2023 BBC. Nowadays, an old sarcophagus covers the damaged fourth reactor at the nuclear power plant, and the New Safe Confinement (NSC) structure sits above that. The story of the reactor's catastrophic explosion, as told in an HBO/Sky miniseries, has received the highest ever score for a TV show on the film website IMDB. It kills you slowly, and it kills you in an excruciating manner. One of the most dramatic scenes in the miniseries shows three power plant workers volunteering to go into an underground tunnel beneath the damaged reactor to open a vital drainage valve. But Mr Breus believes most Pripyat residents would have slept through the explosion, and he only learned of the accident when he arrived at work the following morning. )EBiz0xCBM7.q \T:vWM3@M1my0R(;-owTH|B0 8o%;'A~,6rCBU+3gZ/7kzXjUD%o|M\? Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DnFeTe0nDw8. It's now a museum. On the night of 26 April 1986, Leonid Toptunov was working in the control room at the reactor control panel, with Aleksandr Akimov. Leonid Fedorovych Toptunov (Ukrainian: , Russian: ; 16 August 1960 14 May 1986) was a Soviet engineer who was the senior reactor control chief engineer at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Reactor Unit 4 on the night of the Chernobyl disaster, 26 April 1986. Instead, reserves made their own protective clothing using lead sheets up to 4 millimeters thick as aprons to help protect the spine and bone marrow. Pretty sure its true, the story of his face being gone came from just before he died while they were questioning him. In the weeks immediately after the explosion, 29 power plant workers and firefighters died from ARS, caused by exposure to high doses of ionising radiation, according to Soviet officials. Not really regarding to Akimov specifically, but in my book Im reading the wife of the firefighter who stayed by his side all the way described lots of horrific side affects from the radiation, and he wasnt even in the same situation as Akimov. The actor playing Alexander Akimov, for instance, was never even put in makeup to depict the loss of his face. [4] His parents once asked about the cause but he only could say they had followed regulations. BBC Ukrainian Hours after the world's worst nuclear accident, engineer Oleksiy Breus entered the control room of the No. Akimov eventually succumbed to acute radiation syndrome two weeks after the disaster at the age of 33. [2], Akimov worked with his crew in the reactor building after he learned the extent of the accident. Only a Second World War survivor can imagine a similar scene.[4]. 0000005085 00000 n "They took off their clothes, but not like it was shown in the film, not right down to nothing," Mr Breus insists, also pointing out that their role was ultimately not significant to the story. 0000013685 00000 n [4] During the accident, he was exposed to a fatal radiation dose of 1300rem. Arriving at work that morning, Mr Breus says he did not see any fire. moustache is a struggling, wispy version of Akimov's. TOPTUNOV No, that's not--Akimov signals Toptunov not to argue. Also, emotions and mood at that time are shown quite precisely, both among the personnel and the authorities. Many of the liquidators have since suffered from severe health problemssome of which were fatal. List of battleships of the United States Navy, Individual involvement in the Chernobyl disaster#Aleksandr Akimov, Articles containing Russian-language text, Articles needing page number citations from January 2020, Articles incorporating text from Find a Grave.com, Articles incorporating text from Wikipedia, People associated with the Chernobyl disaster, https://chnpp.gov.ua/ru/about/labour-glory-ru/geroi-likvidatory, "The World; Life After Death: Chernobyl Today", https://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/22/weekinreview/the-world-life-after-death-chernobyl-today.html, https://books.google.com/books?id=7gQ0DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT419&dq=Aleksandr+Akimov+15+Gray&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjt66vNt5zmAhXOZd8KHeqdAWAQ6AEwAXoECAUQAg#v=onepage&q=Aleksandr%20Akimov%2015%20Gray&f=false, https://books.google.com/books?id=ayhKAQAAIAAJ&q=Aleksandr+Akimov+I+did+everything+correctly&dq=Aleksandr+Akimov+I+did+everything+correctly&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiw3Mu4ypzmAhWRct8KHYs9DFUQ6AEwAHoECAEQAg, "Presidential Decree No. trailer DYATLOV (to the room) This is an emergency. There was a comment on a post about him. How would I find another job after that?". his younger brother is donating bone marrow but the transplant can't stop the decay of the tissue. Why Alex Murdaugh was spared the death penalty, Why Trudeau is facing calls for a public inquiry, The shocking legacy of the Dutch 'Hunger Winter', Why half of India's urban women stay at home. And the atmosphere was radioactive.