Many believe that nuclear power plants are a danger to the people who live around them and to the environment in which they are built. However, these assumptions are mainly based on the fact that today's nuclear reactors and nuclear power plants are built to the same standards as old nuclear power plants from many years ago. Nuclear power today is designed to be much safer than obsolete nuclear power plants and has a very minimal chance of causing a nuclear catastrophe. Nuclear power plants represent a safe and viable option for electricity generation for the foreseeable future. One of the most common misconceptions about nuclear energy is that a nuclear power plant can explode like a nuclear bomb and cause a huge nuclear accident. The Chernobyl nuclear disaster was due to the woefully poor design deficiencies of Soviet nuclear power plants at the time, the absence of a safety code or practice, and violations of nuclear power plant safety procedures (safety nuclear reactors). The Chernobyl accident would not have been that serious, but Soviet reactors did not implement containment structures in reactor designs until after 1980. This left few options for trying to contain the leaking radiation. The nuclear plants in the United States today are much safer than the old plants built in the Soviet Union. Safety procedures and radiation containment protocols are now the norm and many safety measures are now in place. These steps to make nuclear facilities safer for everyone are highlighted by the number of nuclear accidents that have occurred since new safety measures were put in place. There have been only three nuclear accidents related to power plants since nuclear energy began to be used around the world. Nuclear power plants have been producing electricity for over sixty years and there have only been three accidents related to them. Chernobyl is the only nuclear disaster to have caused the deaths of people due to radiation and radiation leaks