Valery Khodemchuk Remains Beneath Chernobyl

The first person killed in the Chernobyl disaster was a man named Valery Khodemchuk, the night-shift circulating pump operator inside Reactor Unit 4. At approximately 1:23 a.m. on April 26, 1986, two explosions tore through the reactor and its pump halls, likely killing him instantly beneath the collapsing structure. His body was never recovered and is presumed to remain entombed beneath the destroyed circulation pumps. A memorial to Khodemchuk was later built into an interior wall of the massive sarcophagus constructed around the reactor ruins.

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