Rescue teams clear the rubble of the collapsed dome in the Transvaal Park water park Photo: Valery Blinov / RIA Novosti
Transvaal-Park, Moscow
Dead: 28 people, including 8 children.
What happened: On the day of the tragedy, about 1300 people were in the building of the water park in Yasenevo, the largest in Eastern Europe. The reinforced concrete dome collapsed right on the water entertainment area. 193 people, including 51 children, were seriously injured, many were left disabled.
Who is guilty: The cause of the disaster was a design error. The investigation brought charges against the head of the Moscow State Non-Departmental Expertise, Anatoly Voronin, who approved the project, and the chief architect of the park, Nodar Kancheli. Kancheli also designed the Okhotny Ryad underground complex on Manezhnaya Square, the dome of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and the roof of Basmanny Market, which collapsed in 2006. After two years of proceedings, Kancheli was amnestied in honor of the 100th anniversary of the State Duma, and Voronin was released for lack of corpus delicti. In 2013, the Moreon multifunctional family recreation complex was opened on the site of the water park.
Basmanny Market, Moscow
Dead: 68 people.
What happened: The market building collapsed in the early morning, the collapse area was 13 thousand square meters.
Who is guilty: Investigators determined that the disaster was due to systematic mismanagement of the building. For example, trading floors were installed on mezzanines designed for stall trade, which, together with the goods placed in them, overloaded the structure. The director of the Basmanny market, Mark Mishiev, was charged with violation of operation. A few days later he was released from custody, and throughout the investigation, which lasted until 2008, he was at large. The case was then abruptly dropped, then reopened two weeks later and completed by 2009. In 2010, it became known that the Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation Yuri Chaika refused to approve the indictment against Mishiev and sent the case back for further investigation.
Lame Horse Club, Perm
Dead: 156 people.
What happened: During the celebration of the eighth anniversary of the club, designed for 50 people, a fire broke out in the building. At the time of the tragedy, there were 300 people in the room, including staff. When the fireworks began, the scenery caught fire from the cold fire. The lights went out, no emergency lighting was provided, only one leaf was open at the evacuation door, panic and stampede began. People died mainly due to carbon monoxide poisoning and combustion products.
Who is guilty: Immediately after the tragedy, the entire government of the Perm Territory resigned, and the head of the Perm administration, Arkady Katz, resigned from his post. There were eight people in the dock: co-founders, art director and other employees of the club, as well as a supplier of pyrotechnics. The owner of Lame Horse Anatoly Zak tried to escape, but was detained and eventually sentenced to 9 years and 10 months in prison. The remaining defendants received from 4 to 6 years in prison.
Ship "Bulgaria", Tatarstan
Dead: 122 people, including 28 children.
What happened: The ship sailed along the Volga along the Kazan-Bolgar-Kazan route and, as the investigators later found out, could not help but sink: the crew was inexperienced and regularly violated the rules of technical operation, and the ship had numerous damages - from an idle diesel generator to holes in the hull. In addition, on the day of the disaster, a storm arose with a wind speed of 20 meters per second. Investigators found that the main cause of the crash was the portholes not locked by the crew: water flooded into them when a roll arose due to a strong gust of wind and the ship was turning. The ship rolled over on its side and went under the water in a matter of minutes. Only 79 people survived the crash.
Who is guilty: The investigation continued for two years. Among the defendants are the head of the sub-tenant and exploiter of the Bulgaria, an expert of the Russian River Register who licensed the ship, the head and chief state inspector of the Kazan department of Rostransnadzor, as well as the senior assistant to the captain of the ship Bulgaria, who survived the disaster. Five defendants received terms from 5 to 11 years.
Shopping center "Admiral", Kazan
Dead: 18 people during the fire and 1 person, lieutenant colonel of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, during the collapse of the building.
What happened: The fire was caused by roofing work on the roof of an extension to the mall. Since materials of low fire resistance were used in the construction of the shopping center, the building structures quickly began to collapse, blocking the evacuation exits. The flame captured an area of 4,000 square meters.
