Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant - Construction

Construction

The V.I. Lenin Nuclear Power Station (Russian: Чернобыльская АЭС им. В.И.Ленина) as it was known during the Soviet times, consisted of four reactors of type RBMK-1000, each capable of producing 1,000 megawatts (MW) of electric power (3.2 GW of thermal power), and the four together produced about 10% of Ukraine's electricity at the time of the accident.

The Chernobyl station is 18 km (11 mi) northwest of the city of Chernobyl, 16 km (9.9 mi) from the border of Ukraine and Belarus and about 100 km (62 mi) north of Kiev. Construction of the plant and the nearby city of Prypiat, Ukraine to house workers and their families began in 1970, with reactor No. 1 commissioned in 1977. It was the third nuclear power station in the Soviet Union of the RBMK-type (after Leningrad and Kursk), and the first ever nuclear power plant on Ukrainian soil.

The completion of the first reactor in 1977 was followed by reactor No. 2 (1978), No. 3 (1981), and No. 4 (1983). Two more reactors, nos. 5 and 6, capable of producing 1,000 MW each, were under construction at the time of the accident. Reactor No. 5 was about 70% complete at the time of the accident and was scheduled to start operating in November 7, 1986. However, the works were halted on January 1, 1988 leaving most of the machinery behind.

Units 3 and 4 were second generation units, whereas units 1 and 2 were first-generation units (like those in operation at Kursk Nuclear Power Plant). Second-generation RBMK designs were fitted with a more secure accident localization system, as can be seen in pictures. It is fortunate that the accident happened in a second-generation unit; if it had happened in a first-generation unit, it could have been even more devastating. Today, many countries that were in the Soviet Union have been paid money from the European Union to shut down such first-generation units, as they pose a threat to the environment.