Worldwide disasters. The worst man-made disasters in the USSR
We like to think that tragedies teach us at least something, like helping each other in difficult situations and working together to solve problems.
But sometimes, even when the disaster is over, the tragedy still continues. People are falling into chaos and making the worst moments in humanity's life even worse. And as a result, the details of the darkest events become so gruesome that they tend to be omitted from history books.
1. Events in Tiananmen Square - China billed the families of the victims for the spent bullets
In 1989, after the death of controversial statesman and politician Hu Yaobang, Chinese students took to Tiananmen Square to try to bring about real change in China. They put forward a list of demands and went on a hunger strike in hopes of ending corruption and taking the first steps towards democracy.
However, their efforts were in vain as the army intervened in the situation. By order of the government, soldiers and tanks moved to Tiananmen Square, which is located in the very center of Beijing. At least 300 students were killed in this unequal battle. According to some estimates, the death toll reached 2,700 people.
Usually this is where the story ends, but there is one small detail that makes it even worse. According to some sources, after the murder, the Chinese government billed the families of the victims for the bullets spent. Parents of protesting students had to pay 27 cents (in modern money) for each bullet fired at their child.
The Chinese government denied the accusations against itself. However, there is every reason to believe that the above reports were true.
2. The My Lai Massacre - President Nixon pardoned the man responsible for the crime.
The most horrific incident that occurred during the Vietnam War is considered to be the My Lai massacre. In 1968, American soldiers brutally massacred 350 South Vietnamese civilians. They raped women, mutilated children - and did not suffer any punishment for it.
Of all those involved in the murder, only one soldier was charged: William Colley. The court found Colley guilty of killing 22 civilians and sentenced him to life imprisonment. However, he never went to prison. He was put under house arrest, which, however, did not last long. Colley remained under house arrest for only three years before President Richard Nixon pardoned him.
However, this story is not so simple. The man who informed the American authorities about the brutal murder and testified against the people who committed it was named Hugh Thompson. He risked his own life trying to save as many Vietnamese as possible. Thompson received death threats as a reward for his bravery and heroism. Every morning, unknown people left mutilated animals on the porch of his house. For the rest of his life, Thompson was forced to struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder.
3. Pompeii – It became so hot in the neighboring city that people’s heads could not stand it and literally exploded
The destruction of Pompeii is one of the most notorious natural disasters in human history. The entire city was plunged into a sea of volcanic ash, which claimed the lives of thousands of people.
However, compared to Herculaneum, Pompeii, so to speak, got off easy. A man who witnessed the volcanic eruption that occurred in 79 AD described this terrible disaster: “A huge black cloud descended on land and sea, accompanied by bright flashes of flame.”
This huge black cloud covered the whole of Herculaneum. Its streets became incredibly hot - the air temperature reached more than 500 degrees Celsius. In such unbearable conditions, people’s skin instantly burned, their bones turned black, and their heads could not stand it and literally exploded.
4. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 – Radioactive fallout led to an increase in cancer rates and car accidents
On September 11, 2001, when planes crashed into the Twin Towers in New York, approximately 3,000 innocent people died. It was the worst terrorist attack in US history. However, over the next few years, the number of its victims increased significantly.
After the infamous events of September 11, 2001, people became afraid to fly, causing airline ticket sales to decline by 20 percent. Instead, everyone began to actively use cars, despite the fact that land transport is considered more dangerous than air. In the twelve months following the attack, nearly 1,600 Americans died in car crashes because they were afraid to fly.
But the worst impact of the events of September 11, 2001 is the increase in cancer rates. The Twin Towers were built from 400 tons of asbestos, which after the explosion turned to dust and spread throughout the city. According to some data, more than 400 thousand people were affected by the asbestos cloud. As a result, cancer rates in New York City have increased significantly since the tragedy. In addition, over 70 percent of the people who helped cope with the consequences of the explosion now suffer from lung problems.
5. Great Famine in Ireland - Queen Victoria forbade the Sultan to help her people
When famine struck Ireland, Majid Abdul Khan, the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, volunteered to help the country. In 1847, he loaded the ships with food and offered Ireland financial assistance in the amount of 10 thousand pounds sterling to combat the crisis.
