Oleksandr was involved in the Chernobyl accident: "We did not understand what went wrong"

It was the night of April 26, 1986, that the shift team was ordered to conduct a safety test of reactor 4 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. The task of the then 32-year-old Oleksandr Orlenko was to ensure that the security system received sufficient power during the test.

- The safety system would turn on automatically if the generator got too little or too much power, otherwise I would do it manually, says Oleksandr Orlenko.

But the safety system did not work, the reactor shone, exploded, and the meltdown was a fact. Inside the control room there was chaos, it shook and everything began to collapse around.

- We did not understand what was happening, why it did not work as it should and why the power disappeared. We had to stand against the walls should the roof collapse, says Oleksandr.

A long time later, some of Oleksandr's colleagues were convicted in the control room for causing the accident by mistake and ignorance, but today most people agree that a design defect in the plant contributed to the disaster.

Along with some other former engineers who also worked at the nuclear power plant during the accident days, Oleksandr Orlenko is keen to for the first time publicly announce his version of what happened that night. SVT takes them back to their old workplace.

- It's hard to think about how one by one in my team was sent to hospital that night, says Oleksandr Orlenko.

The old engineers are all critical of the authorities not having reported the design flaw.

- I thank God I'm alive. I had to endure very high radiation doses that night and the next few days, but I just kept working anyway.