This is what happened in Chernobyl (it's on the Internet, so it's true)
"In 1986, Soviet scientists attempted to harness the power of a fuel cell retrieved from the Ark. The attempt failed, ending in a disaster that irradiated the surrounding countryside, forced the evacuation of Pripyat and rendered the area uninhabitable for tens of thousands of years.
As the long clean up continued several decades later, workers found something alien. Alexi Voskhod brought in a NEST team including Optimus Prime and Colonel William Lennox to investigate the discovery. Lennox's team ventured into the reactors and found the fuel cell, but as they were retrieving it, they were attacked by the Driller. They followed the creature outside where Optimus joined in fighting both it and Shockwave off, retrieving the fuel cell in the process."