Who is guilty: According to investigators, since 2013, the shopping center building has been illegally operated without a permit and with gross violations of fire regulations. 12 people were brought to criminal responsibility: the owner of the shopping center, the director of the tenant organization, the employees responsible for fire safety, as well as the workers whose actions led to the fire of the roof. Some of the cases went to trial in 2017.
Prepared by Anna Karpova
(average: 4,80
out of 5)
Last Saturday, July 27, 2013 about 50 tons of crude oil from the pipe reached the beaches of the resort island of Koh Samet in Thailand. Today we recall the major man-made disasters that occurred in the world in the 21st century.
year 2000
Petrobrice is the Brazilian state oil company. The company headquarters is located in Rio de Janeiro. In July 2000, in Brazil, as a result of a disaster on an oil platform in the Iguazu River more than a million gallons of oil leaked out (about 3,180 tons). For comparison, 50 tons of crude oil recently spilled near a resort island in Thailand.
The resulting stain moved downstream, threatening to poison the drinking water for several cities at once. The liquidators of the accident built several protective barriers, but they managed to stop the oil only at the fifth (barrier). One part of the oil was collected from the surface of the water, the other went through specially constructed diversion channels.
Petrobrice paid a $56 million fine to the state budget and $30 million to the state budget.
year 2001
On September 21, 2001, an explosion occurred at the AZF chemical plant in Toulouse, France, the consequences of which are considered one of the largest man-made disasters. Exploded 300 tons of ammonium nitrate (salt of nitric acid), which were in the warehouse of finished products. According to the official version, the management of the plant is to blame, which did not ensure the safe storage of an explosive substance.
The consequences of the disaster were gigantic: 30 people died, the total number of wounded was more than 300, thousands of houses and buildings were destroyed or damaged, including almost 80 schools, 2 universities, 185 kindergartens, 40,000 people were left without a roof over their heads, more than 130 enterprises have actually ceased their activities. The total amount of damage - 3 billion euros.
2002
On November 13, 2002, off the coast of Spain, the oil tanker Prestige fell into a severe storm, in the holds of which there were more than 77,000 tons of fuel oil. As a result of the storm, a crack about 50 meters long formed in the ship's hull. On November 19, the tanker broke in half and sank. As a result of the disaster, 63,000 tons of fuel oil fell into the sea.
Cleaning the sea and coasts from fuel oil cost 12 billion dollars, the full damage to the ecosystem cannot be estimated.
2004
On August 26, 2004, a fuel truck carrying 32,000 liters of fuel fell off a 100-meter-high Wiehltal bridge near Cologne in western Germany. After the fall, the tanker exploded. The culprit of the accident was a sports car that skidded on a slippery road, which caused the fuel tanker to skid.
This accident is considered one of the most costly man-made disasters in history- temporary repair of the bridge costs 40 million dollars, and a complete reconstruction - 318 million dollars.
2007
On March 19, 2007, a methane explosion at the Ulyanovsk mine in the Kemerovo region killed 110 people. Following the first explosion, four more explosions followed in 5-7 seconds, which caused extensive collapses in the workings in several places at once. The chief engineer and almost all the management of the mine died. This accident is the largest in Russian coal mining over the past 75 years.
year 2009
On August 17, 2009, a man-made disaster occurred at the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP, located on the Yenisei River. This happened during the repair of one of the HPP's hydroelectric units. As a result of the accident, the 3rd and 4th water conduits were destroyed, the wall was destroyed and the engine room was flooded. 9 out of 10 hydraulic turbines were completely out of order, the hydroelectric power station was stopped.
Due to the accident, the power supply to the Siberian regions was disrupted, including the limited supply of electricity in Tomsk, and several Siberian aluminum smelters were cut off. As a result of the disaster, 75 people died and 13 were injured.
April 22, 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of the US state of Louisiana after an explosion that killed 11 people and a 36-hour fire, Deepwater Horizon rig sank.
