Soviet engineer who was the supervisor of the shift that worked the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant on the night of the Chernobyl Disaster.
On the night of the disaster he was on duty in the control room for reactor 4. The reactor power had been reduced in preparation for a routine safety test, the power reduction had been done too quickly and put the reactor into a dangerous condition where the atoms built up and caused the the reactor to stall unknown to the operators. Without knowing of the dangerous state of the reactor the power was raised again puting the reactor into an even more dangerous state. After a bit the reactor was shut down and the test was completed by pressing the AZ-5 button on the control panel. As the power reduced the graphite components caused a surge of energy as they were being lowered causing the reactor to explode. At first Akimov did not believe that the reactor had actually exploded.
Akimov and his fellow workers were exposed to lethal amounts of radiation. He died of radiation poisoning on May 11, 1986 in Moscow. On his deathbed Akimov gave deathbed confessions stating repeatedly: “I did everything correctly. I don't understand why it happened.”
In 2008, Akimov was posthumously awarded the 3rd Degree Order for Courage by Viktor Yushchenko, then the President of Ukraine.
On the night of the disaster he was on duty in the control room for reactor 4. The reactor power had been reduced in preparation for a routine safety test, the power reduction had been done too quickly and put the reactor into a dangerous condition where the atoms built up and caused the the reactor to stall unknown to the operators. Without knowing of the dangerous state of the reactor the power was raised again puting the reactor into an even more dangerous state. After a bit the reactor was shut down and the test was completed by pressing the AZ-5 button on the control panel. As the power reduced the graphite components caused a surge of energy as they were being lowered causing the reactor to explode. At first Akimov did not believe that the reactor had actually exploded.
Akimov and his fellow workers were exposed to lethal amounts of radiation. He died of radiation poisoning on May 11, 1986 in Moscow. On his deathbed Akimov gave deathbed confessions stating repeatedly: “I did everything correctly. I don't understand why it happened.”
In 2008, Akimov was posthumously awarded the 3rd Degree Order for Courage by Viktor Yushchenko, then the President of Ukraine.
Soviet engineer who was the supervisor of the shift that worked the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant on the night of the Chernobyl Disaster.
On the night of the disaster he was on duty in the control room for reactor 4. The reactor power had been reduced in preparation for a routine safety test, the power reduction had been done too quickly and put the reactor into a dangerous condition where the atoms built up and caused the the reactor to stall unknown to the operators. Without knowing of the dangerous state of the reactor the power was raised again puting the reactor into an even more dangerous state. After a bit the reactor was shut down and the test was completed by pressing the AZ-5 button on the control panel. As the power reduced the graphite components caused a surge of energy as they were being lowered causing the reactor to explode. At first Akimov did not believe that the reactor had actually exploded.
Akimov and his fellow workers were exposed to lethal amounts of radiation. He died of radiation poisoning on May 11, 1986 in Moscow. On his deathbed Akimov gave deathbed confessions stating repeatedly: “I did everything correctly. I don't understand why it happened.”
In 2008, Akimov was posthumously awarded the 3rd Degree Order for Courage by Viktor Yushchenko, then the President of Ukraine.
On the night of the disaster he was on duty in the control room for reactor 4. The reactor power had been reduced in preparation for a routine safety test, the power reduction had been done too quickly and put the reactor into a dangerous condition where the atoms built up and caused the the reactor to stall unknown to the operators. Without knowing of the dangerous state of the reactor the power was raised again puting the reactor into an even more dangerous state. After a bit the reactor was shut down and the test was completed by pressing the AZ-5 button on the control panel. As the power reduced the graphite components caused a surge of energy as they were being lowered causing the reactor to explode. At first Akimov did not believe that the reactor had actually exploded.
Akimov and his fellow workers were exposed to lethal amounts of radiation. He died of radiation poisoning on May 11, 1986 in Moscow. On his deathbed Akimov gave deathbed confessions stating repeatedly: “I did everything correctly. I don't understand why it happened.”
In 2008, Akimov was posthumously awarded the 3rd Degree Order for Courage by Viktor Yushchenko, then the President of Ukraine.
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