Elephant's Foot

[wikieditspam]

Those guys risked their lives just to see what was happening down there, and considering the situation a lot of stuff was on the line, something awful could have happened if no-one could see. Also, I heard that the ionizing radiation was so intense that being able to directly see it would be enough to kill you, the walls absorbed just enough that you wouldn't be killed outright, enough to keep a risky maneuver from being meaninglessly suicidal.

[RattsTyerell32]

5000 r = death in a hour

[Dragonx0562]

10 kR/Hr. Hellfire

Corium is nothing to fuck with kiddies.

500-700 will kill you in 30 days, 1500 will will you in about a week. and 100,000 will kill you in a few minutes., 

[mastodon2806]

send in some paedophiles go in and clean up the mess without any protective clothing that would neuter them nicely

[TykkeGustav]

Was it a foot o.o

[peerless77]

Chuck Norris teabagged the elephants foot because he has balls of steel.

[ProfessorIgor]

this is as radioactive as the day it happened.. why do we need to see it ?? what is the risk worth ??

[dachhh]

@ProfessorIgor so we can learn more. If you look at the designs for the fukushima reactors, they have a torus underneath to catch this stuff, and spread it out which helps cool it.

[myrtlebox]

@dachhh It's not too hard to figure out what will happen. All one needs is an estimate of viscosity and the knowlege that heavy shit flows downhill. Besides, on can never predict which compartments will be breached; perhaps the toroidal containment might get damaged - one never knows. I agree with the Professor.

[LoCDoGG1984]

Nukes are alot cleaner then a meltdown dirty Nasty fuel and radioactive ash etc...

[LoCDoGG1984]

Nukes are alot cleaner a meltdown is dirty nasty fuel and ash etc....

[myrtlebox]

500 Roentgen is lethal (A horrible 30 day death where your flesh falls off the bone)

You receive this level within 3 minutes in front of this 'Elephant foot' of chernobylite

[soylentgreenb]

@myrtlebox No. 450 R of gammas is 50% lethal; rising to about 90% at 600 R.

Much higher doses are surivavable if fractionated. In parts of Ramsar, Iran the natural background radiation level is as high as 20 REM/year, which adds up to well over 1000 REM in a lifetime; yet there is no observed increase in cancer risk or all-cause mortality(for gammas, 1 roentgen is 1 REM, other types of radiation use different quality factors).

And your flesh does not fall of the bone, that is rubish.

[TalksWithDirt]

Of course that was in 1986. This was a NOVA eipsode, does anyone know if it's anywhere to be seen? I think the best thing that you could do would be to get a nice chunk of the stuff, grind it to a powder, put it on a mirror, and snort it..

[sacr3]

@MrJeremy1948 Radioactive Fallout? What has that got to do with a body dsappearing? The initial explosion did blow out the roof, but the it simply flew up a few feet (possibly 100 feet) and fell right back down. People caught in the explosion, would have just burnt from the fire, or the heat. The radiation wasn't near enough to make a human Body disappear (Considering people were no more then 30 feet away from the actual fire/reactor).

[hellfasy]

@sacr3 Thousands of celsiuses are doing it's job.

[sacr3]

@MrJeremy1948 No, the roof didn't fly miles high, no this man did not just vanish. What the hell kind of wise tale is that?

[Anonymous738]

Oh... so thats where Utsuho got hers from...

[ctbfalcon]

what documentary was this from? I'd like to watch the whole thing.

[nethoser]

We gotta basically find a way to get it safely off the planet. We won't have that technology anytime soon though. Until then we're stuck with that fucking infernal chunk of pure death. :( Thanx for that Russia!

[sacr3]

@nethoser We could get it out of there, and ship it off, but it isn't doing any real damage to anything other then the spot its in. so it isn't worth it at all, no one is allowed near the thing so it isn't doing any harm. Besides we have radioactive Uranium throughout our earth also that emits a lot of radiation, like this thing.

[halfpipefreak]

i wonder what artifacts to be found there ...

[4SCARECROWS]

Man it's a giant melted blob of death. That thing is a monstrous beast in it's a dark lair that will kill any living thing that gets too close. elephant's foot it looks like, but my nickname for it is the Chernobyl beast. 

[yaesuham]

@MrJeremy1948 Yes, someone has to do it, the builders of this super ripped up debockle ARENT gonna do one thing., It was there mess, and as we speak, they are letting the sarcophagus litterally "hang" causing rain to come in, and unbleievable contaminants come OUT ! Even yet, they refuse to put one dime into its saftey. I know what plutionium is, and does, as I said in my comment below. Sadlly, the USA has to pick up the pieces where they left off.

[TalksWithDirt]

If they were real men they'd break off pieces of the foot and sprinkle it over their breakfast cereal.

[GunsOfThePhoenix]

@Matagonzo It is a combination of melted Plutonium, Sand, Cement and Reactor fuel rods. One square foot of it weights around 20 tons because it is so dense.

