As much as I could gather about Toptunov
Due to his job and involvement in the Chernobyl disaster, Toptunov often becomes the subjects of all sorts of false theories. What he did at the control room that fateful night is usually portrayed wrong in order to characterise him a certain way. According to many, he is the sole cause of the Chernobyl disaster. As a victim of the disaster, he is often just a statistic. This post includes as much information as I could find that was also verifiable in some way.
Leonid Toptunov was born on 16/8/1960 in Mykolaivka of the Sumy oblast in Ukraine, but did not live there for very long. As his father, Fyodor, was a senior military officer who supervised the space program of the Soviet Union, the family moved to Baikonur. When Toptunov was seven months old, he got to see Gagarin's flight to space. Also, his father often said the cosmonaut used to babysit the kid. For many years, until he was thirteen, Toptunov grew up in Baikonur surrounded by science, until his father got a job as an attaché in Estonia, at the Dvigatel rocket engine plant. In Estonia, he went to school and was described as a shy but very good student, and especially talented in physics and mathematics. When having to choose what to study, he found an interest in nuclear engineering. The admission exams for the university in Moscow were very difficult, and in addition, for every position there were four people wanting to get in. Many had failed the exam time and time again however Toptunov still tried, and his father waited for him outside the exam hall. In the end, he managed to get in and called his mother to share the great news, however his mother, Vera, begged him not to go since she was afraid of nuclear energy and also knew that her son would have to leave Estonia, as there were no nuclear power plants there, and asked him to stay in Tallinn, however Toptunov said that he had no interest in living at a Baltic backwater.
In university, Toptunov got along well with one of the other students in his group of almost thirty first-year students, Alexander Korol, and the two became good friends. The university offered many novelties to people who had just been accepted there, such as sixteen research facilities and two small research reactors. Other than that, Toptunov was almost expelled twice but remained a student thanks to his father. The first time, he had gotten into boxing and karate, which was banned in the Soviet Union, and whoever wanted to get into those sports taught themselves through illegally circulated manuals. The teachers in the university explained that especially for those wanting to get into the nuclear industry, fighting could lower their chances due to damages to their vision. Fortunately, Toptunov managed to retain most of his vision as often in various pictures he is seen wearing glasses, but also had his nose broken on one occasion. Also, one day, he was drunk and had gotten into an arguement with a thermodynamics tutor at the dormitory building the students lived in, as the tutor hadn't gotten an apartment yet. The two of them couldn't share a faucet at the bathroom and began arguing. One thing led to another and Toptunov punched the teacher, giving him a black eye.
For their diploma project after four years of studying in the university, he and Korol decided to go work at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant for their internship for six months, considered the best of the country, and which was the future workplace for many graduates from Moscow. Toptunov worked on using acoustics to identify irregularities in the performance of the reactor. Both him and Korol liked it enough that after graduation, they returned to Chernobyl.
Being a new engineer at the power plant, Toptunov usually did menial work while learning the complex layout of the plant and also about its equipment. Generally, it was common for all trainees to stay back even after their shift was over to learn how to navigate in the plant and also to observe experiments and special tests but also routine work in order to gain more information about the reactor and the other machinery in the plant, in the hopes of being able to get the jobs that they wanted faster. As it was 1983 when Toptunov got a job at the plant and Reactor 4 was in the process of being constructed, him and the other newcomers including his friend Korol helped in construction by multiple ways, such as climbing in the reactor and searching for any cracks and leaks in the graphite and monitoring the welding of the scores of the water pipelines. To become a reactor operator, Toptunov had to pass all sorts of exams, as well as medical ones, observe the senior operators, undergo a security screening by the KGB, operate the reactor himself under supervision and then operate it without. He had to read all sorts of manuals and regulations for the job, and he eventually discovered that under some certain circumstances, when the control rods were lowered into the reactor, reactivity would rise.
