{"id":21937,"date":"2026-09-15T20:17:42","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T20:17:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/?p=21937"},"modified":"2026-09-15T20:17:42","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T20:17:42","slug":"sampling-chernobyls-elephants-foot-reveals-ak-47s-and-radioactive-dust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/?p=21937","title":{"rendered":"Sampling Chernobyl\u2019s Elephant\u2019s Foot Reveals AK-47s and Radioactive Dust"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <div style=\"display: grid; grid-template-columns: 300px 160px; gap: 2px; width: 460px; background: #eee; padding: 2px;\">\r\n\r\n  <!-- \u6574\u884c\u5bbd\u5e7f\u544a -->\r\n  <div style=\"grid-column: 1\/-1; width: 460px; height: 250px; background: #ccc; display: grid; place-items: center;\">\r\n  <script async type=\"application\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/a.magsrv.com\/ad-provider.js\"><\/script> \r\n <ins class=\"eas6a97888e2\" data-zoneid=\"5876674\"><\/ins> \r\n <script>(AdProvider = window.AdProvider || []).push({\"serve\": {}});<\/script>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n  <div style=\"grid-column: 1\/-1; width: 460px; height: 90px; background: #ccc; display: grid; place-items: center;\">\r\n  <script async type=\"application\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/a.magsrv.com\/ad-provider.js\"><\/script> \r\n <ins class=\"eas6a97888e2\" data-zoneid=\"5876676\"><\/ins> \r\n <script>(AdProvider = window.AdProvider || []).push({\"serve\": {}});<\/script>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n\r\n  <!-- \u5de6\u4fa7\u7ad6\u6392 -->\r\n  <div style=\"height: 250px; background: #ccc; display: grid; place-items: center;\">\r\n  <script async type=\"application\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/a.magsrv.com\/ad-provider.js\"><\/script> \r\n <ins class=\"eas6a97888e2\" data-zoneid=\"5876672\"><\/ins> \r\n <script>(AdProvider = window.AdProvider || []).push({\"serve\": {}});<\/script>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n  <div style=\"height: 500px; background: #ccc; display: grid; place-items: center;\">\r\n  <script async type=\"application\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/a.magsrv.com\/ad-provider.js\"><\/script> \r\n <ins class=\"eas6a97888e2\" data-zoneid=\"5876680\"><\/ins> \r\n <script>(AdProvider = window.AdProvider || []).push({\"serve\": {}});<\/script>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n\r\n  <!-- \u53f3\u4fa7\u6469\u5929\u697c\uff08\u548c\u5de6\u4fa7\u5b8c\u5168\u5bf9\u9f50\uff09 -->\r\n  <div style=\"grid-row: 3\/5; height: 750px; background: #ccc; display: grid; place-items: center;\">\r\n  <script async type=\"application\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/a.magsrv.com\/ad-provider.js\"><\/script> \r\n <ins class=\"eas6a97888e2\" data-zoneid=\"5876678\"><\/ins> \r\n <script>(AdProvider = window.AdProvider || []).push({\"serve\": {}});<\/script>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n  \r\n  <script async type=\"application\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/a.magsrv.com\/ad-provider.js\"><\/script> \r\n <ins class=\"eas6a97888e6\" data-zoneid=\"5876682\"><\/ins> \r\n <script>(AdProvider = window.AdProvider || []).push({\"serve\": {}});<\/script>\r\n<\/div><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.techeblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/15121614\/sampling-chernobyls-elephants-foot-study-disaster.jpg\" alt=\"Sampling Chernobyl's Elephant's Foot Study Disaster\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\"\/><br \/>After a botched turbine test on the night of April 26, 1986, operators at Chernobyl\u2019s Unit 4 disabled the remaining safeties and let the bottom of the RBMK core run free. A steam explosion flipped the reactor lid. Fuel, zirconium cladding, steel, graphite, sand, and concrete liquefied, burned through two meters of reinforced floor, and poured through steam vents and cable holes into corridor 217\/2. There the flow froze into a wrinkled two-ton lump of black ceramic that crews later nicknamed the Elephant\u2019s Foot.<\/p>\n<p><span id=\"more-258037\"\/><br \/><iframe title=\"Destroying Chernobyl&amp;apos;s Elephant&amp;apos;s Foot\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/62BWarijIuY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><noscript><iframe title=\"Destroying Chernobyl&amp;apos;s Elephant&amp;apos;s Foot\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/62BWarijIuY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/noscript><br \/>Radiation levels 8 months later remained between 8000 and 10,000 roentgens per hour. A person standing directly next to the thing would have been in grave danger of receiving a deadly dose in less than three minutes. Not surprisingly, short-lived radioactive waste caused the majority of the damage in the early stages, followed by Cesium-137 and other longer-lived isotopes, which continued to emit gamma radiation even after the main blast had passed.