Energy accidents

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 break down in an energy accident, sometimes causing considerable damage. Energy fatalities can occur, and with many systems deaths will happen often, even when the systems are working as intended.
Historically, coal mining has been the most dangerous energy activity and the list of historical coal mining disasters is a long one. Underground mining hazards include suffocation, gas poisoning, roof collapse and gas explosions. Open cut mining hazards are principally mine wall failures and vehicle collisions. In the US alone, more than 100,000 coal miners have been killed in accidents over the past century, with more than 3,200 dying in 1907 alone.
According to Benjamin K. Sovacool, 279 "major" energy accidents occurred from 1907 to 2007 and they caused 182,156 deaths with $41 billion in property damages, with these figures not including deaths from smaller accidents.
However, by far the greatest energy fatalities that result from energy generation by humanity, is the creation of air pollution. The most lethal of which, particulate matter, which is primarily generated from the burning of fossil fuels and biomass is (counting outdoor air pollution effects only) estimated to cause 2.1 to 4.21 million deaths annually.
Fatalities.
According to Benjamin K. Sovacool, while responsible for less than 1 percent of the total number of energy accidents, hydroelectric facilities claimed 94 percent of reported immediate fatalities. Results on immediate fatalities are dominated by one disaster in which Typhoon Nina in 1975 washed out the Shimantan Dam (Henan Province, China) and 171,000 people perished. While the other major accident that involved greater than 1000 immediate deaths followed the rupture of the NNPC petroleum pipeline in 1998 and the resulting explosion. The other singular accident described by Sovacool is the "predicted" latent death toll of greater than 1000, as a result of the 1986 steam explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in the Ukraine. With approximately 4000 deaths in total, to eventually result in the decades ahead due to the radio-isotope pollution released.
In the oil and gas industry, the need for improved safety culture and training within companies is evidenced by the finding that workers new to a company are more likely to be involved in fatalities.
Coal mining accidents resulted in 5,938 immediate deaths in 2005, and 4746 immediate deaths in 2006 in China alone according to the World Wildlife Fund. Coal mining is the most dangerous occupation in China, the death rate for every 100 tons of coal mined is 100 times that of the death rate in the US and 30 times that achieved in South Africa. Moreover, 600,000 Chinese coal miners, as of 2004, were suffering from Coalworker's pneumoconiosis (known as "black lung") a disease of the lungs caused by long-continued inhalation of coal dust. And the figure increases by 70,000 miners every year in China.
Historically, coal mining has been a very dangerous activity and the list of historical coal mining disasters is a long one. In the US alone, more than 100,000 coal miners were killed in accidents over the past century, with more than 3,200 dying in 1907 alone. In the decades following this peak, an annual death toll of 1,500 miner fatalities occurred every year in the US until approximately the 1970s. Coal mining fatalities in the US between 1990 and 2012 have continued to decline, with fewer than 100 each year. (See more Coal mining disasters in the United States)
In the United States, in the 2000s, after three decades of regulation on the Environmental impact of the coal industry, including regulations in the 1970s and 1990s from the Clean Air Act, an act created to cut down on pollution related deaths from fossil fuel usage, US coal fired power plants were estimated, in the 2000s, to continue to cause between 10,000 and 30,000 latent, or air pollution related deaths per year, due to the emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and directly emitted particulate matter that result when coal is burnt.
According to the World Health Organization in 2012, urban outdoor air pollution, from the burning of fossil fuels and biomass is estimated to cause 3 million deaths worldwide per year and indoor air pollution from biomass and fossil fuel burning is estimated to cause approximately 4.3 million premature deaths. In 2013 a team of researchers estimated the number of premature deaths caused by particulate matter in outdoor air pollution as 2.1 million, occurring annually.
Economic costs.
According to Benjamin Sovacool, nuclear power 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 (Alaska), The Prestige oil spill (Spain), and the Three Mile Island nuclear accident (Pennsylvania). However analysis presented in the international Journal, "Human and Ecological Risk Assessment" found that coal, oil, Liquid petroleum gas and hydro accidents have cost more than nuclear power accidents.
Modern-day U.S. regulatory agencies frequently implement regulations on conventional pollution if one life or more is predicted saved per $6 million to $8 million of economic costs incurred.