The 1986 Chernobyl crisis [1] was undoubtedly one of the worst nuclear disasters of all time. A reactor explosion at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant's fourth unit set off a fire and spewed radioactive substances into the air. It killed dozens soon after and spread dangerous levels of radiation hundreds of miles away, from Ukraine to Sweden. The disaster revealed the Soviet Union's flawed reactor design [2] as well as its striking delay in evacuation efforts [3]. Chernobyl's impacts on public health, economics, and the environment remain harrowingly relevant today.
HBO [4] has recently revisited this chapter in history, re-creating the lives of the actual key players in a limited series. From the scientist who questioned the USSR's flawed reactor design to the brave young firefighter who died a painful death from radiation, here are the names you should remember from Chernobyl. Note that the following are all photos of the actors in the miniseries, not the actual people.
Valery Legasov
Valery Legasov (played by Jared Harris) was the first deputy director of the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy at the time of the Chernobyl crisis. The scientist investigated the cause of the disaster and planned the mitigation of its consequences. According to The Los Angeles Times [5], his foreign colleagues praised his honesty in talking about the cause and effects of the accident. He attributed the disaster to design flaw [6] and human error [7].
Legasov committed suicide in 1988, reportedly leaving behind tapes with undisclosed information about Chernobyl [8]. He implied that political pressure censored bringing up the Soviet nuclear secrecy [9] that kept plant workers in the dark about known problems and accidents with the reactor model.
Boris Shcherbina
Boris Shcherbina (played by Stellan Skarsgard) was the deputy head of the Soviet government [10] in charge of the investigation after the Chernobyl disaster hours after the accident. When he arrived in Pripyat (the city near the plant), he rejected to suggest an order for mass evacuation, saying, "Panic is worse than radiation [11]." The town would not be evacuated until 36 hours after the explosion [12].
He died in 1990 at age 70 [13], and it's not clear if he died of radiation or not, given that he ordered the construction of a new town in the highly contaminated area. In a secret 1988 decree that he helped form, Soviet doctors could not cite radiation as a cause of death or illness.
Ulyana Khomyuk
Emily Watson plays Ulyana Khomyuk, a Soviet nuclear physicist who's trying to get to the bottom of what happened at Chernobyl. According to The Daily Telegraph [14], this character is a "fictional amalgam of Soviet scientists whose names we don't know, who risked their freedom and reputations to demand the truth be told."
Anatoly Dyatlov
Portrayed by actor Paul Ritter (pictured on the left), Anatoly Dyatlov was Chernobyl's deputy chief engineer who looked over the fatal experiment and was exposed to a dangerous amount of radiation himself. In 1987, the scientist was sentenced to 10 years [15] for criminal negligence, though he was let out on early release.
On the official record, Dyatlov wanted to complete an experiment ordered by Moscow, so he intimidated his workers into taking risks that led to the destruction of the reactor. But he believed that he was a scapegoat [16] and that it was poor reactor design that caused the disaster rather than his experiment. He contends that the investigation was carried out by the people who were responsible for the design of the reactor.
Vasily Ignatenko
Vasily Ignatenko's (Adam Nagaitis) story, and that of his family, is truly a tragic one. Ignatenko was a newly married 25-year-old firefighter [17] who had gone to put out the flames at the Chernobyl reactor. Because of high radiation levels at the site, he died a slow and painful death two weeks after the disaster.
The details of his injuries are harrowing and graphic. On the outside, lesions broke out on his face, his body turned multiple colours, his skin cracked, and his hair fell out in clumps. Upon his death, Ignatenko was considered both a national hero and a radioactive threat, buried in a zinc coffin [18] in Moscow.
The Others
- Lyudmilla Ignatenko: Ignatenko (Jessie Buckley, pictured) was Vasily's 23-year-old wife [19], who was pregnant at the time of the Chernobyl accident. When she was finally able to visit Vasily, she was not allowed to touch him, as administrators feared contamination. Two months after his death came the birth of their daughter Natashenka [20], who died hours after her delivery of cirrhosis and congenital heart disease. Lyudmilla survived the disaster and has recently opened up about its impact on her life.
- Viktor Bryukhanov: Bryukhanov (Con O'Neill), Chernobyl's director at the time, received a 10-year sentence for negligence but only served five years [21] due to illness. Judge Raimond Brize [22] of the Chernobyl House of Culture criticized how he handled the evacuation of plant employees and said the plant had been poorly administered. Bryukhanov had reported to Moscow that the reactor was still intact [23], which resulted in a delay in the plant evacuation and surrounding vicinity. In a later interview with Russia Profil [24], he admitted that his staff had made mistakes but also said that there were design faults that scientists have kept quiet about. Some consider him a scapegoat of Soviet officials [25].
- Nikolai Fomin: Fomin (Adrian Rawlins) was the chief engineer at Chernobyl [26] and received a 10-year sentence for his involvements with the disaster. The court said he was one of the parties who had acted without proper authority to conduct an experiment on the fourth reactor. While in prison waiting for his trial, he attempted suicide [27].