Vladimir Nikolayevich Shashenok

Владимир Николаевич Шашенок

1951–1986 ✕ Died on the day of the disaster

A commissioning engineer caught in the Chernobyl disaster

Colleagues carried him from the ruined instrument room, but he never regained consciousness and died at 6 a.m. in the Pripyat hospital.

Vladimir Shashenok was a technician who commissioned and tested instrumentation and automation systems at nuclear power plants. While taking part in tests at Chernobyl Unit 4, he suffered spinal and rib fractures and severe thermal and radiation burns in the explosion; colleagues rescued him and carried him to the Pripyat hospital, where he died without regaining consciousness. He was one of the two people who died on the day of the disaster, marking how technical work at the plant placed ordinary workers at its immediate front line.