The Chernobyl disaster is the most infamous nuclear accident ever recorded in history. However, reports revealed that Russia had a secret nuclear disaster with magnitudes that almost equates to the Chernobyl catastrophe. (Photo : Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

The Chernobyl disaster is the most infamous nuclear accident ever recorded in history. However, reports revealed that Russia had a secret nuclear disaster with magnitudes that almost equates to the Chernobyl catastrophe. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Mayak Nuclear accident in Russia, but it seems that it is not that well known.

From the study of the American University, the Mayak nuclear plant was the Soviet Union's primary nuclear complex, and in 1957, the explosion of radioactive materials produced a plume that was 50 kilometers in diameter and reached towns more than a thousand kilometers away. About 10 years later, the Mayak plant was again responsible for the expulsion of dust into the air.

Greenpeace calls it the second biggest nuclear disaster in history. The nightmare did not start with the explosion. Perhaps unaware of the possible dangers of radioactive wastes, gallons upon gallons of power plant wastes have been dumped directly into the Techa River that runs 240 kilometers long.

It has affected around 40 villages and evacuated 23 in the process. Experts say that with the Techa river serving as a primary source of water for hundreds of thousands of residents around the region, the ingestion of radioactive water was almost 20 times worse than what Chernobyl victims have suffered.

According to the study of the Department of Physics at Harvard University, pollution of nuclear waste was one of the biggest problems of the Mayak power plant. What was worse was that not all of the residents living in the area were evacuated.

Children were born with deformities, and others didn't survive at all. It was recorded to have caused more than 500 infant deaths. For adults, many people immediately died from trauma. Those living in the vicinity have been reported to suffer and die from both respiratory and infectious diseases.