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==Career==
For around two years, Legasov worked as an engineer at the [[Siberian Chemical Combine]] in the city of [[Seversk|Tomsk-7]], as a shift supervisor. He took this role in order to gain practical experience that would be the basis for later research.<ref name="tapes"/> At [[Tomsk Polytechnic University]], he started researching gaseous [[uranium hexachloride]] in a [[gaseous fission reactor]].<ref name="tapes"/> However, news of progress made by [[Neil Bartlett (chemist)|Neil Bartlett]] in Canada caused Legasov to switch his interest to [[Noble gas compound|noble gas chemistry]].<ref name="tapes"/> In 1962, he joined the graduate school in the Department of Molecular Physics of the [[Kurchatov Institute|Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy]],<ref name="redatom">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y3MJq8w8sKsC|title=Red Atom: Russia's Nuclear Power Program from Stalin to Today|last1=Josephson|first1=Paul R.|year=2005|publisher=University of Pittsburgh Pre |isbn=978-0-8229-7847-3}}</ref>{{rp|261}} first as a junior then senior researcher, and finally as head of the laboratory.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Bogunenko|first=N.|title=Heroes of the Atomic Project|publisher=Sarov|year=2005|isbn=5-9515-0005-2|pages=447–448}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> In 1967,{{citation needed|date=May 2019}} he defended his thesis at the Kurchatov Institute, under the supervisor [[Isaak Kikoin]], on the synthesis of compounds of [[noble gas]]es and the study of their properties{{citation needed|date=May 2019}}.<ref name='redatom'/>{{rp|261}} He received the degree of [[Candidate of Sciences|Candidate]] in 1967 and his [[doctorate]] in [[chemistry]] in 1972.<ref>{{cite book| author = {{nobr|Богуненко Н. Н.}}, {{nobr|Пилипенко А. Д.}}, {{nobr|Соснин Г. А.}} | title = Герои атомного проекта | edition = {{nowrap|3000 экз}} |location= Саров |date = 2005 |publisher= ФГУП «РФЯЦ-ВНИИЭФ» | page = 448 | isbn = 5-9515-0005-2| ref = Богуненко и др.}}</ref> At some stage, Legasov experienced
In 1976, Legasov was elected a corresponding member of the [[Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=Biographical Dictionary (in Russian)|publisher=Moscow State University|year=2004|isbn=5-211-05034-7|location=Moscow|page=448}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Zubacheva|first=Ksenia|date=2019-06-04|title=Who was Valery Legasov, the Soviet scientist that saved the world from Chernobyl?|url=https://www.rbth.com/history/330459-valery-legasov-chernobyl|access-date=2020-10-20|website=www.rbth.com|language=en-US}}</ref> From 1978 to 1983, he was a professor at the [[Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology]].<ref name="schmid">{{cite book |last1=D. Schmid |first1=Sonja |title=Producing Power: The Pre-Chernobyl History of the Soviet Nuclear Industry |date=2015 |publisher=MIT Press |isbn=978-0-262-02827-1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/producingpowerpr0000schm/page/182 182] |url=https://archive.org/details/producingpowerpr0000schm|url-access=registration }}</ref> In 1981, he became a full member of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, in the Department of Physical Chemistry and Technology of Inorganic Materials.{{citation needed|date=May 2019}} He was a member of the Science and Technology Council of the [[Ministry of Medium Machine Building]].<ref name="tapes"/> From 1983 until his death, he worked as chair of the department of Radiochemistry and Chemical Technology at the Faculty of Chemistry at Moscow State University.<ref name="schmid"/> In 1983,<ref name="schmid"/> he became the first deputy director for scientific work of the Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ogYAAAAAMBAJ|title=A Soviet Expert Discusses Chernobyl|year=1987|journal=Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists|volume=43|issue=6|page=32|bibcode=1987BuAtS..43f..32L|last1=Legasov|first1=Valery|doi=10.1080/00963402.1987.11459553}}</ref> His colleague Yu. A. Ustynyuk said of Legasov: "His main quality, which set him sharply apart from all the great organizing scientists I knew, was his exceptional dedication to the cause. Work was the man, almost the only meaning of his life."<ref name="legasova"/>
Legasov researched hydrogen energy as a byproduct of nuclear energy, nuclear energy strategy, energy generation safety and synthesis of unusual compounds, which he regarded as a neglected niche within the institute's activities.<ref name="tapes"/> Under his leadership, a scientific school was created
{{blockquote|I was interested in comparing the real dangers, the real threats that nuclear energy carries to the threats of other energy systems. This is what I was passionately working on, mainly figuring out the dangers in sources of energy alternative to nuclear energy.<ref name="tapes"/>}}
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{{blockquote|Excessive hierarchy has always been contraindicated for science, it stifles it. Science, like art, does not tolerate intermediate links. It is necessary to get rid of people who interfere with work. Scribbling and formalism have reached such a scale that it is already difficult for science to bear this cross.<ref name="alimov"/>}}
In the public sphere, he still kept to the official position that nuclear power was safe. In January 1986, Legasov co-authored a propaganda piece in ''[[Russian Life|Soviet Life]]'' magazine claiming there had been no nuclear accidents that had seriously threatened personnel or risked contamination, which ignored multiple serious nuclear incidents in the Soviet Union.<ref name="higginbotham"/> Even before the Chernobyl disaster, Legasov was known to stress the need for new security and safety methods to prevent large catastrophes.<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.rbth.com/history/330459-valery-legasov-chernobyl |title = Who was Valery Legasov, the Soviet scientist that saved the world from Chernobyl?|date = 2019-06-04}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.mk.ru/social/2017/04/25/kak-ubivali-akademika-legasova-kotoryy-provel-sobstvennoe-rassledovanie-chernobylskoy-katastrofy.html |title = Как убивали академика Легасова, который провел собственное расследование Чернобыльской катастрофы| date=25 April 2017 }}</ref> He had been involved in work on industrial safety with the [[State Committee for Science and Technology]], in which he had explored the risks involved in energy generation. Legasov was particularly concerned with complex systems reliant on a single operator without adequate safety systems.<ref name="alimov"/> Legasov had the opportunity to visit nuclear power plants in the West, such as the Soviet designed [[Loviisa Nuclear Power Plant]] in Finland, and was shocked at the higher safety standards, better equipment, a containment structure and superior construction.<ref name="tapes"/>
== Chernobyl disaster ==
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