Anatoly Stepanovich Dyatlov (; 3 March 1931 – 13 December 1995) was a Soviet engineer who was the deputy chief engineer for the
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. He supervised the safety test which resulted in the 1986
Chernobyl disaster
On 26 April 1986, the no. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located near Pripyat, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Ukraine), exploded. With dozens of direct casualties, it is one of only ...
, for which he served time in prison as he was blamed for not following the safety protocols. He was released due to health concerns in 1990.
Later investigations found that reactor design flaws were a more significant factor than human error. However, some safety procedures were not followed and may have also affected the disaster.
Biography
Dyatlov was born in 1931 in
Krasnoyarsk Krai
Krasnoyarsk Krai (, ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (a krai) of Russia located in Siberia. Its administrative center is the types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Krasnoyarsk, the second-largest city in Siberia after ...
,
Russian SFSR
The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (Russian SFSR or RSFSR), previously known as the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic and the Russian Soviet Republic, and unofficially as Soviet Russia,Declaration of Rights of the labo ...
, Soviet Union. His parents were poor. They lived near the
Yenisei River
The Yenisey or Yenisei ( ; , ) is the list of rivers by length, fifth-longest river system in the world, and the largest to drain into the Arctic Ocean.
Rising in Mungaragiyn-gol in Mongolia, it follows a northerly course through Lake Baikal a ...
and the penal settlements of Krasnoyarsk.
He ran away from home at the age of 14. He first studied in a vocational school, at the electrical engineering department of the Mining and Metallurgical Technical School in
Norilsk
Norilsk ( rus, Нори́льск, p=nɐˈrʲilʲsk) is a closed city in Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, located south of the western Taymyr Peninsula, around 90 km east of the Yenisei, Yenisey River and 1,500 km north of Krasnoyarsk. Norilsk is 300 ...
,
and worked three years as an electrician before he was admitted at the
Moscow Engineering and Physics Institute where he graduated in 1959 with honors.
After graduation, he worked in a shipbuilding plant in
Komsomolsk-on-Amur
Komsomolsk-on-Amur ( rus, Комсомольск-на-Амуре, r=Komsomolsk-na-Amure, p=kəmsɐˈmolʲsk nɐ‿ɐˈmurʲə) is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Khabarovsk Krai, Russia, located on the west bank of the Amur R ...
, in Lab 23 where reactors were installed into submarines. During a nuclear accident there, Dyatlov received a
radiation dose
Ionizing (ionising) radiation, including nuclear radiation, consists of subatomic particles or electromagnetic waves that have enough energy per individual photon or particle to ionize atoms or molecules by detaching electrons from them. Some pa ...
of 100
rem (1.0
Sv), a dose which typically causes mild
radiation sickness
Acute radiation syndrome (ARS), also known as radiation sickness or radiation poisoning, is a collection of health effects that are caused by being exposed to high amounts of ionizing radiation in a short period of time. Symptoms can start wit ...
, vomiting, diarrhea, fatigue and reduction in resistance to infections.
[Nolan, Dennis P. ''Loss Prevention and Safety Control: Terms and Definitions'', CRC Press, LLC (2016); Boca Raton, Florida; p. 225.]
One of his two sons died of
leukemia
Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...
at age nine.
In his personal life, he loved poetry, particularly Pushkin's ''
Eugene Onegin
''Eugene Onegin, A Novel in Verse'' (, Reforms of Russian orthography, pre-reform Russian: Евгеній Онѣгинъ, романъ въ стихахъ, ) is a novel in verse written by Alexander Pushkin. ''Onegin'' is considered a classic of ...
''.
Chernobyl
In 1973, he moved to
Pripyat
Pripyat, also known as Prypiat, is an abandoned industrial city in Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine, located near the border with Belarus. Named after the nearby river, Pripyat (river), Pripyat, it was founded on 4 February 1970 as the ninth ''atomgrad'' ...
, in the
Ukrainian SSR
The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, abbreviated as the Ukrainian SSR, UkrSSR, and also known as Soviet Ukraine or just Ukraine, was one of the Republics of the Soviet Union, constituent republics of the Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991. ...
, to work at the newly constructed
Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. His fourteen-year experience working on naval reactors in the Soviet Far East made Dyatlov one of the three most senior managers at the Chernobyl station.
He was in charge of Units Three and Four.
Dyatlov worked 6 or even 7 days a week for long shifts while priding himself on his knowledge of reactor systems.
His management style was unforgiving, projecting an image of infallibility, and he often cursed at staff who did not follow his orders to the letter.
However, some workers say they respected him and the knowledge he held. To those workers, he was seen as honest, responsible and a devoted man. Other seemingly "lazy" workers, targeted by Dyatlov's high standards, saw him as tough, stubborn, and unfair.
On 26 April 1986, Dyatlov supervised a test at Reactor 4 of the nuclear plant, which resulted in the
Chernobyl disaster
On 26 April 1986, the no. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located near Pripyat, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Ukraine), exploded. With dozens of direct casualties, it is one of only ...
. In preparation, Dyatlov ordered the power to be reduced to 200 MW, which was lower than the 700 MW stipulated in the test plan.
The reactor then stalled unexpectedly during test preparations.
