Topics: Chernobyl, Health, Science, Environment, Ukraine
While the Chernobyl disaster took place almost four decades ago, people are still learning new things about the explosion to this day.
In 1986, the No. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded in Ukraine and released lethal amounts of radiation into the atmosphere.
This spread across the globe, but the three most affected countries were Belarus, Russia and Ukraine.
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Around 30 people died from the immediate blast trauma of the reactor explosion and while United Nations estimates that only 50 deaths can be directly attributed to the disaster, thousands of people went on to die from radiation exposure in the years that followed.
Decades on from the disaster, people now know to stay clear of some parts of Chernobyl as they're still dangerous to visit - but workers went into the reactor months on from the explosion, probably not realising the damage it would cause them.
Eight months after the accident, they entered the No.4 reactor and discovered a black, lava-like substance flowing from the reactor core.
Among the hardened mass was what's now known as 'Elephant's Foot'.
The mass earned its name for resembling the foot of a large mammal.
As to what exactly it is, the object (said to be the most dangerous on Earth) is largely made up of corium, according to experts, which has only been formed naturally five times in all of history.
Mitchell T. Farmer, a veteran nuclear engineer and program manager at the Argonne National Laboratory, explained to HowStuffWorks that corium looks 'a lot like lava, a blackish-oxide material that gets very viscous as it cools down, flowing like sticky molten glass'.
Resurfaced video footage has been doing the rounds on social media of late, where a group of researchers in Hazmat suits can be seen within touching distance of 'Elephant's Foot'.
Approximately 30 people died from immediate blast trauma and acute radiation syndrome (ARS) in the seconds to months after the Chernobyl disaster in April 1986.
— Morbid Knowledge (@Morbidful) May 11, 2024
Eight months after the nuclear accident, workers made a surprising discovery.
When they entered a corridor below… pic.twitter.com/7Tp7pw44ly
In 1986, radiation levels on the 'foot' were measured at 10,000 roentgens per hour. To put that into perspective, just 50 -100 roentgens is enough to cause radiation sickness in a person.
It's likely that they were unaware of just how fatal the object could prove to be as, according to science magazine Nautilus, 30 seconds of exposure to the object meant your cells will begin to haemorrhage.
Meanwhile, four minutes of exposure could induce vomiting, diarrhea and fever, and five minutes (300 seconds) of being near 'Elephant's Foot' at that level of radiation would kill you within two days.
Despite it being almost 40 years since the explosion, the mass is still very radioactive too this day - and is estimated to remain so for tens of thousands of years.
