Valery Alekseyevich Bespalov (; ; born 21 September 1957) is an engineer who worked at 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 ...

. After 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 ...

, he was one of the three men in the "suicide squad" team to drain the steam suppression pools under the fourth reactor building. In 2019 he was awarded the title

Hero of Ukraine A Hero of Ukraine (HOU; ) is the highest national decoration that can be conferred upon an individual citizen by the president of Ukraine. The decoration was created in 1998 by President Leonid Kuchma. As of 6 June 2025, the total number of re ...

. Despite media reports claiming the three men died of radiation poisoning shortly after the incident, he remains alive in Kyiv as of 2019.

In media

Bespalov was portrayed by

Philip Barantini Philip Barantini (born 13 July 1980) is a British director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Known for his intense one-shot works, he directed the film ''Boiling Point'' (2021), its follow-up series (2023) and the miniseries ''Adolescence'' ( ...

in the Sky/HBO miniseries ''

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. ...

'' (2019).

References

1957 births Chernobyl liquidators Living people Recipients of the Order of Gold Star (Ukraine) {{USSR-bio-stub

In media

See also

References