Blayais Disaster

In 1995, as a result of the impact of the Fragments and the resulting Atlantic tidal wave, the Blayais Nuclear Power Plant suffered severe flooding in all four of the plants pressurised water reactors, leading to the Blayais Disaster. On detecting the seismic activity of the meteorite impact, the active reactors of the Blayais Plant automatically shut down their normal power-generating fission reactions. Because of these shutdowns and other electrical grid supply problems, the reactors' electricity supply failed, and their emergency diesel generators automatically started. Critically, these were required to provide electrical power to the pumps that circulated coolant through the reactors' cores. This continued circulation was vital to remove residual decay heat, which continues to be produced after fission has ceased. However, the impact of countless meteorite fragments in the Atlantic Ocean had also generated a tsunami 30 metres high that arrived shortly afterward, swept over the plant's seawall and then flooded the lower parts of reactors 1–4. This flooding caused the failure of the emergency generators and loss of power to the circulating pumps. The resultant loss of reactor core cooling led to three nuclear meltdowns, three hydrogen explosions, and the release of radioactive contamination in Units 1, 2 and 3. The explosion and fire threw hot particles of the nuclear fuel and also far more dangerous fission products, radioactive isotopes such as caesium-137, iodine-131, strontium-90, and other radionuclides, into the air. The residents of the surrounding area observed the radioactive cloud on the night of the explosion.
Effective evacuation and containment measures were unable to be put into place due to the chaos occurring throughout the rest of the European Community, and the Blayais Nuclear Power Plant continued to emit over 3.6 roentgen every second, for over six years (until the Blayais Sarcophagus was constructed, with assistance from the Soviet Union). It, along with the Beloyarsk Disaster, are blamed for the sharp rise in cancers present in mainland Europe in the years following the Collapse. It is believed to have caused the deaths of over three million people in mainland Europe.