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Information is being circulated online claiming that the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant was built to service the secret Soviet facility “Duga-2”, rather than to supply electricity to residents. Users also add that “Duga-2” allegedly consumed most of the electricity produced by the Chornobyl NPP.
However, these claims are unfounded. Although the Duga-2 radar station indeed consumed a large amount of electricity, there is no evidence that the Chornobyl NPP was built specifically to service it. 
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The construction of nuclear power plants worldwide began in 1945, with research conducted by a group of physicists led by Soviet scientist Igor Kurchatov into the use of nuclear energy. At that time, scientists determined that nuclear energy could be used not only for weapons, but also in transportation, industry, energy production, and other. In light of this discovery, in 1950, Stalin signed a decree to conduct research and experiments on the industrial use of nuclear energy. As early as 1954, the world’s first nuclear power plant appeared in the Kaluga region of Russia.
In 1966, the Council of Ministers of the USSR approved a plan to build similar plants throughout the country. One of these plants was intended to fully supply electricity to the entire modern territory of Ukraine. Researchers examined 16 different sites in Kyiv, Zhytomyr, and Vinnytsia regions and ultimately selected the right bank of the Prypiat River, 15 km from the city of Chornobyl. Thus, in the 1970s, construction of the plant began, and in parallel, the city of Prypiat was built to accommodate workers who could live directly near the plant.
By 1983, four power units had been commissioned at the Chornobyl NPP. The main purpose of the Chornobyl NPP was to supply electricity to industry, agriculture, and the municipal needs of the central regions of the then Ukrainian SSR.
Construction of “Duga-2” began later, in 1972. Although the plan indeed emerged in parallel with the construction of the Chornobyl NPP, there is no real evidence that the power plant was built specifically to service “Duga-2.”
“Duga-2” was a Soviet over-the-horizon radar station designed to detect the launch of intercontinental ballistic missiles. This facility was built against the backdrop of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. “Duga” was indeed an expensive project, with construction costs twice those of the Chornobyl NPP itself. However, it never became fully operational due to construction errors and the 1986 accident at the Chornobyl NPP.
We were unable to find official data on the energy consumption of the Duga-2 station. At the same time, back in 2013, Volodymyr Musiiets, who served as a commander at Duga-2 from 1984 to 1988, said that the facility indeed consumed a large amount of electricity. According to him, one of the four power units at the NPP was operating effectively for the station.
Nevertheless, there were no reports at the time of electricity shortages for residents themselves. Therefore, it cannot be claimed that the NPP was built specifically to service “Duga,” since even after it was taken out of operation, the plant continued to generate energy. The last unit of the Chornobyl NPP was shut down in 2000. Overall, during its operation, the plant generated more than 300 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity.
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