The oil leak was stopped only on August 4, 2010. About 5 million barrels of crude oil spilled into the waters of the Gulf of Mexico. The platform on which the accident occurred belonged to a Swiss company, and at the time of the man-made disaster, the platform was operated by British Petroleum.
2011
March 11, 2011 in the northeast of Japan at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant after the largest accident in the last 25 years after the disaster. Following earthquakes of magnitude 9.0, a huge tsunami wave came to the coast, which damaged 4 of the 6 reactors of the nuclear power plant and disabled the cooling system, which led to a series of hydrogen explosions, melting the core.
The total emissions of iodine-131 and caesium-137 after the accident at the Fukushima-1 nuclear power plant amounted to 900,000 terabecquerels, which does not exceed 20% of the emissions after the Chernobyl accident in 1986, which then amounted to 5.2 million terabecquerels.
NPP "Fukushima-1":
July 11, 2011 An explosion occurred at a naval base near Limassol in Cyprus, which claimed 13 lives and brought the island nation to the brink of economic crisis, destroying the island's largest power plant.
Investigators accused the President of the Republic, Dimitris Christofias, of negligently handling the problem of storing ammunition confiscated in 2009 from the Monchegorsk ship on suspicion of arms smuggling to Iran. In fact, the ammunition was stored right on the ground on the territory of the naval base and detonated due to the high temperature.
March 13 marks the 56th anniversary of the Kurenevskaya tragedy, when thousands of Kyivans died due to the negligence of officials
This tragedy could have been avoided, but the high offices had their own opinion on all this. The "foundation" of the Kurenevskaya catastrophe was laid in the early 1950s. Then the leaders of the city decided that the waste from the production of bricks could be dumped near Babi Yar. A huge natural reservoir for the pulp was blocked by a dam, which did not let the entire liquid mass down to Kurenevka.
For ten years, so much pulp was poured into it that the dam literally cracked from the load. Rumor has it that active Kyivians went to the reception of the then mayor, or, more simply, the mayor of Kyiv, Alexei Davydov, who repeatedly warned that in some places marsh liquid was seeping through the dam. But Davydov did not want to listen to anything.
And from the very morning of March 13, 1961, the dam burst. A stream of mud 14 meters high flooded down to the current Kirillovskaya Street. The Spartak Stadium was completely flooded. Also flooded the tram depot, which was located nearby. The swamp covered cars and public transport. The man-made disaster actually destroyed several dozen residential buildings. According to official figures from the Soviet authorities, 150 people died as a result of the tragedy. And even then, these data were initially so classified that in the reports about the tragedy there was no mention of the dead at all. In total, according to the calculations of the well-known metropolitan historian Alexander Anisimov, who unfortunately has already died, the Kurenevskaya tragedy claimed the lives of at least one and a half thousand Kyivans.
The Soviet government has always had a habit of classifying data on disasters that were the result of the incompetence of officials. On the day of the tragedy at Kurenevka in Kyiv, long-distance and international communications were turned off. It was rumored that a few months later, all the letters that the people of Kiev sent from the capital were reread by the competent authorities in order to prevent leakage of information about the tragedy outside Kyiv.
Depo.Kyiv decided to make a selection of man-made disasters that occurred during the Soviet era and which were ordered to remain silent.
5th place - a plane on Osorki
Few people know about this case either. On June 2, 1976, a real tragedy could have happened over Kyiv. On that day, a Yak-40 passenger plane, which was performing a regular flight, flew from Lithuanian Kaunas to Kyiv.
When the plane had already entered the air territory of the capital of Ukraine and the pilots decided to lower the altitude, because they had to land at the Zhuliany airport, suddenly several engines failed at the plane at once. Interestingly, the pilots did not lose their heads and decided to land the plane on the water meadows of the capital's Osokorki. This operation was carried out successfully. Moreover, during the emergency landing, none of the crew members and passengers were injured.
