Anatoly Dyatlov

In 1973, he moved to Pripyat, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, 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.[1] He was in charge of the Units Three and Four.[1]

On 26 April 1986, Dyatlov supervised a test at Reactor 4 of the nuclear plant, which resulted in the worst nuclear plant accident in history. During the accident, Dyatlov was exposed to a radiation dose of 390 rem (3.9 Sv), which causes death in 50% of affected persons after 30 days, but he survived.[5] Together with Nikolai Fomin and Viktor Bryukhanov, Dyatlov was tried for failure to follow safety regulations.[6] In 1987, all three were found guilty of gross violation of safety regulations leading to an explosion and were sentenced to ten years in prison.[7] He was granted amnesty in late 1990.[3][8]

He wrote a paper published in Nuclear Engineering International in 1991[9] and a book in which he claimed that poor plant design, rather than plant personnel, was primarily responsible for the accident.[10] In later reports, it was found that Dyatlov had threatened some power plant workers with job terminations if they did not proceed with the test that night in Chernobyl.[11] Nevertheless, IAEA's Report by their International Nuclear Safety Advisory Group from 1992 supports Dyatlov's evaluation about the RBMK reactor's design flaws,[12][13] but also criticises the lack of a safety culture in the Soviet nuclear industry.

Anatoly Dyatlov died of heart failure caused by radiation sickness in 1995.[14]