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
Nuclear power debate Questions which emerge include: is nuclear power safe for humans and the environment? Could another Chernobyl disaster or Fukushima disaster happen? Can we dispose of nuclear waste in a safe manner? Can nuclear power help to reduce climate change and air pollution in a timely way? In the 2010 book "Why vs. Why: Nuclear Power" Barry Brook and Ian Lowe discuss and articulate the debate about nuclear power. Brook makes the following seven arguments in favor of nuclear energy: Lowe, in turn, makes the following arguments against nuclear power: "The Economist" says that nuclear power "looks dangerous, unpopular, expensive and