The last Soviet energy minister sent into the Chernobyl disaster zone
At dawn on 26 April 1986 Mayorets received the first report of the Chernobyl accident, informed Premier Nikolai Ryzhkov, and flew to the site. As soon as he arrived he ordered the two reactor blocks still running at nominal load to be stopped and emergency-disconnected immediately.
An industrial administrator who rose from electrician at the Zaporizhzhia Transformer Plant to Soviet Minister of the Electrical Engineering Industry and of Energy, Mayorets directed the Soviet transmission grid and nuclear power for a quarter-century. First to receive word of the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, he flew at once to the site, ordered the two reactor blocks still running to be shut down, and pressed for a reorganized Soviet nuclear-safety regime.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1953–1962Zaporizhzhia Transformer Plant: electrician → senior foreman → shop chief
- 1962–1965Director, Zaporizhzhia Transformer Plant
- 1965–1974Deputy Minister of the Electrical Engineering Industry, USSR
- 1974–1980First Deputy Minister of the Electrical Engineering Industry, USSR
- 1980–1985Minister of the Electrical Engineering Industry, USSR
- 1985–1989Minister of Energy and Electrification, USSR
- 1986Member, Government Commission on Chernobyl (chair: Shcherbina)
Related historical events
Chernobyl: first report and on-site response
At dawn on 26 April 1986 Mayorets became the first Soviet leader to receive word of the accident at Chernobyl's Reactor 4. He reported it to Premier Nikolai Ryzhkov that morning and flew at once to Kyiv, reaching Pripyat ahead of the government commission headed by Boris Shcherbina. As minister of energy and electrification, the official responsible for the nuclear-power sector, he ordered the two reactor blocks still running at nominal load to be stopped and emergency-disconnected as soon as he arrived; their emergency cooldown continued for some seventy hours. He then served as a member of Shcherbina's Government Commission on the liquidation of the accident's consequences. Responsibility was later apportioned, however: on 14 July 1986 the Politburo formally censured Mayorets for 'serious shortcomings in leadership of the Chernobyl NPP and other nuclear power stations.'