Outside work, Toptunov still found time for other activities despite the long hours spent at the plant. When he still lived in a dormitory, he had set up a makeshift gym at the basement which was for everyone as he used it often. He also tutored high school students in physics and maths. Often, like many others, Toptunov fished by the cooling reservoir around the station, since the water, having being used as a coolant already, was warm and attracted lots of fish. He also had a girlfriend, Galina, who worked at the hospital as a nurse, and the two of them had met at the wedding of Alexei Breus, Toptunov's friend. When Toptunov got an apartment of his own, him and Korol lived in the same building in Sportivnaya street, and near a female dormitory. Toptunov's parents had also helped him to get quality furniture for his new apartment. The two of them had keys to each other's apartment and came and went as they wished. Korol was still in the process of becoming a reactor operator. Toptunov gained seniority in February of 1986 and also became very good friends with the unit supervisor of his shift, Alexander Akimov. Toptunov loved that job and enjoyed operating the reactor. He also loved socialising, even if he was a rather shy person.
On the night of 25/4/1986, Toptunov passed by Korol's apartment and told him about the safety test, asking him if he wanted to come along, however Korol refused and Toptunov went to the plant alone. There was a bus that took workers to and from the plant that stopped at Kurchatov street. When he went to the control room, that was when he discovered that he'd be the one to operate the reactor himself after due to a delay, the safety test was handed over from the first shift to the fifth. When Toptunov arrived at the control room, the other shift had already been lowering the reactor power in preparation for the turbine rundown test.
Originally, the reactor would have to be shut down at the beginning of the test, however it was not so the the vibration of the turbines could be measured, and the turbine had been disconnected from the reactor. The power was lowered to 700MW of thermal output, which was the minimum requirement for the test to proceed, and then fell below, which most likely was a deliberate choice as to lower the amount of steam dumped after closing the turbine valves. At 00:28 of the next day, a series of automatic control rod regulators failed and the boiling of the water in the core suddenly stopped, leading to the power of the reactor decreasing drastically and stopping at 30 MW of thermal output. While raising control rods to get the power back up, the first to raise them was a senior reactor operator from the previous shift, Yuri Tregub, then Akimov and then Toptunov. When Tregub noticed that Toptunov was pulling the control rods unevenly, he guided them on the correct ones to pull. Most of the control rods were eventually withdrawn, with the authorisation of the deputy chief engineer of the plant, Anatoly Dyatlov. Finally, the operators managed to raise the power to 200MW without violating the operating reactivity margin, which meant that the test could go on. During the next part of the test, Toptunov waited since it didn't include him. Two more circulation pumps were added and the senior unit control engineer, Boris Stolyarchuk, increased the amount of cold feedwater flowing through the reactor as the xenon poisoning continued. Thus, more control rods were withdrawn, both automatically and manually. By 1AM, the operating reactivity margin was 18-19 control rods and by 1:23AM, it was 10-12. The water flow decreased and power slowly began to rise, then stopped when the automatic control rods were inserted. Akimov motioned to the AZ-5 (shutdown) button and at 1:23:39 Toptunov pressed it. With the descension, the graphite water displacers pushed the water of the reactor at the bottom and then the power rose rapidly. A noise that sounded like a car engine that struggled to start up preceded an explosion, then cries, then another explosion.
For a moment, the lights failed since there was no power until the diesel generators came online. The control rods had only reached at most their halfway point and Toptunov attempted to lower them further as they had been destroyed during the explosion. The chief shift supervisor, Boris Rogozhkin, soon arrived and when he asked Toptunov and Dyatlov what had happened, Dyatlov defended the operator, saying that they had fonly pressed the AZ-5 when the reactor exploded and Toptunov confirmed it. When Rogozhkin left, Dyatlov dismissed all non-essential personnel, including Toptunov, who refused to leave. Dyatlov sent him to the Unit 3 control room but Toptunov came back again wanting to assist, perhaps out of guilt, then leaving after an order from Dyatlov and coming back again. In the morning, Toptunov was sent to room 714/2 along with Akimov, Uskov, Orlov, and Nekhaev. Room 714/2 contained valves that would allow water to flow from the steam seperators to the reactor upon opening. That room had been flooded with irradiated water up to ankle height and radioactivity rose the further one went down the room. Toptunov and Akimov went to the far end, where water poured on them, and by the time they opened the valve, the first man was vomiting and the other was unable to stand on his own, holding onto the wall. Returning to the control room, the two explained their jobs to the day shift who had just arrived, which was difficult since both Toptunov and Akimov could not stop vomiting, reaching a point where there was nothing to throw up. When trying to get to the infirmary, Toptunov collapsed and had to be carried by others. He was soon taken to the hospital and by the evening, he was very tanned and his tongue was swollen.
