
A Famous Photo of Chernobyl’s Most Dangerous Radioactive Material (2016) - lelf
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-famous-photo-of-chernobyls-most-dangerous-radioactive-material-was-a-selfie
======
geuszb
I don't think of it as a selfie... It looks more like he wanted to take a
photograph of the "elephant's foot", and considering that the only available
light was his flashlight, had to do a long take while he trained the
flashlight onto various parts of the piece, trying to illuminate it evenly. If
he'd wanted to pose next to it and be recognizable, he would have shone the
light onto his face while standing still for a few seconds too

~~~
mirimir
You could call it a "self-timed photo". But "selfie" is the current slang, and
a lot shorter. It's the same concept as taking a family photo including
yourself.

Illumination of the "elephant's foot" seems to mainly come from just left of
the camera, given its shadow on the background. So he probably stood there for
a while, panning over it with his flashlight. And then he walked over, and
stood next to it. But he was a little careless with the flashlight, and hit
the camera some.

Also, the right side of the "elephant's foot" does seem to be flaming.

~~~
Swizec
I beg to differ. A selfie is specifically a photograph taken from the hand
pointed at yourself.

Using a timer makes it not a selfie in my book.

~~~
wataruspeedo
What about drone selfies? That's definitely a term, and it breaks your
criteria. Could we call this a timed tripod selfie?

I propose that photographer must a) be the primary subject of the photo, b) be
engaged with the camera in some way, in order to categorize as a selfie.

So yeah, pretty sure this isn't a selfie. Also this makes me want to play the
new Metro.

~~~
mirimir
Well, he did put himself in the photo, which wasn't at all necessary for
documentation. And doing so arguably increased his radiation exposure. So I
think that "selfie" fits.

~~~
Siemer
It does not. The amount of risk involved is not a factor. The term "selfie"
refers to the inherent narcissism of the focus of the shot.

In a traditional selfie, when you move, your arm moves with you and your self
remains the center focus of the shot. A drone selfie acts in a similar way. A
timed shot on the other hand will always capture a specific scene, whether you
are in it or not.

Arguably Eschers lithograph "Hand with Reflecting Sphere" does qualify, but
Korneyevs picture doesn't.

------
VonGuard
If you like this, you'll go nuts for this woman's YouTube channel:
[https://www.youtube.com/user/bionerd23/videos](https://www.youtube.com/user/bionerd23/videos)

She goes into Reactor 3, finds a piece of graphite from the reactor core, and
generally explores Chernobyl with a Geiger counter that she gleefully points
out a few times is absolutely pegged to the maximum reading.

~~~
maltalex
> If you like this, you'll go nuts for this woman's YouTube channel:
> [https://www.youtube.com/user/bionerd23/videos](https://www.youtube.com/user/bionerd23/videos)

She has a video named "rat taxidermy with LED eyes mod - full video - gore
warning!" [0]. What the hell?

[0]: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5B1pz-
V_YGg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5B1pz-V_YGg)

~~~
lobotryas
You’re writing this as if you found something bad/evil on her channel. Really?

------
salimmadjd
A side note - I work with developers in Belarus which borders Ukraine and the
Chernobyl to the north.

In that process I’ve met many young people who grew up in neighboring villages
and small towns who call themselves Chernobyl-baby. Nothing severe, but they
all have various minor health issues, apparently.

There was even a humanitarian program that provided summer getaways to some
European countries for kids growing up in that region.

I (we) always hear about the Chernobyl disaster, but to see people born 10
years or so later and in a country that many have never heard of gave it a
human face to me.

~~~
platform
I am from Gomel. I was there when that happened.

About 70% of the fallout landed were we were (the winds were blowing north
that time, so Ukraine's side was bit more spared).

Most of the time, I do not want to talk about it, though.

Feels like we were cheated out of normal life. Feels like we were animals to
do experiments on.

I hate that time. Even now, place does not feel right.

I do not think health statistics coming out from here, are right either...

I also do not like videogames about Chernobyl for some reason. But I
understand why the story line is attractive. So I am ok with that at a
'logical' level.

Once I become 'a person of means', I want to help people to get out of there,
or, at least, live with proper controls of what we eat, drink, breath, etc.

------
maltalex
> Korneyev’s sense of humor remained intact, though. He seemed to have no
> regrets about his life’s work. “Soviet radiation,” he joked, “is the best
> radiation in the world.”

Wow.

How does one survive multiple visits to "the Elephant's Foot" long enough to
tell these jokes?

~~~
dvh
How? The answer is "Nohavica's theory of alcoholic mountain". As you drink,
you are climbing your alcoholic mountain. While you're climbing, everything is
fine. You can even turn around and go back. But when you reach the summit and
step over it, you are done. Nobody will help you. No doctors, no therapy,
friends or medicine. Nobody. Then you die. Now you say "but my uncle was
drinking whole life and he was fine". Sure, because his mountain was very
tall. Nobody knows how tall is his mountain.

This Russian scientist had very tall radiation mountain. You try doing the
same and you will die.