Oddly enough, British diplomats rejected his offer. They explained this by saying that, according to royal protocol, the amount of foreign aid should not exceed the amount that Queen Victoria is willing to sacrifice to save her people. At their request, the Sultan reduced his monetary donation to 1000 pounds sterling.
Be that as it may, the Irish were still delighted with his “gesture of great generosity.” As a token of gratitude, they wrote to him: “For the first time in history, a Muslim ruler representing a large Islamic population shows warm sympathy for a Christian people.”
6. Black Death – The plague led to the genocide of the Jews
The Black Death in the mid-14th century killed between 75 and 200 million people, destroying about a third of Europe's population. It was a terrible tragedy for which, oddly enough, the Jews were blamed.
The fact is that Europeans considered the plague to be part of a Jewish conspiracy. They claimed that the Jews were poisoning the water in wells throughout the country in order to make the Christian people suffer. At first it was just a theory, which later received “confirmation”. The Inquisition began to hunt Jews; they were tortured until they agreed that they were responsible for the plague. After this, the people rebelled. They took children from Jewish families. They tied Jews to poles and burned them alive. During one such incident, more than 2,000 people were killed.
The Black Death, of course, was not part of a Jewish conspiracy, but people believed otherwise. Their revenge spared no one. The city of Strasbourg even passed a law that banned Jews from entering the city for 100 years.
7. Hurricane Katrina – Refusal to help refugees
When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005, countless people were left homeless. In search of safer places, they were forced to flee to neighboring cities. The New Orleans police helped them, showing them the way to the bridge that led to the city of Gretna.
However, on the bridge these people encountered an obstacle in the form of four police cars that blocked the road. Police officers stood next to them, holding shotguns. They chased away the refugees, shouting after them: “We don’t need another Superdome here!” According to some reports, they even took food and water from people before driving them away.
Arthur Lawson, Gretna police chief, confirmed the incident. “They don’t belong here,” he commented on his refusal to help refugees from New Orleans.
8. Wounded Knee Massacre - Twenty soldiers were awarded Medals of Honor
In 1890, American troops attacked a Lakota Indian camp. The attack killed approximately 200 innocent men, women and children. The people who did this (this event went down in history as the Massacre at Wounded Knee) were real killers. However, twenty of them were awarded the Medal of Honor. General Miles called it "an insult to the memory of the dead," but his protest came to nothing.
During Sergeant Toy's presentation, it was said that he was receiving the medal "for gallantry in fighting hostile Indians." In fact, he was rewarded for shooting in the back the fleeing Native Americans who were unarmed. Another soldier, Lieutenant Garlington, received a medal for preventing the victims from escaping. He forced them to hide in a ravine, where they were shot by Lieutenant Gresham.
Sergeant Loyd, one of those soldiers who was awarded the Medal of Honor for the massacre of unarmed Indians, committed suicide two years later - a few days before the anniversary of the massacre at Wounded Knee. It is not known what prompted him to take his own life. Perhaps it was conscience.
9. Great Fire of London – Townspeople Hanged a Mentally Retarded Man
Everyone who knew Robert Hubert considered him “not a very healthy man.” In all likelihood, he was mentally retarded or mentally ill. He could not speak a word of English, and his limbs were paralyzed. But despite all this, he was blamed for the Great Fire of London in 1666 and hanged.
Hubert was out of town when the fire happened. He appeared two days later. The man wandered the streets, constantly repeating the word “Yes!” In 1666, it didn't take much effort to prove a person's guilt. The crowd grabbed Hubert and dragged him to the police station.
There he answered everything that was asked of him with the word “Yes!” He even “confessed” that a Frenchman had paid him a shilling to set London on fire. Hubert agreed with every version, but he was hanged anyway.
Fifteen years later, the captain of the ship showed up and helped Hubert get to London. He told the townspeople that when the Great Fire happened, the poor fellow was not in the city. But by that time it was already too late.
10. “Titanic” – Bills issued to the families of the victims
The British shipping company White Star Line was very frugal. According to the contract, all employees who were on board the ship were fired the very second the Titanic began to sink. The company did not want to pay crew members money for not performing their immediate duties while the ship was sinking.
