Boris Baranov Oleksandrovich

He was born on November 11, 1940 in the village of Sozinovy, Kirov Region. Studied at a local school.

From 1966 to 1976, he worked as a duty engineer of the plant's thermal power plant station, and later as a shift chief of the Kryvorizka Metallurgical Plant's CHP power plant, Dnipropetrovsk region.

In 1974, he graduated from the Ukrainian Correspondence Polytechnic Institute, majoring in heat and power engineering.

In 1976, he started working at the Chornobyl NPP as a shift supervisor.

Chernobyl accident

About 185 tons of molten nuclear material from the destroyed reactor burned through the concrete slab under the reactor. Under them, water used to extinguish the fire in the first days after the accident accumulated in the barbater pool. Its volume was estimated at 19 thousand tons.

If the molten core reached water, there was a high probability of a second explosion. Therefore, a plan was developed: three specialists, who were later often called divers in the media, were to go through the flooded chambers of the fourth reactor, find two shut-off valves and open them to drain the water.

Boris Baranov, the station shift chief, decided that this dangerous operation would be performed by three people: himself, senior engineer of power unit No. 3 Valery Bespalov and senior engineer Oleksiy Ananenko.

Contrary to popular belief, all three survived receiving non-critical doses of radiation.

After liquidation of the consequences of the accident, Boris continued to work at the Chornobyl NPP. After the closing of the last power unit at the end of 2000, the organization was transformed into the state specialized enterprise "Chernobyl NPP".

He died on April 6, 2005. Buried in Kyiv at the Forest Cemetery (plot No. 108).

Awards

• Hero of Ukraine awarded the Golden Star Order (June 27, 2019, posthumously) for heroism and selfless actions during the liquidation of the accident at the Chernobyl NPP.
• Order "For Courage" III degree (April 25, 2018, posthumously) - for a significant contribution to overcoming the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster, dedication, high professionalism and many years of fruitful public activity.
• Excellence of Energy of Ukraine (2002).

Commemoration

In many cities of Ukraine there is Street of Heroes of Chernobyl, to which Borys Baranov definitely belongs.

In Cinema

Boris Baranov is mentioned in the TV series "Chernobyl".