Chernobyl has continued to claim lives — for decades. Here's What You Need to Remember: The official National Commission for Radiation Protection in Ukraine lists two million official “victims” of Chernobyl — and claims no fewer than 500,000, including 35,000 liquidators, have died. The commission calculates that the cancer rate for victims is three times the normal rate. Infant mortality for children of victims increased by a third. The meltdown of one of the four reactors of the massive nuclear power plant near the town of Chernobyl in northern Ukraine on April 26, 1986 was the result of badly flawed reactor design, sloppy construction and faulty emergency procedures.