Perhaps the most threatening type of pollution to the environment is nuclear contamination. Nuclear accidents are usually caused by an explosion, in a nuclear power plant, or when nuclear wastes are disposed of incorrectly. These accidents allow nuclear contaminates to escape and pollute the surrounding areas. Wildlife, vegetation, and humans are often affected by nuclear contamination. Even if a little bit of nuclear waste is exposed to the environment, it could destroy many living organisms. Humans do not necessarily have to be near an area where a nuclear accident has taken place in order to be affected by it. They could be many kilometers away and still get sick. This is mainly because nuclear contaminates don't stay in the same place. They have the ability to move throughout lengthy distances contaminating everything the radius. Once nuclear contaminates have entered an environment it is very difficult to control them. One solution that is commonly used in, where nuclear accidents have taken place is to just abandon the contaminated land.
As stated above in the thesis paragraph, nuclear contamination is usually caused by careless accidents or malfunctions in nuclear power plants. These accidents usually occur because the people disposing of the nuclear waste lack the knowledge of proper disposal techniques or because the machinery, in the nuclear plants, is either too old or they were not inspected properly. Even the slightest error when handling nuclear waste could lead to an environmental disaster. For example, in Chelyabinsk, Russia, radioactive wastes were dumped into a river system spreading radioactive contaminates to 124,000 people living along the banks of the river. This incident could have been easily prevented, but instead it ended up practically destroying the environment. A second incident took place on September 29, 1957 in Russia. This time the cooling system, of a nuclear power plant, exploded allowing nuclear wastes to leak out into the environment.