Aleksandr Fyodorovich Akimov (; 6 May 1953 – 11 May 1986) was a Soviet engineer who was the supervisor of the shift that worked at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant Reactor Unit 4 on the night of the Chernobyl disaster, 26 April 1986. Biography Aleksandr Akimov was born on 6 May 1953 in Novosibirsk, Russian SFSR (Republic of the Soviet Union). In 1976, Akimov graduated from the Moscow Power Engineering Institute, with the degree of specialist in engineering and automation of heat and power processes. He began his career at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in September 1979. During his first years at Chernobyl, he held positions of senior turbine management engineer and shift supervisor of the turbine hall. On 10 July 1984 Akimov was appointed to the position of shift supervisor of Reactor Unit 4. In his personal life, Akimov enjoyed reading historical biographies and hunting. He was well liked by his colleagues but could be pushed around by his superiors. Chernobyl disaster On the night of 26 April 1986, Akimov was on duty as the shift supervisor of the Chernobyl' electronuclear plant 4th power unit. The reactor power level had been reduced, preparing for a planned safety test. The reactor stalled unexpectedly during test preparations, however, reportedly due to a mistake made by Leonid Toptunov. Raising power after this point put the reactor into a potentially dangerous state, due to design flaws in the reactor unbeknownst to the operators. During the test, Akimov called for the AZ-5 (scram) button to be pressed to shut down the reactor. Due to a design flaw, the descending control rods momentarily accelerated the nuclear reaction and caused the reactor to explode. The communications networks were suddenly flooded with calls and information. Akimov heard reports of massive reactor damage, but did not believe it, and as a result, relayed false information about the state of the reactor for hours thereafter. Akimov worked with his crew in the reactor building after he learned the extent of the accident. They tried to pump water into the exposed reactor core until the morning. He worked with Toptunov to manually open water valves in an attempt to increase water supply to the reactor, during which time they began to notice acute radiation syndrome on themselves and were sent to the infirmary. Akimov was exposed during his work to a lethal dose of 15-20 Gy of radiation. He