Portal Crane near Reactor 5 building

RBMK-1000 reactors were 11.8m tall and 7m in diameter, therefore installing them inside the building required specialist equipment.

There were two portal cranes capable of handling this task in the country. One still stands next to a workshop where the reactor pressure vessel for the 5th block of the CHNPP had been under construction in April 1986.

The first photo is from a 1976 book simply titled “PRIPYAT” documenting construction of the city and Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.