Famous Photo of Chernobyl's Dangerous Radioactive Material Was a Selfie (2016)
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- #Radioactive Material
- #Nuclear History
- #Chernobyl
- The Elephant's Foot is a highly radioactive mass of corium formed after the Chernobyl disaster, lethal within minutes of exposure.
- Artur Korneyev, a Kazakhstani nuclear inspector, took a selfie with the Elephant's Foot in 1996, exposing himself to extreme radiation.
- The photo gained international attention after being shared online and traced back to a U.S. Department of Energy digital library.
- Corium, a toxic substance from melted nuclear fuel, has formed only five times in history, including at Chernobyl and Fukushima.
- Despite high radiation exposure, Korneyev survived and continued working on Chernobyl cleanup, though he suffered health issues later.