Individual involvement in the Chernobyl disaster
Encyclopedia
The Chernobyl disaster
, Chornobylʹsʹka katastrofa, was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (then part of the Soviet Union
), now in Ukraine
. The following is the individual involvement in the accident.
In the night from 25 to 26 April, in the two power plant complexes, there were 160 people on duty, including technicians and maintenance personnel of the various departments. Three hundred more workers were present at the building site of the third complex of the blocks 5 and 6.
occurring during a turbine shutdown. Another flat thud followed, accompanied by lights going out, the control panel of Unit 4 losing signal, latched double doors being blown apart by the blast, and black and red powder falling from the ventilation vent; emergency lights then switched on. Telephone connection with Unit 4 was cut. The corridor to the deaerator galleries was full of steam and white dust. The radiation counters went off-scale, and the high-range one burned out when switched on; the portable instruments were capable of showing at most 4 roentgens per hour (36 nA/kg), while the radiation on the roof ranged between 2,000 and 15,000 roentgens per hour (18 and 130 µA/kg). He went to the turbine hall to survey the damage, saw scattered pieces of concrete, and returned to the duty room. Meeting two men there, together with them he went to search for Shashenok, found him unconscious in a damaged instrument room, and carried him down. Gorbachenko returned to his post and changed clothes and shoes. He was then ordered to look for Khodemchuk, but the search was unsuccessful. He went to the control room and with Dyatlov went outside to survey the reactor building. At 5:00 am, he began feeling weak and vomiting and was transported to hospital, from where he was released on 27 October.
. They returned to the building and met Valeri Perevozchenko and two junior technicians, Kudryavtsev and Proskuryakov, ordered by Dyatlov to manually lower the presumably seized control rods. Tregub went to report the extent of damage to the control room. Despite Yuvchenko's explanation that there were no control rods left, the four climbed a stairwell to Level 35 to survey the damage; Yuvchenko held open the massive door into the reactor room and the other three proceeded in to locate the control rod mechanism; after no more than a minute of surveying the reactor debris, enough for all three to sustain fatal doses of radiation, they returned, their skin darkened with "nuclear tan" in reaction to the high radiation dose. The three were the first to die in the Moscow hospital. Yuvchenko meanwhile suffered serious beta burns and gamma burns to his left shoulder, hip and calf as he kept the radioactive-dust-covered door open. It was later estimated he received a dose of 4.1 Sv
. At 3:00 am, he began vomiting intensely; by 6:00 am, he could no longer walk. He later spent a year in the Moscow hospital receiving blood and plasma transfusions and received numerous skin grafts.
gallery and the corridor to the control room
, to report his observations, arriving shortly after the explosions, then returned to search for his comrades. He witnessed the destruction of the reactor building from the broken windows of the deaerator gallery. With his face already tanned by the radiation, he went to the dosimetry room and asked Gorbachenko for radiation levels; Gorbachenko left with Palamarchuk to rescue Shashenok while Perevozchenko went through the graphite and fuel containing radioactive rubble on Level 10 to the remains of Room 306 in an unsuccessful attempt to locate Khodemchuk, close to debris emitting over 10,000 roentgens per hour (90 µA/kg). He then went to the control room of Genrikh and Kurguz and found it empty; vomiting and losing consciousness, he returned to the control room to report on the situation.
on the floor burning around them. Palamarchuk unsuccessfully attempted to contact Sashenok in Room 604, then ran around the turbogenerator 8, down to Level 0 and urged the two men from the Kharkov mobile laboratory, assigned to record the turbine 8 vibrations, to leave; they, however, had both already received a lethal radiation dose. Akimov asked Palamarchuk to look for Gorbachenko and then rescue Sashenok as the communication with the dosimetry room was cut. Palamarchuk met Gorbachenko by the staircase on Level +27, then they together found and recovered Shashenok's unconscious body.
s were pouring water into the remains of the reactor core, the firemen not there anymore. The Upper Biological Shield was slanted, jammed into the reactor shaft; a blue and red fire raged in the hole. The minute the two stood above the reactor was enough to darken their bodies with "nuclear tan" and give them a fatal radiation dose. They returned to Level 10 and to the control room, reporting the situation; Dyatlov insisted they were wrong, the explosion had been caused by hydrogen-oxygen mixture in the 110 m³ emergency tank and the reactor itself was intact.
, the deputy chief engineer, supervised the test. At the moment reactor power slipped to 30 MW thermal, he insisted the operators continue the test. He overrode Akimov's and Toptunov's objections, threatening to hand the shift to Tregub (the previous shift operator who had remained on-site), intimidating them into attempting to increase the reactor power. The power stabilized at 200 MWt at around 1:00 am and did not rise further, due to continued xenon poisoning of the core. Later the test was commenced, then the reactor showed power excursion and was scrammed; the control rods seized and the explosion occurred shortly afterwards. Dyatlov ordered reactor cooling with emergency speed, assuming the reactor was intact and the explosion had been caused by hydrogen accumulating in the emergency tank of the safety control system. Other employees went to the control room, reporting damage. Dyatlov went to the backup control room, pressing the AZ-5 button there and disconnecting power to the control rod servodrives; despite seeing the graphite blocks scattered on the ground outside the plant, he still believed the reactor was intact. Kudryavtsev and Proskuryakov returned to report the reactor damage they had seen, but Dyatlov insisted what they had seen was the results of an explosion of the emergency tank, claiming the explosion of the 110 m³ tank at Level +71 was sufficient to destroy the central hall roof. Dyatlov reported his assumptions as reality to Bryukhanov and Fomin, the higher-level managers. In the corridor, he met Genrikh and Kurguz and sent them to the medical station. He ran to the control room of Block 3, ordered Bagdasarov to shut down Reactor 3, then returned to control room 4 and ordered Akimov to call the daytime shift and get people to the affected unit; namely Lelechenko, whose crew had to remove hydrogen from the Generator 8 electrolyzer. At 2:00, Dyatlov ordered Akimov to feed water to the reactor, and together with Gorbachenko went to survey the plant from the outside. Despite seeing the fuel and graphite scattered around, he still believed the reactor was intact. They then returned to the control room. At 5:00 am, he got sick and together with Gorbachenko went to the medical unit. Fomin replaced him at his post with Sitnikov.