[massore1980]

i would of gotten naked and made snow angels on it

[DreadMauler]

S.t.a.l.k.e.r and fallout like games are going to become real life in future :D

[yaesuham]

Theres a saying going around that has worried me. The next Chernobyl will be Chernobyl unless proper measures are taken. Plutoinium is an unbelievably toxic substance. As little as one nanocurie has been known to cause cancer in humans. Imagine what a full blown explosion would do to everyone in the world ~!

[soylentgreenb]

@yaesuham Read "A 37-year medical follow-up of Manhattan Project Pu workers"; 26 workers with body depositions of 2 to 95 nCi of plutonium, 7 with more than 40 nCi. The expected deaths from natural causes during the 37 year study was 6.6; actual deaths 2.

Reactor Pu has much higher specific activity per gram because of Pu-241; which is a short-lived, very low energy beta emitter(i.e. not dangerous, but inflates the number of nCi per gram).

[soylentgreenb]

@yaesuham And those are depositions of plutonium; i.e. permanent body burdens.

Particles of inhaled PuO2 are quickly eliminated by mucociliary clearance unless they are small enough(a few microns or less) to get stuck in alveoli. Such particles of PuO2 slowly dissolve and a significant fraction of the absorbed Pu is eliminated in feces, urine and hair.

0.05% of dissolved Pu is absorbed in the GI tract; ingestion is not a concern(plants are similarly discriminatory, and you eat plants)

[soylentgreenb]

@yaesuham We've also run this experiment; we've released metric tonnes of finely powdered plutonium from nuclear weapons testing, which was lifted by the hot fire ball and distributed across the world. Plutonium is retained in the bone and in the liver; so why haven't age-adjusted(cancer is an age-related illness) bone sarcomas gone up, not even down-wind of the Nevada test site?

[0carmine0]

i wonder how those guys got through the brain scorcher?

[Vexooo]

Hahaha:D

[Faustyn]

they had been brainscorched earlier.

[tambulag]

thats the wish giver...

[351460]

I have visited the Trinity Site--but there is no way in hell I would go near the ruins of that reactor. There are videos of Geiger counters going nuts within several hundred feet of the containment structure.

[chamath1985]

I want to sleep over it.

[Matagonzo]

You would be dead in one hour.

[chamath1985]

Thanks but when I see and hear what it has it seduced me to do it lol.

[kataklysm696]

@ 10000 r/h (100Gy) you can spend 3 Minutes there to get a letal 5 Gray Dose. Death occurs within a month and it`s a painful death

[thecatyoukai]

@Matagonzo Dead in one hour? What if we used like lead suits and breathed out of air tanks? Would we live to sleep TWO hours? :3

[soylentgreenb]

@thecatyoukai To cut the doserate in half you'd need a lead suit approximately 1 cm thick, weighing 12 grams per square centimeter.

The surface area of a grown human male is approximately 1.9 square meters, so that's 230 kg of lead.

To cut the dose rate to 1:1000, you'd need a 10 cm thick suit, weighing approximately 2.3 metric tonnes.

With depleted uranium as shielding you would only need 76 kilograms to halve the dose rate and 0.76 metric tonnes to cut it to 1:1000.

[hellfasy]

@Matagonzo I would say that in something about 30 seconds.

[darkangelus1987]

@Matagonzo just few seconds

[TrueMaxR]

@Matagonzo

Maybe less

[walp86]

@Chamant1985

Make that 20 seconds and you unlock the walking dead abillity... another 200 seconds for the instant brain collapse bonus!

[EXO903]

@Matagonzo you wold be dead in 20mins or leas

[auto9898]

I wonder how long it took to cool?

[SparkamusPryme]

Tricky question. The facility itself probably took a few weeks to cool down.

However, that lump of radioactive slag will probably remain hot for eons (due to its own radioactive emissions)

[auto9898]

It seems the more radioactive things are the shorter the half-life. At least I thought that was the rule.

[SparkamusPryme]

Pu 239 is in the mid range--25,000 year half life.

I'm not sure exactly sure how hot a mix of uranium, pu-239, and various other transuranic elements would be, but I'm betting it would keep your feet uncomfortable warm in the winter.

[kurisux]

Considering the sheer amount of material in it, yeah, it should take a LONG time to break down.

Also, considering the nature of the half life process in general, this thing is going to be some decent level of radioactive pretty much forever. :(

[SparkamusPryme]

People are scared about North Korea having nuclear weapons. But you know what terrifies me?

...the fact that a ruthless dictator in a secretive third world nation has built a nuclear power plant.

No one seems to be questioning structural integrity of NK's powerplant.

Hopefully nations entering into the nuclear game are smart enough to build safe reactors.

[kurisux]

I have heard that in general they use standardized post-soviet models for their reactors.

This is just what I have heard, however, so I can only presume that they are "supposed" to be safer. Who knows for sure, though.

[soylentgreenb]

Why?

