Editing Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (section)

== Construction ==
Construction of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant began in 1972. The plant was meant to have 12 units, made up of six construction phases, and if completed would have been the largest nuclear power plant in the world. The plant would eventually consist of four [[RBMK-1000]] reactors, each capable of producing 1,000&nbsp;[[megawatt]]s (MW) of electric power (3,200 MW of thermal power), and the four together produced about 10% of [[Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic|Ukraine]]'s electricity.<ref>[http://library.thinkquest.org/3426/data/introduction/location.html library.thinkquest.org] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090504090902/http://library.thinkquest.org/3426/data/introduction/location.html|date=May 4, 2009}} – All four of the reactors at the Chernobyl nuclear power station were of the RBMK-type.</ref> Like other sites which housed multiple RBMK reactors such as Kursk, the construction of the plant was also accompanied by the construction of a nearby city to house workers and their families. In the case of the ChNPP, the new city was [[Pripyat]]. Construction of the station concluded in the late 1970s, with reactor No. 1 being commissioned in 1977. It was the third Soviet RBMK nuclear power plant, after the [[Leningrad Nuclear Power Plant|Leningrad]] and [[Kursk Nuclear Power Plant|Kursk]] power plants, and the first plant on Ukrainian soil.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.history.com/news/chernobyl-disaster-timeline|title=Chernobyl Disaster: The Meltdown by the Minute|first=Jesse|last=Greenspan|website=History|access-date=2019-09-18|archive-date=2019-09-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190924030437/https://www.history.com/news/chernobyl-disaster-timeline|url-status=live}}</ref>

The completion of the first reactor in 1977 was followed by reactor No. 2 in 1978, No. 3 in 1981, and No. 4 in 1983. Two more blocks, numbered five and six, of more or less the same reactor design, were planned at a site roughly a kilometre from the contiguous buildings of the four older blocks. This is similar to the layout of units 5 and 6 at Kursk and shows the similarity in design between the RBMK sites. Reactor No. 5 was around 70% complete at the time of Reactor 4's explosion and was scheduled to come online approximately seven months later, in November 1986. In the aftermath of the disaster, construction on No. 5 and 6 was suspended, and eventually cancelled on April 20, 1989, days before the third anniversary of the 1986 explosion.<ref>{{cite news |date=21 April 1989 |title=Soviets Cancel Plans for 2 New Reactors at Chernobyl |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-04-21-mn-2182-story.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190627004507/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-04-21-mn-2182-story.html |archive-date=27 June 2019 |access-date=26 August 2019 |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |location=Moscow, USSR |quote="The Soviet Union has canceled plans to construct two more reactors at the stricken Chernobyl nuclear power station...The decision was announced six days before the third anniversary of the accident at Chernobyl..." |agency=Times Wire Services}}</ref> At one point six other reactors were planned on the other side of the river, bringing the total to twelve.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://medium.com/discourse/a-physicists-visit-to-chernobyl-digging-a-little-deeper-9961a906b3c1|title=A Physicist's Visit to Chernobyl: Digging a Little Deeper|date=27 June 2019 }}</ref>

Reactors No. 3 and 4 were [[Generation II reactor|second-generation units]], whereas No. 1 and 2 were [[Generation I reactor|first-generation units]], like those in operation at the Kursk power plant. Second-generation RBMK designs were fitted with a more secure containment structure, visible in photos of the facility.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Safety-and-Security/Safety-of-Plants/Appendices/Early-Soviet-Reactors-and-EU-Accession/|title=Early Soviet Reactors and EU Accession|date=June 2019|website=[[World Nuclear Association]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190626213457/http://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/safety-and-security/safety-of-plants/appendices/early-soviet-reactors-and-eu-accession.aspx|archive-date=June 26, 2019|url-status=live|access-date=March 10, 2016}}</ref>