indicators, seized at a depth of between 2 and 2.5 meters instead of the entire core depth of 7 meters. Akimov disconnected the clutch
es of the control rod servos to let the rods descend into the core by their own weight, but the rods did not move. The reactor was now making rumbling noises. Akimov was confused. The reactor control panel indicated no water flow and failure of pumps. The explosion occurred, the air filled with dust, power went out, and only battery-powered emergency lights stayed in operation. Perevozchenko ran into the control room, reporting the collapse of the reactor top. Brazhnik ran in from the turbine hall, reporting fire there. Brazhki, Akimov, Davletbayev, and Palamarchuk ran into the turbine hall, having seen scattered debris and multiple fires on Levels 0 and +12. Akimov called the fire station and the chiefs of electrical and other departments, asking for electrical power for coolant pumps, removal of hydrogen from hydrogen generators, and other emergency procedures to stabilize the plant and contain the damage. Internal telephone lines were disabled; Akimov sent Palamarchuk to contact Gorbachenko. Assuming the reactor was intact, he sent Kudryavtsev and Proskuryakov to the central hall to lower the reactor control rods manually. Kudryavtsev and Proskuryakov returned from the reactor and reported its state to Akimov and Dyatlov. Insisting the reactor was intact, Akimov ordered Stolyarchuk and Busygin to turn on the emergency feedwater pumps. Davletbayev reported loss of electrical power, torn cables, and electric arcs. Akimov sent Metlenko to help in the turbine hall with manual opening of the cooling system valves, which was expected to take at least four hours per valve. Perevozchenko returned and reported that the reactor was destroyed, but Akimov insisted it was intact. At 3:30 am, Telyatnikov contacted Akimov, asking what was happening to his firemen; Akimov sent him a dosimetrist. Akimov, already nauseous, was replaced at 6:00 am by the unit chief Vladimir Alekseyevich Babychev, but together with Toptunov stayed in the plant. Believing the water flow to the reactor to be blocked by a closed valve somewhere, they went to the half-destroyed feedwater room on Level +24. Together with Nekhayev, Orlov, and Uskov, they opened the valves on the two feedwater lines, then climbed over to Level +27 and almost knee-deep in a mixture of fuel and water, opened two valves on the 300 line; due to advancing radiation poisoning, they did not have the strength to open the valves on the sides. Akimov and Toptunov spent several hours turning valves; the radioactive water in Room 712 was half submerging the pipeline. Smagin went in to open the third valves, spent 20 minutes in the room, and received 280 rads. Akimov was evacuated to hospital. Until his death, he insisted he had done everything correctly.
, who called Gorbachev
and other members of the Politburo
. At 4:00 am, Moscow ordered feeding of water to the reactor.
Chernobyl disaster
The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine , which was under the direct jurisdiction of the central authorities in Moscow...
, Chornobylʹsʹka katastrofa, was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (then part of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
), now in Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
. The following is the individual involvement in the accident.
- Most of the information here is based on Grigoriy Medvedev's work
In the night from 25 to 26 April, in the two power plant complexes, there were 160 people on duty, including technicians and maintenance personnel of the various departments. Three hundred more workers were present at the building site of the third complex of the blocks 5 and 6.
Gorbachenko
Nikolai Gorbachenko, a radiation monitoring technician, at the beginning of his shift checked Unit 3; he skipped the check of Unit 4 as it was being shut down, so at the moment of the accident he was located in the duty room. A flat and powerful thud shook the building; he and his assistant Pshenichnikov thought it was a water hammerWater hammer
Water hammer is a pressure surge or wave resulting when a fluid in motion is forced to stop or change direction suddenly . Water hammer commonly occurs when a valve is closed suddenly at an end of a pipeline system, and a pressure wave propagates in the pipe...
occurring during a turbine shutdown. Another flat thud followed, accompanied by lights going out, the control panel of Unit 4 losing signal, latched double doors being blown apart by the blast, and black and red powder falling from the ventilation vent; emergency lights then switched on. Telephone connection with Unit 4 was cut. The corridor to the deaerator galleries was full of steam and white dust. The radiation counters went off-scale, and the high-range one burned out when switched on; the portable instruments were capable of showing at most 4 roentgens per hour (36 nA/kg), while the radiation on the roof ranged between 2,000 and 15,000 roentgens per hour (18 and 130 µA/kg). He went to the turbine hall to survey the damage, saw scattered pieces of concrete, and returned to the duty room. Meeting two men there, together with them he went to search for Shashenok, found him unconscious in a damaged instrument room, and carried him down. Gorbachenko returned to his post and changed clothes and shoes. He was then ordered to look for Khodemchuk, but the search was unsuccessful. He went to the control room and with Dyatlov went outside to survey the reactor building. At 5:00 am, he began feeling weak and vomiting and was transported to hospital, from where he was released on 27 October.
