Chernobyl disaster The nuclear reactor after the disaster. Reactor 4 (centre). Turbine building (lower left). Reactor 3 (centre right). Date 26 April 1986 ; 32 years ago ( 1986-04-26 ) Time 01:23 (Moscow Time, UTC+3) Location Pripyat, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union Cause Inadvertent explosion of core during emergency shutdown of reactor whilst undergoing power failure test Deaths 31 (direct) 15 (estimated indirect deaths up to 2011) [1] Part of a series on the History of Ukraine Prehistory Trypillian–Cucuteni culture Yamna culture Catacomb culture Cimmeria Taurica Scythia Bosporan Kingdom Sarmatia Zarubintsy culture Chernyakhov culture Hunnic Empire Early history Early East Slavs Onoghuria White Croatia Rus' Khaganate Khazars Kievan Rus' Galicia–Volhynia Cumania Mongol invasion of Rus' Golden Horde Principality of Moldavia Grand Duchy of Lithuania Crimean Khanate Early modern history Cossacks Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Zaporozhian Host Khmelnytsky Uprisin...