Nuclear Safety Reports Called Into Question

To inform the public about nuclear-plant mishaps, a United Nations agency in 1989 helped create a Richter-like scale rating them from zero to seven. Chernobyl was pegged as a seven. Three Mile Island rated five.

How many mishaps have occurred over the years -- and is the rate getting better or worse? It's hard to know. That's because every day, the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency deletes from its Web site any rated incident that's more than six months old. The agency says it doesn't want to penalize more-forthcoming countries by making it look like they have poor safety records.
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