Khodemchuk
The night shift main circulating pump operator, Valery Khodemchuk, was likely killed immediately; he was located in the collapsed part of the building, in the far end of the southern main circulating pumps engine room at level +10. His body was never recovered and is entombed in the reactor debris.Sashenok
Vladimir Sashenok, the automatic systems adjuster from Atomenergonaladka (the Chernobyl startup and adjustment enterprise), was supposed to be in Room 604, the location of the measurement and control instruments, on the upper landing across the turbine room, on level +24, under the reactor feedwater unit; he was reporting the states of the pressure gauges of the profile of the multiple forced circulation circuit to the computer room by telephone. The communication lines were cut during the explosion. Shashenok received deep thermal and radiation burns over his entire body when the overpressure spike destroyed the isolation membranes and the impulse pipes of the manometers in his instrument room just before the explosion, which then demolished the room itself. The landing was found damaged, covered with ankle-deep water, and there were leaks of boiling water and radioactive steam. Sashenok was found unconscious in Room 604, pinned under a fallen beam, with bloody foam coming out of his mouth. His body was severely contaminated by radioactive water. He was carried out by Gorbachenko and Palamarchuk and died at 6:00 am in the Pripyat hospital under care of the chief physician, Leonenko Vitaliy, without regaining consciousness. Gorbachenko suffered a radiation burn on his back where Sashenok's hand was located when he helped carry him out. Khodemchuk and Sashenok were the first two victims of the disaster.Genrikh, Kurguz
Oleg Genrikh, an operator of the control room on Level +36, was taking a nap in a windowless room adjacent to the control room. The window in the control room was broken and the lights went out. His colleague, Anatoly Kurguz, was in the control room with three open doors between him and the reactor room; at the moment of the explosion, he suffered severe burns from steam entering the control room. Genrikh received less serious burns as he was protected by the windowless room. The stairs on the right side were damaged; he managed to escape by the stairs on the left. On the way back they were joined by Simeonov and Simonenko, the gas loop operators, all four heading to the control room. Kurguz was shortly afterwards evacuated by an ambulance; aware of dangers of radiation contamination, Genrikh took a shower and changed his clothes.Yuvchenko
Alexander Yuvchenko was located in his office between reactors 3 and 4, on Level 12.5; he described the event as a shock wave that buckled walls, blew doors in, and brought a cloud of milky grey radioactive dust and steam. The lights went out. He met a badly burned, drenched and shocked pump operator, who asked him to rescue Khodemchuk; that quickly proved impossible as that part of the building did not exist anymore. Yuvchenko, together with the foreman Yuri Tregub, ran out of the building and saw half of the building gone and the reactor emitting a blue glow of ionized airIonized air glow
The ionized-air glow is the emission of characteristic blue–purple–violet light, of color called electric blue, by air subjected to an energy flux. -Processes:...
. They returned to the building and met Valeri Perevozchenko and two junior technicians, Kudryavtsev and Proskuryakov, ordered by Dyatlov to manually lower the presumably seized control rods. Tregub went to report the extent of damage to the control room. Despite Yuvchenko's explanation that there were no control rods left, the four climbed a stairwell to Level 35 to survey the damage; Yuvchenko held open the massive door into the reactor room and the other three proceeded in to locate the control rod mechanism; after no more than a minute of surveying the reactor debris, enough for all three to sustain fatal doses of radiation, they returned, their skin darkened with "nuclear tan" in reaction to the high radiation dose. The three were the first to die in the Moscow hospital. Yuvchenko meanwhile suffered serious beta burns and gamma burns to his left shoulder, hip and calf as he kept the radioactive-dust-covered door open. It was later estimated he received a dose of 4.1 Sv
Sievert
The sievert is the International System of Units SI derived unit of dose equivalent radiation. It attempts to quantitatively evaluate the biological effects of ionizing radiation as opposed to just the absorbed dose of radiation energy, which is measured in gray...
. At 3:00 am, he began vomiting intensely; by 6:00 am, he could no longer walk. He later spent a year in the Moscow hospital receiving blood and plasma transfusions and received numerous skin grafts.
Perevozchenko
Valeriy Ivanovich Perevozchenko, the reactor section foreman, was present on the open platform at Level +50 shortly before the explosion. He witnessed the 350 kg blocks atop the fuel channels of the Upper Biological Shield jumping up and down and felt the shock waves through the building structure; the rupture of the pressure channels was in progress. He ran down the spiral staircase to Level +10, through the deaeratorDeaerator
A deaerator is a device that is widely used for the removal of oxygen and other dissolved gases from the feedwater to steam-generating boilers. In particular, dissolved oxygen in boiler feedwaters will cause serious corrosion damage in steam systems by attaching to the walls of metal piping and...
gallery and the corridor to the control room
Control room
A control room is a room serving as an operations centre where a facility or service can be monitored and controlled. Examples include:*in television production, the master control is the technical hub of a broadcast operation common among most over-the-air television stations, television networks...
, to report his observations, arriving shortly after the explosions, then returned to search for his comrades. He witnessed the destruction of the reactor building from the broken windows of the deaerator gallery. With his face already tanned by the radiation, he went to the dosimetry room and asked Gorbachenko for radiation levels; Gorbachenko left with Palamarchuk to rescue Shashenok while Perevozchenko went through the graphite and fuel containing radioactive rubble on Level 10 to the remains of Room 306 in an unsuccessful attempt to locate Khodemchuk, close to debris emitting over 10,000 roentgens per hour (90 µA/kg). He then went to the control room of Genrikh and Kurguz and found it empty; vomiting and losing consciousness, he returned to the control room to report on the situation.
Brazhnik, Palamarchuk, Davletbayev
Vyacheslav Brazhnik, the senior turbine machinist operator, ran into the control room to report fire in the turbine hall. Pyotr Palamarchuk, the Chernobyl enterprise group supervisor, together with Razim Davletbayev, followed him back to the turbine room. They witnessed fires on Levels 0 and +12, broken oil and water pipes, roof debris on top of turbine 7, and scattered pieces of reactor graphite and fuel, with the linoleumLinoleum
Linoleum is a floor covering made from renewable materials such as solidified linseed oil , pine rosin, ground cork dust, wood flour, and mineral fillers such as calcium carbonate, most commonly on a burlap or canvas backing; pigments are often added to the materials.The finest linoleum floors,...
on the floor burning around them. Palamarchuk unsuccessfully attempted to contact Sashenok in Room 604, then ran around the turbogenerator 8, down to Level 0 and urged the two men from the Kharkov mobile laboratory, assigned to record the turbine 8 vibrations, to leave; they, however, had both already received a lethal radiation dose. Akimov asked Palamarchuk to look for Gorbachenko and then rescue Sashenok as the communication with the dosimetry room was cut. Palamarchuk met Gorbachenko by the staircase on Level +27, then they together found and recovered Shashenok's unconscious body.
