Nikolai Maximovich Fomin (, ; born 1937 in Novoekonomichne,

Donetsk Oblast Donetsk Oblast, also referred to as Donechchyna (, ), is an Oblasts of Ukraine, oblast in eastern Ukraine. It is Ukraine's most populous province, with around 4.1 million residents. Its capital city, administrative centre is Donetsk, though d ...

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. ...

) is a Soviet-Ukrainian engineer. He was the chief engineer of the

Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (ChNPP) is a nuclear power plant undergoing decommissioning. ChNPP is located near the abandoned city of Pripyat in northern Ukraine, northwest of the city of Chernobyl, from the Belarus–Ukraine border, a ...

from 1981 until the

Chernobyl nuclear disaster On 26 April 1986, the no. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located near Pripyat, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Ukraine), exploded. With dozens of direct casualties, it is one of only two nuclear energy accidents rated ...

in 1986.

Galina Tri︠a︡nova Galina, Halyna, or Halina (; from Greek ''γαλήνη'' "Serenity") is an East Slavic feminine given name, also popular in Bulgaria and Slovenia during the period of Soviet influence. Galina is the standard transliteration from Russian. It is gen ...

: ''Posledniĭ raspad'' Uz︠h︡gorod : Karpaty, 2006., ISBN 9666710897.

Biography

Nikolai Maximovich Fomin was born in Novoekomonichne, Donetsk Oblast, in the year 1937. Fomin was a member of the central

CPSU The Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU),. Abbreviated in Russian as КПСС, ''KPSS''. at some points known as the Russian Communist Party (RCP), All-Union Communist Party and Bolshevik Party, and sometimes referred to as the Soviet ...

, but was expelled after the Chernobyl disaster. He started his career at the

Zaporizhzhia thermal power station Zaporizhzhia thermal power station is a large thermal power plant ( DRES) in the purpose-built city of Enerhodar in Ukraine. It is the most powerful thermal power station in Ukraine, with an installed capacity of 2,850 MWe. Its primary fuel is c ...

.Попали в историю по приговору
/ref> In 1972 he began working at the Chernobyl plant. As chief engineer, he approved the infamous turbine safety test that led to the explosion of the reactor. However, the deputy chief engineer,

Anatoly Dyatlov 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, for wh ...

, was responsible for the test. Fomin learned of the accident at about 4 am on April 26, 1986, and participated in cleaning up during the aftermath of the disaster. He was subsequently arrested together with plant director

Viktor Bryukhanov Viktor Petrovich Bryukhanov (, ; 1 December 1935 – 13 October 2021) was the manager of construction of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and the director of the plant from 1970 to 1986. Biography Bryukhanov was born on 1 December 1935 in t ...

. The start of the trial, originally scheduled for March 24, 1987, had to be postponed several times due to Fomin's

suicide attempt A suicide attempt is an act in which an individual tries to kill themselves but survives. Mental health professionals discourage describing suicide attempts as "failed" or "unsuccessful", as doing so may imply that a suicide resulting in death is ...

.Nikolai Fomin's Fate Is Unclear After The Chernobyl Disaster
/ref> During the trial, Fomin blamed the operators for deviating from the test plan. Eventually, he and Bryukhanov were found guilty and were each sentenced to 10 years in prison. While in prison, Fomin received psychiatric treatment several times. For health reasons, he was released from prison early and transferred to a psychiatric hospital. After his release from the hospital, he worked at the

Kalinin Nuclear Power Plant The Kalinin Nuclear Power Station ( []) is located about north west of Moscow, in Tver Oblast near the town of Udomlya. Owner and operator of the plant is the state enterprise Rosenergoatom. Kalinin Nuclear Power Station supplies the majority o ...

. Since his retirement in 2000, he has lived with his wife, children and grandchildren in

Udomlya Udomlya () is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town and the administrative center of Udomelsky District in Tver Oblast, Russia, located on the shores of Lake Pesvo on the Rybinsk–Bologoye, Tver Oblast, Bologoye railway, north of Tver ...

In popular culture

In the HBO television series ''

Chernobyl Chernobyl, officially called Chornobyl, is a partially abandoned city in Vyshhorod Raion, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. It is located within the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, to the north of Kyiv and to the southwest of Gomel in neighbouring Belarus. ...

'', he is portrayed by

Adrian Rawlins Adrian John Rawlins (born 27 March 1958) is an English actor best known for playing Arthur Kidd in '' The Woman in Black'' (1989) and James Potter in the ''Harry Potter'' films. In 2019, he starred in '' Chernobyl'' as Nikolai Fomin. Early ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fomin, Nikolai Nuclear engineers Soviet engineers 20th-century Ukrainian engineers 1937 births Living people