The 1987 Brazilian accident in Goiânia was horrendous because the caesium-137 capsule was breached and there was widespread contamination by radioactive dust. I get chilled to the bone when I read the descriptions of people innocently playing with the curious glow-in-the-dark dust as a novelty, showing to their neighbors and friends.
> The apartment was fully settled in 1980. A year later, an 18-year-old woman who lived there suddenly died. In 1982, her 16-year-old brother followed, and then their mother. [All from leukemia]. [...] A new family moved into the apartment, and their son died from leukemia as well.
> A child's bed was located directly next to the wall containing the capsule.
Actually "haunted" locations are often linked to carbon monoxide and infrasound, IIRC. We generally don't blame ghosts for mysterious burns or other signs of radiation sickness.
It's possible that the apartment came furnished and that the bed being referred to was not a specific child's but rather a bed made for a child in which supposedly multiple children slept in before dying.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goi%C3%A2nia_accident
While the soviet incident was one really bad fuckup, this was a chain of many people fucking up horribly
Videos for people who don't like to read:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhL0xQzPSy8 (16m)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5tEjXGHNeg (6m)