Science & Technology

Anatoli Bugorski: the man who survived a proton beam to the head

By T.K. Randall
February 4, 2025

Image: AI-generated (Midjourney) The incident involved Anatoli Petrovich Bugorski, a particle physicist who in 1978 had been working at the Institute for High Energy Physics in Protvino, Russia on a device known as the U-70 synchrotron, which happened to be the largest particle accelerator in the Soviet Union at the time.

On July 13th of that year, he had been checking out a malfunctioning piece of equipment when he inadvertently leaned over and stuck his head directly in the path of the proton beam.

The beam passed right through his head and out the other side, causing him to experience a bright flash of light that he described as being "brighter than a thousand suns."The dose of radiation he was exposed to was around 2,000 to 3,000 Sieverts - approximately 1,000 times greater than the dose that would typically be expected to kill a human being.

Over the next few days, Bugorski's face swelled up and the path of the beam - which had burnt through parts of his face, his skull and his brain tissue - became increasingly apparent.

It was believed that he would almost certainly die from the incident and he was taken to a clinic in Moscow so that doctors could monitor his deterioration and death.

Incredibly, however, his condition improved and he was not only able to leave the clinic, but was even able to complete his PhD and continue with his work as a particle physicist.

Against all odds, he is still alive today - aged 82.

Source: Lad Bible

Tags: Nuclear