There are a lot of radioactive hotspots around the world (Picture: Getty)
Radioactive materials are found naturally in the Earth.
But even so, saying an area is radioactive may conjure up images of things you find in a sci-fi films including green glowing men and the odd deformed animal similar to The Simpson’s fish with three eyes.
In reality, however, the effects of human activity, from nuclear weapons testing and industrial accidents, have created some highly radioactive areas and can pose severe health effects to those who go near them. So, here are the most radioactive places on Earth, in no particular order.
1. Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
Location: Pripyat, Ukraine
In April 1986, one of the worst nuclear accidents in history took place. The event occurred during a late-night safety test at the plant that was meant to simulate a station power-failure.
But this led to the actual deactivation of the plant’s safety systems which created a massive steam explosion and an open-air graphite fire. The fire sent plumes of radioactive materials high into the atmosphere exposing over five million people in the former USSR alone to its fallout.
Abandoned ferris wheel in amusement park in Pripyat, Ukraine (Picture: Getty)
The area saw higher than normal rates of some cancers and other diseases, and a high death rate in those who cleaned up the site. This has also led to some animals in the area to mutate and adapt quicker by developing cancer resistant cells.
2. Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Plant
Location: Fukushima, Japan
In 2011, the Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Plant disaster saw the plant’s three reactors leaking radioactive material and spillovers of contaminated wastewater into the Pacific Ocean.
The city, Fukushima, was struck with a 9.1 magnitude earthquake which caused a tsunami, and the existing safety features of the powerplant were overwhelmed. The plant managed to survive the initial earthquake, but the resulting tsunami was more than twice as powerful as the plant could withstand.
This led to the plant’s seawater pumps, which were designed to keep the reactors cool during the shutdown, to fail.
The plant had to be shut down, but massive amounts of radioactive waste still spilt into the environment. It is thought that it will take roughly four decades to completely decommission the power plant.
3. The Hanford Site
Location: Washington, USA
This site is now one of the most radioactive places in the world, after it produced around 74 tons of plutonium for the US’s nuclear weapon stockpile.
Established in 1943, it was used during the Cold War and was one of the United States’ main facilities for plutonium production to make nuclear weapons. It is commonly recognised as being a contributing part to the first atomic bomb.
Hanford produced nearly two-thirds of the plutonium used in the US nuclear weapons stockpile as around 60,000 nuclear weapons were made there, including the bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki in 1945.
The Hanford site is now one of the most radioactive places in the world (Picture: Getty)
The site is now decommissioned, but it still holds around 60% of the high-level radioactive waste (by volume) and it’s currently managed by the US Department of Energy.
The vast majority of the production waste has been buried underground, but large areas of groundwater have since become contaminated.
4. The Polygon
Location: Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan
The Semipalatinsk Test Site, also called the Polygon, is lesser known but was used by the Soviet Union to test nuclear weapons and it is estimated that around 456 bombs were dropped there in total between 1949 and 1989.
The full impact of the tests only came to light when the site closed in 1991 as the Soviet Union never revealed what their tests entailed. The general consensus is that around 200,000 local residents were affected as many developed different types of cancer. In 2010, a BBC article reported that one in 20 children are born with genetic defects.
5. Mailuu-Suu, Kyrgyzstan
Beneath the Earth in Mailuu-Suu in Kyrgyzstan lies a rich source of uranium. In the Cold War the Soviet Union mined large amounts of uranium ore, and heavily contaminated waste mining products were buried around the excavated areas, but significant amounts were also left above ground.
This meant that waste got into the river too, and the effects are still lingering. Interviews with the local residents in 2015 revealed that those in the area said they are full of illness, with people suffering from cancer due to the Soviet Union’s actions.
However, since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, locals say there has been little monitoring or maintenance of the dumps. In a 2010 report, the International Atomic Energy Agency wrote: ‘Production targets usually took precedent over environmental, health and safety standards.’
It warned that Mailuu-Suu was in urgent need of a cleanup.
Around 10,000 metric tonnes of radioactive uranium were produced between 1946 and 1967 which provided much of the fuel for the Soviet Union’s first nuclear weapons and atomic energy plants.
6. Siberian Chemical Combine, Tomsk-7
Location: Seversk, Russia
Still with the Soviet Union, one radiochemical plant of the Siberian Chemical Combine, called the ‘secret city’ of Tomsk-7, now known as Seversk, had several nuclear facilities for the production of plutonium and uranium.
