Are Nuclear Plants as safe as they would like us to believe?

You will only hear of a nuclear event in the News if something drastic takes place, for example the Chernobyl Disaster of 1986 or the most recent Disaster at Fukushima in Japan.

These are not the only incidents to happen at Nuclear power plants around the world. On average, at least 1 nuclear plant is manually or automatically closed down per month due to a malfunction or issue. We have had 17 reported nuclear incidents already this year and we are only 3 months in -- should we be worried?

Here is a short report of the incidents that have taken place between January 2011 and March 29th 2011:

15th Jan 2011
Dounreay Nuclear Power - Scotland - Lighting Strike, Damaged Electrical Equipment

18th Jan 2011
Kola Nuclear Power Plant - Russia - Short Circuit in Reactor 4 - Closure of Reactor 4

24th Jan 2011
Palisades Nuclear Generation Station - USA - Problem Electrical Equipment - FULL Automatic Shutdown

25th Jan 2011
Susquehanna Nuclear Plant - USA - Steam Leak - Manually Shut Down of Reactor

3rd Feb 2011
Surry Nuclear Power Plant - USA - Coolant Problem, Loss of Coolant Flow - 1 of 2 Reactors Automatic Shut Down

12th Feb 2011
Loviisa Nuclear Power Plant - Finland - Steam Leak - Controlled Shut Down

20th Feb 2011
Korea Atomic Energy Research - South Korea - Warning of Radiation Leak - Shut Down (report that radiation leak was contained inside the building)

25th Feb 2011
Limerick Nuclear Power Plant - USA - Problem with Recirculation Pumps used for Cooling and creating Steam - Manual Shut Down of Reactor 2

27th Feb 2011
Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant - Iran - Unloading Fuel Rods - Shut Down
** U.N. Nuclear Watchdog commented that the reason Rods would be removed from a Nuclear Plant is a sign of a Major Problem.
*** Iranian Foreign Minister, Ali Akbar Salemi denied this to be the case "decision to halt Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, Tehran was a routine test because safety is it's priority"

4th Mar 2011 - 2n Report for this Nuclear Power Plant in less than 2 weeks
Susquehanna Nuclear Power Plant - USA - Steam Leak - Shut Down Reactor 1

11th Mar 2011
Onagawa Nuclear Plant - Japan - Cooling System Failure / Fire in Reactor / Excessive Levels of Radiation - Full Shut Down

11th Mar 2011
Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant - Japan - Cooling System Failure / Partial Meltdown / Explosions and Fires / Severe Radiation Leaks (see reports and articles on our main news site) - Complete Shut Down of ALL Reactors

16th Mar 2011
Pickering Nuclear Generating Station - Canada - Leaked 19000 Gallons of water into Lake Ontario - Report didn't appear until a full 2 days after this incident took place.

23rd Mar 2011
Krsko Nuclear Power Plant - Slovenia - 380v Transmission Line was suddenly Disconnected - Automatic Shut Down
Update 26th Mar 2011: Plant Officials reported the Failure of Restarting Reactor due to Technical Problems, will try to restart 1st week in April 2011

29th Mar 2011
Seabrook Station Nuclear Power Plant - USA - Declared "Unusual Event" after transformer Overheated - Update: Later same day Fire Broke out in Same Building

2010 = 54 Nuclear Incident Reports
2009 = 75 Nuclear Incident Reports
2008 = 71 Nuclear Incident Reports
2007 = 74 Nuclear Incident Reports
2006 = 55 Nuclear Incident Reports