Of course, information about the unsuccessful flight of the plane was classified, because the leadership of the Soviet Union lived on the principle that the population should think that there were no catastrophes and misfortunes in the country at all. However, the inhabitants of Osokorki, where even then there were dachas of Kiev, nevertheless “got wind” about the story with the plane. Therefore, many Kievans learned that under certain circumstances a passenger plane could fall on the city.
4th place - nuclear explosion in Kharkiv region
Not all Ukrainians know that there was a nuclear explosion on the territory of our state. This happened way back in 1972. According to some reports, the power of a nuclear explosion was only three times less than that of a bomb that was dropped in 1945 on Japanese Hiroshima.
In the early 70s of the last century, a very large gas field was found in the Kharkiv region. A few years later, gas was produced here in full. Once on one of the drilling rigs there was a fire at a depth of more than 20 meters. Subsequently, the infernal torch was already beating up several tens of meters. The gas began to poison everything around. Nothing could put out the fire pillar, and then the scientists decided to arrange an underground nuclear explosion. According to calculations, the ground was supposed to move from the explosion and thus close the hellish flame. Such a natural "seal" from the soil.
A planned underground nuclear explosion was carried out on the morning of July 9, 1972. Eyewitnesses of those events recall that after the explosion, stones mixed with mud began to fly out of the ground. For a while, the fiery column disappeared, but very quickly began to "beat" with renewed vigor. And only almost a year later it was possible to eliminate the column of fire that came out of the drilling rig. This was done by pouring concrete under high pressure. Therefore, the nuclear explosion did not do its job and was carried out in vain.
Radiation nevertheless came to the surface, although scientists and officials assured that everything would remain underground. According to some reports, the radioactive cloud went to the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions. There were even rumors that the top leadership of the country immediately after that refused to eat food produced in Kievskaya, and therefore food for party representatives was taken from other regions. Residents of the surrounding settlements almost immediately returned to their usual lives, because no one told them about the consequences of an underground nuclear explosion. All data about this man-made disaster was, of course, classified. How many people have died over the years from radiation exposure is also unknown.
3rd place - nuclear explosion in Donbass
The Soviet leadership, even after an unsuccessful nuclear experiment in the Kharkiv region in 1972, continued to "produce" nuclear explosions for so-called peaceful purposes. In 1979, another such explosion was carried out near Yenakiyevo, Donetsk region. At that time, the local Yunkom mine was experiencing frequent methane emissions that threatened the lives of the miners. Scientists decided that a powerful explosion in the rocks would break the so-called connection between coal seams and methane, and this would make it possible to make coal seams safe for miners.
However, when it came to the power of the explosion, then opinions were divided. Some experts were sure that a small nuclear explosion would lead to nothing and methane would not “separate” from coal. But if the explosion is made powerful, then this will already threaten the security of the entire region. Therefore, they agreed that the power of a nuclear explosion should be at the level of 0.3 kilotons of TNT, which is 50-60 times less than the nuclear bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
On September 16, 1979, an underground nuclear explosion was carried out. Rumor has it that after him, the earth around the mine literally trembled. Interestingly, before the nuclear explosion, the local population seemed to be reassured that, they say, civil defense exercises would be held, and therefore people need not worry if they hear a powerful explosion.
The authorities then announced a positive result from a nuclear explosion in the mine. It seems that after that, methane emissions really decreased. But there was another thought, which was that methane emissions did decrease, but not on the scale that scientists wanted. Therefore, the experiment with an underground nuclear explosion did not live up to expectations. Again, no increase in the level of radiation in the mine and on the surface was officially recorded. But where did this radiation go? Although the media have repeatedly written that after 1979, residents of the Yenakievsky district began to get sick and die more often from symptoms similar to those that the liquidators of the Chernobyl disaster received.
2nd place - explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant
The top leadership of the country was aware of the consequences of radiation pollution around Pripyat and in the capital of Ukraine. However, no one said anything about this from official sources. Only a few days after the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, a small article appeared in the newspapers about a “small” accident at a nuclear power plant. Of course, the party said that there was nothing to be afraid of.
