[1] In 1973, he moved to Pripyat, in the Ukrainian SSR, to work at the newly constructed Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.

His fourteen-year experience working on naval reactors in the Soviet Far East made Dyatlov one of the three most senior managers at the Chernobyl station.

[1] Dyatlov worked 6 or even 7 days a week for long shifts while priding himself on his knowledge of reactor systems.

[1] His management style was unforgiving, projecting an image of infallibility, and he often cursed at staff who did not follow his orders to the letter.

Other seemingly "lazy" workers, targeted by Dyatlov's high standards, saw him as tough, stubborn, and unfair.

[3] On 26 April 1986, Dyatlov supervised a test at Reactor 4 of the nuclear plant, which resulted in the Chernobyl disaster.

[6]While withdrawing a dangerous number of control rods, the operators could only reach 200 MW due to xenon poisoning.

[1] Dyatlov left the control room to evaluate the situation, even attempting to locate the lost plant worker Valery Khodemchuk.

He began to feel weak and started vomiting, caused by acute radiation syndrome, so he gathered the operating logs from the control room and left for the administration building to report to Bryukhanov.

[1] During the accident, Dyatlov was exposed to a radiation dose of 650 rem (6.5 Sv), which causes death in 50% of affected people after 30 days.

Together with Nikolai Fomin and Viktor Bryukhanov, Dyatlov was criminally charged for failure to follow safety regulations.

There were six defendants; Bryukhanov, Fomin, Dyatlov, station shift supervisor Boris Rogozhkin, reactor division chief Alexander Kovalenko, and inspector Yuri Laushkin.

[9][10][11] From prison, he wrote letters trying to explain RBMK reactor flaws he had discovered, as well as to restore his and the other operators' reputations.

Everything had been done according to the regulation demands... the reactor protection system designed to stop the fission in an emergency situation... played the role of the atomic bomb detonator.

[15] Dyatlov died of bone marrow cancer in Kyiv, Ukraine in 1995, which was almost certainly caused by his radiation poisoning from the accident.