Viktor Petrovich Bryukhanov (Ukrainian: Віктор Петрович Брюханов, Russian: Виктор Петрович Брюханов; 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 the city of Tashkent, Uzbek SSR. He was the oldest son out of four children. His father used to work as a glazier and his mother was a cleaning lady. He later became the only one of his brothers to receive higher education attaining a degree from the Energy Department of the Tashkent Polytechnic in electrical engineering in 1959. After graduation, he was offered a job at Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan. In 1966, he was invited to work at the Slavyansk Thermal Power Plant. He started as a senior foreman and rose up to the rank of head of workshop and finally, deputy chief engineer, after which he resigned in 1970 to build a nuclear power plant in the Ukrainian SSR. He was a member of Communist Party of Soviet Union (CPSU) since 1966. Between 1970 and 1986, he was repeatedly elected member of the regional district office of Kiev, Chernobyl, and Pripyat city committees of the party. Viktor met his wife Valentina at Angren Power Plant. Valentina was an assistant to a turbine engineer and Viktor was a trainee fresh from the university.
Chernobyl Power Plant construction In 1971 the energy minister offered Bryukhanov a new assignment – build an atomic power plant consisting of four RBMK reactors on the banks of the Pripyat River in Ukraine. Initially, Bryukhanov proposed construction of pressurized water reactors (PWRs), but this decision was met with opposition stating safety and economic reasons supporting construction of RBMK reactors, which was eventually performed. Bryukhanov presided over the response to fuel element damage at Reactor 1 on 9 September 1982, when contaminated steam was vented into the atmosphere. The radioactive contaminants had spread fourteen kilometers from the plant and reached Pripyat, but the authorities determined that the public should not be informed, and that decontamination was only necessary on the grounds of the plant itself.
Chernobyl disaster
On 26 April 1986, the head of the chemical division called Bryukhanov to report an incident at the station. He had not been informed that there was another attempt at the rundown test that night. While on a bus passing by the fourth reactor block, Bryukhanov realized the upper structure of the reactor was gone. He ordered all authorities to meet at the nuclear bunker in the basement of the administration building. Bryukhanov attempted to contact the shift supervisor, but there was no answer at the fourth reactor block. He then activated a General Radiation Accident on the automatic telephone system, which sent a coded message to the Ministry of Energy. He then had to report the situation to his superiors in Moscow and to the local Communist officials. Lacking high-range dosimeters, officials had difficulty determining whether a radiation release had occurred or not and, if so, how much radiation had been released. Bryukhanov, assisted by chief engineer Nikolai Fomin, instructed the operators to maintain and restore coolant supply, unaware that the reactor had already been destroyed. The civil defense chief told him that radiation had reached the maximum reading of the military dosimeter of 200 roentgens per hour. At 3:00 a.m., Bryukhanov contacted Vladimir V. Marin, the official in charge of nuclear matters of the Communist Party at his Moscow home to report the accident and assure officials that the situation was under control. The radiation team reported that levels was only 13 microroentgens per hour, which was reassuring but incorrect. At 5:15, deputy chief engineer Anatoly Dyatlov, who had been overseeing the test, staggered into the bunker with the operating reports showing power levels and coolant pressure charts.
At night I went to the courtyard of the station. I looked – pieces of graphite under my feet. But I still did not think that the reactor was destroyed. This did not fit in my head. Only later, when the helicopter flew around...
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
