years.

Collision between a fuel tanker and a car - occurred on August 26, 2004 on the Wiehltal bridge in Germany. This disaster, which occurred on August 26, 2004, can be classified as a road accident. They happen often, but this one surpassed them all in scale. A car driving across the bridge at full speed crashed into a full fuel tanker traveling towards it, causing an explosion that practically destroyed the bridge. By the way, $358 million was spent on restoration work on the bridge.

Explosion in Toulouse (France) at the AZF chemical plant -September 21, 2001, the consequences of which are considered one of the largest man-made disasters. 300 tons of ammonium nitrate, which were in a finished goods warehouse, exploded. According to the official version, the blame for the disaster was placed on the management of the plant, which did not ensure the safe storage of the explosive substance.

As a result of the emergency, 30 people were killed, the total number of injured exceeded 3.5 thousand, thousands of residential buildings and many institutions were destroyed or seriously damaged, including 79 schools, 11 lyceums, 26 colleges, two universities, 184 kindergartens, 27 thousand apartments, 40 thousand people were left homeless, and 134 enterprises actually ceased their activities. Authorities and insurance companies received 100 thousand claims for compensation. The total damage amounted to three billion euros.

Disaster at the Petrobras oil refinery -In July 2000, more than a million gallons of oil leaked into the Iguazu River in Brazil. The resulting stain moved downstream, threatening to poison the drinking water of several cities at once. The liquidators of the accident built several barriers, but they managed to stop the oil only at the fifth one. One part of the oil was collected from the surface of the water, the other went through specially built diversion channels. The Petrobras company paid a fine of 56 million dollars to the state budget and 30 million to the state budget.

Explosion at a naval base near Limassol in Cyprus July 11, 2011, which claimed 13 lives and brought the island nation to the brink of economic crisis by destroying the island's largest power plant.

Investigators accused the President of the Republic, Dimitris Christofias, of neglecting the problem of storing ammunition confiscated in 2009 from the Monchegorsk ship on suspicion of arms smuggling to Iran. In fact, the ammunition was stored directly on the ground on the territory of the naval base and detonated due to the high temperature.

August 12, 2000 - the death of the nuclear submarine Kursk. During naval exercises Russian fleet The nuclear submarine K-141 Kursk with cruise missiles sank in the Barents Sea. According to the official version, a torpedo explosion occurred on the submarine, which was launched in May 1994, due to leakage of fuel components. The fire that broke out two minutes after the first explosion resulted in the detonation of the torpedoes located in the first compartment of the boat.

The second explosion led to even more significant destruction. As a result, all 118 crew members were killed. As a result of the submarine recovery operation, completed a year later, 115 bodies of dead sailors were found and buried. "Kursk" was considered the best submarine of the Northern Fleet. Among other versions of the death of the Kursk, it was argued that it could have been torpedoed by an American submarine.

The sinking of the Titanic. The tragedy occurred on April 15, 1912 and claimed 1,523 human lives. The cost of building the ship amounted to $7 million (in terms of today's exchange rate - $150 million).

Shuttle Columbia was the first operational reusable orbital vehicle. It was manufactured in 1979 and transferred to NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The shuttle Columbia was named after the sailing ship in which Captain Robert Gray explored the inland waters of British Columbia in May 1792. The space shuttle Columbia died in a disaster on February 1, 2003, upon entering the Earth's atmosphere before landing. This was Columbia's 28th space voyage. Information from hard drive Columbia was able to recover, the causes of the crash were identified, which made it possible to avoid such disasters in the future.

Information sources used: lifeglobe.net, ria.ru, planeta.moy.su, www.bbc.co.uk, www.katastrofa-online.ru.

AZERBAIJAN STATE OIL ACADEMY

Faculty of Chemical Technology

Department of Labor Protection

INDEPENDENT WORK No. 2

On the topic: The largest man-made disasters of the XX-XXI centuries.

Student: Kazimly Aidan Mehman k.

Group: 360.1

Head: Assoc. Isaev A.

Head departments: prof. Rasulov S.R.

Environmental disasters have their own specifics - during them not a single person may die, but at the same time very significant damage to the environment will be caused. Nowadays, the culprit of environmental disasters is mainly man. The growth of industrial and agricultural production brings not only material goods, but is also slowly killing our habitat. Therefore, the biggest environmental disasters in the world are imprinted in human memory for a long time.

