The deputy chief engineer who supervised the Chernobyl safety test and later argued the reactor's design was the real cause
The reactor protection system designed to stop the fission in an emergency situation played the role of atomic bomb detonator.
Born into a poor family in Siberia, he ran away from home at 14, trained at the Norilsk technical school, and graduated with honors from the Moscow Engineering and Physics Institute. He spent fourteen years installing naval nuclear reactors at a shipyard in the Soviet Far East before moving to Chernobyl in 1973, where he became deputy chief engineer in charge of Units 3 and 4. On 26 April 1986 he supervised the safety test at Unit 4 that ended in disaster; he insisted design flaws caused the accident but was convicted in 1987 and sentenced to ten years, released early in 1990 on health grounds. From prison he wrote to expose the RBMK's structural defects and authored Chernobyl: How It Was; the 1992 IAEA advisory report partly vindicated his argument.
Career Timeline
- 1945–1952Norilsk Mining and Metallurgical Technical School, worked as an electrician
- 1953–1959Moscow Engineering and Physics Institute (automation and electronics, graduated with honors)
- 1959–1973Lab 23, Komsomolsk-on-Amur shipyard, installed nuclear submarine reactors
- 1973–1986Chernobyl NPP deputy chief engineer (second-stage operations), in charge of Units 3 and 4
- 1987–1990Sentenced to 10 years for safety violations, released early in 1990 on health grounds
- 1990–1995Authored Chernobyl: How It Was, continued to argue design flaws caused the accident