Prelude to Chernobyl: Exclusive Cold War News Footage Exposes Secret Soviet Nuclear City (1991)

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, as the Soviet Union accelerated towards dissolution in December 1991, ITN cameras gained exclusive access to the secret nuclear city of Ozyorsk, in the Ural Mountains. In 1957, the Mayak Plant (situated in Ozyorsk) had been the site of the Kyshtym disaster, regarded as the worst nuclear disaster in history until Chernobyl. The secret status of the city during this time meant that few either inside or outside the Soviet Union were aware of the full scope of the disaster until Chernobyl exposed the malfeasance of Soviet nuclear facilities. By the time of these reports in 1991, the plant had reached new levels of ecological disaster, seeking western funding and partnership to prevent further catastrophe to the region. #nuclear #nuclearwar #nuclearweapons #coldwar #coldwarhistory #communism #socialism #totalitarianism #ussr #sovietunion #russia #russianhistory #berlinwall #chernobyl #chernobylexclusionzone #chernobyldisaster #1991 #1989 #mikhailgorbachev #borisyeltsin #uralsound #uralmountains #radiation #radiationpoisoning #ukraine #pripyat To license the footage featured in this clip, follow the link below: https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/search/... _______ To search the ITN Archive collection on Getty Images, follow the link below: https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/footage... 🎥 Subscribe to our YouTube channel (tap the bell icon and stay up to date with all the latest ITN Archive videos!) -    / @frontlinebyitn   🎥 Follow us on Twitter -   / itnarchive   🎥 Like us on Facebook -   / itnarchiveitnp   🎥 Check out our TikTok -   / itnarchive1955  )