Viktor Petrovich Bryukhanov

Виктор Петрович Брюханов

1935–2021 ○ 10-year sentence 1988, served 5, freed 1991

The first director of Chernobyl who built the plant and was held responsible for its catastrophe

In the station courtyard I saw pieces of graphite under my feet, but I still could not imagine that the reactor had been destroyed.

Born in Tashkent as the eldest son of Russian workers, he studied energy engineering and built his career at thermal power plants. In 1970 he was appointed construction manager and first director of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, which he led for sixteen years; plagued by construction delays and defective materials, he submitted his resignation, but a Party supervisor tore it up. Dismissed immediately after the 1986 disaster, he was sentenced to ten years in 1988; after his release he continued working on Chernobyl liquidation until his death in Kyiv in 2021.