Half Lives: Nikolai Fomin, the Forgotten Victim of Chernobyl
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- Опубликовано: 3 окт 2024
- Half Lives is a series dedicated to telling the stories of the people who were involved in history's nuclear accidents, from their birth, to the mishap, and their life following. These lives are often mixed up with lies, rumors and controversies. This is their true story.
Nikolai Fomin was the Chief Engineer of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant on the night of April the 26th, later arrested for his role in the accident. Today, he is the only living member of the three senior members of the Nuclear Power Plant found guilty of the accident.
But Fomin's life was plagued from beginning to end by poor health, both mentally and physically, and both as a result of himself and others. It is a story of tragedy, concealed by the lies of Chernobyl, in doing so making him the forgotten victim.
I hope you enjoy the video.
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Happy to see revealing of the personas, especially after seeing how some of their personalities being shadowed by HBO Chernobyl
No kidding. I had only learned after the HBO series that Dyatlov looked as sick as he did was because he was running around trying to shut reactor 3 down (without asking Bryukhanov for permission) and asses damage. He was even part of the group looking for Khodemchuk but they gave up after the dosimeters maxed out. He knew damn well what that roentgen reading meant. He wasn't a dumb, inhuman dogfker like the show makes him out to be.
@@pilsnerd420 I know this may be a long shot since its a month later, But can you post a link to the information you are talking about? I have read page after page watched interviews but there is never any mention of him trying to shutdown reactor 3, Or his role in searching for Khodemchuk, I would love to know more about Dyatlov its a shame these men wernt interviewed at extent to share there message.. Soviet union for you I guess.
@@pilsnerd420 Right. They really did a number on him.
Also Bryukhanov in reality seemed to have been a much more caring conscientious person than the buck passer in the series.
I get that they needed to dramatise things but it was a bit excessive.
@@redacted7634but the book "midnight in Chernobyl"
I stumbled across this channel and I am glad I did. Thank you for giving a voice to those that can't defend themselves. You have a new subscriber. I am watching them all.
great work, especially considering how hard it is to find the info. Keep it up!
It's difficult indeed. Thanks, I'll try to keep it up. :)
Great video and channel! I love the more in depth information about these people. Really helps in understanding what the circumstances actually were like at that time. Keep it up!
You're welcome! Glad you enjoy the content! :)
@@thatchernobylguy2915
Difficult? How about impossible, unless you made it up or work for the FSB and write what they want you to write.
With all respect why are you doing these uploads?
You feel sorry for Fomin or Dyatlov?
@simongills2051 As I said to you in previous comments, I am not making this up, nor am I taking orders from the FSB. These people are still considered criminals by many, so I'm not sure what you mean.
These videos are based on witness testimony, books published by independent authors, documentaries, the like.
Fomin is a man with mental health problems who was pushed up the ranks by the Communist Party and completely psychologically broken by the Chernobyl Disaster. We know he still hasn't recovered from the people who take care of him, most of which are former employees of the ChNPP themselves. He is not a perpetrator of the disaster.
One thing i can't wrap my head around is why in the HBO series they show that the reactor itself lowered to 200 or stalled(probably due to xenon poisoning)but in reality they say that the personnel actually wanted the reactor to 200MW in the first place ? Those are 2 very different things.
Well First HBO is show, not precise dokument,.. Second whit both Akimov and Toptunov death, it was easy to make them scapegoats.
@Lordi800 Safety regulations say that the reactor should never be allowed to fall below 700mw, but Dyatlov ordered Toptunov and Akimov to bring it to 300mw (as Fomin said due to Dyatlov's costiveness). Akimov and Toptunov initially objected ,but Dyatlov was senior so they had to follow his orders. Toptunov could not bring it down to 300mw due to his inexperience, and he completely stalled the reactor. Dyatlov was furious at Toptunov and ordered him to correct his mistake but at this point it was already a lost cause, because the reactor acts very unstable under 700mw. ...So had all safety procedures been followed, the reactor wouldn't have fallen under 700 mw , and thus this catastrophe would not have happened. Matter of fact there are still 4 RBMK's of this type currently operational in Russia, and there are no problems, because they learned their lesson and strictly follow every single safety regulation.