Kudryavtsev, Proskuryakov
Aleksandr Kudryavtsev and Viktor Proskuryakov, the SIUR trainees from other shifts, were present to watch Toptunov and learn. After the explosion they were sent by Akimov to the central hall to turn the handles of the system for manual lowering of the presumably seized control rods. They ran through the deaerator gallery to the right to the VRSO unit elevator, found it destroyed, so climbed up the staircase instead, towards Level 36; they missed Kurguz and Genrikh, who used another stairwell. Level 36 was destroyed, covered with rubble. They went through a narrow corridor towards the central hall, entered the reactor hall, and found it blocked with rubble and fragments; dangling fire hoseFire hose
A fire hose is a high-pressure hose used to carry water or other fire retardant to a fire to extinguish it. Outdoors, it is attached either to a fire engine or a fire hydrant. Indoors, it can be permanently attached to a building's standpipe or plumbing system...
s were pouring water into the remains of the reactor core, the firemen not there anymore. The Upper Biological Shield was slanted, jammed into the reactor shaft; a blue and red fire raged in the hole. The minute the two stood above the reactor was enough to darken their bodies with "nuclear tan" and give them a fatal radiation dose. They returned to Level 10 and to the control room, reporting the situation; Dyatlov insisted they were wrong, the explosion had been caused by hydrogen-oxygen mixture in the 110 m³ emergency tank and the reactor itself was intact.
Dyatlov
Anatoly DyatlovAnatoly Dyatlov
Anatoly Stepanovich Dyatlov was the vice chief engineer of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, and the supervisor of the fatal experiment which resulted in the Chernobyl disaster....
, the deputy chief engineer, supervised the test. At the moment reactor power slipped to 30 MW thermal, he insisted the operators continue the test. He overrode Akimov's and Toptunov's objections, threatening to hand the shift to Tregub (the previous shift operator who had remained on-site), intimidating them into attempting to increase the reactor power. The power stabilized at 200 MWt at around 1:00 am and did not rise further, due to continued xenon poisoning of the core. Later the test was commenced, then the reactor showed power excursion and was scrammed; the control rods seized and the explosion occurred shortly afterwards. Dyatlov ordered reactor cooling with emergency speed, assuming the reactor was intact and the explosion had been caused by hydrogen accumulating in the emergency tank of the safety control system. Other employees went to the control room, reporting damage. Dyatlov went to the backup control room, pressing the AZ-5 button there and disconnecting power to the control rod servodrives; despite seeing the graphite blocks scattered on the ground outside the plant, he still believed the reactor was intact. Kudryavtsev and Proskuryakov returned to report the reactor damage they had seen, but Dyatlov insisted what they had seen was the results of an explosion of the emergency tank, claiming the explosion of the 110 m³ tank at Level +71 was sufficient to destroy the central hall roof. Dyatlov reported his assumptions as reality to Bryukhanov and Fomin, the higher-level managers. In the corridor, he met Genrikh and Kurguz and sent them to the medical station. He ran to the control room of Block 3, ordered Bagdasarov to shut down Reactor 3, then returned to control room 4 and ordered Akimov to call the daytime shift and get people to the affected unit; namely Lelechenko, whose crew had to remove hydrogen from the Generator 8 electrolyzer. At 2:00, Dyatlov ordered Akimov to feed water to the reactor, and together with Gorbachenko went to survey the plant from the outside. Despite seeing the fuel and graphite scattered around, he still believed the reactor was intact. They then returned to the control room. At 5:00 am, he got sick and together with Gorbachenko went to the medical unit. Fomin replaced him at his post with Sitnikov.
Akimov
Aleksandr Akimov, the unit shift chief, was in charge of the test itself. He took over the shift at midnight from Tregub, who stayed on-site. The drop in reactor power from 1500 MWt to 30 MWt was disconcerting; he wanted to abort the test. He supported Toptunov's decision to shut down the poisoned reactor, but was over-ridden by Dyatlov and forced to continue. At 1:23:04m the test began, and the main circulation pumps started cavitating due to the too high temperature of inlet water. The coolant started boiling in the reactor, and the reactor power slowly increased. Toptunov reported a power excursion to Akimov. At 1:23:40, Akimov pressed the AZ-5 button, class-5 emergency. The control rods, according to the synchroSynchro
A synchro is a type of rotary electrical transformer that is used for measuring the angle of a rotating machine such as an antenna platform. In its general physical construction, it is much like an electric motor...
indicators, seized at a depth of between 2 and 2.5 meters instead of the entire core depth of 7 meters. Akimov disconnected the clutch
Clutch
A clutch is a mechanical device which provides for the transmission of power from one component to another...
es of the control rod servos to let the rods descend into the core by their own weight, but the rods did not move. The reactor was now making rumbling noises. Akimov was confused. The reactor control panel indicated no water flow and failure of pumps. The explosion occurred, the air filled with dust, power went out, and only battery-powered emergency lights stayed in operation. Perevozchenko ran into the control room, reporting the collapse of the reactor top. Brazhnik ran in from the turbine hall, reporting fire there. Brazhki, Akimov, Davletbayev, and Palamarchuk ran into the turbine hall, having seen scattered debris and multiple fires on Levels 0 and +12. Akimov called the fire station and the chiefs of electrical and other departments, asking for electrical power for coolant pumps, removal of hydrogen from hydrogen generators, and other emergency procedures to stabilize the plant and contain the damage. Internal telephone lines were disabled; Akimov sent Palamarchuk to contact Gorbachenko. Assuming the reactor was intact, he sent Kudryavtsev and Proskuryakov to the central hall to lower the reactor control rods manually. Kudryavtsev and Proskuryakov returned from the reactor and reported its state to Akimov and Dyatlov. Insisting the reactor was intact, Akimov ordered Stolyarchuk and Busygin to turn on the emergency feedwater pumps. Davletbayev reported loss of electrical power, torn cables, and electric arcs. Akimov sent Metlenko to help in the turbine hall with manual opening of the cooling system valves, which was expected to take at least four hours per valve. Perevozchenko returned and reported that the reactor was destroyed, but Akimov insisted it was intact. At 3:30 am, Telyatnikov contacted Akimov, asking what was happening to his firemen; Akimov sent him a dosimetrist. Akimov, already nauseous, was replaced at 6:00 am by the unit chief Vladimir Alekseyevich Babychev, but together with Toptunov stayed in the plant. Believing the water flow to the reactor to be blocked by a closed valve somewhere, they went to the half-destroyed feedwater room on Level +24. Together with Nekhayev, Orlov, and Uskov, they opened the valves on the two feedwater lines, then climbed over to Level +27 and almost knee-deep in a mixture of fuel and water, opened two valves on the 300 line; due to advancing radiation poisoning, they did not have the strength to open the valves on the sides. Akimov and Toptunov spent several hours turning valves; the radioactive water in Room 712 was half submerging the pipeline. Smagin went in to open the third valves, spent 20 minutes in the room, and received 280 rads. Akimov was evacuated to hospital. Until his death, he insisted he had done everything correctly.
