VarSity

"A strong earthquake in central Japan has damaged a large nuclear power plant causing a leak of radioactive material, officials at the plant have said.
Water containing radioactive substances leaked into the sea and a fire broke out in one of the Kashiwazaki plant's electrical transformers.

The reactors at the plant automatically shut down during the magnitude 6.8 earthquake.

At least seven people were killed and hundreds injured in the earthquake."
BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Nuclear scare after Japan quake
That does not sound like fun!!

But a question for the Navy buffs out there, have any nuke powered ships ever been sunk? And what sort of environmental damage can be caused by all this? Ive never really thought about the whole radioactive water thing.

RustyBattleship

No surface nuclear ships have been sunk. However nuclear powered submarines have. The USS Thresher (SSN-593) and USS Scorpion (SSN-589).

Russia has also lost some nuclear powered subs.

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Able to leap tall tales in a single groan.

SnowLeopard

That's sort of correct .................. and sort of not correct.

First of all, this link can give one a pretty good start of sinkings and other incidents, ship wise:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_marine_propulsion

Of course, it does leave out the US boat that sunk during construction and the Palomares (sp?) incident, but the former wasn't a reactor accident and the latter was a nuclear bomb in deep water that was recovered.

But about the surface ship icebreaker Lenin: essentially, Lenin supposedly suffered a reactor accident around 1966. The damage reactors were dumped in locations in the Kara Sea.

See: Energy Citations Database (ECD) - Sponsored by OSTI

AND the first NY Times article

Further, the accounts of Soviet naval nuclear material dumping makes quite interesting reading and in some ways, makes the loss of operation submarines like the Mike boat and K-219 compartively minor.

See: The New York Times:

"Soviets' Secret Nuclear Dumping Causes Worry for Arctic Waters; Wastes From Vessels Discarded for 3 Decades Secret Nuclear Dumping by the Soviets Is Raising Fears for Arctic Waters"
By PATRICK E. TYLER Special to The New York Times. New York Times (1857-Current file). New York, N.Y.: May 4, 1992. ; p. A1 (2 pages)

"RUSSIANS DESCRIBE EXTENSIVE DUMPING OF NUCLEAR WASTE; DISPOSAL ON OCEAN FLOOR Government Says 18 Reactors Went in the Sea as Rules Were Often Violated Russians Describe Dumping of Nuclear Waste Moscow says it has not checked the dump site of 16 reactors."
By WILLIAM J. BROAD. New York Times (1857-Current. Apr 27, 1993. ; p. A1 (2 pages)

Finally, this site might provide one with nights of interesting reading:
Energy Citations Database (ECD) - Basic Search
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("Hell No, we won't glow! Hell No, we won't glow! Hell No, we won't glow!"--protesters outside a nuc power plant demostrating, (wtte))