Fukushima 
          Crisis Updates
        
        Today 
          In Radiation Safety History
        On July 28, 1989 the international atomic energy agency (IAEA) releases 
          a report on a radiological event that occurred in 1957 in the Soviet 
          Union. The event occurred at the secretive facility of Mayak, a plutonium 
          production facility. It wasn’t until the Soviet Union’s dissolution 
          were western officials allowed into the area.
          
          It measured as a Level 6 disaster on the International Nuclear Event 
          Scale (INES), making it the third-most serious nuclear accident ever, 
          behind the Fukushima and Chernobyl disasters (both Level 7 on the INES). 
          At least 22 villages were exposed to radiation from the disaster, with 
          a total population of around 10,000 people evacuated. Some were evacuated 
          after a week, but it took almost 2 years for evacuations to occur at 
          other sites. The disaster spread radioactive contamination over more 
          than 52,000 square kilometers (20,000 sq. mi), where at least 270,000 
          people lived.