1. Oil leakage from the Prestige tanker

The Bahamian-flagged single-hull tanker Prestige was built by the Japanese shipyard Hitachi to transport crude oil and launched in 1976. In November 2002, while passing through the Bay of Biscay, the tanker encountered a strong storm off the coast of Galicia, as a result of which it received a 35 m long crack, from which about a thousand tons of fuel oil began to leak per day.
Spanish coast services refused to allow the dirty ship to enter the nearest port, so they tried to tow it to Portugal, but a similar refusal was received there. In the end, the restless tanker was towed to the Atlantic. On November 19, it sank completely, splitting into two parts, which sank to the bottom to a depth of about 3,700 m. Since it was impossible to repair the damage and pump out the oil products, over 70,000 cubic meters of oil ended up in the ocean. A spot more than a thousand kilometers long formed on the surface along the coastline, causing enormous damage to the local fauna and flora.
For Europe, this was the most catastrophic oil spill in history. The damage from it was estimated at 4 billion euros, and 300,000 volunteers worked to eliminate its consequences.

2. Exxon Valdez tanker wreck

On March 23, 1989, the Exxon Valdez tanker, fully loaded with oil, sailed from a terminal in the Alaskan port of Valdez, bound for the Californian port of Long Beach. Having taken the ship out of Valdez, the pilot handed over control of the tanker to Captain Joseph Jeffrey, who by that time was already “tipsy.” There were icebergs in the sea, so the captain was forced to deviate from the course, notifying the coast guard. Having received permission from the latter, he changed course, and at 23 o'clock he left the wheelhouse, leaving control of the ship to the third mate and the sailor, who had already served their watch and needed a 6-hour rest. In fact, the tanker was controlled by an autopilot, guided by a navigation system.
Before leaving, the captain instructed the mate that two minutes after passing abeam the island it was necessary to change course. The assistant conveyed this order to the sailor, but either he himself was late, or his execution was late, but at half past twelve on the night of March 24, the tanker crashed into Blythe Reef. As a result of the disaster, 40,000 cubic meters of oil spilled into the ocean, and environmentalists believe that much more. 2,400 km of coastline were polluted, making the accident one of the world's most significant environmental disasters.

A tornado (in America this phenomenon is called a tornado) is a fairly stable atmospheric vortex, most often occurring in thunderclouds. He's visual...

3. Chernobyl disaster

All people born in the USSR are notorious for the disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Its consequences are still in effect today and will continue to haunt us for many years to come. On April 26, 1986, an explosion occurred at the 4th power unit of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, completely destroying the reactor, and tons of radioactive materials were released into the environment. At the time of the tragedy itself, 31 people died, but this is only the tip of the iceberg - it is simply impossible to calculate the number of victims and injured from this accident.
Officially, about 200 people who were directly involved in its liquidation are considered to have died from the accident; all of them were killed by radiation sickness. The nature of all of Eastern Europe suffered enormous damage. Tens of tons radioactive uranium, plutonium, strontium and cesium were dispersed into the atmosphere and began to slowly settle to the ground, carried by the wind. The authorities’ desire not to widely publicize what happened so that panic would not start among the population contributed to the tragedy of the unfolding events around the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Therefore, many thousands of residents of cities and villages who were not included in the alienated 30-kilometer zone carelessly remained in their places.
In subsequent years, there was a surge among them oncological diseases, mothers gave birth to thousands of freaks, and this is still observed. In total, due to the spread of radioactive contamination in the area, the authorities had to evacuate over 115,000 people living within a 30-kilometer zone around the nuclear power plant. More than 600,000 people took part in the elimination of this accident and its lingering consequences, and enormous amounts of money were spent. The territory directly adjacent to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is still a restricted area because it is unsuitable for habitation.

Throughout the history of mankind, powerful earthquakes have repeatedly caused colossal damage to people and caused a huge number of casualties among the population...

4. Accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant

But the largest environmental disaster in human memory happened on March 11, 2011. It all started with a strong earthquake and a powerful tsunami, which disabled the reserve diesel generators and the power supply system of the nuclear power plant. This led to dysfunction of the reactor cooling system and melting of the core in three power units of the station. During the accident, hydrogen was released, which exploded, destroying the outer shell of the reactor, but the reactor itself survived.
Due to the leak of radioactive substances, the level of radiation quickly began to increase, because the depressurization of the shells of the fuel elements caused the leak of radioactive cesium. On March 23, 30 kilometers from the station in the ocean, water samples were taken, which showed an excess of the norms for iodine-131 and cesium-137, but the radioactivity of the water was increasing and by March 31 it exceeded the normal level by almost 4400 times, because even after the accident the water was contaminated with radiation continued to leak into the ocean. It is clear that after some time, animals with strange genetic and physiological changes began to be found in local waters.
The spread of radiation was facilitated by the fish themselves and other marine animals. Many thousands had to be resettled from the radiation-contaminated area local residents. A year later, on the coast near the nuclear power plant, radiation exceeded the norm by 100 times, so decontamination work will continue here for a long time.

5. Bhopal disaster

The disaster in Bhopal, India was truly terrible, not only because it caused enormous damage to the state’s nature, but also because it claimed the lives of 18,000 residents. A subsidiary of the Union Carbide Corporation was building a chemical plant in Bhopal, which, according to the original design, was supposed to produce pesticides used in agriculture.
But in order for the plant to become competitive, it was decided to change the production technology towards something more dangerous and complex, which would not require more expensive imported raw materials. But a series of crop failures led to a decrease in demand for the plant’s products, so the owners decided to sell it in the summer of 1984. Funding for the operating enterprise was curtailed, the equipment gradually wore out and no longer met safety standards. In the end, liquid methyl isocyanate overheated in one of the reactors, causing a sharp release of its vapors, which ruptured the emergency valve. In a matter of seconds, 42 tons of toxic vapors entered the atmosphere, which formed a deadly cloud with a diameter of 4 kilometers over the plant and the surrounding area.
The affected area included residential areas and a railway station. The authorities did not manage to inform the population about the danger in time, and there was a critical shortage of medical personnel, so on the very first day, 5,000 people died after inhaling poisonous gas. But for a number of years after this, poisoned people continued to die, and the total number of victims of that accident is estimated at 30,000 people.

Hazardous natural phenomena mean extreme climatic or meteorological phenomena that occur naturally in that area...

6. Disaster at the Sandoz chemical plant

One of the most terrible environmental disasters, which caused incredible damage to nature, occurred on November 1, 1986 in prosperous Switzerland. Chemical and pharmaceutical giant Sandoz's plant, built on the banks of the Rhine near Basel, produced a variety of chemicals used in agriculture. When a strong fire broke out at the plant, about 30 tons of pesticides and mercury compounds entered the Rhine. The water in the Rhine has turned an ominous red color.
The authorities prohibited residents living on its banks from leaving their homes. Downstream, in some German cities the centralized water supply had to be cut off, and residents were brought drinking water in tanks. Almost all the fish and other living creatures died in the river, some species were irretrievably lost. Later, a program was adopted until 2020, the goal of which was to make the waters of the Rhine suitable for swimming.

7. Disappearance of the Aral Sea

Back in the middle of the last century, the Aral was the fourth largest lake in the world. But the active withdrawal of water from the Syr Darya and Amu Darya for irrigating cotton and other crops led to the fact that the Aral Sea began to quickly become shallow, divided into 2 parts, one of which has already completely dried up, and the second will follow its example in the coming years.
Scientists estimate that from 1960 to 2007, the Aral Sea lost 1,000 cubic kilometers of water, which led to its reduction by more than 10 times. Previously, 178 species of vertebrates lived in the Aral Sea, but now there are only 38.
For decades, waste has been dumped into the Aral Sea and settled at the bottom. Agriculture. Now they have turned into poisonous sand, which the wind carries fifty kilometers around, polluting the surrounding area and destroying vegetation. Vozrozhdeniya Island has long been turned into part of the mainland, but once upon a time there was a testing ground for bacteriological weapons on it. There are graves with such deadly dangerous diseases, like typhus, plague, smallpox, anthrax. Some pathogens are still alive, so they can spread into inhabited areas thanks to rodents.

Occasionally, tsunami waves occur in the ocean. They are very insidious - in the open ocean they are completely invisible, but as soon as they approach the coastal shelf, they...

