Pursuant to the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR dated September 29, 1966, the plan to commission generating capacities at the rate of 11.9 million kW, including at NPPs with RBMK-1000 reactors at the rate of 8 million kW, was approved in 1966-1977. Leningrad NPP was confirmed as a main nuclear power plant.
It was planned to construct a nuclear power plant at the South part of the United Power Grid that should have provided electricity to the Central Power Region. This territory included 27 Regions of the Ukrainian SSR and Rostov Region of the RSFSR with population of 53 million people. It was envisaged that construction of the NPP would increase power consumption within the specified regions by 3.5 times.
During siting for the NPP construction it was taken into consideration that the most economically feasible radius of electricity supply was about 350-450 km. With this objective to select the optimum option for placing the nuclear power plant the Kyiv Department of “Teploenergoproekt” Institute under the USSR Ministry of Energy and Kyiv OKB (Development Design Office) “Energoset’proekt” surveyed 16 construction areas in Kyiv, Vinnytsia and Zhytomyr Regions. Two construction areas were proposed – near Ladyzhyny Village (Vinnytsia Region) and near Kopachi Village (Kyiv Region). Initially this power plant was called as Central-Ukrainian NPP.
Under the survey results the State Commission recommended to place the NPP at the site near Kopachi Village of the Kyiv Region as the best in terms of meeting the requirements on water supply, arrangement of traffic environment with the developed road network and adjacency of a trunk railway (Ianov Station of the South-Western Railway), as well as in terms of low producing capacity of alienable lands. It was named as Chornobyl Site. This decision was approved by the USSR Gosplan (State Planning Committee) Board and agreed with the Kyiv Regional Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine, Kyiv Regional Executive Committee, USSR Ministry of Agriculture, USSR Ministry of Energy and Electrification. Construction of the NPP in Kyiv Region was envisaged by Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 800-555 “On Plan of Construction and Commissioning of Nuclear Power Plants for 1966-1975” dated September 29, 1966, with commissioning of the first Stage with 1000 thousand kW capacity in 1974 and second Stage with 1000 thousand kW capacity in 1975.
The Project on assignment of lands for the Chornobyl NPP construction, which was developed by the Ural Department of “Teploenergoproekt” Institute, was agreed by the decision of “Ukraine” kolkhoz (collective farm) of Kopachi Village, kolkhoz n.a. Kalinin of Novoshepelychi Village, “Komsomolets Polesya” sovkhoz (state farm), RK “Zagotskotkormka”, Chornobyl and Novoshepelychi leskhozs (forest enterprises). The issues on the assignment of lands for constructing the Chornobyl NPP First Stage also were under consideration of Kyiv Regional Executive Committee and Chornobyl Regional Council of Working People’s Deputies at later stages of agreement. The total area of lands assigned for the plant construction amounted to 1676 hectares, including 96 hectares of farm lands, 50 hectares of vegetable gardens, 1400 hectares of floodplain meadows, and 130 hectares of forests.
The Directorate of the Plant, having been under construction and located in Kopachi Village of Chornobyl Region of Kyiv Oblast, was established since January 1, 1970, by Order of the USSR Ministry of Energy and Electrification No.297 dated December 11, 1969, and subordinated to “Glavatomenergo” (Chief Administration of Nuclear Power Units). The Chornobyl NPP industrial site was located within the East part of Ukrainian-Belarusian Polesye, 160 km north-easterly from Kyiv, and 15 km north-westerly from Town of Chornobyl of Kyiv Region.
Brief Chronicles
The first evidence on Chornobyl can be found in the Ipatiev Chronicle. They are dated 1193. The chronicler informed that the Prince Rostislav of Vyshgorod and Turov, a son of the Grand Kyiv Prince Ryurik (who reigned from 1180 to 1195) “… rode with his catch from Chornobyl to Torziyskiy…”. Chornobyl went through Mongolian and Turkish invasion. The ХIII century is marked with the victory of the Duchy of Lithuania over the Tartars. The Lithuanian period of Ukrainian history came after 1320, when the Lithuanian Prince Gedeminas subdued Kyiv. In 1569, after signing a Lublin Union between Poland and Lithuanian, Chornobyl was captured by Poland. The authority over the town was transferred to a dynasty of Sapegi Polish gentlemen. The 1648-1654 Liberation War of Ukrainian people did not come by Chernobyl lands. As a result of military activities the region changed hands many times. The Kyiv Regiment of Bohdan Khmelnytsky Rebel Army commanded by A.Zhdanovych visited the Town of Chornobyl.
When Haidamak movement burst into flame at the Right-back of Ukraine, the rebel fighters managed to occupy Chornobyl and defeat Polish gentry two times, in 1747 and 1751. A punitive detachment, led by Mr. Matskevich, with fire and sword passed almost all the territory over the rivers Teteriv and Pripyat.
The Orthodox Churches existed within the territory of Chornobyl: Nikolayevskaya, Bogorodicheskaya and Ilinskaya Churches. Ilinskaya Church was built in 1749. In 1878 it was rebuilt after the fire and consecrated. Like this it exists to the present day. Also there was the Roman Catholic Church in the name of Dormition of the Theotocos built as a Dominican monastery. Since 1832 it was transformed into parish church.
In 1775 settlements of Raskolniks – from Starodubya by origin, as well as a colony of Moscow Old Believers were established in Chornobyl. The Raskolniks had their own Church in the mane of St. Philip – the Metropolitan of Moscow, close to which men’s monastery existed.
By the turn of the XIX century there was a considerable increase of Jewish population in Chornobyl. The town was originally considered as a settlement land for families of Chornobyl tsadiks.
At the turn of XIX and ХХ centuries Chornobyl inhabited 16740 people and numbered 2000 households. In the last century the town had to go through many dramatic events: civil war, famine of 1933, Nazi occupation during the Great Patriotic War and the accident at ChNPP in 1986.