<\/p>\n<div class=\"aawp\">\n<div class=\"aawp-product aawp-product--horizontal\" data-aawp-product-asin=\"B0DN216NH1\" data-aawp-product-id=\"259362\" data-aawp-tracking-id=\"tec02e-20\" data-aawp-product-title=\"Plutonium  Trinitite Sample  Display Encased in Lucite Acrylic 2x2x2 Inches Authentic Trinitite from First Atomic Test Site Handmade in The USA by Engineered Labs for Display or Education\">\n<div class=\"aawp-product__thumb\">\n<p>            <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aawp-product__image\" src=\"https:\/\/m.media-amazon.com\/images\/I\/3194X-WjTfL._SL160_.jpg\" alt=\"Plutonium (Trinitite Sample) Display, Encased in Lucite Acrylic, 2x2x2 Inches, Authentic Trinitite from...\"\/><\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"aawp-product__content\">\n<p>            Plutonium (Trinitite Sample) Display, Encased in Lucite Acrylic, 2x2x2 Inches, Authentic Trinitite from&#8230;        <\/p>\n<div class=\"aawp-product__description\">\n<ul>\n<li>Authentic Trinitite Sample: Own a genuine piece of history with this authentic Trinitite sample, encased in a 2x2x2-inch crystal-clear lucite acrylic&#8230;<\/li>\n<li>Handmade in the USA: Expertly crafted by Engineered Labs, this display is made in the USA and features an authentic Trinitite sample from the Trinity&#8230;<\/li>\n<li>Historical Significance of Trinitite: Formed during the world\u2019s first atomic bomb test at the Trinity Site in 1945, Trinitite is a rare and highly&#8230;<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>\nThe Russians couldn\u2019t get their remote drills to bite into the hard-as-glass surface, so they brought in a Kalashnikov loaded with armor-piercing bullets and began blasting off chips so that the lab guys could inspect them. That same rock-hard density eventually proved to be a problem, as the lump began to split, break off, and disintegrate to dust.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.techeblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/15121552\/sampling-chernobyls-elephants-foot-study-disaster-1.jpg\" alt=\"Sampling Chernobyl's Elephant's Foot Study Disaster\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\"\/><br \/>In 1996, Artur Korneyev walked down a dark corridor with an auto-camera and a flashlight, took a photograph that is still remembered by everyone, and then hurried out of there as quickly as possible. By then, the radiation had reduced to the point that you could visit for a few minutes, a significant improvement over the 5-minute death sentence it had been imposing just a few years before. Later, it was estimated that the surface was still clocking in at over 1100 roentgens per hour in 1989, and then at 700 in 2000. Hours of exposure would still cause significant harm, and the fine dust it produces poses an inhalation risk because the uranium and plutonium have never left.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.techeblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/15121558\/sampling-chernobyls-elephants-foot-study-disaster-2.jpg\" alt=\"Sampling Chernobyl's Elephant's Foot Study Disaster\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\"\/><br \/>The chips they blasted off to the lab revealed a silicate glass filled with uranium oxides, zirconium, iron, calcium, and an entirely new mineral eventually named chernobylite. Only three reactor accidents in history have created the type of molten material seen in the Elephant\u2019s Foot in significant quantities: Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima. The \u2018famous foot\u2019 is essentially a little chunk of the melt that remains inside Unit 4. Other flows and chambers in the region contain a lot more fuel and are still quite dangerous.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.techeblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/15121603\/sampling-chernobyls-elephants-foot-study-disaster-3.jpg\" alt=\"Sampling Chernobyl's Elephant's Foot Study Disaster\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\"\/><br \/>Weathering \/ heat from fuel deterioration, and all of the sampling they\u2019d been doing eventually completed the work the rifles had started. By 2021, they were describing the consistency as sand. According to a study from September 2026, the mass has essentially degraded into rusty dust with barely a trace of radioactive material, and it is no longer one of the more dangerous exposed coriums near the site.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.techeblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/15121609\/sampling-chernobyls-elephants-foot-study-disaster-4.jpg\" alt=\"Sampling Chernobyl's Elephant's Foot Study Disaster\" width=\"1280\" height=\"720\"\/><br \/>The plan is to just leave the wrecked stairwells, where Soviet engineers had a big problem, and have robots cut through the reactor building walls to transport the lava out and dispose of it all. The Elephant\u2019s Foot will merely keep falling away just where it is, a 2-ton reminder that the melt never truly stopped; it simply cooled, cracked apart, and waited.<br \/><span>[Source]<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><!