And already when the Western countries began to monitor the radiation flux from the USSR, the Soviet leaders had nowhere to go and they began to talk a little about the consequences of the man-made disaster. Although the people of Kiev were still "driven" to the parade in honor of May 1. The level of radiation in Kyiv was already off scale, and the people of Kiev, suspecting nothing, were marching in columns along Khreshchatyk.
It seems that the then Secretary General Mikhail Gorbachev ordered the leader of Soviet Ukraine Vladimir Shcherbitsky not to sow panic and to hold a festive parade under any conditions. What doses of radiation then received the people of Kiev, who came to the parade, one can only guess.
1st place - Totsk military exercises
This tragedy did not take place in Ukraine, but it clearly shows that for the Soviet government, human lives were absolutely nothing and no one considered them. Totsk exercises took place in September 1954 in the Orenburg region. About 45 thousand soldiers took part in them. The main goal of the exercises is to see how ready the Soviet troops are to break through the enemy's defenses using nuclear weapons during a possible Third World War. But in reality, the Soviet leadership just wanted to check how the military would conduct an offensive after an atomic explosion.
On the morning of September 14, 1954, a Tu-4 aircraft from a height of 8,000 meters dropped an atomic bomb with a capacity of 40 kilotons, which is almost three times more than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima.
At an altitude of 350 meters from the ground, the bomb exploded. The explosion was such that it all looked like the end of the world. Almost immediately after that, the military was sent to the epicenter of the explosion.
Here, the radiation level was 50 Roentgen per hour, which really threatened people's health. Aircraft that were involved in military exercises were forced to cross the so-called atomic mushroom stem, formed after an atomic explosion. Simply put, all the military were the usual test subjects, which studied the effects of human radiation contamination. Interestingly, according to some reports, before the Totsky exercises, the soldiers who took part in them were told that they should be grateful that the party chose them.
Of course, that information about the consequences of an atomic explosion was completely hushed up in the USSR. And according to researchers, after this inhuman test, residents of neighboring settlements began to more often detect tumors, as well as blood diseases. Various mutations were also observed in human organisms, and infant mortality increased several times. According to some reports, about 10 thousand civilians suffered from the Totsk exercises.
The modern development of technology provides us with a huge number of new opportunities. Unfortunately, nothing is free in this world, because the use of some methods of obtaining energy or resources, as well as improving production, is fraught with potential danger.
As a rule, the largest man-made disasters in the world are associated with human carelessness, non-compliance with safety rules, but some of them are associated with the testing of new types of weapons.
Video: TOP man-made disasters in the world
Poison cloud in Seveso
The Italian town of Seveso once had 17,000 inhabitants. It was located in the Po Valley, at the foot of the hills, surrounded by green forests and fields. The picturesque area attracted a large number of tourists from Milan. However, the main enterprise was a chemical plant, which employed most of the inhabitants.
On June 10, 1976, an explosion occurred at the plant, which was accompanied by a powerful release into the atmosphere of one of the most terrible poisons known to man - dioxin. The chemical formed a cloud that hung over the city, and over time, the poison began to descend on gardens and residential buildings.
People who inhaled the poison experienced symptoms such as bouts of nausea, the development of eye diseases with impaired vision. Now Seveso is a ghost town in which no one has lived for many years, it is called the Italian Hiroshima. It took many years to decontaminate the soil. The consequences of the release of chemicals were aggravated by the fact that the owners of the plant did not immediately tell the doctors the reason for the deterioration in the well-being of the residents of the city.
The cause of the accident was non-compliance with the temperature regime - the temperature of the chemical reaction was overestimated, since the instructions for cooling were not followed.
Accident on Three Mile Island
On March 28, 1979, one of the largest man-made disasters in the world and the history of nuclear energy occurred. Nuclear power plant "Three Mile Island" (Three Mile Island), located on the Saskehuanna River near the city of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
On the night of March 27-28, the second power unit operated at 97% capacity. Shortly before the accident, all systems were operating normally. However, two problems were known to exist:
- The coolant constantly flowed through the shutter of one of the pressure compensator valves. Because of this, the temperature in the discharge pipeline was above normal, and the excess medium had to be drained every eight hours.
