Chernobyl's Elephant's Foot Remains One of History's Most Radioactive Objects

Executive Briefing

• Formed during the 1986 Chernobyl meltdown, the Elephant's Foot is a 10,000-roentgen-per-hour corium mass still lethal today
• Corium has only been created five times in history across Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, and Fukushima disasters
• Estimates suggest roughly 100 tons of corium remain buried beneath the Chernobyl reactor site
• Chernobylite, a radioactive crystal unique to Chernobyl, forms on cooled corium and exists nowhere else on Earth
• Scientists are simulating LFCMs in lab settings to better understand corrosion and improve future nuclear safety protocols