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The Kyshtym disaster was a radioactive contamination accident that occurred on September 29, 1957, at the Mayak Production Association, a plutonium production site for nuclear weapons and nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in the Soviet Union. A failed cooling system led to a chemical explosion of a buried waste storage tank, causing one of the world's worst nuclear accidents that ranked as a Level 6 on the INES. The exact consequences are difficult to determine due to censorship, but the accident caused the contamination of a vast area and an unknown number of deaths.

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster was a series of events that began on March 11, 2011, when a massive tsunami, caused by the Tōhoku earthquake, hit the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan. The tsunami led to equipment failures, and without coolant, three reactors melted down. Significant releases of radioactive contamination into the atmosphere initially led to the evacuation of the nearby population, with long-term effects on agriculture, fishing, and habitation.

The SL-1, or Stationary Low-Power Reactor Number One, was a United States Army experimental nuclear power reactor in Idaho which went critical on January 3, 1961. A manual control rod was removed too far from the reactor core, which caused the reactor to go prompt critical, leading to a steam explosion and a lethal power excursion. Three operators died. It was the first fatal nuclear reactor accident in the U.S. The incident emphasized the need for improved reactor safety and operator training.

The Chernobyl disaster was a catastrophic nuclear accident that occurred on April 26, 1986, at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian SSR. An explosion and fire released large quantities of radioactive particles into the atmosphere, which spread over much of Western USSR and Europe, resulting in the evacuation and resettlement of over 350,000 people and causing an unconfirmed number of deaths and cases of cancer.