How old was the senior reactor control chief engineer in Chernobyl when the disaster happened?

Leonid Fedorovych Toptunov (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.

In March 1983, Toptunov began his career at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. He worked as a unit control engineer and senior reactor plant control engineer.

On the night of 26 April 1986, Leonid Toptunov was working in the control room at the reactor control panel, with Aleksandr Akimov. During the accident, he was exposed to a radiation dose of 700 rem.

He died from the acute radiation poisoning on 14 May 1986 at the age of 25 and was laid to rest at the Mitinskoe Cemetery in Moscow.

In 2008, Toptunov was posthumously awarded with the 3rd degree Order For Courage by Viktor Yushchenko, then the President of Ukraine.

More Info: en.wikipedia.org

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7 Comments

Lawanta

klmilles, I read that too, as the explanation from brian l seemed to be written poorly and was lacking important information. 😢 Thank you for commenting on it further👍🏻

klmilles

The "author's" own reference indicates that this poor man was exposed to 1300 rem when he and the other operator attempted to manually open water valves to try to get more water to the reactor after the explosion. He had worked there for 2 months. His parents were told that he was not prosecuted for the accident only because he had died. The reactor had serious design flaws and the staff were not fully informed of management issues which appear to have been the reasons for the explosion, which the Soviet Union, of course, tried to deny even while the radioactive plume was emanating from the site and traveling worldwide. A cautionary tale about nuclear power, even today.