Korol had been waiting for Toptunov to come back, but instead, his girlfriend came, explaining that the workers had been taken to the hospital. Korol and some friends waited for Toptunov and soon realised that he had been hospitalised. The last time that Korol saw Toptunov was when he was sitting at the bus that would take the patients to the airport in Kiev. They only spoke about what had happened as Korol was writing down addresses of people that had to be informed about their relatives flying to Moscow.
That evening was also when the first patients were flown to Moscow, and unti reaching the hospital, Toptunov still wore his uniform, which was wet and irradiated. On the 29th, he sent a telegram to his parents in Tallinn, and they went to Moscow.
As Toptunov had contracted acute radiation poisoning after receiving a dosage of 13Gy, he needed a hematopoietic stem cell transplant to increase his white blood cell count. His mother was a match and so she donated stem cells through the removal of bone marrow though her pelvis, and thus became one of the first donors to undergo the procedure. Toptunov believed that he would survive, however, he kept deteriorating as he tried to understand what had happened. Often the workers discussed what had happened while sitting at the stairwell as it was the only place they could smoke. Toptunov's mother asked him what had happened and he told her that he had done everything according to the regulations. On the 11th of May, his hair starting falling out and getting into his wounds which caused him great pain. When his mother asked to have his head shaved, Toptunov responded that it was a waste of money as he could pull it out himself, and according to her, grabbed some hair from the back of his head, pulled it out easily and showed her. His legs were both extremely burnt and looked like they had been dipped in something very corrosive, and they were wrapped in gauze. Once, some gauze had fallen off from a foot, and due to the deterioration of his legs, lymph and fluid was hanging off. On the 14th, Toptunov died after his lungs failed, as he woke up gasping for air and suffocated. There was not enough time for the bone marrow procedure to take hold. Beta burns covered 90% of his body, his lungs had been destroyed by gamma rays, and he had suffered injuries to his skin and intestines. It is said by his mother that Toptunov never made any noise due to pain and only bit his lip which would result in bleeding from the force. Before suffocating, he had shown signs of recovery. At the time of his death, Toptunov was 25, and had survived for 18 days after exposure. A picture of his autopsy is rumored to exist, however it is classified.
When his body had to be sealed inside the coffin, his parent protested and wanted the coffin to be sealed when he'd be buried, and the undertakers relented only when Fyodor laid himself on the road, saying that if they wanted to seal the coffin, they'd have drive over him. Toptunov, as well as the other victims, were buried in the Mitino cemetary. During the investigation about the accident, he was blamed alongside the six men who went through trial, as well as Akimov and the reactor shop shift foreman, Valery Perevozchenko, the last two men having died as well. A letter was sent to Toptunov's parents explaining that the only reason why he was not imprisoned was due to his death, something that angered Dyatlov enough to send his own letter to Vera, explaining that her son was a hero and had done nothing wrong, since the blame fell to the designers of the RBMK. Toptunov was publically exonerated in 2008 and awarded the Order for Courage, third degree, by Ukraine. Said metal was sadly stolen.
The problem about Toptunov is that due to his death, anyone can make up all sorts of stories about him. Usually, he is characterised similarly to a pray animal, without much will of his own, being bossed around by Dyatlov, such image appears in the Chernobyl series by HBO. Another way that he is depicted is as an operator that knows nothing even though that was not the case, and even if he was very young, he had still operated the reactor for years and even knew about the control rods raising the reactivity, which most of the operators did not. He was even helped by Akimov and Tregub, who were also very experienced. The other theories fall to conspiracies, for example, that Toptunov was someone's secret agent and that he caused the accident on purpose. Whose? I've heard the KGB, the CIA, the oil industry. Now why he would go out of his way to die even though he could have survived, that's another story, and the conspiracies don't cover that. Regardless of opinion, Toptunov has been confirmed to not be responsible for the disaster. May he rest in peace.
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