~~~
thanatos_dem
Do you have any source for that? I have some friends suffering from alcoholism
that could probably use hearing something like that, but google isn’t turning
up anything.

~~~
tmoravec
It's a joke from a movie. No science here.

~~~
rhizome
what movie

~~~
toyg
Probably this:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_of_the_Devil](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_of_the_Devil)

~~~
tmoravec
Yup, Year of the Devil.

------
raviolo
I suppose whoever invented the term Corium also had some dark sense of humor -
as in the-stuff-that-comes-from-reactor-core.

This aspect seems to have escaped the article’s author, who operate with the
term as if it’s another new element un the periodic table.

~~~
EForEndeavour
I'd say the author's writing is entirely consistent with him knowing full well
what corium is. This passage in particular shows he doesn't think it's an
element (emphasis mine):

Of the five corium creations, only Cherobyl’s has escaped its containment.
With no water to cool the mass, the radioactive sludge moved through the unit
over the course a week following the meltdown, _taking on molten concrete and
sand to go along with the uranium (fuel) and zirconium (cladding) molecules._

------
forgotmypw3
To add another correction to the others:

> Chornobyl Center for Nuclear Safety, Radioactive Waste and Radioecology
> (spelling often gets changed as words go from Russian to English).

The differing spelling is because "Chornobyl" (Чорнобиль) is what it's called
in Ukrainian, whereas "Chernobyl" (Чернобыль) is a transcription of the same
name in Russian.

------
sandwall
The first-responders received severe and lethal doses. The surrounding
population was exposed to large amounts of I-131, this resulted in an increase
in thyroid cancer.

[https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/98/7/3039/2537246](https://academic.oup.com/jcem/article/98/7/3039/2537246)

Estimates vary widely and are controversial but somewhere in the range of 4k
deaths are believed to be a result of the disaster. That estimate is from
esteemed professionals in the respective sciences of Radiobiology and
Biostatistics. Other estimates from Green Peace, etc range from 25-250k for
the most serious nuclear disaster, ever. Contrast this to WHO estimates of 3M
deaths per year due to fossil fuels, seriously bananas.

~~~
notahacker
The relatively low number of casualties owes a lot to sacrifices made in a
cleanup operation which also abandoned an area of land the size of Luxembourg
and resettled all the people who lived there. And the casualty numbers rise if
you start using the noisier estimates used to estimate fuel fossil deaths.

Of course, fossil fuels have killed more people, but if we used nuclear power
with the same ubiquitousness and slapdash approach we've used fossil fuels,
I'm not sure any of us would be alive today....

~~~
pard68
> fossil fuel

From explosions? Drinking? Sitting near it? Got a source?

~~~
sandwall
From air pollution due to the burning of fossil fuels; World Health
Organization (WHO):

[https://www.who.int/phe/health_topics/outdoorair/databases/e...](https://www.who.int/phe/health_topics/outdoorair/databases/en/)

To be fair, estimates are that only 80% of air pollution is due to the burning
of fossil fuels. So, give or take a million, still pretty intense.

------
the_unproven
Reminds of a movie from Andrei Tarkovsky, Stalker. The guy may be the Stalker,
leading people to the center of the Zone - the elephant foot in this case.

~~~
dukoid
"We were shooting near Tallinn in the area around the small river Jägala with
a half-functioning hydroelectric station. Up the river was a chemical plant
and it poured out poisonous liquids downstream. There is even this shot in
Stalker: snow falling in the summer and white foam floating down the river. In
fact it was some horrible poison. Many women in our crew got allergic
reactions on their faces. Tarkovsky died from cancer of the right bronchial
tube. And Tolya Solonitsyn too. That it was all connected to the location
shooting for Stalker became clear to me when Larisa Tarkovskaya died from the
same illness in Paris."

Source:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalker_(1979_film)#Production...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalker_\(1979_film\)#Production_2)

------
CaramelSauce
I've seen this photo many times and have always wondered about the fate of the
person in the picture considering how dangerous the elephant's foot is always
said to be. It's good to hear that he's still alive and sounds healthy.

~~~
Stratoscope
Alive but not very healthy:

> _In his mid 60s, he was sickly, with cataracts, and had been barred from re-
> entering the sarcophagus after years of irradiation._

~~~
lostlogin
The article mentions cataracts too. These can happen to anyone, but radiation
induced cataracts are well documented. [https://radiationsafety.ca/radiation-
induced-cataracts/](https://radiationsafety.ca/radiation-induced-cataracts/)

~~~
sandwall
Yup. Cataracts are the best example of a deterministic radiation effect; i.e.
receive X dose and you _will_ receive Y result. While cancer induction is
stochastic; probabilistic effect of exposure.

~~~
mschaef
That part of the story made me wonder why the cataracts haven't been treated.
There are relatively low-risk and well-understood treatments for cataracts
that do a very good job restoring vision.