Look at the actual health consequences of Chernobyl. 56 confirmed dead and 4 000 who could eventually die if the LNT model is true.

Read the Chernobyl forum report. Scaremongering and forced evacuations in the aftermath of the accident have had larger consequences than the accident itself.

North Koreas reactors are all tiny research reactors. E.g. the Yongbyon reactor is 25 MWTh. The only thing scary about North Koreas reactors is their weapons programme.

[SparkamusPryme]

Hmm, thank you for point this out.

I guess I rushed to an unwarranted conclusion.

(Also: Weird that it caused increased rates of cataracts in some responders/ children. Didn't expect that)

[Dragonx0562]

56 confirmed dead, and areas of radiation outside the plant that are still to hazardous to be near.

I guess it's scare mongering if you were one of those people evacuated, who has to worry over the the possibility of cancer from the fallout of Vi Lenin NPP 4...

[Nocheeseeforyou]

not to mention the thousands that have, or will, die from cancer.

[PigeonPunter]

You stare at the elephant's foot. Nothing looks back at you. You about-face. Then you look blankly at the shape in front of you; A shadow figure gamma radiated into the wall. At that moment, you see your soul. R.I.P., commrade.

[stefanoboxing]

I fucked you faggot

[LMYY]

10000 r/H vuol dire che non esiste NULLA che possa proteggerti. è impossibile avvicinarsi a quella cosa...?!?!

ma... fatemi capire... ogni anno il sarcofago si rompe un po, prima o poi succederà un DISASTRO... E NON SI TROVANO I SOLDI?!?!??!?!?!?!?!!

[eurojammer47]

Il sarcofago nuovo è in costruzione e sarà finito fra qualche anno.

[LMYY]

il progetto è del 97 e sono stati stanziati attualmente? metà di quanto necessario?

e tutti giocano a scarica-barile, e nessuno caccia il contante....

(si, ammetto di aver poca fiducia in loro)

[frasca1900]

a un certo punto si sono fermati e la zampa di elefante è stata filmata dal robot

[tognas54]

X BONNYTHECLYDE: probabilmente erano vestiti con materiali molto più isolanti che quelli usati nel 1986. In quel periodo erano usati indumenti un po' di "fortuna" e non adatti allo scopo. Questi saranno sicuramente molto più adatti. Poi con sicurezza non lo so. Io ti dico quello che penso. Ciao!

[bonnytheclyde]

non capisco come cazzo hanno fatto ad avvicinarsi a quella roba?... ho sentito dire che stare vicini a quel mucchio di roba fusa ti costa la vita in poche decine di secondi... è un bel casino

[enricostella]

Non si sono avvicinati, hanno perforato il muro di contenimento del reattore ed hanno introdotto delle sonde per verificare l'interno.

E hanno trovato questo.

Pochi secondi di esposizione e si viene instantaneamente ustionati...

There has been approached, have pierced the wall of containment of the reactor and have introduced probes to check the interior.

And they have found it.

A few seconds of exposure and is instantly burn ...

[cookaboorra]

You can clearly see that at 0.55" in the "More Chernobyl Wreckage" video.

IMPRESSIVE.

[cookaboorra]

Take a tour on Wikipedia, keyword "chernobyl".

The elephant foot is THE CORE of the reactor melted with PLUTONIUM.The WORST thing is that worlwide scientists believed to find there a burning radioactive nucleus at 1000 C°, inside its damaged CORE. IT WAS UNTRUE.They found A COMPLETELY BURNT CORE MELTED WITH THE RADIOACTIVE SUBPRODUCTS. THIS IS A STALAGMITE, BORN DURING OPEN AIR FUSION OF NUCLEUS, WHICH SLIPPED DOWN FOR TWENTY METERS, MELTING ANY BARRIER. WE ALL BREATHED THE ASHES OF THAT HORROR.

[Formenwen]

Fa paura

[axelwers]

It's the most dangerous substance on the Earth.

[enricostella]

The man has always been good in creating monsters ...

[MaksimovLugansk]

@axelwers The most dangerous substance on earth a man in the head (brain)

[lolpienempikuinkolme]

o_O omfg

[uncdentist09]

10,000 rH and hour! Holy shit. That is like a chest x-ray every 1/10 of a second.

[vichersaudojr83]

do you have the whole video?

[MokomaSusi]

I think this clip is from BBC documentary.

[ghostdevill]

It,s a mixure of uranium,concrete and metal and grahite!!!Jesus christ this thing is huge!!!I have only seen pictures of it,butt on the movie it,s looks huge!!!

[returned2life]

So actually this elephant foot is Uranium melted ? Or some other material or peace of nuclear reactor ?

[enricostella]

is a fusion of uranium, graphite (what remains) and borio, the material that have introduced immediately after the explosion to try to cool the reactor.

is a collection of materials, which slowly fell into plutonium, and between 400 thousand years become inert lead.

It is estimated there are 190 tons of this material inside the reactor ...

[returned2life]

190 tons,man that is too much !!!