8. Flixborough chemical plant accident

In the British city of Flixborough there was a Nipro plant that produced ammonium nitrate, and on its territory 4000 tons of caprolactam, 3000 tons of cyclohexanone, 2500 tons of phenol, 2000 tons of cyclohexane and many other chemicals were stored. But various technological containers and spherical tanks were insufficiently filled, which increased the risk of explosion. In addition, the plant's reactors contained various flammable materials under high pressure and high temperature.
The administration sought to increase the plant's productivity, but this reduced the effectiveness of fire extinguishing agents. The company's engineers were often forced to turn a blind eye to deviations from technological regulations and neglect safety standards - a familiar picture. Finally, on June 1, 1974, the plant was shaken by a powerful explosion. Instantly, the production premises were engulfed in flames, and the shock wave from the explosion swept through the surrounding settlements, shattering windows, tearing roofs off houses and injuring people. 55 people died then. The power of the explosion was estimated at 45 tons of TNT. But worst of all, the explosion was accompanied by the emergence of a large cloud of toxic fumes, which is why the authorities had to urgently evacuate residents of some neighboring settlements.
The damage from this man-made disaster was estimated at 36 million pounds - it was the most expensive emergency incident for British industry.

9. Fire on the Piper Alpha oil rig

In July 1988, a major disaster occurred on the Piper Alpha platform, which was used for oil and gas production. Its consequences were aggravated by the indecisive and ill-considered actions of the personnel, due to which, out of 226 people working on the platform, 167 died. For some time after the accident, oil products continued to flow through the pipes, so the fire did not die out, but flared up even more. This disaster resulted not only in human casualties, but also in great environmental damage.

Italy is a classic example best holiday on the sea. This country has many excellent and varied resorts. Her coastline what about...

10. Explosion of an oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico

On April 20, 2010, an explosion occurred on the Deep Water Horizon oil production platform, owned by British Petroleum and located in the Gulf of Mexico, causing huge amounts of oil to be released from an uncontrolled well into the sea for a long time. The platform itself sank into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Experts were only able to roughly estimate the volume of spilled oil, but one thing is clear - this disaster became one of the most terrible for the biosphere not only of the Gulf Coast, but also of the waters Atlantic Ocean. Oil was poured into the water for 152 days, 75,000 square meters. km of water in the bay were covered with a thick oil film. All states whose coast faces the Gulf of Mexico(Louisiana, Florida, Mississippi), but Alabama suffered the most.
About 400 species of rare animals were threatened with extinction, and thousands of seabirds and amphibians died on oil-filled shores. The Office of Specially Protected Resources reported that there had been an outbreak of mortality among cetaceans in the gulf following the oil spill.

The new century has just begun, and major man-made disasters have already shocked the world many times. Thousands of people died and colossal damage was caused to the economies of different countries.

Some of the oil was collected, and the rest was removed from the river using special streams.

After the company disaster "Petrobrice" had to pay a large fine to the state in the amount of fifty-six million dollars. The state of the country also received compensation of thirty million dollars.

But the damage caused to the flora and fauna of this amazing corner cannot be compensated by any means.

This technological disaster hit the river ecosystem quite seriously Iguazu and nearby natural regions.
Many species of plants and living organisms living in the water were completely destroyed.

September 21, 2001, France

Having damaged 6 reactors of the nuclear power plant, the water colossus disabled the cooling system, which led to a series of global hydrogen explosions and melting of the core.

Radioactive substances iodine-131 And cesium-137 were released into the atmosphere.

And although the volume of the release was no more than 20% compared to the Chernobyl accident, it did not make things easier for the inhabitants of the Japanese island.

Experts estimated the total damage from the disaster at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant at $74 billion.

And to completely eliminate the consequences of the accident and dismantle the destroyed reactors will require about 40 years!
And it’s good that there is now a person in the service for such matters.

July 11, 2011 Cyprus

Cyprus, naval base, near the town of Limassol.
Another explosion destroyed the island's largest power plant and claimed lives. 13 people.

This small island nation is extremely dependent on single source energy supply. An accident at a power plant has brought Cyprus to the brink of an economic crisis.

The culprits of the tragedy were found. He turned out to be the President of the Republic, Dimitris Christofias. He was extremely negligent in storing ammunition, which was confiscated on suspicion of smuggling.
The ammunition was literally stored on the ground of the naval base. Heat did its job. Detonation has occurred.