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.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1959Graduated Tashkent Polytechnic, joined Angren Thermal Power Plant
- 1966Rose to deputy chief engineer at Slavyansk Thermal Power Plant
- 1970–1986First director and construction manager, Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
- 1986.07Expelled from CPSU and dismissed after the disaster; arrested in August
- 1988.07Sentenced to 10 years, served in Donetsk penal colony
- 1991.09Released early, worked in Ukraine's trade ministry
- 1995–2015Chernobyl liquidation work at Ukrinterenergo
Related historical events
Accountability and return after the accident
After the 1986 accident, Bryukhanov was removed as director of the Chernobyl plant but remained there as deputy head of its production and technical department until July 1987. In July 1986, the CPSU Central Committee Politburo expelled him from the party, citing major errors and shortcomings that had led to the accident and its severe consequences. The following month he was charged with violating safety regulations at facilities handling explosive hazards. In July 1988, the Supreme Court of the USSR sentenced him to ten years in a corrective-labour institution. Released early in September 1991, he returned to the plant as head of its technical department and later worked in an organization under Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Trade. His prosecution does not by itself settle the causes of the disaster: the initial Soviet commission assigned responsibility to plant operators and management, while later inquiries by the USSR State Committee for Nuclear Supervision and the International Atomic Energy Agency reassessed defects in the RBMK reactor's design as the primary cause.