- The ion exchange resin discharge line was clogged and workers tried to blow it out with water and compressed air.
These issues resulted in the operators experiencing a sudden shutdown of the reactor, with two deviations from the standard scenario followed by the staff.
Due to the destruction of the fuel rod cladding, radioactive materials were released, namely xenon-133 and iodine-131 gases. Due to the fact that the filter elements were not changed on time, a large amount of radioactive gases entered the atmosphere.
Despite the fact that serious human casualties were avoided, this accident made it necessary to revise the safety standards for the operation of nuclear facilities.
Love Canal Incident
In the vicinity of the city of Niagara Falls, New York State, there was a settlement called Love Canal. Initially, it was built as a "City of Dreams" - a place where the most environmentally friendly materials should be used, this is how entrepreneur William Love envisioned it.
Unfortunately, due to the Great Depression, construction had to be stopped, and instead of a beautiful city for many years, there were only a couple of houses and a giant pit that was used to dump chemical waste. In 1953, this dump was simply buried with earth and forgotten about. After some time, it was decided to roll up the area under the asphalt and start building a new residential area.
The first children went to the district school in 1957, and their parents, not even suspecting what was under their feet, were surprised at the strange puddles that appeared near the houses. In 1976, water analyzes showed a huge content of benzene, dioxins and other toxic substances. Children began to be born with hydrocephalus, cases of cancer and asthma became more frequent. About 60% of the area's residents had a birth defect.
Due to the fact that this area was intended for poor people, most of the residents could not leave, even after they realized the dangers of living on this land. Only a few years later, with the help of the media, scientists and public figures, it was possible to draw the attention of the US government to this problem. Now the Love Canal is a sign city, still reminding of one of the worst man-made disasters in the world.
Explosion at the AZF factory in Toulouse
On September 21, 2001, a monstrous explosion occurred in Toulouse, which caused the death of thirty people and the injury of thousands of people, the destruction of a huge number of buildings and structures.
Due to a still unknown cause, three hundred tons of ammonium nitrate were detonated, which was located in a hangar belonging to the AZF chemical plant. A crater with a diameter of up to fifty meters and a depth of about five meters remained at the site of the explosion.
Production facilities were seriously damaged, several thousand people received bodily injuries of varying severity. Over the next eleven years, AZF were forced to pay two billion euros to the victims.
The power of the explosion, the damage caused and the huge number of victims make this incident one of the most terrible man-made disasters in the world.
Chemical disaster in Bhopal
On December 3, 1984, one of the most famous man-made disasters occurred - the Bhopal tragedy. Due to the accident that occurred at the plant of the American company "Union carbide", more than eighteen thousand people died.
Officially, the cause of this tragedy has not yet been established. There are many different versions, including violation of safety regulations, negligence and targeted sabotage. Nevertheless, it was definitely established that the company's management put pressure on the employees of the plant, forcing them to cut costs, including through security measures, which could not but affect the likelihood of this disaster.
The disaster of the Sayano-Shushenskaya hydroelectric power station
The accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP is undoubtedly one of the biggest technical disasters in the world. This incident is considered the largest incident in the history of hydropower and its consequences affected not only the social and economic situation in the region, but also the ecology of the water area adjacent to the power plant.
As a result of a thorough investigation, it was found that the accident occurred as a result of repeated additional load on the hydraulic unit, which resulted in fatigue damage to the attachment points. The additional load caused the destruction of the studs that held the turbine cover, as a result of which the water supply path of the hydraulic unit was depressurized.
The parliamentary commission, in its final report, also noted such factors as abuse of power by the station's management, low professionalism and responsibility of employees.
In addition to the death of seventy-five people, the accident caused oil to enter the Yenisei from the baths of the thrust bearings of hydroelectric units, which led to the formation of a spot stretching for one hundred and thirty kilometers. The amount of environmental damage is estimated at 63 million rubles.
