The Mayak nuclear disaster occurred on September 29, 1957, at the nuclear fuel plant in the city of Kyshtym near the Ural Mountains. The explosion at the Mayak nuclear facility was caused by the evaporation of water in the heat tank. The evaporated water led to the accumulation of nitrate and acetate. As a result of the contact of these substances with air, a chemical explosion occurred. After the explosion, 80 tons of chemical waste were released into the environment. What makes the Mayak disaster interesting is that the world learned about this nuclear accident exactly 20 years later. When the nuclear reactor exploded in 1957, no one in the world knew about the Mayak nuclear power plant. Even if there was an explosion, Soviet Russia decided to keep it a secret. In the week of the nuclear accident, the United States immediately realized that there were big changes in the level of radiation in the air. But at the time, they were also conducting massive nuclear tests. So the US, along with the Soviets, kept silent about the nuclear disaster. The world learned about what had happened at Mayak 20 years after the accident through the confession of a Soviet scientist. But there is still no clear information about this explosion even today. How many people died as a result of the nuclear accident, how many people were affected, whether the surrounding settlements were evacuated, and many other questions remain unanswered.
