Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant

Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
View of the plant in 2013. From L to R New Safe Confinement under construction and reactors 4 to 1.
Official name	SSE Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
Country	Ukraine
Location	near Pripyat, Kyiv Oblast
Coordinates	51°23′21″N 30°05′58″E / 51.38917°N 30.09944°E / 51.38917; 30.09944
Status	Undergoing Decommissioning
Construction began	15 August 1972
Commission date	26 September 1977 (1977-09-26)
Decommission date	Process ongoing since 2015
Operator(s)	SAUEZM
Nuclear power station
Reactors	4
Reactor type	RBMK-1000
Thermal capacity	12,800 MW
Power generation
Units decommissioned	1 × 800 MW 3 × 1000 MW
Nameplate capacity	3,515 MW
External links
Website	chnpp.gov.ua
Commons	Related media on Commons
[edit on Wikidata]

The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (ChNPP; Ukrainian: Чорнобильська атомна електростанція, romanized: Chornobylska atomna elektrostantsiia; Russian: Чернобыльская атомная электростанция, romanized: Chernobylskaya atomnaya elektrostantsiya) is a nuclear power plant undergoing decommissioning. ChNPP is located near the abandoned city of Pripyat in northern Ukraine, 16.5 kilometers (10 mi) northwest of the city of Chernobyl, 16 kilometers (10 mi) from the Belarus–Ukraine border, and about 100 kilometers (62 mi) north of Kyiv. The plant was cooled by an engineered pond, fed by the Pripyat River about 5 kilometers (3 mi) northwest from its juncture with the Dnieper.

Originally named for Vladimir Lenin, the plant was commissioned in phases with the four reactors entering commercial operation between 1978 and 1984. In 1986, in what became known as the Chernobyl disaster, reactor No. 4 suffered a catastrophic explosion and meltdown; as a result of this, the power plant is now within a large restricted area known as the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Both the zone and the power plant are administered by the State Agency of Ukraine on Exclusion Zone Management. The three other reactors remained operational post-accident maintaining a capacity factor between 60 and 70%. In total, units 1 and 3 had supplied 98 terawatt-hours of electricity each, with unit 2 slightly behind at 75 TWh.^[1] In 1991, unit 2 was placed into a permanent shutdown state by the plant's operator due to complications resulting from a turbine fire. This was followed by Unit 1 in 1996 and Unit 3 in 2000. Their closures were largely attributed to foreign pressures. In 2013, the plant's operator announced that units 1-3 were fully defueled, and in 2015 entered the decommissioning phase, during which equipment contaminated during the operational period of the power station will be removed. This process is expected to take until 2065 according to the plant's operator.^[2] Although the reactors have all ceased generation, Chernobyl maintains a large workforce as the ongoing decommissioning process requires constant management.^[3]

From 24 February to 31 March 2022, Russian troops occupied the plant as part of their invasion of Ukraine.^[4][5]