#chernobyl

#chernobyl

Behind the Famous Photo of Chernobyl's Radioactive "Elephant's Foot"In April of 1986, Unit 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in Ukraine (then part of the USSR) blew up, causing a meltdown. The rods of nuclear fuel turned to liquid and melted their containers, producing a highly radioactive substance called corium. Corium flowed through the building, and in a week's time, eleven tons of it settled on the floor in a shape that was later dubbed the "elephant's foot." The corium was so toxic it would kill anyone in the room within minutes, but this picture was taken ten years afterward. Oh, it was still radioactive, and it is still decaying today, 36 years later. The worker on the left in the picture is Artur Korneyev, a Kazakhstani nuclear inspector who still lives in Slavutich, Ukraine. The photograph, taken in 1996, was tucked into a collection of images given to the US in the late '90s without context. It took years to determine who the person in the photo is, who took it, and what was going on, but you can now read about Artur Korneyev and the elephant's foot at Atlas Obscura.#Chernobyl #elephantsfoot #corium

The Strange Black Fungus that Grows at ChernobylIn the years since the 1986 nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl in Ukraine, scientists have been able to study the effects of nuclear radiation on nature. That's because all the people were evacuated from the nuclear power plant and the nearby town of Pripyat. Inside the exclusion zone, plants and animals were left to roam free without human interference. Scientist Tatiana Tugai of the Kyiv Institute of Microbiology and Virology visited the area to monitor those life forms and how they coped with radiation. Her team found more than 200 species of fungus growing in the exclusion zone, including an odd black fungus growing on the walls inside the nuclear reactor, where radiation levels were particularly high. The fungus is black because it contains melanin, which reacts with radiation in a way that makes the fungus grow. Read about this odd fungus, and how its makeup could be harnessed to protect space travelers from radiation, and even protect those of us on earth from some of the dangers of climate change, at Atlas Obscura. Use your own imagination to turn this idea into a horror film.(Image credit: Tiia Monto)#radiation #nuclearradiation #fungus #Chernobyl