Aleksandr Akimov

Lore & Background

Akimov graduated from the Moscow Power Engineering Institute in 1976 and joined the Chernobyl plant in September 1979. He worked first as a senior turbine management engineer and as shift supervisor of the turbine hall, and on 10 July 1984 he was appointed shift supervisor of Reactor Unit 4.

On the night of the accident the reactor was being prepared for a planned safety test supervised by his superior, deputy chief engineer Dyatlov. The reactor stalled during the preparations, and raising power afterwards left it in a dangerous state because of design flaws the operators did not know about. During the test Akimov called for the AZ-5 button to be pressed to shut the reactor down. The descending control rods briefly accelerated the reaction, and the reactor exploded.

He did not believe the first reports of massive damage and for hours passed on wrong information about the state of the reactor. After learning the extent of the accident he worked with his crew until morning, opening water valves by hand.

Reader's Guide

Akimov was taken to Pripyat Hospital and then to Moscow. By 28 April the signs of severe radiation sickness were evident.

Doctors judged a bone marrow transplant insufficient and tried a foetal liver cell transplant, which failed. He died two weeks after the disaster at the age of 33. His family was told that his death was the only reason he was not prosecuted.

The first Soviet investigation put almost all the blame on the operators. Later findings by the IAEA gave more weight to the reactor design and to how safety information was given to the operators, while still finding that they had departed from procedures. In 2008 he was posthumously awarded the Order For Courage, 3rd degree, by the President of Ukraine.

In the 2019 miniseries Chernobyl, a dramatisation, he is portrayed by Sam Troughton.