The city was closed, and only plant workers and their families could live in the area. But in 1993, workers caused a massive accident that released radioactive gas, uranium and plutonium into the environment to a distance of 28km, and it’s thought that 177,000 people were affected by the fallout.
Siberian Chemical Combine was one of the production facilities used to produce weapon-grade nuclear products for the Soviet nuclear weapons program.
After the fall of the Union in 1991, the site stopped production of plutonium and highly enriched uranium, and is now a major place for the storage and handling of weapons-grade nuclear materials.
7. Sellafield
Location: Cumbria, UK
During the Cold War, Sellafield used to produce weapons-grade nuclear material for the UK’s nuclear weapon program.
Since then, it was the world’s first commercial nuclear power station to be used for electrical generation, but this part of the facility has since been decommissioned and is currently being dismantled.
Sellafield was the site for the UK’s nuclear weapon program (Picture: Getty)
Now, the site is used for nuclear fuel reprocessing and decommissioning. The plant still releases contaminated waste into the Irish Sea. However, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the radiation exposure from artificial radioactivity in the Irish Sea is very low compared to the natural radioactivity in the environment.
8. The Somali Coast, Somalia
Somalia’s shores have become a dumping ground for a large amount of nuclear and hazardous wastes.
In 2009, a spokesman for the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), Nick Nuttall, told Voices of America that on average, it costs European companies $2.50 (£1.90) per ton to dump the waste on Somalia’s beaches rather than $250 (£190) a ton to dispose of the waste in Europe.
The United Nations’ Environment Program believes that the rusting barrels of waste washed up on the Somali coastline during the 2004 tsunami were dumped as far back as the 1990s.
It is estimated that no less than 600 barrels of toxic and nuclear waste may have been dumped on their shores, meaning that there may be a future environmental disaster brewing.
9. Karunagappalli, India
The coastal town of Karunagappalli in Kerala, India, is known for its high background radiation from the phosphate mineral monazite in its soil which contains thorium. Thorium is a naturally-occurring, slightly radioactive metal.
However, researchers have not found a higher level of cancer among locals in the area, but some reports have found a higher reading of radiation per person.
10. BOMARC Site RW-01, The McGuire Air Force Base
Location: New Jersey, USA
Back in the US, the fenced-off annex to the McGuire Air Force Base was identified by the US Environmental Protection Agency as being highly contaminated.
In June 1960, a fire destroyed a nuclear warhead-equipped missile which released radioactive plutonium into the environment, while heat from the fire and fire suppression activities led to the dispersion of plutonium over the area.
In 2007, the McGuire Air Force Base was identified to be highly contaminated (Picture: Getty)
11. Church Rock Uranium Mill
Location: New Mexico, USA
In 1979, a large spill sent thousands of tons of solid radioactive mill waste and gallons of acidic solution into the Puerco River. The fallout spread over 80 miles (130 km) and reached as far down as Navajo County in Arizona.
It is said that the local residents who used the river suffered the effects of radiation exposure – including some serious infections that lead to amputations – and herds of sheep and cattle died after drinking the contaminated water.
12. Kyshtym disaster
Location: Mayak, Russia
In 1957, a massive nuclear accident took place at the top secret Mayak nuclear station in the Soviet Union, becoming one of the world’s worst nuclear accidents at the time, known as the Kyshtym incident.
The accident, where more than 80 tons of radioactive waste were released by an explosion, spread large amounts of nuclear material over an area of more than 52,000 square kilometres (20,000 sq mi), where at least 270,000 people lived.
Around 10,000 people evacuated and waste from the plant was also dumped in the surrounding area and into Lake Karachay.
13. The Goiânia incident
Location: Goiás, Brazil
In 1987, at the Instituto Goiano de Radioterapia in Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil, thieves stole a teletherapy unit containing cesium-137 from the abandoned medical clinic.
They then opened the machine, removed the lead capsule containing the cesium, and unknowingly spread the radioactive material over a large area.
From the incident, four people were confirmed dead, and around 250 people received significant exposure to radioactive contamination. In the cleanup, topsoil had to be removed from several sites, and houses were demolished. All the objects from within those houses, including personal possessions, were seized and burnt.