Location of the Chernobyl nuclear power station and plant information

The Chernobyl nuclear power station is located in 130 km north of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. It lies near Belarus beside the river Pripyat. At the time of the accident, the total population within 30-km radius of the power station was between 115,000 and 135,000. Of this total, about 49,000 of plant employees and their families inhibited in the town of Pripyat, which is about 3 km away from the reactor, and a population of about 12,500 in the town of Chernobyl, about 15 km to the south-east of the plant.

The site of the Chernobyl nuclear power station
(Source: Globalis.gvu.unu.edu)

The nuclear station consisted of four graphite-moderated, light-water-cooled pressure tube reactors (RBMK-1000), each capable of producing 1000 megawatt (MW) of electric power. The four reactors together produced about 10% of Ukraine's electricity at the time of the accident. Construction of the plant began in the 1970's, with Unit 1 and 2 commissioned in 1977, followed by Unit 3 and 4 in 1983. Two more RBMK reactors were under construction at the site at the time of the accident, but the construction was halted after the accident.

The Chernobyl nuclear power station at a distance,
viewed from the deserted town, Pripyat
(Source: www.iaea.org- Revisiting Chernobyl's Lost City)