Valerii Bespalov Oleksiiovich

Born on September 21, 1957 in the village of Lesivka, Stalin Region.

In 1980, he graduated from the Odessa Polytechnic Institute, majoring in heat and power engineering.

Since 1980, he worked at the Chornobyl NPP, starting with working positions and reaching the position of shift chief.

In 1989-1991, he worked at the design institute "Ukrdiproenergo" in Kyiv as a design engineer.

Since 1992, he resumed work at the Chornobyl NPP.

Since 2012, he has been working at SE NAEK "Energoatom" as a dispatcher of the nuclear installations monitoring group.

Chernobyl disaster

Valery Bespalov was one of the three specialists who, in April 1986, risked their lives by draining water from the coolant of the fourth power unit of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

Approximately 185 tons of molten nuclear material from the destroyed reactor burned through the concrete slab under the reactor. Under them, in the barbater basin, accumulated water, which was used during firefighting in the first days after the accident. Its volume was estimated at 19 thousand tons.

If the molten core reached water, there was a high probability of a second explosion. So a plan was developed: three specialists (known as "divers") 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.

Awards

• Hero of Ukraine awarded the Golden Star Order (June 27, 2019) for heroism and selfless actions during the liquidation of the accident at the Chernobyl NPP.
• Order "For Courage" III degree (April 25, 2018) - for a significant contribution to overcoming the consequences of the Chernobyl disaster, dedication, high professionalism and many years of fruitful public activity.
• Order of Honor (1989) — for participation in liquidation of the consequences of the accident at the Chernobyl NPP.
• Honorary award of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Ukraine (2008).