After the Titanic sank, the families of the victims were informed that they would have to pay the cost of freight if they wanted to recover the bodies of their loved ones. Most of them could not afford this, which is why today many of those who died in the tragedy have memorials instead of graves.
For musicians, things were even worse. The orchestra members, who desperately continued to play even as the ship sank, were registered as independent contractors. This meant that the White Star Line legally had nothing to do with them. The families of other crew members received compensation for the loss of their breadwinners, but the relatives of the dead musicians were not paid a penny. But they were billed for “damaged uniforms.”
Sometimes it is quite difficult to assess the scale of a particular global catastrophe, because the consequences of some of them can appear many years after the incident itself.
In this article we will present the 10 worst disasters in the world that were not caused by deliberate actions. Among them are incidents that occurred on water, in the air, and on land.
Fukushima accident
The disaster, which occurred on March 11, 2011, simultaneously combines the features of man-made and natural disasters. A powerful earthquake with a magnitude of nine and the subsequent tsunami caused a failure of the power supply system of the Daiichi nuclear plant, as a result of which the cooling process of reactors with nuclear fuel was stopped.
In addition to the monstrous destruction that was caused by the earthquake and tsunami, this incident led to serious radioactive contamination of the territory and water area. In addition, the Japanese authorities had to evacuate more than two hundred thousand people due to the high likelihood of severe illness due to exposure to severe radiation. The combination of all these consequences gives the right to the Fukushima accident to be called one of the worst disasters in the world in the twenty-first century.
The total damage from the accident is estimated at $100 billion. This amount includes the costs of eliminating the consequences and paying compensation. But we must not forget that work to eliminate the consequences of the disaster is still ongoing, which accordingly increases this amount.
In 2013, the Fukushima nuclear power plant was officially closed, and only work to eliminate the consequences of the accident is being carried out on its territory. Experts believe that it will take at least forty years to clean up the building and the contaminated area.
The consequences of the Fukushima accident are a reassessment of safety measures in the nuclear energy industry, a drop in the price of natural uranium, and, accordingly, a decrease in the prices of shares of uranium mining companies.
Collision at Los Rodeos Airport
Perhaps the world's worst aircraft accident occurred in the Canary Islands (Tenerife) in 1977. At Los Rodeos airport, two Boeing 747 airliners, which belonged to KLM and Pan American, collided on the runway. As a result, 583 out of 644 people died, including both passengers and airline crews.
One of the main reasons for this situation was the terrorist attack at Las Palmas airport, which was carried out by terrorists from the MPAIAC organization (Movimiento por la Autodeterminación e Independencia del Archipiélago Canario). The terrorist attack itself did not cause any casualties, but the airport administration closed the airport and stopped accepting planes, fearing further incidents.
Because of this, Los Rodeos became congested as it was diverted by planes that were bound for Las Palmas, in particular two Boeing 747 flights PA1736 and KL4805. At the same time, one cannot fail to note the fact that the plane owned by Pan
American had enough fuel to land at another airport, but the pilots obeyed the air traffic controller's orders.
The cause of the collision itself was fog, which severely limited visibility, as well as difficulties in negotiations between controllers and pilots, which were caused by the thick accents of the controllers, and the fact that the pilots were constantly interrupting each other.
Collision between Dona Paz and tanker Vector
On December 20, 1987, the Philippine-registered passenger ferry Doña Paz collided with the oil tanker Vector, resulting in the world's worst peacetime disaster on the water.
At the time of the collision, the ferry was following its standard Manila-Catbalogan route, which it travels twice a week. On December 20, 1987, at about 06:30, the Dona Paz sailed from Tacloban bound for Manila. At approximately 10:30 p.m., the ferry was passing through the Tablas Strait near Marinduque, and survivors reported clear but rough seas.
The collision occurred after the passengers had fallen asleep; the ferry collided with the Vector tanker, which was transporting gasoline and oil products. Immediately after the collision, a strong fire broke out due to the fact that oil products spilled into the sea. The strong impact and fire almost instantly caused panic among passengers; in addition, according to survivors, there were not the required number of life jackets on the ferry.
Only 26 people survived, of which 24 were passengers from Donya Paz and two people from the Vector tanker.