Bryukhanov
Bryukhanov, the plant manager, arrived at 2:30 am. Akimov reported a serious radiation accident but intact reactor, fires in the process of being extinguished, and a second emergency water pump being readied to cool the reactor. Due to limitations of available instruments, they seriously underestimated the radiation level. At 3:00 am, Bryukhanov called Maryin, the deputy secretary for the nuclear power industry, reporting Akimov's version of the situation. Maryin sent the message further up the chain of command, to Frolyshev, who then called Vladimir DolgikhVladimir Dolgikh
Vladimir Ivanovich Dolgikh was a Soviet-Russian political figure; a head of the Metallurgical Department of the Central Committee Secretariat. He was a candidate-member of the Political Bureau from 1982 to 1988.-Biographical data:...
, who called Gorbachev
Mikhail Gorbachev
Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev is a former Soviet statesman, having served as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1985 until 1991, and as the last head of state of the USSR, having served from 1988 until its dissolution in 1991...
and other members of the Politburo
Politburo
Politburo , literally "Political Bureau [of the Central Committee]," is the executive committee for a number of communist political parties.-Marxist-Leninist states:...
. At 4:00 am, Moscow ordered feeding of water to the reactor.
Fomin
Chief engineer Fomin arrived in the Block 4 control room at 4:30. Akimov reported an intact reactor and explosion of the emergency water feed tank. Fomin ordered continuous feeding of water into the reactor, which was already in progress by emergency pump 2 from the deaerators. Fomin kept pressing the staff to feed water to the reactor and transferred more people to Unit 4 to replace those being disabled by radiation. After Dyatlov left, Fomin ordered Sitnikov, his replacement, to climb to the roof of Unit C and survey the reactor; Sitnikov obeyed and received a fatal radiation dose there; at 10:00 am he returned and reported to Fomin and Bryukhanov that the reactor was destroyed. The managers refused to believe him and ordered continued feeding of water into the reactor; the water, however, flowed through the severed pipes into the lower levels of the plant, carrying radioactive debris and causing short circuits in the cableways common to all four blocks.Survivors
The following is a table of survivors from the Number Four reactor accident (unless date of death is specified).| Name | Cyrillic name | Date of birth | Date of death | Cause of death/injury | Role | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Akimov, Aleksandr Fyodorovich Alexander Akimov Aleksandr Fyodorovich Akimov was the shift supervisor of the night crew that worked at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Unit #4 on the night of the accident, April 26, 1986. He opposed conducting the test in such conditions of the reactor, but was ordered to continue by his superior... |
Акимов, Александр (Саша) Фёдорович | 1953-05-06 | 1986-05-11 | radiation burns on 100% of body | Unit #4 shift leader | in the control room at the reactor control panel at the moment of explosion, with Toptunov; received fatal dose during attempts to restart feedwater flow into the reactor; posthumously awarded the Order "For Courage" of third degree |
| Badaev, Yuri Yurievich | Бадаев, Юрий Юрьевич | SKALA computer operator, electromechanic (DES), block 4 | at the moment of the explosion in the SKALA room | |||
| Baranov, Anatoly Ivanovich | Баранов, Анатолий Иванович | 1953-06-13 | 1986-05-20 | electrical engineer, senior electrician | posthumously awarded the Order "For Courage" of third degree | |
| Bondarenko, Nikolai Sergeevich | Бондаренко, Николай Сергеевич | oxygen-nitrogen station, operator | at the moment of the explosion stationed in the nitrogen-oxygen station, 200 meters from the Block 4 | |||
| Borec, Vitaliy Ivanovich | Борец, Виталий Иванович | ? | former Leningrad power plant block shift leader; in charge of preparation of the test, would supervise it according to the original schedule, asked Dyatlov to cancel it due to the state of the reactor. Went home for the night, was called on-site to assist with post-accident situation. | |||
| Brazhnik, Vyacheslav (Slava) Stefanovych | Бражник, Вячеслав Степанович | 1957-05-03 | 1986-05-14 | turbine operator, senior turbine machinist operator | in the turbine hall at the moment of explosion; received fatal dose (over 1000 rad) during firefighting and stabilizing the turbine hall, died in Moscow hospital; posthumously awarded the Order "For Courage" of third degree; irradiated by a piece of fuel lodged on a nearby transformer of turbogenerator 7 during manual opening of the turbine emergency oil drain valves | |
| Bryukhanov, Viktor | Брюханов, Виктор | 1935-12-01 | plant director | former director of the Balakovo Nuclear Power Plant Balakovo Nuclear Power Plant -External links:* – website in English* – website in Russian and English* – International environmental organization... ; after the disaster stripped of Communist party membership, arrested in August 1986, spent a year in Kiev prison awaiting trial; found guilty of gross violation of safety regulations, sentenced to 10 years of labor camp Labor camp A labor camp is a simplified detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons... plus concurrent 5 years for abuse of power. Of this he served five. |
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| Chugunov, Vladimir Aleksandrovich | Чугунов, Владимир Александрович | reactor shop 1 deputy director | radiation burn on right side, right hand, received sublethal radiation dose during post-accident site survey | |||
| Degtyarenko, Viktor Mykhaylovych | Дегтяренко, Виктор Михайлович | 1954-08-10 | 1986-05-19 | reactor operator | at the moment of explosion close to the pumps; posthumously awarded the Order "For Courage" of third degree, face scalded by steam or hot water | |
| Dik, G.A. | Дик, Г.А. | plant employee | morning shift | |||
