Timeline of the Chernobyl disaster This timeline follows the Chernobyl disaster from the explosion of reactor 4 through the emergency response, the official announcements and the long work of containment that followed.1 ,12 ,28
Everything Anatoly Dyatlov Valery Legasov Boris Shcherbina Leonid Toptunov The accident The response The people Containment
1973 Dyatlov moves to Pripyat32 Anatoly Dyatlov moved to Pripyat to work at the newly constructed Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.
April 26, 1986 Reactor 4 explodes1 ,5 ,6 The accident
Reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded at 1:23:45 a.m., exposing the uranium core.
April 26, 1986 Commission arrives1 ,22 ,23 The accident
The investigative commission headed by Valery Legasov arrived at the plant on the evening of 26 April. Boris Shcherbina arrived late that night.
April 27, 1986 Evacuation announced1 ,25 The response
At a joint meeting at 10:00 a.m., Shcherbina and the commission announced that nearby residents would be evacuated the same day.
April 28, 1986 First Soviet announcement1 ,9 The response
A 20-second announcement on the TV programme Vremya at 21:02 was the first official Soviet announcement of a nuclear accident.
May 5, 1986 Legasov reports to the Politburo1 ,33 The response
Legasov was summoned to meet the Politburo in Moscow, including Mikhail Gorbachev, to report on progress.
May 6, 1986 First Soviet news conference1 ,10 The response
Shcherbina gave the first Soviet news conference on the disaster, admitting that people near the plant had been exposed to radiation for 36 hours before evacuation.
May 10, 1986 Reactor fire ends11 The response
The fire inside reactor 4 burned until 10 May 1986.
May 14, 1986 Toptunov dies34 The people
Leonid Toptunov died from acute radiation poisoning and was buried at the Mitinskoe Cemetery in Moscow.
May 20, 1986 Sarcophagus design begins12 Containment
Design of the sarcophagus started 24 days after the disaster, and construction ran from June to late November.
July 3, 1986 Politburo discusses causes13 ,35 The people
At a Politburo session chaired by Gorbachev, Shcherbina presented the commission's findings, blaming both the Chernobyl staff and the design of RBMK reactors.
April 27, 1988 Legasov dies36 The people
Legasov died in Moscow and was buried at Novodevichy Cemetery.
December 13, 1995 Dyatlov dies37 The people
Dyatlov died in Kyiv, Ukraine, aged 64.
November 1996 Reactor no. 1 decommissioned14 Containment
Reactor no. 1 was decommissioned as part of a deal between the Ukrainian government and international organizations.
1997 Shelter Fund established15 Containment
The Chernobyl Shelter Fund was established at the G8 summit in Denver.
February 12, 2013 Roof section collapses16 Containment
A 600 square metre section of the turbine-building roof collapsed next to the sarcophagus, causing a new release of radioactivity.
April 2020 Forest fires in the zone17 Forest fires spread through 20,000 ha of the exclusion zone.