Energy resources bring with them great social and economic promise, providing financial growth for communities and energy services for local economies. However, the infrastructure which delivers energy services can breakdown, sometimes causing much damage. 279 major energy accidents occurred from 1907 to 2007. They caused 182,156 deaths and $41 billion in property damages.

Fatalities

While responsible for less than 1 percent of the total number of energy accidents, hydroelectric facilities claimed 94 percent of reported fatalities. Results on fatalities are dominated by one accident in which the Shimantan Dam (Henan Province, China) failed in 1975 and 171,000 people perished. Other accidents with more than 1000 deaths involved a nuclear meltdown

Nuclear meltdown

Nuclear meltdown is an informal term for a severe nuclear reactor accident that results in core damage from overheating. The term is not officially defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency or by the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission...

 at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor

Chernobyl disaster

The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine , which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central authorities in Moscow...

 in the Ukraine two decades ago and the other involved the rupture of the NNPC petroleum pipeline (Nigeria) about 10 years ago.

Economic costs

While hydroelectric plants were responsible for the most fatalities, nuclear power

Nuclear power

Nuclear power is the use of sustained nuclear fission to generate heat and electricity. Nuclear power plants provide about 6% of the world's energy and 13–14% of the world's electricity, with the U.S., France, and Japan together accounting for about 50% of nuclear generated electricity...

 plants rank first in terms of their economic cost, accounting for 41 percent of all property damage. Oil and hydroelectric follow at around 25 percent each, followed by natural gas at 9 percent and coal at 2 percent. Excluding Chernobyl and the Shimantan Dam, the three other most expensive accidents involved the Exxon Valdez oil spill

Exxon Valdez oil spill

The Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred in Prince William Sound, Alaska, on March 24, 1989, when the Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker bound for Long Beach, California, struck Prince William Sound's Bligh Reef and spilled of crude oil. It is considered to be one of the most devastating human-caused...

 (Alaska), The Prestige oil spill

Prestige oil spill

The Prestige oil spill was an oil spill off the coast of Galicia caused by the sinking of an oil tanker in 2002. The spill polluted thousands of kilometers of coastline and more than one thousand beaches on the Spanish, French and Portuguese coast, as well as causing great harm to the local fishing...

 (Spain), and the Three Mile Island nuclear accident

Three Mile Island accident

The Three Mile Island accident was a core meltdown in Unit 2 of the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania near Harrisburg, United States in 1979....

 (Pennsylvania).

See also

• 2011 Japanese nuclear accidents
  2011 Japanese nuclear accidents
  This is a list of articles describing aspects of the nuclear shut-downs, failures, and nuclear meltdowns triggered by the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.-Fukushima nuclear power plants:* Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant...
  
  
• Chernobyl disaster effects
  Chernobyl disaster effects
  The Chernobyl disaster triggered the release of substantial amounts of radiation into the atmosphere in the form of both particulate and gaseous radioisotopes. It is the most significant unintentional release of radiation into the environment to date...
  
  
• Common mode failure
• List of dam failures
• List of disasters
• List of oil spills
• Lists of nuclear disasters and radioactive incidents