Anton’s Story - Part II: State of Emergency

Written by Val Stutz, edited by: Clary Estes. Our conversation with Anton was organized and moderated by our citizen journalist Eugene. Quotes have been edited for clarity and concision.

“What do we mean by an emergency situation?” Anton posited during his interview. 

The description he gave provided a firsthand account of the safety protocol that nuclear staff and maintenance personnel at Chernobyl must follow in the event of an emergency: “We have to prepare to turn off all the unnecessary systems, in order to bring the facility to a fire-safe condition, then prepare the staff for evacuation.”

As the shift supervisor, Anton was not fully aware of the status of the situation at first. “All the personnel in the facility were assembled and I told them that a state of emergency had been declared at the power plant, which may be connected with the possibility of a Russian invasion and the start of a war in Ukraine. But it still wasn’t clear at the time.”