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 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 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.