What is the Scariest Object in the World?

There are lots of things on this planet to freak you out. The awesome power of nature can be terrifying but it is an unavoidable part of life on Earth. But the single scariest thing isn't something caused by nature. This Hell on Earth was man made and it's called the Elephant's Foot.

A monster was born in the Chernobyl disaster. Lurking in the depths of the reactor ruins, the monster is one of the most dangerous things in the world. In the immediate aftermath of the meltdown, to spend 300 seconds in its presence would bring certain death. Even today, it radiates heat and death, though its power has weakened.

What is the Elephant's Foot?

This is a solid mass of deadly waste located in the basement of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, in present day Ukraine, that exploded in 1986.
Radioactive lava poured from the core of the nuclear reactor and melted through the core settling in the depths of the reactor ruins. Several metres long and weighing hundreds of tons, the "foot" is a mixture of nuclear fuel, concrete and core sealing material that the fuel melted through. Every year, it releases about 22 pounds of uranium – the radioactive metal considered to be the most toxic environmental pollutant. It was called the Elephant's Foot because of its wrinkled appearance.

Why is the Elephant's Foot so Dangerous?

The Elephant's Foot was discovered months after history's most catastrophic nuclear accident and is thought to be the most dangerous piece of waste in the world. Researchers, who made it into a stream chamber beneath Reactor No.4, found that black lava had belched from the core and formed into a solid flow. Their sensors warned them that the radioactive manga was too dangerous to approach, so from a safe distance they rigged up a wheeled remote camera and pushed it towards the Elephant's Foot to examine it.

According to readings taken at the time, exposure to the still-hot molten mass could cause certain death is minutes. The radiation level was measured at 10,000 roentgens per hour. It takes about 1/10th of that to kill a person. This meant that:
* After 30 seconds of exposure, you would suffer dizziness and fatigue within a week.
* After two minutes of exposure, your cells would begin to hemorrhage.
* After four minutes, you would suffer vomiting, diarrhea and fever.
* And after five minutes in its presence, you would only have two days to live.
* An hour would expose you to radiation of the equivalent of over 500,000 chest x-rays.

What Caused the Elephant's Foot?

The Chernobyl disaster happened in the early hours of April 26, 1986, when extremely hot nuclear fuel rods were lowered into cooling water, an immense amount of steam was created, which — because of the reactors' design flaws — created more reactivity in the nuclear core of reactor number 4. The resultant power surge caused an immense explosion that detached the 1,000-ton plate covering the reactor core, releasing radiation into the atmosphere and cutting off the flow of coolant into the reactor. A few seconds later, a second explosion of even greater power than the first blew the reactor building apart and spewed burning graphite and other parts of the reactor core around the plant, starting a number of intense fires around the damaged reactor and reactor number 3, which was still operating at the time of the explosions. Huge masses of melted nuclear fuel formed – the most famous being the Elephant's Foot.

The radioactive particles released by the blasts were about 400 times that of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan in the WWII. The first the world heard about the disaster was when workers at a Swedish nuclear facility detected high levels of radiation. Radioactive materials travelled across Europe. Sheep in northern England and reindeer in Lapland were irradiated and had to be killed.

Containment

In May of 1986, construction began on the sarcophagus—a gigantic concrete enclosure built to seal off the radiation from the outside world. Although enough concrete to fill a third of the Empire State Building was used, it's not entirely sealed: The Chernobyl sarcophagus was outfitted with access points allowing researchers to observe the core and workers to enter. The contents of the Chernobyl tomb will remain radioactive for at least the next 100,000 years. All of the fire fighters or people who worked in building the sarcophagus died in around a year or so of the event.It's said that the people who built the sarcophagus died around a year or so later. A 30-kilometre radius around the former plant is still radioactive and is called the "Zone of Alienation". It can only be entered through a checkpoint.

The Elephant's Foot Today

Ten years after the disaster, the Elephant's Foot was only emitting a tenth of its original radiation, however, just over an hour of exposure would still prove fatal. Nearly 30 years after the meltdown, the Elephant's Foot has weakened, but it is still dangerous because the sarcophagus' concrete is deteriorating and threatens to contaminate groundwater. Plans are under way to prevent this.
The unique nuclear waste that is the Elephant's Foot is virtually indestructible. Ukrainian officials estimate the area will not be safe for human life again for another 20,000 years.

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