Anatoly Dyatlov, the dictatorial deputy chief engineer, had spent his years of incarceration contesting the verdict of the Soviet court, writing letters and giving interviews from prison in an attempt to publicize what he’d learned about the failings of the RBMK reactor and clear his name and those of his staff. He wrote directly to Hans Blix at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna to point out the failings of their technical analysis, but also to the parents of Leonid Toptunov, describing how their son had stayed at his post to try to save the crippled reactor and how he had been
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