| Elshin, M.A. | Ельшин, М.А. | thermal plant automation and measurement, shift leader | present in the control room when the reactor power dropped; returned to his office when power was stabilized, where he was in the moment of explosion | |||
| Fomin, Nikolai Maksimovich | Фомин, Николай Максимович | 1937? | chief engineer | arrived at 4:30; spent a month in the Moscow clinic; after the disaster stripped of Communist party membership, arrested in August 1986, spent a year in Kiev prison awaiting trial; cleared of charges of abuse of power, found guilty of gross violation of safety regulations, sentenced to 10 years of labor camp Labor camp A labor camp is a simplified detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons... , released soon afterwards because of a nervous breakdown Nervous breakdown Mental breakdown is a non-medical term used to describe an acute, time-limited phase of a specific disorder that presents primarily with features of depression or anxiety.-Definition:... |
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| Gazin, Sergei Nikolaevich | Газин, Сергей Николаевич | turbogenerator chief engineer | from shift 16:00–24:00, stayed to watch the test, in control room at desk T with Kirshenbaum at the moment of explosion | |||
| Golovnenko, Mikhail | Головненко, Миша | firefighter, driver | ||||
| Ignatenko, Vasyli Ivanovych | Игнатенко, Василий Иванович | 1961-03-13 | 1986-05-13 | fireman | senior sergeant, first crew on the reactor roof, received fatal dose during attempt to extinguish the roof and the reactor core, died two weeks later in Moscow Hospital 6 | |
| Ivanenko, Yakaterina Alexandrovna | Иваненко, Екатерина Александровна | 1932-09-11 | 1986-05-26 | Pripyat city police guard | guarded a gate opposite to the Block 4, stayed on duty for the entire night until morning | |
| Kavuntz, Aleksander Adamovich | Кавунец, Александр Адамович | turbine repair department chief | ||||
| Khmel, Grigori Matvyevich | Хмель, Григорий Матвеевич | fireman | firefighting car driver, Chernobyl region firefighting area | |||
| Khodemchuk, Valery Ilyich | Ходемчук, Валерий Ильич | 1951-03-24 | 1986-04-26 | initial explosion | main circulating pumps, senior operator | stationed in the southern main circulating pumps engine room, likely killed immediately; body never found, likely buried under the wreckage of the steam separator drums; has a memorial sign in the Reactor 4 building; posthumously awarded the Order "For Courage" of third degree |
| Kibenok, Viktor Mykolayovych | Кибенок, Виктор Николаевич | 1963-02-17 | 1986-05-11 | fireman | lieutnant, leader of the second unit, fighting fires in the reactor department, separator room, and the central hall; in 1987 posthumously named a Hero of the Soviet Union Hero of the Soviet Union The title Hero of the Soviet Union was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded personally or collectively for heroic feats in service to the Soviet state and society.-Overview:... |
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| Kirshenbaum, Igor | Киршенбаум, Игорь | turbine control senior engineer (SIUT), deputy head of unit 4 turbine section | present in the control room, desk T, at the moment of explosion; in charge of switching off the Turbogenerator 8 and starting its spindown | |||
| Konoval, Yuriy Ivanovych | Коновал, Юрий Иванович | 1942-01-01 | 1986-05-28 | electrician | posthumously awarded the Order "For Courage" of third degree | |
| Kovalenko, A.P. | Коваленко, А.П. | 1950 | reactor shop 2, chief // reactor 4 supervisor | former Tomsk-7 worker; received radiation dose during the post-accident site survey the next day; after the disaster demoted, allowed to continue working in the plant while awaiting trial; found guilty of violating safety regulations, sentenced to 3 years of labor camp Labor camp A labor camp is a simplified detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons... . Since 2002, he has served as the Deputy General Director of Russian state-owned power company, Zarubezhneft Zarubezhneft JSC Zarubezhneft is a Russian state-controlled oil company based in Moscow that specializes in exploration, development and operation of oil and gas fields outside Russian territory.... . |
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| Kudryavtsev, Aleksandr Hennadiyovych | Кудрявцев, Александр (Саша) Геннадиевич | 1957-12-11 | 1986-05-14 | SIUR trainee | present in the control room at the moment of explosion; received fatal dose of radiation during attempt to manually lower the control rods as he looked directly to the open reactor core; posthumously awarded the Order "For Courage" of third degree | |
| Kukhar, A.A. | Кухар, А.А. | electrical laboratory, chief | at the central control room with Lelechenko; at the moment of explosion just arrived to the block 4 control room | |||
| Kurguz, Anatoly Kharlampiyovych | Кургуз, Анатолий Харлампиевич | 1957-06-12 | 1986-05-12 | operator, central hall | scalded by radioactive steam entering his control room; his colleague, Oleg Genrikh, was spared the worst and survived | |
| Kuryavchenko, Nikolai Gordeevich | Курявченко, Николай Гордеевич | SKALA computer operator, electromechanic (DES), block 3 | in block 3 | |||
| Lelechenko, Aleksandr Grigoryevich | Лелеченко, Александр Григорьевич | 1938-07-26 | 1986-05-07 | fatal radiation exposure, 2500 rads | plant worker, deputy chief of the electrical shop | former Leningrad power plant electrical shop shift leader; at the central control room with Kukhar; at the moment of explosion just arrived to the block 4 control room; in order to spare his younger colleagues a radiation exposition he himself went through radioactive water and debris three times to switch off the electrolyzers and the feed of hydrogen to the generators, then tried to supply voltage to feedwater pumps; after receiving first aid, returned to the plant and worked for several more hours. Died in Kiev hospital. |
