
Chernobyl’s Hot Mess, “The Elephant’s Foot,” Is Still Lethal - onetimemanytime
http://nautil.us/blog/chernobyls-hot-mess-the-elephants-foot-is-still-lethal
======
CaliforniaKarl
(2013)

Since this article was published, the “New Safe Confinement” has been
completed:
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_New_Safe_Confineme...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_New_Safe_Confinement)

~~~
JohnJamesRambo
Yes and the foot is still just as lethal inside it and will be for quite some
time, your point is?

Great estimation here for how long and how much-

[https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/8hp7l5/what_is_...](https://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/8hp7l5/what_is_the_expected_life_timeline_of_the/)

“The elephants will probably go away long before the radiation all goes away.”

~~~
inflatableDodo
Now this is a wild guess on my part, not being a nuclear engineer and all, but
I reckon that the foot is probably not just as lethal now it is inside this
'New Safe Confinement' thingy, unless they have gone and named it really,
really badly.

~~~
stephen_g
The elephant's foot is quite deep under the reactor in a lower level of the
complex. So I don't think it specifically is any more or less safe since you
have to go to a lot of effort to get near enough for it to hurt you.

The New Safe Confinement has a different purpose - to stop radioactive dust
and debris from the reactor itself (a bit higher up) from spreading into the
nearby area and being spread by the wind in case the hastily constructed
original containment structure collapses (they are going to remove that old
structure now the NSC is finished so that doesn't happen, I believe).

~~~
mirimir
TFA does note:

> Born of human error, continually generating copious heat, the Elephant’s
> Foot is still melting into the base of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. If
> it hits ground water, it could trigger another catastrophic explosion or
> leach radioactive material into the water nearby residents drink.

I had never heard that it was "still melting into the base of the Chernobyl
nuclear power plant". Given that it's only 10% as radioactive as it was
initially, that seems unlikely.

~~~
stephen_g
This article (from 2016, three years later than TFA) says it’s estimated to be
‘slightly higher than the ambient temperature’ -
[https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-famous-photo-of-
ch...](https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-famous-photo-of-chernobyls-
most-dangerous-radioactive-material-was-a-selfie)

While it reaching groundwater was definitely a concern in the 80’s, I don’t
think it’s actually moved significantly or is expected to in the future.

~~~
mirimir
Thanks. That's more or less what I expected.

"China Syndrome" was an influential film. But until Fukushima, I don't believe
that we saw melted core "lava" reach groundwater.

------
userbinator
Someone who took a photo of it, up close, was surprisingly still alive in
2014, according to this article: [https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-
famous-photo-of-ch...](https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-famous-photo-
of-chernobyls-most-dangerous-radioactive-material-was-a-selfie)

------
cgijoe
The title of this post needs a "(2013)" tag added. This is an older article,
and is out of date.

------
coldnose
> “The Elephant’s Foot,” Is Still Lethal

Oh, I assumed that it'd be safe after a couple decades...

~~~
Ididntdothis
Maybe a after a couple thousand decades :-)

~~~
de_watcher
Yea, the title doesn't reflect the scale of the consequences.

------
shmerl
It's featured in somewhat distorted shape in "Stalker: Shadow of Chernobyl" in
one of the underground tunnels.

[https://i.imgur.com/TVvbcan.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/TVvbcan.jpg)

~~~
Hamuko
Looks like that's just a generic solidified corium flow. Elephant's Foot just
happens to be a famous solidified corium flow.

~~~
zaarn
How many corium flows are there that there can be a generic one? Or a famous
one?

------
ated19
That would be true if exactly one isotope decade into a stable isotope. With
more complex decay chains etc that does not always apply.
[https://sushkom.com](https://sushkom.com)

------
HocusLocus
It's only lethal if you attempt coitus or ingestion.

~~~
HocusLocus
Before the dreaded HN grey curtain of we-dont-like-you descends on my post...
while most of the article is well written, two helpings of TRIPE in this
article jumped out at me. I'd expect better from a writer for Scientific
American.

The first,"the Elephant’s Foot is still melting into the base of the Chernobyl
nuclear power plant. If it hits ground water, it could trigger another
catastrophic explosion or leach radioactive material into the water nearby
residents drink."

This is ludicrous! The thing is only slightly temperature-hot. Was the writer
reacting to that famous jiggly time lapse photo with the waving flashlight...
that just HAPPENS to trigger everyone's molten China Syndrome fantasy? More
about the photo, and apologies to anyone (like the article's silly author) who
thought the photographer had died a horrible death whispering the word,
"Rosebud".

[https://www.quora.com/Is-the-elephants-foot-still-
hot](https://www.quora.com/Is-the-elephants-foot-still-hot)

The other piece of TRIPE is a dangerous general malaise of willful containment
ignorance. Storing nuclear waste was never considered the best idea, not even
in Fermi's day. It is the competent science writer's job to communicate that
wringing our poor hands in despair and waiting oodle-thousands of years is not
the only option.

It is safely contained within our own time frame, and IF we should desire to
grind it up and render it with technology we NOW POSSESS with actual means
just beyond the corner (bombarding it with fast neutrons, reaping heat energy
in the process)to result in a short decay product that is a few hundred years
from walk-away safe.

Now we cannot financially afford to do that on this day or the next, but that
is no cause for a SCIENCE article to fail to remind us that its current
dangerous state is from a lack of follow-through and not of possibility.

It's not enough to just present the truth about radiation and nuclear energy
any more. Too much noise. We must push back at the ignorance and hysteria,
make sure the young do not grow up steeped in superstition.

------
cm2187
I am surprised I can’t find more recent photos, I would have assumed robots
would be regularly sent over the years to monitor it.

~~~
egorfine
Nope.

1\. the room with the elephant foot is hardly accessible now; 2\. nothing
interesting happens with it, no need to monitor

------
mycall
> The Elephant’s Foot will be there for centuries

Does that mean it won't bleed into water supply before then?

~~~
LeoPanthera
The "foot" is composed of (now) solid material, and sitting on a concrete pad
onto which the reactor building was constructed. Around the building is the
"New Safe Confinement" structure.

So no, it will not bleed out.

~~~
Hamuko
Does the New Safe Confinement also extend into the ground?

~~~
gargravarr
It doesn't, but after the disaster, the basement areas were eventually filled
with a lot more concrete. It's not just the very thick concrete pad between it
and the groundwater, and it no longer generates enough heat to threaten to
melt through.

------
UglycupRawky
If you can, find the documentary BBC Horizon, Inside Chernobyl's Sarcophagus.
I first saw this in the 90s as a kid and I was blown away. Absolutely crazy
situation at the time. Hats off to the Liquidators and the scientists who
tried to mitigate this mess. Many died and have been forgotten since.