~~~
toyg
Cost? The URSS was already declining by then, and Ukraine was “born poor” in
many ways. A procedure might well be safe and effective, but if the local
health service can’t afford to do it thousands of times, they will just ignore
it.

~~~
gdy
Not sure where he lives, but in Russia this surgery is covered by mandatory
medical insurance.

------
sizzzzlerz
Back in the early 90s, I was at a government facility. On one of the walls,
there were several pictures of the Chernobyl reactor taken from several hours
to days after the explosion and from a unique perspective: directly above
(albeit from a very high altitude). In effect, the viewer was looking right
down into the glowing core of the still-unfolding disaster. Quite unsettling.

~~~
kozak
Probably one of these:
[https://www.google.com/search?q=%D1%87%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BD%D0%...](https://www.google.com/search?q=%D1%87%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%B8%D0%BB%D1%8C+%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%B0%D0%BA%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80+1986&tbm=isch)

~~~
troutwine
Many of these were shot by Igor Kostin and appear in his book "Chernobyl:
Confessions of a Reporter". Highly recommended if you're interested in the
disaster, its cleanup and effects on the people involved.

------
sandwall
This is a nice article on corium:

[https://www.wired.com/2013/04/the-most-dangerous-manmade-
lav...](https://www.wired.com/2013/04/the-most-dangerous-manmade-lava-flow/)

------
hopler
It's a clickbait headline. The article is a meaty (for a webzine) history
story, and the headline is to trick people into reading something unsexy.

~~~
velobro
I'm annoyed how the author never actually explained what Corium was. Just
described it as "the most toxic substance" and hoped readers would go along
with the ride thinking it's some new material.

All it is is an amalgamation of melted fission materials and reactor
components like control rods.

~~~
craftinator
You have heard of Google and Duck Duck Go, correct?

~~~
zapzupnz
Just for your information, so you know why you've been heavily downvoted …
From the HN guidelines:

"Be civil. Don't say things you wouldn't say face-to-face. Don't be snarky.
Comments should get more civil [...]"

On HN, discussion is encouraged. Yes, Google exists, but we're here to share
our ideas, our thoughts, our opinions; not simply parrot Google results at
each other.

------
saagarjha
Interestingly, corium has the property of spontaneous dust generation, from
self-sputtering by alpha particle release. So between this and weathering, the
structure itself is unlikely to stick around forever.

~~~
egorfine
The last time they checked (AFAIK in 2004) the Elephant's foot was porous and
extremely fragile. In the 1980s they couldn't get a sample even using the
hardest tools; in 2004 they could stick a finger right through.

------
tysonzni
Related wikipedia article:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elephant%27s_Foot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elephant%27s_Foot)

~~~
spatulon
From there I found a couple of articles with more pictures (and a suggestion
that the corium could eventually melt through to ground water):

[https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/did-you-know/there-
radioac...](https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/did-you-know/there-radioactive-
elephants-foot-slowly-burning-hole-ground)

[http://nautil.us/blog/chernobyls-hot-mess-the-elephants-
foot...](http://nautil.us/blog/chernobyls-hot-mess-the-elephants-foot-is-
still-lethal)

------
supermw
I’m amazed this guy is still alive. Can anyone explain what is supposed to
happen if you were very close to something this radioactive? Would you get
some kind of massive headache or feel any pain? Are radiation hardened
organisms a thing?

~~~
tluyben2
For instance these animals;
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardigrade](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tardigrade)

From there;

“tardigrades can withstand 1,000 times more radiation than other animals,[60]
median lethal doses of 5,000 Gy (of gamma rays) and 6,200 Gy (of heavy ions)
in hydrated animals (5 to 10 Gy could be fatal to a human)”

~~~
pbhjpbhj
This is a commonly known fact it seems, but what creature is most susceptible
to radiation?

------
BartBoch
Great story, but one thing that struck me on the website - they added a map at
the end of the article with place (Chernobyl) marked. I would love it if more
news outlets did that...

~~~
egorfine
Yes, and that map is incorrect. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant is NOT
located in or near the Chernobyl city.

~~~
lostlogin
The plant looks pretty close on google maps at less than 20km from Chernobyl
and that city was evacuated soon after the disaster. Yes, the point should be
located closer to Pripyat but that’s only about 5-10km from where it is. Not
perfect but pretty close.

You would think that the big new structure would give a clue as to where the
plant is/was.

------
Timucin
It’s sad that I couldn’t read/see this from my mobile because of the full page
cookie consent popup which doesn’t have an option to opt-out from the ad
tracking of their partners.

So you have to go with the personalised ads if you want to visit their
articles...

~~~
pndy
It's a clickbait article anyway - you can get this and related photos from
inside the reactor elsewhere on the web. Just go with "chernobyl corium"
phrase in your fav. search engine images section.

------
trebligdivad
Did the Windscale fire create corium?

~~~
dmckeon
Apparently not - while the fuel there caught fire, the core material did not
melt and escape the containment as a miolten blob.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windscale_fire#Use_of_water](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windscale_fire#Use_of_water)

------
dis-sys
from the article -

“Soviet radiation,” he joked, “is the best radiation in the world.”