Mass poisoning in Iraq 1971
At the end of 1971, a shipment of grain treated with methylmercury was imported into Iraq from Mexico. Of course, the grain was not intended to be processed into food, and was to be used only for planting. Unfortunately, the local population did not know Spanish, and accordingly all the warning signs that read “Do not eat.”
It should also be noted that the grain was delivered to Iraq late, since the planting season had already passed. All this led to the fact that in some villages grain treated with methylmercury began to be eaten.
After eating this grain, symptoms such as numbness of the limbs, loss of vision, and loss of coordination were observed. As a result of criminal negligence, about one hundred thousand people received mercury poisoning, of whom about six thousand died.
This incident led the World Health Organization to monitor grain circulation more closely and take the labeling of potentially hazardous products more seriously.
Mass destruction of sparrows in China
Despite the fact that we do not include in our list disasters caused by the deliberate actions of people, this case is an exception, since it was caused by banal stupidity and insufficient knowledge of ecology. Nevertheless, this incident fully deserves the title of one of the most terrible disasters in the world.
As part of the “Great Leap Forward” economic policy, a large-scale fight against agricultural pests was carried out, among which the Chinese authorities identified the four most terrible ones - mosquitoes, rats, flies and sparrows.
Employees of the Chinese Research Institute of Zoology calculated that because of sparrows, the amount of grain that could feed about thirty-five million people was lost during the year. Based on this, a plan was developed to exterminate these birds, which was approved by Mao Zedong on March 18, 1958.
All the peasants began to actively hunt birds. The most effective method was to keep them from falling to the ground. To do this, adults and children shouted, hit basins, waved poles, rags, etc. This made it possible to frighten the sparrows and prevent them from landing on the ground for fifteen minutes. As a result, the birds simply dropped dead.
After a year of hunting sparrows, the harvest really increased. However, later caterpillars, locusts, and other pests that ate the shoots began to actively breed. This led to the fact that after another year, harvests fell sharply, and famine occurred, which led to the death of 10 to 30 million people.
Piper Alpha oil rig disaster
The Piper Alpha platform was built in 1975, and oil production started on it in 1976. Over time, it was converted for gas production. However, on July 6, 1988, a gas leak occurred, which led to an explosion.
Due to indecisive and ill-considered actions of the personnel, 167 people out of 226 on the platform died.
Of course, after this event, oil and gas production on this platform was completely stopped. Insured losses totaled approximately US$3.4 billion. This is one of the most famous disasters in the world associated with the oil industry.
Death of the Aral Sea
This incident is the biggest environmental disaster on the territory of the former Soviet Union. The Aral Sea was once the fourth largest lake, after the Caspian Sea, Lake Superior in North America, and Lake Victoria in Africa. Now in its place is the Aralkum desert.
The reason for the disappearance of the Aral Sea is the creation of new irrigation canals for agricultural enterprises in Turkmenistan, which took water from the Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers. Because of this, the lake has retreated greatly from the shore, which has led to the exposure of the bottom covered with sea salt, pesticides and chemicals.
Due to natural evaporation of the Aral Sea during the period from 1960 to 2007, the sea lost about a thousand cubic kilometers of water. In 1989, the reservoir split into two parts, and in 2003, the volume of water was about 10% of its original volume.
The result of this incident was serious changes in climate and landscape. In addition, of the 178 species of vertebrate animals that lived in the Aral Sea, only 38 remain;
Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion
The explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil platform that occurred on April 20, 2010 is considered one of the largest man-made disasters in terms of its negative impact on the environmental situation. 11 people died directly from the explosion and 17 were injured. Two more people died during the liquidation of the consequences of the disaster.
Due to the fact that the explosion damaged pipes at a depth of 1,500 meters, approximately five million barrels of oil spilled into the sea over 152 days, creating a slick with an area of 75,000 kilometers; in addition, 1,770 kilometers of coastline were polluted.
The oil spill endangered 400 animal species and also led to a fishing ban.
Eruption of Mont Pele volcano
On May 8, 1902, one of the most destructive volcanic eruptions in human history occurred. This incident led to the emergence of a new classification of volcanic eruptions, and changed the attitude of many scientists to volcanology.
