5) Chernobyl, Ukraine
In 1986, the Chernobyl Nuclear disaster occurred. Worse than the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, a power spike caused uncontrollable explosions in the reactor during the systems test. Over 500,000 workers worked to battle the radioactive smoke and fix the reactors over a series of days, with 36 deaths onsite. Unfortunately, despite the work done, the radiation spread to the rest of Europe at different levels up to 400 times more than Hiroshima. Different reports place deaths from cancer due to the released radiation to be anywhere between 30,000 and 200,000 as of 2006. Experts say the town Chernobyl, where the nuclear disaster occurred, will be radioactively dangerous for 20,000 years. When the disaster occurred, over 96,000 people were evacuated, leaving eerie abandoned towns in their wake. However, despite evacuation orders, a number of people remained within their homes, refusing to leave the area. Some Ukrainians still live in Chernobyl and other abandoned villages today, choosing to live with the detrimental radiation effects.
