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.
Activities and affiliations
- 1980–1984 Science and technology · Soviet Union
Career Timeline
- 1970Graduated from Konotop Industrial Technical School
- 1970–1980Technical work in industrial and nuclear installations
- 1980–1984Instrumentation and automation commissioning and testing technician, Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant
- 1984–1986Commissioning and testing technician, Smolenskatomenergonaladka
- 1986Died in the disaster while supporting tests at Chernobyl Unit 4
Related historical events
Rescue and evacuation after the explosion
After the explosion at Chernobyl Unit 4 on 26 April 1986, colleagues sought Shashenok when contact with the dosimetry room was lost. Pyotr Palamarchuk, working in the turbine hall, tried to reach room 604 but received no answer; shift chief Aleksandr Akimov then asked him to find and rescue Shashenok. Near the stairs at level +27, Palamarchuk met radiation-monitoring technician Gorbachenko, and together they found and recovered Shashenok unconscious. He was taken to the Pripyat hospital and died from his injuries on the day of the explosion. Specialist accounts of the accident distinguish workers killed immediately by the explosions from the worker who died in hospital from injuries, placing Shashenok in the latter category.