Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Chernobyl, from the border of Ukraine and Belarus and about north of Kiev. Construction of the plant and the nearby city of Pripyat, Ukraine to house workers and their families began in 1970, with Reactor N. 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 nuclear power plant on Ukrainian soil. The completion of the first reactor in 1977 was followed by reactor N. 2 (1978), N. 3 (1981), and N. 4 (1983). Two more blocks, numbered 5 and 6, of more or less
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant was equipped with both types of turbines; Block 4 had the newer ones. The newer turbines, however, turned out to be more sensitive to their operating parameters, and their bearings had frequent problems with vibrations. Four RBMK reactors were at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, Ns. 1–4. The construction of two partially completed reactors, numbers 5 and 6, was suspended immediately after the accident at reactor N. 4, and was eventually cancelled in 1989. Reactors 1-3 continued to operate after the disaster. Reactor N. 2 was permanently shut down in 1991 after a fire broke out due to a faulty switch