The volcano awakened in April 1902, and within a month, hot vapors and gases, as well as lava, accumulated inside. A month later, a huge grayish cloud burst out at the foot of the volcano. The peculiarity of this eruption is that the lava did not come out from the top, but from side craters that were located on the slopes. As a result of a powerful explosion, one of the main ports of the island of Martinique, the city of Saint-Pierre, was completely destroyed. The disaster claimed the lives of thirty thousand people.
Tropical Cyclone Nargis
This disaster unfolded as follows:
- Cyclone Nargis formed on April 27, 2008, in the Bay of Bengal, and initially moved towards the coast of India, in a northwest direction;
- On April 28, it stops moving, but the wind speed in the spiral vortices began to increase significantly. Because of this, the cyclone began to be classified as a hurricane;
- On April 29, the wind speed reached 160 kilometers per hour, and the cyclone resumed movement, but in a northeast direction;
- On May 1, the wind direction changed to the east, and at the same time the wind was constantly increasing;
- On May 2, the wind speed reached 215 kilometers per hour, and at noon it reached the coast of Myanmar's Ayeyarwaddy Province.
According to the UN, 1.5 million people were injured as a result of the violence, of whom 90 thousand died and 56 thousand were missing. In addition, the major city of Yangon was seriously damaged, and many settlements were completely destroyed. Part of the country was left without telephone communications, internet and electricity. The streets were littered with debris, debris from buildings and trees.
To eliminate the consequences of this disaster, the united forces of many countries of the world and international organizations such as the UN, EU, and UNESCO were needed.
Here you can watch terrible disaster videos online, not for the faint of heart. Man-made, air, natural, disasters, accidents, sea and much more on the topic of catastrophic events around the world await fans of terrible footage.
No one is immune from emergency situations; in every country, in every city, under water and on land, something incredible can happen that can even claim the lives of thousands of people. Man considers himself a conqueror of the four elements, but nature has its own opinion on this matter and does not miss an opportunity to prove it.
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Watch all the most terrible disasters in Russia and around the world online. No one is immune from such difficult life situations. This is usually called force majeure. All the latest and newest things are published for you. On our resource you can watch YouTube videos of disasters. And these shots will make you shiver.
It is difficult to enjoy watching terrible emergency incidents, but you can still find useful information. Both on land and in the air, there is danger everywhere. And it does not always depend on the human factor. We trust our lives to professionals, and sometimes some of us are unlucky.
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It is terrible to realize how much evil man has done to himself and the planet on which he lives. Most of the harm was caused by large industrial corporations that do not think about the level of danger of their activities in an effort to make a profit. What’s especially scary is that disasters also occurred as a result of testing various types of weapons, including nuclear ones. We offer 15 of the world's biggest human-caused disasters.
15. Castle Bravo (March 1, 1954)
The United States test-detonated a nuclear weapon in Bikini Atoll, near the Marshall Islands, in March 1954. It was a thousand times more powerful than the explosion in Hiroshima, Japan. This was part of a US government experiment. The damage caused by the explosion was catastrophic for the environment over an area of 11265.41 km2. 655 fauna representatives were destroyed.
14. Disaster in Seveso (July 10, 1976)
An industrial disaster near Milan, Italy resulted from the release of toxic chemicals into the environment. During the production cycle of trichlorophenol, a dangerous cloud of harmful compounds was released into the atmosphere. The release instantly had a detrimental effect on the flora and fauna of the area adjacent to the plant. The company hid the fact of a chemical leak for 10 days. The incidence of cancer increased, which was later confirmed by studies of dead animals. Residents of the small town of Seveso began to experience frequent cases of heart pathologies and respiratory diseases.
The meltdown of part of a nuclear reactor on Three Mile Island, Pennsylvania, USA, released an unknown amount of radioactive gases and iodine into the environment. The accident occurred due to a series of personnel errors and mechanical problems. There was a lot of debate about the scale of pollution, but official bodies withheld specific figures so as not to cause panic. They argued that the release was insignificant and could not harm flora and fauna. However, in 1997, the data was re-examined and it was concluded that those who lived near the reactor were 10 times more likely to develop cancer and leukemia than others.