Raising power after this point put the reactor into a potentially dangerous state, due to
xenon poisoning, as well as undocumented design flaws in the reactor, which were unknown to the operators at the time. One major contributing factor to the accident was raising the power level after the reactor stalled at below 30 MW.
The operating manual was contradictory and lacked clear definitions, so the test program was allowed to continue.
[International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group]
INSAG-7 The Chernobyl Accident: Updating of INSAG-1
1992, page 74
While withdrawing a dangerous number of control rods, the operators could only reach 200 MW due to
xenon poisoning. During the test, Akimov called for the AZ-5
scram button to be pressed to shut down the reactor.
A few seconds later, the reactor exploded.
After the explosion, Dyatlov ordered the control rods to be inserted by hand. Too late, he attempted to revoke his order. He called for increased water circulation to the reactor in an attempt to cool it, not knowing most of the systems had just been destroyed.
The reactor shop supervisor returned to the control room to say the reactor had been destroyed, but Dyatlov refused to believe him.
Dyatlov left the control room to evaluate the situation. He began to feel weak and started vomiting, caused by
acute radiation syndrome
Acute radiation syndrome (ARS), also known as radiation sickness or radiation poisoning, is a collection of health effects that are caused by being exposed to high amounts of ionizing radiation in a short period of time. Symptoms can start wit ...
, so he gathered the operating logs from the control room and left for the administration building to report to Bryukhanov.
During the accident, Dyatlov was exposed to a
radiation dose
Ionizing (ionising) radiation, including nuclear radiation, consists of subatomic particles or electromagnetic waves that have enough energy per individual photon or particle to ionize atoms or molecules by detaching electrons from them. Some pa ...
of 650
rem (6.5
Sv), which causes death in 50% of affected people after 30 days. Ultimately, he survived.
After the accident
He was admitted to Pripyat Hospital where he initially refused treatment, saying he just needed to sleep.
He was quickly transferred to Moscow Hospital 6.
By 28 April, the symptoms of radiation sickness had mostly abated. During his stay, he discussed possible causes of the accident with
Akimov and
Toptunov, but they were mystified as to the causes.
Dyatlov's condition began to worsen due to the delayed effects of his radiation exposure. He recovered thanks to hospital care, surviving what is often a lethal radiation dose.
Together with
Nikolai Fomin and
Viktor Bryukhanov, Dyatlov was criminally charged for failure to follow safety regulations.
The trial began on 6 July 1987 at the Palace of Culture in the town of Chernobyl. Only people invited by the state were allowed to witness the proceedings. There were six defendants; Bryukhanov, Fomin, Dyatlov, station shift supervisor Boris Rogozhkin, reactor division chief Alexander Kovalenko, and inspector Yuri Laushkin.
Among the defendants, only Dyatlov remained combative, saying that the operators were not responsible for the accident.
Dyatlov claimed that he was not present when the reactor stalled or when the power level was increased, but this was contradicted by several witnesses.
The design flaws in the reactor were not considered by the court, and any expert witnesses involved in the design were keen to avoid blame.
All six were found guilty and Dyatlov was given the maximum sentence of ten years.
From prison, he wrote letters trying to explain
RBMK reactor flaws he had discovered, as well as to restore his and the other operators' reputations.
He wrote a letter to the family of Toptunov, relating how he had tried to restore coolant to the reactor.
He was granted amnesty in late 1990 due to his worsening health from radiation exposure.
He wrote a paper published in ''Nuclear Engineering International'' in 1991 and a book in which he claimed that poor plant design, rather than plant personnel, was primarily responsible for the accident.
While the initial Soviet investigation put almost all the blame on the operators, later findings by the
Ministry of Atomic Energy and the
International Atomic Energy Agency
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an intergovernmental organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear technology, nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for any military purpose, including nuclear weapons. It was ...
found that the reactor design and how the operators were informed of safety information was more significant.
[INSAG-7 report, page 22-25] However, the operators were found to have deviated from operational procedures, changing test protocols at will, as well as having made "ill-judged" actions, making human error a major contributing factor.
Dyatlov died of heart failure in
Kyiv
Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...
,
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...
in 1995, which was almost certainly caused by his radiation poisoning from the accident.
In media
Dyatlov was portrayed by Igor Slavinskiy in the 2004 series ''Zero Hour: Disaster At Chernobyl'', by
Roger Alborough in 2006 BBC production ''Surviving Disaster: Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster'' and by
Paul Ritter in the 2019 HBO miniseries
''Chernobyl''.
Dyatlov's memoirs were recorded in 1994, a year before his death. The recording was made by an unknown operator and appeared on YouTube in 2016.
A version with English subtitles was provided in 2019.
See also
*
List of Chernobyl-related articles
*
Individual involvement in the Chernobyl disaster
*
Vasily Ignatenko
*
Boris Shcherbina
References
External links
Dyatlov's memoirs, 1994(1 h Video in Russian with English subtitles)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dyatlov, Anatoly
1931 births
1995 deaths
20th-century Ukrainian engineers
People from Krasnoyarsk Krai
Expelled members of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Moscow Engineering Physics Institute alumni
Recipients of the Order of the Red Banner of Labour
Chernobyl liquidators
Ukrainian people of Russian descent
Soviet engineers
Deaths from cancer in Ukraine
People from Norilsk