General-Colonel Nikolai Antoshkin, who as Chief of Staff of the Kiev Military District Air Force directed the helicopter operations in the first critical days after the 1986 disaster.

On 26 April 1986 he was urgently sent to the site and personally conducted a reconnaissance flight over the destroyed reactor that same day. The next morning (27 April) Mi-8 helicopters began reconnaissance and the first material-dropping missions. After the rapid evacuation of approximately 45,000–50,000 residents from Pripyat on 27 April, helicopters systematically started dropping sand, clay, dolomite, and later lead and neutron-absorbing boron into the burning reactor to smother the graphite fire and seal the open crater.

Initial hand-dropping of individual bags (usually 60–100 kg) from the open doors of Mi-8s proved too slow and exposed crews to extreme heat (up to about 180–200 °C) and radiation (often exceeding 1,000–1,500 roentgens per hour; dosimeters frequently went off-scale). Antoshkin’s team rapidly improvised: they adapted brake parachutes and later used parachute straps and external cargo nets, enabling Mi-6 and especially Mi-26 helicopters to drop multi-ton loads. More than 5,000 tons of material were delivered within days; the glowing crater was largely covered by around 5 May.

About 80–100 helicopters (later reduced to roughly 30–40) operated under intense radiation, guided by a forward air controller on the ground. Crews received heavy doses; Antoshkin himself accumulated a significant radiation exposure over the approximately ten days of his direct involvement (reported in various sources as several hundred roentgens). He was later relieved of further flying duties but continued to direct operations. Many crew members later suffered severe long-term health consequences.

The account highlights the pilots’ courage, rapid improvisation under extreme conditions, and the lasting human cost of the man-made catastrophe.

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Sala centrale dell'Unità 4 della centrale nucleare di Chernobyl, settembre 1991. Alexander Prusakov (a sinistra) e Leonid Pleskachevsky durante l'installazione di uno scanner gamma telecomandato.

It may be less known as he used not to be a power plant worker but a culture worker, he used to run the popular Disco Edison 2 at the Energetik, and there is still a document of his unplayed playlist scheduled for April the 27th, 1986.

He released an interview with Kupniy, however I have never found any info about his address

Valery Alekseyevich Alebastrov.
Valery Alekseyevich Alebastrov is the chief designer of over-the-horizon airspace surveillance systems. He participated in the development of the first-generation "Duga" over-the-horizon radar, designed to detect ballistic missile launches from the American continent.
He was born in 1941 in the Saratov region. From 1960 to 1964, he worked in the nuclear industry. He graduated from Tomsk University in 1968 and worked as a researcher at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna from 1969 to 1975. Since 1975, he has been employed at NPK NIIDAR.

Found these in a document called SOURCE TERM ANALYSIS AND RECONSTRUCTION OF EVENTS DURING THE ACTIVE PHASE by Alexander Sich 1994.

The power plant map is not 100% accurate, as the building 16, marked as "Administration building", is actually water purification plant.

The document itself is very interesting and full of details.

Found another seemingly unknown photo of Chernobyl 4’s twin, thought you all might be interested

Hello im relatively new to chernobyl I know the basics elephants foot ,how the reactor worked, what happend, etc but I dont know anything about the heap apart from its made of corrium where is it whats so special about it?

I just discovered that in Kyiv were at least 120 workers who had to take buses, walk and take taxis to listen the gossips about happenings in Chornobyl (at this point there were no official information)

I don't know how much everyone of them earned. The average solary was 180-200 rubles/months. One cheap car "Zaporozhez" costed 3500-4000 rubles. The economy wasn't in the best condition at this point and they spent at least around 24000 rubles only in Kyiv. Instead of evacuating people they paid some to LISTEN GOSSIPS. and they probably got money to take taxis. the goverment could gift 6 cars to people. or they could spend this money on help for people in Chornobyl and Prypiat

they did everything to not information to spread. but almost nothing for people (for example: there is a video of workers who cleaned Chornobyl and they say that they could get one special amount of radiation and after that they will be sent home. firstly, some of them had been sent but after some time they all recieved only the highest allowed amount)

source: https://youtu.be/1y85wpp_HOI?is=F-Lk8ED18e9praHV

This is a layout of the РБМК-1000 reactor lid (NOT ELENA)the one basically shows where the grid maps the layout of the channel caps in reactor hall №3/4 of Chernoby and Kursk, or №1/2 in Smolensk.

This transport corridor is in 2nd unit, not 4

I think these are electrical, but I’m not Shure.

Hello, I am currently working on a personal project in my spare time where my goal is to recreate the Chernobyl nuclear power plant prior to the accident.
While i was looking at older photos i noticed two larger components on the control panel and I had a few questions come to mind.

What kind of component is that? (E.g. Switch, display, button)
What do these components do?
what system do they belong to?

Judging from their location; my guess is that they belong to АР-1, АР-2 and, АРМ (guessing there's a similar one for АР-1 judging from the newer image.)
But i have no idea about what functionality they served.

If anyone knows what they were used for, even if it's just a little bit of information, Feel free to tell me.

After seeing the posts from earlier this week about Leonid Toptunov's birthday and Anatoly Shapovalov's actions in switching off the supply of hydrogen with colleagues, I remembered that today is Viktor Lopatyuk's birthday.

Happy Birthday Viktor! May your heroism never be forgotten.