[3]. Russians and Ukrainians have watched it via the internet, and it has had a favourable rating on Russian film site Kinopoisk. Chernobyl engineer Oleksiy Breus, then and now, beside the backdrop of the TV portrayal of the disaster, By Viacheslav Shramovych and Hanna Chornous, Mr Breus revisited the reactor's control room 20 years after the disaster struck, Viktor Bryukhanov (left) sits alongside deputy chief engineer Anatoly Dyatlov (orange shirt) and chief engineer Nikolai Fomin during a trial over the accident, British actor Adam Nagaitis played Vasily Ignatenko, one of the first firefighters on the scene of the disaster, The view of the damaged building from the roof of reactor No. Nah Im good. Read about our approach to external linking. "I saw other colleagues who worked that night. The autopsy qualifies as medical records so of course they are all closed to the public. Its as if the showrunners saw it all happen with their own eyes. In the weeks immediately after the explosion, 29 power plant workers and firefighters died from ARS, caused by exposure to high doses of ionising radiation, according to Soviet officials. "I was surprised they even brought us there," Mr Breus says of arriving at work the morning after the explosion. 1156/2008 of 12 December 2008", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Leonid_Toptunov&oldid=1139033343, This page was last edited on 13 February 2023, at 00:49. 0000006239 00000 n He knew he was going to die but didn't want to. Their faces were only partially covered by respirators, so they could speak to each other, they were not offered a reward, and they were not clapped on their successful return. At first, the head of the tests, Dyatlov A. S., forced them, with his orders, to move away "A big cup, vodka, KGB everywhere.". "I saw other colleagues who worked that night. The reason was the reactor's unstable condition due to low electrical network power. Alexander Akimov was the head of the night shift that worked at reactor number 4 on the night of the accident. Temperatures beneath the reactor were high and the series shows them stripping naked. What are you thinking? Press J to jump to the feed. Some of the events he witnessed that morning were realistically depicted in the show, he says, but others he describes as fiction. The city held its annual May Day parades as the government assured citizens everything was normal. [4] He died from the acute radiation poisoning on 14 May 1986 and was laid to rest at the Mitinskoe Cemetery in Moscow. The The judges of the show trial claim one year later: The engineers are at fault who started operation of the reactor in 1983, despite not all safety tests having been passed. They showed Mr. Schadov as an incompetent official who is not respected by the miners. The Chernobyl disaster is one of the most famous nuclear catastrophes in the world, but not many people know that if it hadn't been for one man, the damage would have been much worse. Warning: spoilers ahead. He stayed behind and had his crew turn on the emergency water pumps to flood the reactor - sadly, the power source was inactive. "If I didn't do it, they could just fire me. For example, everything the show depicts about Lyudmilla and Vasily Ignatenko the bribes, the questions about children, the game of cards, the ban on touching all really happened. Aleksandr Fyodorovich Akimov (Russian: ; 6 May 1953 - 11 May 1986) was a Soviet engineer who was the supervisor of the shift that worked at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Reactor Unit 4 on the night of the Chernobyl disaster, 26 April 1986. Chernobyl (TV Mini Series 2019) Sam Troughton as Alexandr Akimov. "In hospital, I was treated with a guy who biked to that bridge in the morning on 26 April to watch it. One of the most dramatic scenes in the miniseries shows three power plant workers volunteering to go into an underground tunnel beneath the damaged reactor to open a vital drainage valve. Our first priority is--PEREVOZCHENKO, 30's, bursts in. This actor is also famous for his acts in the BBC Robin Hood series. There is little doubt that ARS patients, and those with severe skin injury, have "They were not looking good, to put it mildly," he says. [3][page needed] At some point he gave deathbed confessions stating repeatedly: I did everything correctly. Biography Akimov was born in 1953 in the Soviet Union. Miners were brought in to dig a tunnel under the reactor to create a space for a heat exchanger, to stop the molten core melting through the concrete pad and contaminating the groundwater, threatening millions of lives. Vasily Ignatenko, depicted in the series, was among the first firefighters sent to tackle the blaze. Jesus, that is terrible for Nekheav, at least they all did what they could to remove all the water from them valves to avoid a steam explosion and tbh I think it is for the best we dont find out about poor Akimovs faces, He got a very large dose all over and I read somewhere he didnt want to die so he tried to act normal but when he would stand the skin around his legs would fal down like loose socks, I just invisioned that in my mind that sounds awful. On April 26th, 1986, at 1:23 am, Alexander Akimov did what he and thousands of other nuclear plant operators have been trained to do. On the night of April 26, 1986, Alexander Akimov was at work as the shift supervisor of the night crew of Chernobyl Plant Unit Four. startxref Its no better now than it was 28 years ago. Later this perception changed.". Raising power after this point put the reactor into a potentially dangerous state, unbeknownst to the operators. To capture the gruesome deaths that befell plant engineers and first responders, makeup and prosthetics designer Daniel Parker studied the stages of