Chernobyl aka "the Elephant's Foot"

gold2040 · 04/02/14 - 05:05

http://boingboing.net/2013/12/05/chernobyls-deadly-elephant.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z82GkhcqDKw

To think after many more centuries, millennia even, it'll still be buzzing with radiation, that picture gives me chills just looking at it (it being black and white helps I guess... and the lone mop)

[Deleted User] · 04/02/14 - 05:27

I'm not certain the point of this thread. It's part of the molten core that is sealed within the sarcophagus.

Of course it will be dangerous for hundreds of years but people aren't going in there to see it. It's not a holiday attraction.

[Deleted User] · 04/02/14 - 05:29

gold2040 wrote: »

http://boingboing.net/2013/12/05/chernobyls-deadly-elephant.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z82GkhcqDKw

To think after many more centuries, millennia even, it'll still be buzzing with radiation, that picture gives me chills just looking at it (it being black and white helps I guess... and the lone mop)

All nuclear fuel has to be stored for hundreds of years even when reprocessed.

phylo_roadking · 04/02/14 - 05:59

Of course it will be dangerous for hundreds of years but people aren't going in there to see it. It's not a holiday attraction.

You would think that, wouldn't you...it's a natural assumption; and yet - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pripyat#Post-Chernobyl_years

A natural concern is whether it is safe to visit Pripyat and the surroundings. The Zone of Alienation is considered relatively safe to visit, and several Ukrainian companies offer guided tours around the area. The radiation levels have dropped considerably, compared to the fatal levels of April 1986, due to the decay of the short-lived isotopes released during the accident. In most places within the city, the level of radiation does not exceed an equivalent dose of 1 μSv (one microsievert) per hour.[citation needed]

The city and the Zone of Alienation are now bordered with guards and police, but obtaining the necessary documents to enter the zone is not considered particularly difficult. In 2005, New York-based entrepreneur David C. Haines founded a company to provide guided tours of the city. A guide accompanies visitors to ensure nothing is vandalised or taken from the zone.

The doors of most of the buildings are held open to reduce the risk to visitors, but after recent collapses visitors are no longer allowed to enter the buildings. The city of Chernobyl, a few kilometers south from Pripyat, has some accommodation including a hotel, many apartment buildings, and a local lodge, which are maintained as a permanent residence for watch-standing crew and tourists.

NX-74205 · 04/02/14 - 06:02

Chernobyl is not also known as the elephant's foot, Chernobyl is still Chernobyl. The 'elephant's foot' in question is merely a mass of corium created when the molten core of the reactor leeched through the floor and solidified.

[Deleted User] · 04/02/14 - 06:12

phylo_roadking wrote: »

You would think that, wouldn't you...it's a natural assumption; and yet - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pripyat#Post-Chernobyl_years

That's the town not the reactor sarcophgus. It's quite interesting I believe as it was left as the people were bused out.

phylo_roadking · 04/02/14 - 06:30

It's quite interesting I believe as it was left as the people were bused out.

There's also a suprising number of people living within the Zone...!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_Exclusion_Zone#People_in_the_Zone

[Deleted User] · 04/02/14 - 06:52

phylo_roadking wrote: »

There's also a suprising number of people living within the Zone...!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_Exclusion_Zone#People_in_the_Zone

It was an old programme but remember people still farming within the exclusion zone. I don't think the Russian government give a shit.

exlordlucan · 04/02/14 - 07:00

Don't buy Russian underpants, Chernobyl fall out.

phylo_roadking · 04/02/14 - 07:14

It was an old programme but remember people still farming within the exclusion zone. I don't think the Russian government give a shit.

They used to, and used to sweep the Zone...but the locals either hunkered down and hid....or went back if they were lifted and transported outside the Zone

Now the Ukraine government doesn't care.

[Deleted User] · 04/02/14 - 07:30

phylo_roadking wrote: »

They used to, and used to sweep the Zone...but the locals either hunkered down and hid....or went back if they were lifted and transported outside the Zone Now the Ukraine government doesn't care.

We had people from Smolensk power station visit ours to improve their safety systems. The exit barrier (IPM7 contamination monitor) alarmed in their normal street clothes. We had to uprate the alarm level for them at one barrier to let them leave the reactor building.

The contamination limit for us was tiny.

Nuggets69 · 04/02/14 - 12:19

To think after many more centuries, millennia even, it'll still be buzzing with radiation, that picture gives me chills just looking at it (it being black and white helps I guess... and the lone mop)

http://imageshack.us/scaled/landing/546/sdi1.jpg

This man (and the man taking the picture) died later that day.

Also, if the corium had melted down to the water table beneath Chernobyl, there would have been a huge steam explosion that would have sent tons of spent nuclear fuel into the atmosphere, making Europe uninhabitable for centuries. Three men knowingly gave their lives to prevent that from happening. Radiation is crazy.

stoatie · 04/02/14 - 13:15

"Get out of here, Stalker".

Soundbox · 04/02/14 - 14:01

I've been a few times - my friend works there.

It's certainly different but most of the area is not like 'Stalker'. We have been on Summer evening walks and it was like this http://gallery.photo.net/photo/6923711-md.jpg and even the reactor No.4 was all warm and sunny when I was there.

Hey there!

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Chernobyl aka "the Elephant's Foot"

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