2. Chernobyl
2016 marked the 30-year anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster. On April 26, 1986 near the town of Pripyat (in what was then the USSR, but now is Ukraine), a nuclear reactor exploded, and it is classified as the worst nuclear power plant accident in history. 31 deaths are directly attributed to the explosion, those being of two plant staff, and 29 emergency workers. 4,000 cancer deaths were predicted totally.
The above view of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant is taken from the nearby city of Pripyat. As you can see, the areas surrounding the reactor are abandoned, and have been for some time. It is essentially a ghost town whose image was made even creepier by the 2012 horror film Chernobyl Diaries, and you cannot deny it is a great setting for a scary movie.
As we see it here, with the ominous nuclear reactor looming in the background and the dozens of ghostly Soviet-era apartment blocks in the forefront, it looks positively eerie. The Chernobyl disaster and reminders of it such as this are scary for the simple reason that, like many of the things on this list, it could happen again. Unlike all of the other events on this list, however, Chernobyl was neither natural disaster nor the evil of man; the accident was due to human error and a severely-flawed Soviet-era reactor design.
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