12. Exxon Valdez oil spill (March 24, 1989)
As a result of the accident on the Exxon Valdez tanker, a huge amount of oil entered the ocean in the Alaska region, which led to the pollution of 2092.15 km of coastline. As a result, irreparable damage was caused to the ecosystem. And to date it has not been restored. In 2010, the US government stated that 32 species of wildlife had been damaged and only 13 had been recovered. They were unable to restore the subspecies of killer whales and Pacific herring.
The explosion and flooding of the Deepwater Horizon oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico at the Macondo field resulted in a leak of 4.9 million barrels of oil and gas. According to scientists, this accident was the largest in US history and claimed 11 lives of platform workers. The ocean inhabitants were also harmed. Violations of the bay's ecosystem are still observed.
10. Disaster Love Channel (1978)
In Niagara Falls, New York, about a hundred homes and a local school were built on the site of an industrial and chemical waste dump. Over time, the chemicals seeped into the topsoil and water. People began to notice that some black swampy spots were appearing near their houses. When the analysis was done, they found the content of eighty-two chemical compounds, eleven of which were carcinogenic substances. Among the diseases of the Love Canal residents, such serious diseases as leukemia began to appear, and 98 families had children with serious pathologies.
9. Chemical Contamination of Anniston, Alabama (1929-1971)
In Anniston, in the area where agricultural and biotech giant Monsanto first produced cancer-causing substances, they were inexplicably released into Snow Creek. The population of Anniston suffered greatly. As a result of exposure, the percentage of diabetes and other pathologies increased. In 2002, Monsanto paid $700 million in compensation for damage and rescue efforts.
During the Gulf War in Kuwait, Saddam Hussein set fire to 600 oil wells to create a toxic smokescreen for 10 months. It is believed that between 600 and 800 tons of oil were burned daily. About five percent of Kuwait's territory was covered in soot, livestock was dying of lung disease, and the country suffered an increase in cancer cases.
7. Explosion at the Jilin Chemical Plant (November 13, 2005)
Several powerful explosions occurred at the Zilin Chemical Plant. A huge amount of benzene and nitrobenzene, which has a detrimental toxic effect, was released into the environment. The disaster resulted in the death of six people and the injury of seventy.
6. Times Beach, Missouri Pollution (December 1982)
The spraying of oil containing toxic dioxin led to the complete destruction of a small town in Missouri. The method was used as an alternative to irrigation to remove dust from roads. Things got worse when the city was flooded by the Meremek River, causing toxic oil to spread along the entire coastline. Residents were exposed to dioxin and reported immune and muscle problems.
For five days, smoke from coal burning and factory emissions covered London in a dense layer. The fact is that cold weather set in and residents started burning coal stoves en masse to warm their houses. The combination of industrial and public emissions into the atmosphere resulted in thick fog and poor visibility, and 12,000 people died from inhaling toxic fumes.
4. Minamata Bay Poisoning, Japan (1950s)
Over 37 years of producing plastics, the petrochemical company Chisso Corporation dumped 27 tons of metal mercury into the waters of Minamata Bay. Because residents used it for fishing without knowing about the release of chemicals, the mercury-poisoned fish caused serious damage to the health of babies born to mothers who ate Minamata fish and killed more than 900 people in the region.
3. Bhopal Disaster (December 2, 1984)
The whole world knows about radiation contamination as a result of a nuclear reactor accident and fire at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. It has been called the worst nuclear power plant disaster in history. About a million people died due to the consequences of the nuclear disaster, mainly from cancer and due to exposure to high levels of radiation.
After the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami hit Japan, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant was left without power and unable to cool its nuclear fuel reactors. This led to radioactive contamination of a large area and water area. About two hundred thousand residents were evacuated due to fears of serious illnesses as a result of exposure. The disaster once again forced scientists to think about the dangers of atomic energy and the need to develop
Scientific and technological progress makes life easier for people, but also leads to man-made accidents. This has always been the case. We will talk about the five most severe disasters in the history of the USSR.
Kurenevskaya tragedy
The Kurenevskaya tragedy occurred in Kyiv on March 13, 1961. On December 2, 1952, a decision was made to create a landfill from construction waste in the notorious site of Babi Yar. This place was blocked by a dam, which protected the Kurenevsky district from waste discharged from brick factories. On March 13, the dam broke, and a mud wave 14 meters high rushed down Teligi Street. The flow was very powerful and washed away everything in its path: cars, trams, buildings.
