00:30it at first it resembles the foot of an elephant and you will be convinced it's just that.
00:36When you look at it the first thought that might cross your mind is what an elephant foot is doing
00:40in the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. But this is no ordinary elephant foot though it may look like
00:46one. After just 30 seconds of exposure dizziness and fatigue will find you a week later. Two
00:52minutes of exposure and your cells will soon begin to haemorrhage. Four minutes vomiting,
00:58diarrhea and fever. 300 seconds and you have two days to live. Today in this video we will be
01:04telling you about this dangerous discovery which was made by the scientists and why the elephant's
01:09foot could be the most dangerous piece of waste in the world. First let us go back to April of 1986
01:17and recall what happened at Chernobyl. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant is located about
01:23130 kilometers north of the Ukrainian capital Kiev and about 20 kilometers south of the border
01:29with Belarus. It is made up of four reactors that were designed and built during the 1970s
01:34and 1980s. On April 26, 1986 during a routine test reactor 4 at the Chernobyl NPP experienced
01:42a power surge that triggered an emergency shutdown. Instead of shutting down the reactor
01:48kept surging power and in no time at all the plant was in full disaster mode. The control
01:55rods used to manage the coarse temperature were inserted too late into the process. Instead of
01:59cooling down the rods cracked in the rising heat from the core and locked into place. Further the
02:05water used to cool the entire reactor vaporized resulting in a massive explosion thereby
02:11exacerbating the crisis. There were two explosions. The first explosion from the steam inside the
02:17reactor was enough to send the four million pound lid of the reactor assembly through the roof of
02:22the building. A second explosion even more massive followed shortly after the first emitting the
02:27broken core material into the air spreading fire and radioactive detritus. Without the tons of
02:33steel and concrete typically used to shield it the core of the reactor began to melt. The result of
02:38the melting process was a substance called corium which cooled enough to solidify at Chernobyl.
02:44After six months of investigation researchers discovered the elephant's foot. Workers who
02:50entered a corridor beneath the damaged number four reactor months after the Chernobyl disaster
02:54discovered this startling phenomena. The corium that had hardened into a large black mass had
03:00taken the shape of the foot of an elephant and hence the crew nicknamed it the elephant's foot.
03:06This formation stood half as tall as a man and weighed as much as two tons. In one hour the
03:12elephant's foot would expose you to the radiations of over four and a half million chest x-rays.
03:17That dose is almost thousand times stronger than exposures that have been clearly linked to
03:22increased cancer risk. In the days and weeks after the Chernobyl disaster in late April 1986
03:28simply being in the same room with the elephant's foot would have killed you within five minutes.
03:34And yet in spite of the elephant foot's toxic presence in Chernobyl something strange is
03:38happening there. As strange and bizarre as it may sound many different kinds of animals aren't
03:44simply living in the radiated area they are thriving in it. The camera spotted gray wolves,
03:49red foxes, wild boars, moose and deer. It's not that the area isn't still dangerous to humans
03:56but instead the animal life seems to have found a way to thrive in spite of it. And even more
04:01important than that the flourishing animal life shows just how destructive the presence of human
04:05beings can be on the animal population of any given area. Whatever the reason the area of the
04:11Chernobyl disaster has become a kind of wildlife refugee for many different species of animals.
04:17At least some small amount of good was able to come out from one of the worst disasters in the
04:22last three decades. Other major disasters being the Fukushima and Three Mile Island disasters.
04:28Born of human error, continually generating copious heat, the elephant's foot is still
04:34melting into the base of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. If it hits groundwater it could
04:39trigger another catastrophic explosion or leach radioactive material into the water nearby
04:44residents drink. Long after bleeding from the core this unique piece of waste continues to be a
04:49testament to the potential dangers of nuclear power. The elephant's foot will be there for
04:54centuries sitting in the dark basement of a concrete and steel sacrifice, a symbol of one
05:00of the humankind's most powerful tools gone awry. This was all you needed to know about this
05:05dangerous discovery which owes its origin to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, the elephant's foot.
05:11If you like this video do let us know in the comment section below and do not forget to hit
05:15the subscribe button. If you want to know about other such nuclear disasters in history stay
05:19tuned to our channel. Thank you for watching.
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