Radioactive waste is often distinguished from hazardous waste due to the unique hazards radiation can pose - and proper transport, treatment, and disposal of radioactive waste can be just as crucial, if not more so. Many examples exist of improper disposal of radiation sources/radioactive waste, including at Lake Karachay, Mayapure, and Goiânia.
Lake Karachay, in the Ural mountains in Russia, is currently considered to be one of the most radioactive places on Earth. In the 1950s, the Soviet Union used it as a dumping ground for radioactive waste. In the 1960s, when a drought dried up portions of the lake, radioactive dust and dirt spread from the region. Eventually, concrete blocks were added to prevent sediment shifting and, in 2015, the lake was completely backfilled, turning the entire thing into a permanent (and dry) nuclear waste storage.
In 2010, in Mayapuri, Delhi, India, a research irradiator that had been unused for decades was sold at auction to a scrap dealer - without disclosing the hazards involved. The cobalt-60 source was broken into pieces, and eight people were ultimately hospitalized, with at least one known death.
Finally, in Goiânia, Goiás, Brazil, unsecured radiotherapy equipment was stolen from an abandoned hospital in 1987. The equipment was dismantled and sold and, ultimately, four deaths resulted from the theft, on top of hundreds of people being exposed to the radiation.
