Author and technical director of the 'Shelter' that encased Chernobyl's ruined Reactor 4
He personally climbed into a 'bathyscaphe' suspended from a crane hook to survey the ruined reactor.
A Soviet nuclear construction engineer from Tambov, he joined VNIPIET in 1953 after graduating from the Leningrad Institute of Civil Engineering and spent his entire career at that one institute. He led the project to remediate the 1957 Kyshtym disaster, and in 1986 became the author and technical director of the 'Shelter' (Sarcophagus) that sealed Chernobyl's Reactor 4 in just 206 days: he personally surveyed the ruined reactor suspended in a 'bathyscaphe' from a crane hook and devised engineering solutions without world precedent. He later served as general director of VNIPIET (1989–1998), contributing to the recovery from the Arzamas explosion and the Kirovakan earthquake.
Career Timeline
- 1953Joined VNIPIET as an engineer
- 1957Led the Kyshtym (Chelyabinsk-65) accident remediation project
- 1985–1989Chief engineer, VNIPIET
- 1986Author and technical director, 'Shelter' (Sarcophagus) project, Chernobyl Reactor 4
- 1989–1998General director, VNIPIET
- 1996Awarded Honoured Builder of the Russian Federation