“Jupiter” Factory- Purpose of the Facility

The Jupiter plant in Pripyat was built near residential buildings, three hundred meters to the nearest house. The distance to the Nuclear Power Plant is about 4 km.

The Chernobyl Jupiter factory started producing equipment in 1980. It was built to provide people not related to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant with workplaces. Before the accident, it employed around 3,500 workers.The plant «Jupiter» is interesting because everyone knew about its existence, but in fact, no one knew exactly what people were doing there. It seems that even the employees of the plant themselves had no idea what the neighboring workshops were producing.

What Was the «Jupiter» Plant

The complex consisted of several buildings: administrative, production, and auxiliary ones. The area was surrounded by a high concrete fence with barbed wire on the top. Entering it was possible only through the checkpoint. All buildings were connected to each other so that you could move between them without going outside.

The production building had a low number of stories, three floors with a transition at the second level. Inside the building was a huge workshop, divided by light mobile partitions.

The plant had its own canteen. The entire complex of buildings was painted gray. For the convenience of employees, the office building had three elevators and spacious corridors. There were soundproof rooms, possibly for testing technical devices.

What the Chernobyl «Jupiter» Factory Was Producing

What was produced by the plant remains a mystery to this day. There are many interesting versions, the truth about which we will never know. 

According to the official version, the factory produced components for household electronic devices including the famous Soviet Union radio «Jupiter». However, the complex was closed as a military facility. 

According to unofficial sources, it produced black boxes for military aviation and submarines, components for air defense systems, and even electronic machines (proto computers) for the radar Duga-1.

Moreover, it is believed that the factory produced black boxes not only for aircraft but also for space rockets. This version seems more believable and consistent with the whole image of the plant.

The most surprising version is about the production of psychotronic technology. It has not been proven or disproven, although it is unlikely.

Perhaps the plant produced several secret devices. There was even a workshop that actually produced the parts of the tape recorder, but it was small in comparison with the whole plant.

Thanks to the computer game, the creators of which completely transferred the real building to the monitor screen, the basements of the plant are of great interest. They are vast, but it is not possible to determine what happened in them, due to their flooding. Still, nobody has wanted to go for a scuba diving trip there.

Factory After 1986

After the accident, the liquidators tried to decontaminate it like the rest of the city. Partly, they succeeded, and in 1987, the factory was restarted. However, its profile was changed according to the needs of the time. The Enterprise «Spetsatom» was working on remote control machines. Special robots able to work under high levels of radiation were developed there. Also, a radiological laboratory was located there. It aimed to test different methods of decontamination and dosimeters. The enterprise was officially closed in 1996, but the work there lasted till the end of the 1990s.

The Chernobyl «Jupiter» factory nowadays is a very interesting place for many travelers and fans of computer games. For their safety, the elevator openings were closed with metal sheets, but some have already been stolen. The territory is patrolled by police detachments from among the employees of the exclusion zone.

From the roof of the administrative building, you can see the city of Pripyat, as well as the sarcophagus of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. 

Today, visits to the factory are possible on private and multiday tours. You can see a lot of equipment, journals, and vehicles left there. Among them, there is a Japanese robot «Comatsu» which was used in the decontamination of the power plant.

You can see the «Jupiter» factory with your own eyes with our exclusive Chernobyl tours.