Although the flood lasted only an hour and a half, during this time the wave of waste managed to claim the lives of hundreds of people and cause catastrophic damage to the entire city. It was not possible to establish the exact number of victims, but this figure is close to 1.5 thousand people. In addition, approximately 90 buildings were destroyed, approximately 60 of which were residential.
The news of the disaster reached the population of the country only on March 16, and on the day of the tragedy the authorities decided not to advertise what happened. For this purpose, international and long-distance communications were turned off throughout Kyiv. Later, an expert commission made a decision on the causes of this accident; they called “errors in the design of hydraulic dumps and dams.”
Radiation accident at the Krasnoye Sormovo plant
The radiation accident at the Krasnoye Sormovo plant, which was located in Nizhny Novgorod, occurred on January 18, 1970. The tragedy occurred during the construction of the K-320 nuclear submarine, which was part of the Skat project. When the boat was on the slipway, the reactor suddenly turned on and operated for 15 seconds at its maximum speed. As a result, radiation contamination of the entire mechanical assembly shop occurred.
At the time the reactor was operating, there were about 1,000 people working at the plant in the room. Unaware of the contamination, many went home that day without the necessary medical care and decontamination treatment. Three of the six victims taken to a hospital in Moscow died from radiation sickness. It was decided not to make this incident public, and non-disclosure agreements were taken from all those who survived for 25 years. And only the next day after the accident the workers began to be processed. Elimination of the consequences of the accident continued until April 24, 1970; more than a thousand plant workers were involved in this work.
The Chernobyl accident
The Chernobyl disaster occurred on April 26, 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The reactor was completely destroyed by the explosion, and a huge amount of radioactive substances was released into the environment. The accident was the largest in the history of nuclear energy. The main damaging factor in the explosion was radioactive contamination. In addition to the territories located in close proximity to the explosion (30 km), the territory of Europe was damaged. This happened because the cloud formed from the explosion carried radioactive materials many kilometers from the source. The fallout of iodine and cesium radionucleides was recorded on the territory of modern Belarus, Ukraine and the Russian Federation.
During the first three months after the accident, 31 people died, while over the next 15 years, another 60 to 80 people died from the consequences of the accident. More than 115 thousand people were evacuated from the 30-kilometer affected area. More than 600 thousand military personnel and volunteers took part in the liquidation of the accident. The course of the investigation was constantly changing. The exact cause of the accident has not yet been established.
Kyshtym accident
The Kyshtym accident was the first man-made disaster in the USSR; it happened on September 29, 1957. It happened at the Mayak plant, which was located in the closed military city of Chelyabinsk-40. The name of the accident was given to the closest city of Kyshtym.
The cause was an explosion that occurred in a special tank for radiation waste. This container was a smooth cylinder made of stainless steel. The design of the container seemed reliable, and no one expected the cooling system to fail.
An explosion occurred, as a result of which about 20 million curies of radioactive substances were released into the atmosphere. About 90 percent of the radiation fell on the territory of the Mayak chemical plant itself. Fortunately, Chelyabinsk-40 was not damaged. During the liquidation of the accident, 23 villages were resettled, and the houses and domestic animals themselves were destroyed.
No one was killed as a result of the explosion. However, employees who carried out the elimination of contamination received a significant dose of radiation. About a thousand people took part in the operation. Now this zone is called the East Ural radioactive trace and any economic activity in this territory is prohibited.
Disaster at the Plesetsk cosmodrome
On March 18, 1980, during preparations for the launch of the Vostok 2-M launch vehicle, an explosion occurred. The incident occurred at the Plesetsk cosmodrome. This accident led to large numbers of casualties: only 141 people were in the immediate vicinity of the rocket at the time of the explosion. 44 people died in the fire, the rest received burns of varying severity and were taken to the hospital, four of them subsequently died.
This was caused by the fact that hydrogen peroxide was used as a catalytic material in the manufacture of filters. It was only thanks to the bravery of the participants in this accident that many people were saved from the fire. The liquidation of the disaster lasted for three days.
In the future, scientists abandoned the use of hydrogen peroxide as a catalyst, which allowed them to avoid such incidents.
