The forgotten heroes of Chernobyl: Aleksandr Nekhayev
Aleksandr Nekhayev with his daughter Olya
Aleksandr worked as a senior mechanical engineer in the first reactor shop (Units 1 and 2). On the night of the disaster, he was helping his colleagues from Unit 4. They were tasked with opening emergency water supply valves to Unit 4, located in room 714/2, but since they were unfamiliar with the geography of the unit, Akimov and Toptunov, whose shift had already ended but who remained to help, went with Nekhayev, Orlov, and Uskov. Together, they managed to complete the task, and Nekhayev and his colleagues then helped Akimov and Toptunov get on the ambulance, as by that point it had become extremely difficult for them to walk.
A sketch of Nekhayev and others opening the valves in room 714/2
Aleksandr Nekhayev later returned to his unit to end his shift. He received what is considered a lethal dose (600 rem, or 6 sieverts) and radiation burns to all his extremities, but survived, despite 18 surgeries and the loss of one of his legs (his other leg had to be amputated in 2011). After his stay in the Hospital #6 ward in 1986, they changed everything there - the floors, the tiles, the furniture - everything was radioactive, it was dangerous to even enter the room.
Here's an excerpt from his 1987 interview in "Komsomolskaya Pravda" newspaper:
>He was working that night in a team with Akimov and Toptunov, right across from the damaged reactor. Akimov and Toptunov died (Vladimir Chugunov, Vyacheslav Orlov, Aleksandr Nekhayev, and Arkady Uskov volunteered to cool the reactor with water). Apparently, that was the worst of it.
>No, not "apparently"! It was the worst of it, and they knew it even then. Nekhayev said, "Someone had to open the valves." He said it exactly like that: someone. Depersonalising himself. Depriving himself of any right to privileges. As if it were a battle, and he was a soldier in that battle.
>— How long were you in that place?
>— Forty to fifty minutes. Many of those who lie today in the Mitino Cemetery in Moscow received their dose in a matter of minutes.
>— Then?
>— Then I felt very ill, and I went home. I thought it was the end for me then... I wanted to see my children one last time. An ambulance took me away that morning.
>"Where did they award you the Order of Friendship of Peoples?"
>"Right at the clinic. People from the ministry came to see me, my Chernobyl survivors visited... It was a solemn occasion."
>"Were there journalists?"
>"Journalists? No... Journalists don't torment you."
>"What are your plans, Aleksandr?"
>"To live..."
His plans were destined to come true. Having survived stage-three radiation sickness, Aleksandr lived for several decades. By 2011, of the 18 severely irradiated, only two remained. The death of his wife significantly undermined his health, but he still had his children, Seryozhka and Olenka... For their sake, he lived to the age of 75. Aleksandr Nekhaev passed away on December 24, 2017.
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Sources:
vk com/chernobyl_pripyat?w=wall-792329_225496
1tv ru/news/2011-04-26/128400-25_let_proshlo_so_vzryva_na_chernobylskoy_aes
strana-rosatom ru/2020/02/25/vashi-plany-zhit/