Top 10 Most Radioactive Places in the World

This story started as a petty robbery and finished tragically. When two thieves broke into the abandoned Goiano Institute of Radiotherapy in 1987, the objective was to steal scrap metal and leave. Among the items taken was a strange device that eventually glowed blue. After the crooks sold the dismantled device, the scrapyard owner showed it to family and friends, with it finding its way into the hands of several owners and ultimately turned over to a hospital. The device turned out to be a radioactive cancer treatment instrument containing lethal doses of radiation. After those who handled the device became ill, authorities were called to destroy it, but by that time a large area had become contaminated. Four people died and almost 250 had elevated levels of radioactivity in their bodies.

The site of more than one nuclear disaster, this plant kept its accidents quiet until the 1980s. In 1957, when a cooling system surrounding one of the waste tasks failed, a huge explosion rocked the plant and released deadly radiation particles over a radius of more than 7700 square miles. The government didn’t acknowledge the accident until decades later. The 1957 Kyshtym disaster killed about 50 people and exposed 470,000 people to radioactivity and is considered one of the most serious nuclear accidents of its kind. Meanwhile, the plant where it took place has also been highly criticized for pumping its radioactive waste into neighboring lakes.

Containing multiple plants and nuclear power stations, Sellafield is another site known for pumping its waste into a water source, once dumping over 8 million litres of dangerous waste into the nearby sea every day. In 1957, the same year as the Mayak disaster, one if its many facilities, the Windscale Piles plant, became the location of the worst nuclear disaster in Great Britain’s history. After a cartridge caught fire within one of the reactors, it spread and burned for over 3 days, releasing radioactive particles - including a known carcinogenic particle - across a large section of the UK and Europe. The disaster resulted in the permanent closing of the reactors in the plant, and a cleanup that continued until the early 21st century.

If you thought organized crime wasn’t involved in nuclear waste - think again. Over a period of years and in discreet operations, an Italian crime syndicate called the ‘Ndrangheta allegedly loaded ships with nuclear waste and sank them off the coast of Somalia (and other developing African countries), contaminating the water. Because long-running civil wars in Somalia prevented the formation of a strong government, there was no one to really pay attention to illegal dumping, which started in the 1980s. Swiss and Italian companies are thought to have used the area as a dumping ground for years. Nowadays, the waters surrounding the coast are reportedly highly toxic, and rumors have circulated that the dumping is still going on.

As part of the notorious Manhattan Project, the Hanford site was the planet’s first full-scale plutonium production reactor. It was expanded throughout the Cold War so it could make more than 60,000 weapons’ worth of radioactive chemical. Though it was completely decommissioned by the early ‘70s, it left over 53 million gallons of waste and numerous leaking tanks that still had to be cleaned up. 21st century investigations have shown that the Hanford site has been leaking radioactive waste into the ground since 2010 and pouring tons of radioactive water into the Columbia River over a 25-year period. The site of the largest environmental cleanup in US history, it’s predicted that the Hanford site will remain contaminated for decades to come.

Originally constituted to produce mass quantities of weapons grade plutonium and highly enriched uranium, this plant is located within a “closed town” that requires entry documents to be shown at a checkpoint in order to access it. Its Tomsk-7 Reprocessing Complex was the site of one of Russia’s worst nuclear accidents in 1993. While a tank was being cleaned with nitric acid, it quickly overheated and caused an explosion. This severely radiated around the plant, and significantly raised levels of radioactivity in the surrounding areas. While the facility’s plutonium and HEU production capabilities were shut down, the isolated and remote plant continues to store low and intermediate levels of nuclear material for weapons and radioactive waste.

From 1946 to 1968, this compound was one of the largest mining and processing facilities of uranium ore used for the Soviet nuclear weapons program. When it shut down, it left behind numerous tailings or uranium pits on the unstable hillside above the neighboring town of Mailuu-Suu. In 1958, a massive landslide released over 1,600,000 US gallons of radioactive waste onto the town below. Listed as one of the top 10 most polluted places in the world, Mailuu-Suu’s cleanup has been ongoing but slow, and threats of the hillside tailings sites are still present and looming.

Before you start testing nuclear weaponry - you might want to make sure no one lives in the area. The primary zone for Soviet nuclear testing during the Cold War is an area dubbed “The Polygon,” which was pronounced uninhabited by the government at the time. They apparently didn’t do too much research, as over 700,000 people resided within the region while the tests were going on. Only officially closing in 1991, the site remains one of the most contaminated nuclear zones on the planet, with an estimated 200,000 people still suffering ill effects from the radiation emitted by the bomb tests.

During the 2011 earthquake and tsunami, massive waves rocked the reactors at Fukushima’s Daini and Daiichi power plants, destroying cooling systems and sending them into danger of meltdown. While Fukushima Daini was shut down in 2 days, the Daiichi plant wasn’t so lucky. The resulting disaster included the failure of emergency reactors, 3 nuclear meltdowns, explosions and the release of radioactive material into the surrounding areas, particularly contaminating the Pacific Ocean. In addition to a 4-stage evacuation order, the Fukushima disaster – considered the most significant incident of its kind and second only to our number one entry – caused unknown amounts of damage and likely increased the risk of cancer deaths in the people who live nearby. And, as of 2017, there are still no definite decommission plans.

Before we reveal our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.
- Acerinox Scrap Metal Reprocessing Plant Cádiz, Spain

- Denver Federal Center Colorado, USA

- Church Rock Uranium Mill New Mexico, USA

The site of what’s often considered the largest and worst nuclear disaster in history, the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster released over 400 times the level of radiation than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. During a safety test, an explosion was triggered and the resulting fissures of smoke exposed much of the western USSR and Europe to dangerous levels of nuclear particles, with an estimated 6-7 million people now subject to the effects of radiation. The incident resulted in over 31 deaths, with over a hundred more hospitalized and multiple eventual cancer deaths. The Chernobyl site is still closed today, with levels of leftover radiation so high that the area cannot yet be fully cleaned.