I've decided during this time of quarantine, I would learn more about things that I already had some knowledge on so I'd have more useless information on it in the future.

We've all heard about the nuclear disaster called Chernobyl. But did you know it also created a large mass of radioactive material that still remains below the site where reactor 4 was? This radioactive mass is referred to as Elephant's Foot due to its wrinkly shape. When it was first found, the mass was emitting enough radiation that it could deliver a lethal dose of radiation within five minutes if a person were standing within three feet of it. Due to radioactive decay though, it is now much less radioactive and would take longer for it to emit so much radiation in such a short period of time, yet it is still radioactive enough where it can kill someone if they've been around it for approximately one hour.

Scientists are concerned that the Elephant's foot might eventually seep into ground water and cause another explosion or just make the water in that area radioactive which would cause sickness and/or death for those who are unfortunate enough to drink it.


Sources:
Here, here, and here.

Ur like my 12 year old brother

Frogs wrote on 5th April 2020, 04:06 PM:

Ur like my 12 year old brother

Bangah

I hope you make more of these. Chernobyl is actually an interesting topic to me, and I never knew about this!

I already knew about that, and that's the reason they made the giant shell for reactor 4 right ?

BlueLights wrote on 5th April 2020, 04:53 PM:

I hope you make more of these. Chernobyl is actually an interesting topic to me, and I never knew about this!

I’m really interested in Chernobyl stuff too. Some organization actually gives tours of the area and the town of Pripyat (which is near where the power plant was).

Luminite wrote on 5th April 2020, 05:10 PM:

I already knew about that, and that's the reason they made the giant shell for reactor 4 right ?

I think it’s because of how radioactive the whole plant is and how much radioactive dust and stuff can still come off of the site. The old building was also about to collapse as well so they needed to build something new to put around it to contain it when it does finally fall in. There was an hour long show on PBS about it awhile back that talked about the construction process of the new shell which was pretty interesting.