Disease in Minamata
Minamata disease refers to a syndrome that causes poisoning with methylmercury and other organic mercury compounds. The disease was first discovered in Minamata City, Kumamoto Prefecture in 1956.
Its symptoms:
- Paresthesia in limbs;
- Motility disorders;
- Speech deterioration;
- Weakening of hearing and vision;
- Disturbances of consciousness;
- Paralysis.
This disease also causes death.
Doctors first encountered this disease in April 1956, when a five-year-old girl was admitted to them with symptoms that indicated an unknown nervous disease. Gradually, anomalies in the behavior of animals began to be discovered, as well as similar symptoms among the inhabitants of fishing villages. The disease claimed the lives of fourteen people.
Further investigation revealed that the cause of the pathologies was a strong contamination of seafood with methylmercury, which the victims ate. After that, a chemical analysis of the water was carried out, which made it possible to detect an increased content of mercury, lead, thallium, selenium, and arsenic. All of these metals were released into the water due to the continuous release of mercury into the water by Chisso. An important point is that the microorganisms that lived at the bottom of the sea processed mercury, turning it into methylmercury, which is more toxic and accumulated in the body. This incident is one of the biggest man-made disasters in the world.
The Chernobyl accident
The events that took place on April 26, 1986 are rightfully considered the largest man-made disaster in the world, and one of the most significant events in the history of nuclear energy.
Currently, there are many versions of the Chernobyl disaster, which appeared as a result of investigations conducted by the USSR State Commission in 1986 and 1991, the INSAG advisory group.
The most likely factors that contributed to the accident at the nuclear power plant are:
- Design flaws of nuclear power plants;
- Hushing up the seriousness of the situation in the early days of the incident;
- The desire of employees to conduct an experiment "at any cost";
- Decommissioning of serviceable technological protections that could shut down the reactor in time.
Due to the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, 134 employees and members of the rescue teams who were at the station during the explosion died from radiation sickness. In addition, a powerful release of radiation led to the development of a huge number of cases of oncological diseases, in particular thyroid cancer. Many pathologies in newborns have also been recorded.
Approximately five million hectares of land were withdrawn from agricultural circulation, and an exclusion zone with a radius of thirty kilometers was created around the power plant. I had to bury hundreds of small settlements, as well as the city of Pripyat.
In addition, the consequences of the accident seriously affected the ecological situation in the area. The highest concentration of caesium-137 was found in the top layer of the soil, from which it enters fungi and plants, through which pollution is transmitted to birds and animals. Radioactive fallout fell in remote areas such as Mordovia, Chuvashia and the Leningrad region.
Fukushima nuclear accident
The disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, which occurred on March 11, 2011, can hardly be called a man-made disaster in its purest form, because it was caused by a natural disaster, namely an earthquake and the resulting tsunami. This is what caused the failure of the power supply system, which stopped the process of cooling the reactor with the subsequent release of radioactive substances.
The lack of sufficient cooling caused a strong increase in steam pressure, followed by a release into the containment. In order to prevent the destruction of the hermetic shell, it was necessary to dump steam into the atmosphere. Over time, the pressure nevertheless managed to be relieved, but at the same time a large amount of hydrogen penetrated into the lining of the reactor compartment.
In addition, due to the accident, a large amount of cesium-137 and iodine-131 got into the sea water. Because of this, the radioactivity of water increased 4385 times. The additional spread of contamination was facilitated by the fact that marine fish carried radioactive materials in themselves.
In order to disinfect the soil, it will take several more years and quite large financial injections. Already, experts estimate the cost of restoration work at more than one billion dollars, and over time this amount will only grow.
plus
Catastrophes often occur due to an absurd coincidence of events and lead to irreparable consequences. Recently, environmental disasters have most often occurred, leaving huge scars on the body of our planet. We have prepared a selection of the largest disasters that have cost mankind record amounts. So, to your attention are the 10 largest and most expensive man-made disasters, most of which occurred during the last century.
