Fukushima
Crisis Updates
Today
In Radiation Safety History
On July 28, 1989 the international atomic energy agency (IAEA) releases
a report on a radiological event that occurred in 1957 in the Soviet
Union. The event occurred at the secretive facility of Mayak, a plutonium
production facility. It wasn’t until the Soviet Union’s dissolution
were western officials allowed into the area.
It measured as a Level 6 disaster on the International Nuclear Event
Scale (INES), making it the third-most serious nuclear accident ever,
behind the Fukushima and Chernobyl disasters (both Level 7 on the INES).
At least 22 villages were exposed to radiation from the disaster, with
a total population of around 10,000 people evacuated. Some were evacuated
after a week, but it took almost 2 years for evacuations to occur at
other sites. The disaster spread radioactive contamination over more
than 52,000 square kilometers (20,000 sq. mi), where at least 270,000
people lived.