Reactor fatality estimates

If the reactor detonates, we estimate that 20 employee fatalities will occur, and 50 members of the public will be hurt. 

A Phillips high-density polyethylene (HDPE) plant suffered a maintenance error that led to total loss of reactor inventory, causing a vapor cloud explosion resulting in 23 fatalities and 130 injuries. Loss estimated at 1.4billion. See Figure 6.2. 

An important technical input to establishing the indempity provisions of the Price-Anderson act was the report WASH-740 entitled, "Theoretical Possibilities and Consequences of Major Accidents in Large Nuclear Power Plants," which was prepared by Brookhaven National Laboratory and published by the AEC. Using what would prove to be extremely pessimistic assumptions including a core meltdown with the release of fifty percent of the core fission products to the atmosphere, the worst case consequences of a 5(X) MWt reactor accident were estimated to be 3,400 early fatalities, 43,000 acute injuries, and 7 billion (1957) dollars. 

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