Since the reactors would not be pressurized, radioactivity would not be expelled as widely into the environment as in an accident like the Fukushima disaster, Wilson said.

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In 1982, Sandia National Laboratories simulated the impacts of a catastrophic accident at nuclear power plants on the surrounding environment for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

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But in the sort of accident the iQ is likely to have in an urban environment, it seems pretty fortified.

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The Environment Committee voted in October last year in favour of updating accident prevention rules for dangerous substance sites.

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