Soviet nuclear engineer and Unit 4 shift supervisor who directed the response and died of radiation exposure
"I did everything correctly. I don't understand why it happened."
A Soviet nuclear engineer born in Novosibirsk, he graduated from the Moscow Power Engineering Institute in 1976, joined the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in September 1979 and became shift supervisor of Reactor Unit 4 on 10 July 1984. During the safety test on the night of 26 April 1986 he gave the order to shut down the reactor and the AZ-5 button was pressed at 01:23:39, though witness testimony differs on who physically pressed it. He remained at Unit 4 until about 8 a.m., calling the fire brigade and ambulance and having feedwater valves opened by hand, and absorbed a lethal dose of over 15 Gy. He died of acute radiation syndrome in Moscow Hospital No. 6 on 11 May 1986, aged 33, with some English-language sources recording 10 May; he was posthumously awarded the 3rd-degree Order For Courage in 2008.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1976Graduated from Moscow Power Engineering Institute (automation of heat and power processes)
- 1979–1984Chernobyl NPP: senior turbine management engineer, shift supervisor of the turbine hall
- 1984–1986Shift supervisor, Chernobyl Reactor Unit 4
- 1986.04.26Ordered AZ-5 shutdown during Unit 4 safety test; led on-site response for 8 hours after the explosion
- 2008Posthumously awarded the Order For Courage, 3rd degree, by the President of Ukraine
Related historical events
Shift supervisor of Chernobyl Unit 4, 26 April 1986
Life
Aleksandr Fyodorovich Akimov was born on 6 May 1953 in Novosibirsk, in the Russian SFSR of the Soviet Union, and was a Soviet citizen. The national origin recorded here rests on that RSFSR birthplace and is an interpretation; no source attests an explicit ethnic self-identification.
He graduated from the Moscow Power Engineering Institute in 1976 specialising in the automation of heat-and-power processes. He joined the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in September 1979, worked as senior turbine-management engineer and shift chief of the turbine hall, and was appointed shift chief of Reactor Unit 4 on 10 July 1984.
26 April 1986
He took over the shift at midnight from Tregub and, as unit shift chief, was in charge of the test, which was held with Dyatlov supervising. After the power plunged to 30-50 MW the staff decided to raise it, and by 01:03 it was stabilised at 200 MW. Roughly 20 seconds after the rundown began Akimov gave the command to shut down the reactor, and the AZ-5 button was pressed at 01:23:39. Witness testimony differs on whether Akimov or Toptunov physically pressed it, so that is not definitively known. The explosions occurred between 01:23:42 and 01:23:47.
After the explosions he remained at the damaged Unit 4 until about 8 a.m. In the first minutes he called the fire brigade and ambulance and notified station shift chief Rogozhkin, directed the de-energising of mechanisms, the draining of turbine oil and the displacing of hydrogen from the machine-hall generators. Believing the core was intact, he launched the SAOR pumps to feed water, and around 3 a.m. Dyatlov ordered him to call a relief, so he summoned Babichev but stayed on the block. At about 6 a.m. it was decided to feed water through the steam drums; Akimov led one of two groups into the feed-water unit and showed which regulators to open. By about 8 a.m. the regulators were open, but he and Toptunov were already in grave condition from large ionising-radiation doses.
Death and commemoration
He was taken to the Pripyat medical unit on the morning of 26 April and later evacuated to Moscow Clinical Hospital No. 6. His absorbed dose exceeded 15 Gy, with English-language sources giving a range of 15-20 Gy. He died of acute radiation syndrome on 11 May 1986, while some English-language sources record 10 May. Until his death, for as long as he could speak, he repeated: "I did everything correctly. I don't understand why it happened."
On 12 December 2008 he was posthumously awarded the 3rd-degree Order For Courage by Ukrainian Presidential Decree No. 1156/2008.
Family
He was survived by his wife Lyubov and two sons, nine-year-old Alexei and four-year-old Konstantin.
Responsibility and assessment
The Chernobyl disaster is rated level 7 on the INES scale and was caused by a combination of operator error and reactor design flaws during a safety test. The initial Soviet investigation put almost all blame on the operators, while later IAEA findings held reactor design and how operators were informed of safety information to be more significant.
In popular culture
Akimov has been portrayed in several screen works: by Aleksandr Khoroshko in the 2004 docudrama Zero Hour, by Aleksei Lowe in the 2006 BBC Surviving Disaster and by Sam Troughton in the 2019 HBO miniseries Chernobyl.
Note on sources
The official Chernobyl NPP biography and the Russian and Korean Wikipedia articles agree on the 1953 birth, the 1986 death and the 11 May death date; the 10 May date given by some English-language sources is recorded separately.