radiation sickness, identifying seven kinds of wounds that depend on a victims proximity to the radiation source. On April 26, 1986, an explosion occurred at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the northern part of Soviet Ukraine, an event which today is widely known as the Chernobyl disaster. {$[sz HqCUF3W){8HPA|]+\ Y,*6mw1(,>6D>(e]7MRWvfW4j}6`rW/G*(' !S%B=V>npH wp"2N?)JeXiPC`;\BUc |)g}hUtS1' a$)ELOrIB/0vgkmE^)wqHwB4:^ 0000000016 00000 n Identical. And also being under that same piece of sky, you start to feel a little closer, in a sense, to who they were. He was the one who refused to continue with the test. I don't understand why it happened. Akimov eventually succumbed to acute radiation syndrome two weeks after the disaster at the age of 33. it's not bad, it was probably made in the past few months before February 24th. A member of. The communications networks were suddenly flooded with calls and information. The Chernobyl nuclear accident is one of the most shocking and devastating catastrophes of modern times. Everyone stay calm. "The miners are shown as tough guys who are not afraid of anything, but not the power plant workers.". Sam Troughton, an English actor, performed the role of Chernobyl supervisor of the shift in the Chernobyl series by HBO in 2019. ", I'd say it is indeed Akimov, and the man standing next to him might be Kovalenko, reactor#4 supervisor. And Oleksiy Breus sees their portrayal as "not a fiction, but a blatant lie". But while many have complimented the show's attention to detail, he believes it is also one of the downsides of the TV series. "Another friend treated at the same time said he had a date with his girlfriend close to the bridge that night. August 25, 2022 askans. Role of Akimov in Chernobyl As we know from the official data, Akimov is wrongfully accused of being responsible for the accident. At 1:23 AM, the reactors power levels surged, and the events that followed led to an explosion which released more than 50 tons of radioactive material into the atmosphere.[1]. Poor guy. Founder of Crime Viral community since 2015. 4 reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. 1156/2008 of 12 December 2008", https://zakon.rada.gov.ua/laws/show/en/1156/2008/sp:max100, Shift supervisor of Night shift at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. He said, A physician deals with life and death every day. Later this perception changed.". Some Chernobyl leaders built their defense on their bones. They showed us these rooms [], the doors were quite heavy, they were padded on the inside, in case you, I dunno, attempted to smash your head against it. Is it Kovalenko? "In hospital, I was treated with a guy who biked to that bridge in the morning on 26 April to watch it. Thats your job, randomly spouting INSAG reports. Youll burn together. I followed them around them like a dog I stood by the door for hours, asking and begging. At conservative gathering, Trump is still the favourite. Akimov heard reports of massive reactor damage, but did not believe it, and as a result relayed false information about the state of the reactor for hours after. During his stay, he discussed possible causes of the accident with Akimov and Dyatlov but they were mystified. Armen Abagian, who was the director of one of the Moscow nuclear power research institutes at the time, advised the Soviet government to evacuate Pripyat immediately. [3] Due to a design flaw, the descending control rods momentarily accelerated the nuclear reaction and caused the reactor to explode. "However, the technological aspects have some discrepancies which may not exactly [be] lies, but merely fiction," he adds. It would have eventually boiled . According to Sources: Akimov suffered severe Leg Burns and the high amount of radiation caused it face to slowly dissolve away. "There are many stereotypes shown, typical of Western portrayal of the Soviet Union," argues Oleksiy Breus. A subreddit to discuss the Chernobyl Disaster that happened on the night of April 26, 1986, and the Exclusion Zone that isolates the city of Pripyat from the rest of the world. Warning: This story contains plot details from the miniseries. It is the same in the case of the Chernobyl disaster. "I saw the damage at reactor No. You could see the equipment and pumps exposed. At first, they also tried to reason with me, saying, Youre young. In an attempt to contain the disaster, helicopters dumped lead slabs weighing 40 kilograms (88 lb) each on the reactor, followed by several tons of radiation absorbing-sand. Mr Breus says the series creators showed the radiation effects on the human body well. Finally, 11 days after the disaster, officials warned the residents of Kiev that they should avoid eating leafy vegetables and to stay indoors. Oleksiy Breus says the accident helped reveal the substantial flaws of the Soviet system. Of course, you can criticize the episode for excessive melodrama: Legasov is suddenly partial to Khomyuk, and the miners who stand up to a coal minister recruiting them for the Chernobyl liquidation effort are too theatrical. Another common birth defect in this region is microcephaly, in which a babys head is smaller and not in proportion with the rest of their body. "The reactor looked so damaged, it seemed there was nothing else to do there.". DYATLOV We know. Photographer Igor Kostin recalled, The clever ones also added a vine leaf for extra comfort.