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The 10 worst industrial and nuclear disasters
Explosions, toxic leaks, nuclear accidents, oil spills: the disasters caused by human activity.
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1
Great Smog of London
An anticyclone traps the smoke from coal stoves and power stations over London.
≈ 12,000 deaths
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2
Bhopal disaster
About 40 tonnes of methyl isocyanate escape from Union Carbide’s pesticide plant and spread over sleeping poor neighbourhoods.
3,787 deaths
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3
Halifax Explosion
The French cargo ship Mont-Blanc, loaded with military explosives, collides with the Imo and explodes: the most powerful man-made explosion before the atomic bomb.
≈ 2,000 deaths
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4
Courrières mine disaster
A coal-dust explosion tears through 110 km of galleries of the Courrières Mining Company.
1,099 deaths
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5
Beirut port explosion
About 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate, stored without precautions in a port warehouse since 2014, explode.
218 deaths
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6
Chernobyl disaster
During a safety test, reactor No.
31 deaths
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7
AZF factory explosion
Ten days after 9/11, 300 to 400 tonnes of ammonium nitrate explode in a fertiliser plant in the heart of the Toulouse urban area.
31 deaths
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8
Deepwater Horizon oil spill
The explosion of the drilling rig operated for BP causes the largest accidental marine oil spill in history: about 4.9 million barrels escape over 87 days.
11 deaths
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9
Fukushima nuclear accident
Cut off from power by the tsunami, the plant loses cooling in three reactors, which melt down.
1 death
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10
Seveso disaster
A runaway reaction at the ICMESA chemical plant releases a cloud containing TCDD dioxin, one of the most toxic compounds known, over several towns.
No recorded deaths
This ranking counts immediate deaths. For Chernobyl, Bhopal or Fukushima, long-term or indirect deaths are far higher: see the individual pages. Ranking based on the disasters in the Mémoire du Globe atlas, using the most commonly accepted tolls. For older events, the figures are orders of magnitude.
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