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6 months ago
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ARTICLE AD BOX
At the heart of the Chernobyl exclusion zone is a radioactive object so dangerous that just looking at it could be fatal within minutes.
This body is called the "Elephant's Foot" because of its strange shape resembling an elephant's foot, as the extremely dangerous mass of toxic materials formed in the wake of the 1986 nuclear disaster.
It may seem supernatural, but this body is real, and staying just 300 seconds in the room containing the “elephant foot” can leave you with only two days to live.
In fact, the "elephant's foot" is a large, 2-meter-wide block of curium, a lava-like mixture of fissile material created in the core of a nuclear reactor during nuclear fusion.
Because of the intense radiation, only a few photos were taken of the “elephant's foot” in the steam distribution passage below the reactor.
Even now, nearly 40 years after the disaster, entering the room could be deadly and the threat could persist for centuries to come.
On April 26, 1986, Reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant experienced an unexpected power surge, leading to an explosion and fire that released large amounts of radiation, in what was considered the worst nuclear disaster in human history.
That fall, as emergency crews struggled to contain the radiation, they discovered a room beneath the reactor that had become one of the most dangerous places on the planet.
The reactor became so hot that the steel and concrete used to protect the reactor core melted and turned into radioactive lava.
Gradually, this lava seeped out of the reactors, made its way through the pipes, mixed with more ingredients and turned into a complex mess of radioactive chemicals.
When this mixture finally cooled, it turned into a new substance called curium. Part of the curium fell through the steam passage at the bottom of the reactor, and this mass became known today as the “elephant’s foot” because of its distinctive shape.
In 1986, the Elephant's Foot was releasing 10,000 roentgen (a measure of radiation) per hour, equivalent to about 1,000 times the dose required to cause cancer. An hour of radiation at this level is equivalent to receiving four and a half million chest X-rays.
In 30 seconds of exposure, the individual will feel dizzy and tired within a week. After two minutes in the chamber, the cells will begin to bleed. After four minutes, vomiting, diarrhea, and fever begin. Finally, after only five minutes, the person would almost certainly die after two days.
When the cleanup crew arrived, they found that the Elephant's Foot was still too radioactive to approach.
Because curium is so rare, having only been produced five times in history, no one is quite sure how the “elephant foot” has changed over time.
While the nuclear material cools slowly, the mass is likely to remain dangerous for many years to come.
English (US)