Nuclear labor issues the most dangerous tasks within the industry is intensified by nuclear secrecy. On May 22, 1986, a nuclear fuel reprocessing plant at La Hague in Normandy, sustained a mechanical malfunction. Five workers were exposed to unsafe levels of radiation and hospitalized. On April 12, 1987, the Tricastin Nuclear Power Plant fast breeder reactor coolant leaked contaminating seven workers. In July 2008, approximately 100 workers were exposed to a radiation leak. The Chernobyl nuclear reactor meltdown occurred on April 26, 1986, in the Ukraine, during a test of the Unit 4 reactor systems. The explosion and fire caused by human error
Nuclear weapons and Ukraine of Independent States. In 1994 Ukraine agreed to destroy the weapons, and to join the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). As a republic in the Soviet Union, Ukraine was the base for the following nuclear forces: International relations theorist John Mearsheimer predicted a Ukraine without any nuclear deterrent was likely to be subjected to aggression by Russia, but this was very much a minority view at the time. A 2016 study argues that the denuclearization of Ukraine was not a "stupid mistake" and that it is unclear that Ukraine would be better off as a nuclear state.