Woooo! More content! Good job dude!
Thanks, I appreciate the comments. :)
Woooo new half lives video! Been waiting for this!
Nice!
amazing video with amazing research! insanely imfortmative, really good video
Thanks so much for going to this length on this topic. There is such a dearth of info on the "other" people involved at all levels regarding this disaster AND the context the entire Soviet system and power generation culture had to play in it.
Boris Scherbina next! I really enjoy your channel!!
Boris Shcherbina certainly is an interesting person; I'll see what I can find out.
@@thatchernobylguy2915it's really difficult to find information about ost People from the Central Committee or the KGB. But it doesn't matter I will watch every video you make ;)
@@thatchernobylguy2915 Indeed, he served in Stalingrad.
I have seen a number of documentaries and docudramas on this subject. They all seem to portray the three defendents as somehow being evil or self centered.
It is refreshing to see a description of them not being biased by Soviet propaganda .
You're welcome; I hope I've done all three of these men justice for the suffering they went through.
Awesome to see you upping the upload rate, great as always! Keep on rockin!
I hope you can do some videos on the fire fighters who first responded to the disaster
Great series on _Chernobyl._
hmm the soundtrach i listen when i watch the broken sword yt channel.
amazing video
great video, i love videos like these.
In a Soviet work culture, as a lead worker to get the work done, you had to cut corners. If you weren't willing to, then someone less scrupulous got the job. That also meant that if a tragedy happened, then there surely was something to be found and someone to be blamed. Yes, these men were scapegoats, because there were thousends of other directors violating regulation and cutting corners. You could say: "I can't finish the power station, because I can't get imflamable material for the roof" and end up being demoted and replaced by someone who would finish the roof, or you could make the roof from a flamable material and finish the station in the planned term. But if the reactor exploded, the roof caught fire and several young firemen died in agony, you would pay the price as a fall guy for what others were doing too and everybody knew about it.
On the other hand, the scapegoats aren't just a part of communist regimes. Few years ago in my country a 14 years old boy died in a swiming pool. There were vigils held and the parents were calling for the guilty party to be punished. The police investigated and found out the guilty party was the dead boy (he did something he shouldn't have) and his friends who were helping him and who also didn't call the help but run away. But the boys were all 14 and therefore not criminaly responsible. The company owning the swiming pool and the company which had built it made some shortcuts against regulation, but not such that would enable the prosecutor to pin the death on them (companies also had army of lawyers). So the prosecutor pinned it on a lifeguard who did everything right. They blamed him for not doing more than his duty and for not forseeing that the boys were about to do a thing that not even swiming pool's technicians considered deadly. Luckily the court dismissed the case and the life-guard suffered only over a year of a legal nightmare, but I have no doubts that some scapegoats are sometimes less lucky. 😞
As you say, nuclear power plants should not be regarded as explosion prone plants.
I find it so interesting how they all seemed to really want to get back to nuclear power. Was it because they found it so interesting or because there was no other alternative for them?
It was a career that has very distinct and focused qualifications, and all of these people did have very well respected achievements in the field; it was an easy job for them to get back into once the were largely exonerated of their roles in the disaster. It might come as a surprise to you, but one of the people in the Control Room that night, Boris Stolyarchuk, is the Chief Nuclear Safety Inspector for Ukraine. They were all very well respected in their fields, and those whom remain working in it still are.
@@thatchernobylguy2915 thanks for the thoughtful response. I guess what is impressive to me is that they were not too traumatized from the experience to go back to working in Nuclear power. In Medicine, at least in the US, sometimes doctors or nurses have incidents that are so traumatic or awful that they have to leave their specialty or the field entirely. Maybe these guys come from a different stock. I would imagine a lot of anxiety the first time going back to work after being involved in Chernobyl.