In the first place is the most global man-made environmental disaster - the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. This catastrophe cost the world 200 billion dollars, despite the fact that the liquidation work is not even half completed. On April 26, 1986, the worst nuclear accident in history occurred at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the former USSR. More than 135,000 people who lived within a 30 kilometers (19 miles) radius of the destroyed reactor - and 35,000 livestock - were evacuated; around the station, located near the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, an exclusion zone of unprecedented size was created. In this forbidden territory, nature itself had to cope with the high levels of radiation caused by the disaster. As a result, the exclusion zone essentially turned into a giant laboratory where an experiment was set up - what happens to plants and animals in conditions of catastrophic nuclear contamination of the area? Immediately after the disaster, when everyone was worried about the dire consequences of radioactive fallout for human health, few people thought about what would happen to the wildlife inside the zone - and even more so about monitoring what was happening.
The Chernobyl disaster will long remain the largest and costliest environmental disaster. In second place is the explosion of the US space shuttle Columbia, which cost $13 billion, which is 20 times less in cost and millions of times less in environmental impact. 
The Columbia shuttle was the first operational reusable orbiter. It was made in 1979 and transferred to NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The shuttle Columbia was named after the sailboat that Captain Robert Gray explored the inland waters of British Columbia in May 1792. The space shuttle Columbia died in a crash on February 1, 2003, while entering the Earth's atmosphere, before landing. This was Columbia's 28th space voyage. The information from Columbia's hard drive was recovered, the causes of the crash were identified, which made it possible to avoid such disasters in the future. 
In third place is again an ecological disaster. On November 13, 2002, the oil tanker Prestige exploded, spilling 77,000 tons of fuel into the ocean, making it the largest oil spill in European history. Losses in the course of work to eliminate the oil slick amounted to 12 billion dollars. 
Fourth place - the death of the shuttle Challenger. Nothing foreshadowed the tragedy during the launch of the Challenger space shuttle on January 28, 1986, but 73 seconds after launch, it exploded. This accident cost American taxpayers $5.5 billion. 
In fifth place The explosion on the oil platform Piper Alpha - occurred on July 6, 1988, which is recognized as the most terrible disaster in the history of the oil industry. The accident cost $3.4 billion. 
Piper Alpha is the world's only burned-out oil platform. As a result of a gas leak and subsequent explosion, as well as as a result of ill-considered and indecisive actions of the personnel, 167 people out of 226 who were on the platform at that moment died, only 59 survived. Immediately after the explosion, oil and gas production was stopped on the platform, however, due to the fact that the pipelines of the platform were connected to the general network, through which hydrocarbons flowed from other platforms, and for a long time there was no production and supply of oil and gas to the pipeline. decided to stop (waiting for permission from the top management of the company), a huge amount of hydrocarbons continued to flow through pipelines, which supported the fire. 
Ecology is in sixth place again. The Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred on March 24, 1989. This is the largest oil spill in human history. More than 11 million gallons of oil entered the water. $2.5 billion was spent to eliminate the consequences of this ecological catastrophe. 
Seventh place - the explosion of a B-2 stealth bomber. The crash occurred on February 23, 2008, and cost US taxpayers a million and a half dollars. Fortunately, no one was hurt, only financial costs followed. 
Eighth place - Metrolink passenger train crash. The train collision that occurred on September 12, 2008 in California is more about negligence. Two trains collide, 25 dead, MetroLink loses $500 million 
In ninth place, the collision of a fuel tanker and a passenger car took place on August 26, 2004 on the Wiehltal bridge in Germany. This catastrophe, which occurred on August 26, 2004, can be attributed to accidents on the roads. They happen often, but this one surpassed everything in scale. The car, passing over the bridge at full speed, crashed into a full fuel truck going to the meeting, an explosion occurred, which practically destroyed the bridge. By the way, the restoration work of the bridge took 358 million dollars. 
The death of the Titanic closes the top ten most expensive catastrophes. The tragedy occurred on April 15, 1912 and claimed 1523 human lives. The cost of building the ship amounted to $ 7 million (in today's exchange rate - $ 150 million).