| Lopatyuk, Viktor Ivanovich | Лопатюк, Виктор Иванович | 1960-08-22 | 1986-05-17 | electrician | received fatal dose during switching off the electrolyzer | |
| Luzganova, Klavdia Ivanovna | Лузганова, Клавдия Ивановна | 1927-05-09 | 1986-07-31 | radiation exposure, est. 600 rad | Pripyat city police guard | guarded the construction site of the spent fuel storage building about 200 meters from Block 4 |
| Lysyuk, G.V. | Лысюк, Г.В. | electrician, shop chief | at the moment of the explosion in the control room; in charge of issuing the simulated Maximum Projected Accident signal on Metlenko's command | |||
| Metlenko, Gennady Petrovich | Метленко, Геннадий Петрович | Dontechenergo, senior brigade electroengineer | at the moment of explosion present with two assistants in the N area of the control room, at the oscillographs; supposed to monitor the slowdown rate of the spinning down turbogenerator, and its electrical characteristics, worked together with Kirshenbaum; after the explosion sent to help in the turbine hall but sent back from there | |||
| Nekhaev, Aleksandr A. | Нехаев, Александр А. | morning shift, helped Akimov and Toptunov opening the valves to feed water to the reactor through steam separator drums and main circulation pumps | ||||
| Novyk, Oleksandr Vasylyovych | Новик, Александр Васильевич | 1961-08-11 | 1986-07-26 | turbine equipment machinist-inspector | received fatal dose (over 1000 rad) during firefighting and stabilizing the turbine hall, died in Moscow hospital; posthumously awarded the Order "For Courage" of third degree; irradiated by a piece of fuel lodged on a nearby transformer of the turbogenerator 7 during attempts to call the control room | |
| Orlov, Ivan Lukych | Орлов, Иван Лукич | 1945-01-10 | 1986-05-13 | physicist | received fatal dose during attempts to restart feedwater flow into the reactor | |
| Perchuk, Kostyantyn Hryhorovich | Перчук, Константин Григорьевич | 1952-11-23 | 1986-05-20 | turbine operator, senior engineer | in the turbine hall at the moment of explosion; received fatal dose (over 1000 rad) during firefighting and stabilizing the turbine hall, died in Moscow hospital; posthumously awarded the Order "For Courage" of third degree; irradiated by a piece of fuel lodged on a nearby transformer of the turbogenerator 7 during manual opening of the turbine emergency oil drain valves | |
| Perevozchenko, Valery Ivanovich (Valera) | Перевозченко, Валерий Иванович | 1947-05-06 | 1986-06-13 | foreman, reactor section | received fatal dose of radiation during attempt to locate and rescue Khodemchuk and others, and manually lower the control rods; together with Kudryavtsev and Proskuryakov he looked directly to the open reactor core; posthumously awarded the Order "For Courage" of third degree; radiation burns on side and back | |
| Petrovskiy, Aleksander | Петровский, Александр | fireman | watched the fire spread from the roof of Unit C until 6 am as ordered by Teliatnikov | |||
| Popov, Georgi Illiaronovich | Попов, Георгий Илларионович | 1940-02-21 | 1986-06-13 | acute radiation sickness | Kharkov turbine plant | vibration specialist, mobile laboratory in the car at Turbine 8; buried in Mitinskoe Cemetery Mitinskoe Cemetery Mitinskoe Cemetery is a cemetery located in Moscow's North-Western administrative district. It was established on September 15, 1978. A Russian Orthodox church, which was built in 1998, is located on its grounds and has been visited several times by Patriarch Alexius II... |
| Pravik, Vladimir Pavlovych | Правик, Владимир (Володя) Павлович | 1962-06-13 | 1986-05-11 | radiation burns | fireman | lieutenant, first crew on the reactor roof, repeatedly visited the reactor and the roof of Unit C at Level 71 to supervise the firefighting; received fatal dose during attempt to extinguish the roof and the reactor core, died two weeks later in Moscow Hospital 6; his eyes are said to have been turned from brown to blue by the intensity of the radiation; in 1987 posthumously named a Hero of the Soviet Union Hero of the Soviet Union The title Hero of the Soviet Union was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded personally or collectively for heroic feats in service to the Soviet state and society.-Overview:... |
| Prishchepa, V.A. | Прищепа, В.А. | fireman | Pravik's unit, watched the fire spread from the roof of Unit C until 6 am as ordered by Teliatnikov | |||
| Proskuryakov, Viktor Vasilyevich | Проскуряков, Виктор (Витя) Васильович | 1955-04-09 | 1986-05-17 | SIUR trainee | present in the control room at the moment of explosion; received fatal dose of radiation during attempt to manually lower the control rods as he looked directly to the open reactor core; posthumously awarded the Order "For Courage" of third degree; 100% radiation burns | |
| Rogozhkin, Boris V. | Рогожкин | 1935? | block shift leader | supervisor of the 0:00–8:00 shift; after the disaster demoted, allowed to continue working in the plant while awaiting trial; found guilty of gross violation of safety regulations, sentenced to 5 years of labor camp Labor camp A labor camp is a simplified detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons... plus two years concurrently for negligence and unfaithful execution of duty |
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| Rysin, Aleksei Vladimirovich | Рысин, Алексей Владимирович | turbine operation senior engineer | ||||
| Savenkov, Volodomyr Ivanovych | Савенков, Владимир Иванович | 1958-02-15 | 1986-05-21 | acute radiation sickness | Kharkov turbine plant | vibration specialist, mobile laboratory in the car at Turbine 8; first one to become sick; buried in Kharkov in a lead coffin |
| Shapovalov, Anatoliy Ivanovych | Шаповалов, Анатолий Иванович | 1941-04-06 | 1986-05-19 | electrician | posthumously awarded the Order "For Courage" of third degree | |
| Shashenok, Vladimir (Volodya) Nikolaevich | Шашенок, Владимир Николаевич | 1951-04-21 | 1986-04-26 | thermal and radiation burns, trauma | Atomenergonaladka, adjuster of automatic systems (Chernobyl startup and adjustment enterprise) | stationed in Room 604, found pinned down under a fallen beam, with broken spine, broken ribs, deep thermal and radiation burns, and unconscious; died in hospital without regaining consciousness |
