International Nuclear Safety Group the Kyshtym disaster, which occurred at Mayak, a Nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in the Soviet Union. Since then, there have been hundreds of nuclear accidents, some considered minor while others were horrendous, with one of the worst accidents being the Chernobyl disaster of April 26, 1986. Involving a nuclear power plant at Chernobyl, now in Ukraine, a combination of nuclear volatility and the disregard of several safety procedures caused an explosion of its fourth reactor, ending in the worldwide environmental and human catastrophe. Following the Chernobyl accident, the IAEA was forced to create a new branch of their organisation to
Nuclear safety in the United States that slow the pace and raise the cost of cleanup. The Hanford site represents two-thirds of the nation's high-level radioactive waste by volume. Today, Hanford is the most contaminated nuclear site in the United States and is the focus of the nation's largest environmental cleanup. The SL-1, or Stationary Low-Power Reactor Number One, was a United States Army experimental nuclear power reactor which underwent a steam explosion and meltdown on January 3, 1961, killing its three operators. The direct cause was the improper withdrawal of the central control rod, responsible for absorbing neutrons in the reactor core. The event is