Alexander Akimov

Aleksandr Fyodorovich Akimov (; 6 May 1953 – 10 May 1986) was a Soviet engineer who was the supervisor of the shift that worked at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Reactor Unit 4 on the night of the Chernobyl disaster, 26 April 1986.

Biography Aleksandr Akimov was born on 6 May 1953 in Novosibirsk, then part of the Soviet Union.

In 1976, Akimov graduated from the Moscow Power Engineering Institute, with the degree of specialist in engineering and automation of heat and power processes.

He began his career at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in September 1979. During his first years at Chernobyl, he held positions of senior turbine management engineer and shift supervisor of the turbine hall.

On 10 July 1984, Akimov was appointed to the position of shift supervisor of Reactor Unit 4.

Chernobyl disaster On the night of 26 April 1986, Akimov was on duty as the shift supervisor of Chernobyl's electronuclear plant 4th power unit. The reactor power level had been reduced, preparing for a planned safety test. The test was supervised by deputy chief engineer Anatoly Dyatlov, who was Akimov's superior. The reactor stalled unexpectedly during test preparations, reportedly due to a mistake made by Leonid Toptunov. Raising power after this point put the reactor into a potentially dangerous state due to design flaws, unbeknownst to the operators. During the test, Akimov called for the AZ-5 (scram) button to be pressed to shut down the reactor.

Akimov worked with his crew in the reactor building after learning the accident's extent. They tried to pump water into the exposed reactor core until the morning. He worked with Toptunov, Nekhaev, Uskov and Orlov to manually open water valves in an attempt to increase water supply to the reactor, during which time Akimov and Toptunov began to experience symptoms of acute radiation syndrome His family was informed that his death was the only reason he was not prosecuted for the accident. Nonetheless, the operators were found to have deviated from operational procedures, changing test protocols on the fly, and having made "ill judged" actions, making human action major factors.

Recognition In 2008, Akimov was posthumously awarded with the 3rd degree Order For Courage by Viktor Yushchenko, the then-President of Ukraine.

He was portrayed by actor Aleksandr Khoroshko in the 2004 Zero Hour television series and by Sam Troughton in the 2019 HBO miniseries Chernobyl.