[5]. Panting. "There are many stereotypes shown, typical of Western portrayal of the Soviet Union," argues Oleksiy Breus. Viewers dont need to see what remains of shift supervisor Alexander Akimovs face watching the reaction in Dr. Khomyuks eyes is more than enough. When we talk about the events that have changed the world, we always remember the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explosion. Sputnik/RIA Vasily Ignatenko was 25 years old when he died of radiation. Don't have high hopes going into this one guys. "They were not looking good, to put it mildly," he says. The goal was to test the system for preventive maintenance in case of a real power shutdown. It's now a museum. 4 reactor at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine. 0000001084 00000 n "I was surprised they even brought us there," Mr Breus says of arriving at work the morning after the explosion. Some dogs have been fitted with radiation sensors and GPS receivers, which help to map the radiation levels across the exclusion zone.[8]. It was a cruel time.[7]. [. I can guarantee that nothing other than necrosis of the skin took place. "Its high rankings show that people are still interested in Chernobyl. Literally says the graphite displacers were the for "lubrication. He wanted a promotion which was promised to him in case of a successful test. "As we moved through it, we were aware that there were the ghosts of history around us," Mazin said. Once she sees how Akimov is tearing entire strains of his moustache out "Don't worry", he says, "it doesn't hurt. Can Nigeria's election result be overturned? Answer (1 of 4): There would have been a hydrogen explosion instead of a steam explosion. Their faces were only partially covered by respirators, so they could speak to each other, they were not offered a reward, and they were not clapped on their successful return. "The miners are shown as tough guys who are not afraid of anything, but not the power plant workers.". .] He's growing weaker, wheezes, can hardly talk anymore. Meduza shares its thoughts about the shows latest installment, Open Wide, O Earth, and looks at some of the showrunners editing decisions. Its a little like if you were in a skyscraper, and you said to yourself, This is solid! [] You just feel safe within it. . That night was important because the system tests were taking place. His burnt lungs hardly let him breathe, his intestines have decomposed, excrements mixed with blood are oozing from his body. Firefighters sent from neighbouring Pripyat did not know of any radiation exposure and Ignatenko died of acute radiation syndrome on 13 May 1986. Military Wiki is a FANDOM Lifestyle Community. Hours after the explosion, helicopters were flown over Reactor No. Because what it can do is savage. Nevertheless, Mazin says the creators wanted to avoid abusive filmmaking and decided not to show the absolute extremes of radiation sickness. "I saw the damage at reactor No. Many can be found playing inside the abandoned cooling tower at the former power plant. Their skin had a bright red colour. His parents visited him in the hospital. By Rod Adams April 1, 1996. Residents started to panic when there was a metallic smell in the air, and the atmosphere appeared different. In March 1983, Toptunov began his career at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. [4], While the initial Soviet investigation put almost all the blame on the operators and management, later findings by the IAEA found that the reactor design and how the operators were informed of safety information was more significant. 4s emergency safety systems and its power-regulating system. At 9:25 time mark, do you think it might be Khodemchuk? Does anybody know what the sources the author of this article could have used? Aleksandr Akimov was born on 6 May 1953 in Novosibirsk, Russian SFSR (Republic of the Soviet Union . During the evening of April 25, engineers made several fatal mistakes, including disconnecting Reactor No. Read about more radioactive calamities on 10 Modern Radiation Accidents Involving Civilians and 10 Famous Incidences of Death by Radiation. Menu. 3, Firefighters pictured in 1986 before cleaning debris from the roof of the No. Everyone who worked to restore coolant flow would have suffered greatly from leg burns, because they were standing in the water. Aleksandr Akimov and Leonid Toptunov did their best at saving the situation. 0000002865 00000 n ", By now Akimov's wife Lyuba was allowed to come to Moscow. I feel bad for akimov because he died with the guilt weighing on him that he some how caused the accident and why did it happen, I also feel really bad. It was important to me that people understood what was happening to these men, because they suffered in terrible ways, Mazin told The Chernobyl Podcast. He got a mild type of acute radiation syndrome, a doctor said. ", Most of the firefighters were pouring water on the damaged reactor, he says. [1], On the night of 26 April 1986, Akimov was on duty as the shift supervisor of the 4th power unit. A member of staff at the plant from 1982, he became a witness to the immediate aftermath on the morning of 26 April 1986. 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