Fomin was a turbine engineer, not a nuclear engineer. He should never have been in such a position. Take a couple of arseholes, put them in positions they should never be in. Take a crazy test with an unstable reactor design - which can 'never go wrong' - and a system where lessons are never learned or passed on. The guy couldn't even drive a car, let alone compose a run-down test on an RBMK.
Another good video.
Can you make a video like this on Boris Shcherbina or Valary Legasov
I plan on doing videos on both of these people in the near future. :)
@@thatchernobylguy2915From the HBO series I was most impacted by the regular people who made such huge sacrifices during the clean up. I'd love to hear more about their stories, if you can find the info. I'm really enjoying your channel!
*I too wish NIkolai Fomin good health.*
You're mistaken. RBMK reactors can't explode
Where did you find the rundown programe
Man they cast a good replacement for him on the show. Probably the most accurate part of the whole thing. Looks just like him. Actually Bryukanov (sp) also.
I have the most useless trivia about his actor, Adrian Rawlins. He also plays James Potter in the Harry Potter series (Harry's father). Both Adrian Rawlins and Daniel Radcliffe also played Arthur Kidd in the two Woman in Black movies (the 1989 and 2012 films). Like father like son. It's a useless but cool fact. :)
Fomin was a rat based on this testimony. He blames his subordinates for everything, never once did he question the system. But thats probably why he lived
The Russians made some achievements in jet planes, especially in MIG series, but outside of nuclear fission detonations, they seem to approach nuclear power generation with the mentality of cave men. What else can be said?
This video was about the Soviet Union, not Russian Federation. All modern nuclear weapons rely on fission and fusion reactions because they need less nuclear material, produce greater yield, fallout can be reduced, etc. If Soviet failure at Chernobyl isn't interesting to you, i suggest reading about South Korean and Russian civilian nuclear programs, they are the only two nations in the world capable of building modern nuclear reactors in ~7 years, for less than 10 billion eur per reactor. Next chapter can be VVER series of reactors, floating reactor, molten salt reactor, small modular reactor, etc. Unlike lots of talking and dreams we hear, even lies, Russia already built these things and continues improving them. Enjoy new knowledge.
9:50 What kind of ukranian law are you talking about? Ukraine as did not existed until the collapse of the soviet union in 1989. It was part of the soviet union. Nor the ukraine as a region had any kind of autonomy to have it's own laws within the soviet union. All regions inside the soviet system uniformly used the "1977 Constitution of the Soviet Union" by that time.
Just before you think I am joking the current Soviet Criminal codes which were used in the "1977 Constitution of the Soviet Union" are still present and used in the current Russian law.
Article 165 is: "Infliction of Property Damage Through Deception or Abuse of Confidence 1. Infliction of property damage upon the owner or other possessor of property through"
Article 220 is: "Illegal Treatment of Nuclear Materials or Radioactive Substances" Of which section 2 is "2. The same acts, which have involved by negligence the death of a person or any other grave consequences,"
Which Judging by their content seems like the matching charges. I am aware that you are pro ukranian regarding the current war, and that we had arguments earlier. But I would really warm you against putting political side steps into the by the way professionally done content. Such political messages or God forbid white washings could end up being killing your character once being caught doing it.
Of the Ukrainian SSR.
It is not possible to charge under the USSR or the RSFSR, so they use the UkSSR laws, hence Ukrainian law.
Source: Midnight in Chernobyl.
You've explained it yourself, they codified it so they share the same laws. But it was the Ukrainian laws that they were charged under, as Chernobyl was in Ukraine.
@@thatchernobylguy2915 But that would suggest some short of authonomy. How would something like that happen? They got regionals?
Was it really a different law of were just the local execution office judging under the same state laws? Like siberian office?
@@venator5 Well, they were all rather autonomous. They all had individual secretaries and Prime Ministers, and regional governmental bodies, etc, including a regional legal system. Each one of them had the same laws, but it was specific to wherever the crime was committed.
@@thatchernobylguy2915 Ah so in way It is similar to what we have where we live.
Same laws but with regional execution offices and police headquarters.