-- \u603b\u5bb9\u5668\uff1a\u6700\u5927\u5bbd908px Grid\u7d27\u51d1\u5e03\u5c40 -->\r\n<div style=\"display: grid; grid-template-columns: 728px 160px; gap:2px; width:908px; background:#eee; padding:2px;\">\r\n\r\n  <!-- \u901a\u680f\u9876\u90e8\uff1a\u6700\u5927\u6a2a\u5e45 908x258 \u8de8\u6574\u884c -->\r\n  <div style=\"grid-column:1\/-1; height:258px; background:#ff6b6b; display:grid; place-items:center;\">\r\n    <!-- JuicyAds v3.0 -->\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" data-cfasync=\"false\" async src=\"https:\/\/poweredby.jads.co\/js\/jads.js\"><\/script>\r\n<ins id=\"1114307\" data-width=\"908\" data-height=\"258\"><\/ins>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" data-cfasync=\"false\" async>(adsbyjuicy = window.adsbyjuicy || []).push({'adzone':1114307});<\/script>\r\n<!--JuicyAds END-->\r\n  <\/div>\r\n\r\n  <!-- \u7b2c\u4e8c\u901a\u680f\uff1a728\u00d790 \u901a\u680f -->\r\n  <div style=\"grid-column:1\/-1; 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display:grid; place-items:center;\">\r\n\t<!-- JuicyAds v3.0 -->\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" data-cfasync=\"false\" async src=\"https:\/\/poweredby.jads.co\/js\/jads.js\"><\/script>\r\n<ins id=\"1114302\" data-width=\"133\" data-height=\"139\"><\/ins>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" data-cfasync=\"false\" async>(adsbyjuicy = window.adsbyjuicy || []).push({'adzone':1114302});<\/script>\r\n<!--JuicyAds END-->\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n    <div style=\"height:125px; background:#91e7ac; display:grid; place-items:center;\">\r\n\t\r\n<!-- JuicyAds v3.0 -->\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" data-cfasync=\"false\" async src=\"https:\/\/poweredby.jads.co\/js\/jads.js\"><\/script>\r\n<ins id=\"1114303\" data-width=\"125\" data-height=\"125\"><\/ins>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" data-cfasync=\"false\" async>(adsbyjuicy = window.adsbyjuicy || []).push({'adzone':1114303});<\/script>\r\n<!--JuicyAds END-->\r\n\t<\/div>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n\r\n  <!-- \u53f3\u4fa7\u7ad6\u680f\uff1a160\u00d7600 \u6574\u5217\u9ad8\u5e7f\u544a -->\r\n  <div style=\"grid-row:3\/8; height:600px;  display:grid; place-items:center;\">\r\n    <!-- JuicyAds v3.0 -->\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" data-cfasync=\"false\" async src=\"https:\/\/poweredby.jads.co\/js\/jads.js\"><\/script>\r\n<ins id=\"1114301\" data-width=\"160\" data-height=\"600\"><\/ins>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\" data-cfasync=\"false\" async>(adsbyjuicy = window.adsbyjuicy || []).push({'adzone':1114301});<\/script>\r\n<!--JuicyAds END-->\r\n  <\/div>\r\n\r\n<\/div><br \/>\n<br \/> Sampling Chernobyl\u2019s Elephant\u2019s Foot Reveals AK-47s and Radioactive Dust<br \/>\n<br \/>#Sampling #Chernobyls #Elephants #Foot #Reveals #AK47s #Radioactive #Dust<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After a botched turbine test on the night of April 26, 1986, operators at Chernobyl\u2019s&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21938,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[16101,16100,9232,9787,6221,6832,653,16099],"class_list":["post-21937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tech","tag-ak47s","tag-chernobyls","tag-dust","tag-elephants","tag-foot","tag-radioactive","tag-reveals","tag-sampling"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/sampling-chernobyls-elephants-foot-study-disaster.jpg",960,640,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/sampling-chernobyls-elephants-foot-study-disaster-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/sampling-chernobyls-elephants-foot-study-disaster-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/sampling-chernobyls-elephants-foot-study-disaster-768x512.jpg",640,427,true],"large":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/sampling-chernobyls-elephants-foot-study-disaster.jpg",640,427,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/sampling-chernobyls-elephants-foot-study-disaster.jpg",960,640,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/sampling-chernobyls-elephants-foot-study-disaster.jpg",960,640,false],"covernews-slider-full":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/sampling-chernobyls-elephants-foot-study-disaster.jpg",960,640,false],"covernews-slider-center":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/sampling-chernobyls-elephants-foot-study-disaster-800x500.jpg",800,500,true],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/sampling-chernobyls-elephants-foot-study-disaster.jpg",960,640,false],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/sampling-chernobyls-elephants-foot-study-disaster-540x340.jpg",540,340,true],"covernews-medium-square":["https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/sampling-chernobyls-elephants-foot-study-disaster-400x250.jpg",400,250,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/?author=1"},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/?cat=8\" rel=\"category\">Tech<\/a>","tag_info":"Tech","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/8657085.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}