Valery Khodemchuk
Pump operator who was the first casualty of the disaster.
Last updated
Valery Khodemchuk was the first person to die in the Chernobyl disaster. Born on 24 March 1951, he was the circulating pump operator on the night shift at the power plant and was in the northern main circulation pump hall when the explosions tore through Unit 4. His body was never found.
Last updated 2026-09-29 from the source article.
Lore & Background
Khodemchuk was born in Kropyvnia in Kyiv Oblast and joined the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in September 1973. He worked first as an engineer of boilers and rose to senior operator of the main circulation pumps of the fourth unit.
On the night of 26 April 1986 he telephoned another pump operator shortly before the accident to discuss a routine adjustment. Seconds later, at approximately 1:23:48 a.m. Moscow Time, two powerful explosions destroyed the pump halls. It is thought that he was killed instantly by the blast or by falling debris.
Reader's Guide
He is presumed to lie entombed under the remains of the circulation pumps. A monument to him was built into the dividing wall inside the structure that encloses the reactor, east of the hall where he died, and in 1998 a cenotaph was placed at Mitinskoe Cemetery in Moscow, where firefighters and plant workers killed by the disaster are buried.
In 2008 he was posthumously awarded the Order For Courage, 3rd degree, by the President of Ukraine. His widow was seriously injured on 14 November 2025, when a drone struck her home in Kyiv, and died in hospital the following day.
In the 2019 miniseries Chernobyl, a dramatisation, he is portrayed by Kieran O'Brien.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Valery Khodemchuk (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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