| Shlelyayn, Anatoly Vladislavovich | Шлеляйн, Анатолий Владиславович | SKALA computer operator, senior officer (SDIVT), block 3 | in block 3 | |||
| Sitnikov, Anatoly Andreyevich (Tolya) | Ситников, Анатолий Андреевич | 1940-01-20 | 1986-05-30 | deputy chief operational engineer, physicist | received fatal dose (about 1500 roentgens or 390 mC/kg), mostly to head, after being sent by Fomin to survey the reactor hall and look at the reactor from the roof of Unit C | |
| Smagin, Viktor Grigoryevich | Смагин, Виктор | shift foreman, reactor 4 | ||||
| Stolyarchuk, Boris | Столярчук | senior unit 4 control engineer | present in the control room, desk P, at the moment of the explosion, controlling the feedwater and deaerator mechanisms | |||
| Telyatnikov, Leonid Petrovich Leonid Telyatnikov Leonid Petrovich Telyatnikov was the head of the fire department at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and led the team of firefighters to the fire at reactor number 4 which became the Chernobyl disaster... |
Телятников, Леонид Петрович | 1951-01-25 | 2004-12-02 | survivor, received est. 4 Gy | firefighter | head of the plant fire department; in 1987 named a Hero of the Soviet Union Hero of the Soviet Union The title Hero of the Soviet Union was the highest distinction in the Soviet Union, awarded personally or collectively for heroic feats in service to the Soviet state and society.-Overview:... ; according to Shavrey, arrived on the scene drunk, as he was called from a birthday celebration for his brother |
| Tishchura, Volodymyr Ivanovych | Тищура, Владимир Иванович | 1959-12-15 | 1986-05-10 | radiation burns | fireman | sergeant, Kibenok's unit, fighting fires in the reactor department, separator room, and the central hall |
| Titenok, Nikolai Ivanovych | Титенок, Николай Иванович | 1962-12-05 | 1986-05-16 | radiation burns external and internal, incl. blistered heart | fireman | senior sergeant, Kibenok's unit, fighting fires in the reactor department, separator room, and the central hall; received fatal dose during attempt to extinguish the roof and the reactor core, died two weeks later in Moscow Hospital 6 |
| Tolstiakov, Petr | was fishing at the shore of the cooling water channel, witnessed the explosion | |||||
| Toptunov, Leonid (Lenya) Fedorovych | Топтунов, Леонид (Леня) Федорович | 1960-08-16 | 1986-05-14 | SIUR, senior engineer for management of the reactor (reactor operator) | in the control room at the reactor control panel at the moment of explosion, with Akimov; received fatal dose during attempts to restart feedwater flow into the reactor; posthumously awarded the Order "For Courage" of third degree | |
| Uskov, Arkadiy Gennadievich | Усков, Аркадий Геннадиевич | reactor operator, senior engineer, block 1 | received non-fatal radiation dose when helping Orlov, Akimov and Toptunov to manually open cooling system valves | |||
| Vashchuk, Mykola Vasylyovych | Ващук, Николай Васильевич | 1959-06-05 | 1986-05-14 | fireman | sergeant, Kibenok's unit, fighting fires in the reactor department, separator room, and the central hall | |
| Verkhovod, V.F. | Верховод, В.Ф. | SKALA computer operator, senior officer (SDIVT), block 4 | at the moment of the explosion in the SKALA room | |||
| Vershynin, Yuriy Anatoliyovych | Вершинин, Юрий Анатольевич | 1959-05-22 | 1986-07-21 | turbine equipment machinist-inspector | in the turbine hall at the moment of explosion; received fatal dose (over 1000 rad) during firefighting and stabilizing the turbine hall, died in Moscow hospital; posthumously awarded the Order "For Courage" of third degree; irradiated by a piece of fuel lodged on a nearby transformer of the turbogenerator 7 during attempts to call the control room | |
See also
- Chernobyl disaster effectsChernobyl disaster effectsThe Chernobyl disaster triggered the release of substantial amounts of radiation into the atmosphere in the form of both particulate and gaseous radioisotopes. It is the most significant unintentional release of radiation into the environment to date...
- Chernobyl Shelter FundChernobyl Shelter FundThe Chernobyl Shelter Fund was set up in December 1997 with the purpose of funding the Shelter Implementation Plan . The main objective of the SIP, developed in a co-operative effort between the European Union, the United States and Ukraine, is to protect the personnel, population and environment...
- Deaths due to the Chernobyl disasterDeaths due to the Chernobyl disasterThe Chernobyl disaster , was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant In the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic , now in Ukraine...
- Liquidator (Chernobyl)Liquidator (Chernobyl)Liquidators , or "clean-up workers", is the name given in the former USSR to people who were called upon to work in efforts to deal with consequences of the April 26, 1986, Chernobyl disaster on the site of the event...
- List of Chernobyl-related articles
- Threat of the Dnieper reservoirsThreat of the Dnieper reservoirsThe water reservoirs of the Dnieper River in Ukraine pose a significant threat of a large-scale human-made disaster if their dams fail. Such a threat is typical for reservoir dams; however, the Dnieper reservoirs are especially dangerous because of the geographical conditions, as well as the...
- Zone of alienationZone of alienationThe Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Zone, which is sometimes referred to as The Chernobyl Zone, The 30 Kilometer Zone, The Zone of Alienation, or simply The Zone The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Zone, which is sometimes referred to as The Chernobyl Zone, The 30 Kilometer Zone, The Zone of...
- Ukrainian National Chernobyl MuseumUkrainian National Chernobyl MuseumThe Ukrainian National Chernobyl Museum is a museum dedicated to the Chernobyl disaster. The museum is located in the city of Kiev, Ukraine....