what year did chernobyl take place
Construction of the sarcophagus (cover) over the destroyed Chernobyl reactor. On April 26, 1986, a major accident occurred at Unit 4 of the nuclear power station at Chernobyl, Ukraine, in the former USSR.n 22 December 1988, Soviet scientists announced that the sarcophagus now enclosing the reactor was designed for a lifetime of only 20 to 30 years. Three years after the nuclear accident, the Soviet government halted construction of the fifth and sixth reactor units at the Chernobyl nuclear power complex.