Famous Photo of Chernobyl's Most Radioactive Material Was a Selfie

There&#x27;s an amazing documentary about this that contains a lot of footage of the actual incident and cleanup called the &quot;Battle of Chernobyl&quot;.<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;topdocumentaryfilms.com&#x2F;the-battle-of-chernobyl&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;topdocumentaryfilms.com&#x2F;the-battle-of-chernobyl&#x2F;</a><p>Things that still haunt me: the helicopter pilots who put the initial fires out flew in 120-180C temperatures and pretty much all died of radiation. And the sequence that starts about here:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;ezohqY-vg4s?t=3430" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;ezohqY-vg4s?t=3430</a><p>Where they are picking up radioactive materials by hand and throwing it off the roof next to the reactor because the robots they were trying to use all break down. Even 1 hour of exposure was deadly so they rotated through shifts, and the guys who did it were called &quot;Bio Robots&quot;

&quot;The shutter speed was probably a little slower than for the other photos in order for him to get into position, which explains why he seems to be moving and why the glow from his flashlight looks like a lightning flash.&quot;<p>WHAT? the timer of the shutter has nothing to do with the the actual shutter speed. Using a timer for an old skool selfie has no relationship to blurriness in the exposure caused by too slow of a shutter speed.

The most interesting thing about the elephant&#x27;s foot was that it disproved the &quot;China Syndrome&quot; hypothesis. That hypothesis of course was that an uncontrolled meltdown would simply melt down through to China (not that it could really go past the core :-) However, what the elephant&#x27;s foot showed was that the melted core would diffuse into the material as it was melting, eventually it loses enough mass that it goes subcritical, re-freezes and that&#x27;s that.<p>That is why pretty much every western reactor has a reservoir of sand under the containment vehicle, if the worst of the worst happens, it melts into the sand which becomes glass.

<i>Of the five corium creations, only Cherobyl&#x27;s has escaped its containment.</i><p>This is statement is a bit too definitive, because it simply isn&#x27;t known yet how bad the breach is at Fukushima Daiichi No. 2 - from muon radiography it certainly seems to have breached the primary (steel) containment.

A great use case for drones to fly in and take photographs.<p>A quick Google search shows it already has been done =&gt; <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=ra7YbBvbRYQ" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=ra7YbBvbRYQ</a><p>Had drones existed in 1986 and deployed to take close photographs of disaster, would it have been safe to access that drone after it returned?

&gt; Research on the substance has found, for example, that dumping water on it after it forms actually does stop some fission products from decaying and producing more dangerous isotopes.<p>What? I bet it doesn&#x27;t. There&#x27;s no way cooling will interfere with the half-life of the elements. They probably mean that solidifying the extremities reduces toxic&#x2F;radiation exposure.

&quot;Was a Selfie&quot; - not a selfie &quot;Remarkably, he’s probably still alive.&quot; &quot;the radiation probably caused the film to develop strangely&quot;<p>Is there any solid info or is this just clickbait at its best?

&gt; and in doing so has been exposed to more radiation than almost anyone in history<p>This is patently absurd. Those exposed to the most radiation are all dead and died from radiation exposure, effects, and side effects.

Am I the only one who thinks it looks like he is headbanging while holding an electric guitar?

Much more information about the problems to keep the plant from causing more damage is in the NYT article from 2014, the one where the state of health of Artur Korneyev is given:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;interactive&#x2F;2014&#x2F;04&#x2F;27&#x2F;science&#x2F;chernobyl-capping-a-catastrophe.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nytimes.com&#x2F;interactive&#x2F;2014&#x2F;04&#x2F;27&#x2F;science&#x2F;cherno...</a><p>&quot;These days Mr. Korneyev works in the project management unit, but because of his health — he has cataracts and other problems related to his heavy radiation exposure during his first three years — he is no longer allowed inside the plant. “Soviet radiation,” he joked, “is the best radiation in the world.”&quot;

In case some didn&#x27;t follow the first link, it contains this gem: Korneyev&#x27;s sense of humor remained intact, though. He seemed to have no regrets about his life&#x27;s work. “Soviet radiation,” he joked, “is the best radiation in the world.

Somewhat related to this, I am amazed by the analysis done by bionerd23. Her study of cesium 137 levels in vegetation is interesting. She measured the levels in mushrooms found in Bavaria and apples found just 4km away from Chernobyl and saw that only 0.10 of cesium was found in apples. Interesting study.<p>You can find her videos on youtube.

&gt; The shutter speed was probably a little slower than for the other photos in order for him to get into position, which explains why he seems to be moving and why the glow from his flashlight looks like a lightning flash. The graininess of the photo, though, is likely due to the radiation.<p>Yeah, wouldn&#x27;t that have been exotic. Having worked many years with high end scanning and digitizing photographs from the 1850 to today I can say that apparent grain in a photo from the 80s is not a strange thing, especially if it&#x27;s a high ISO film. Correcting a bad exposure when post processing enhances that grain. The &quot;graininess&quot; here looks more like interpolation artifacts after upressing, possibly a highly compressed JPEG, though.

Amazing that Artur Korneyev, the guy in the picture, is still alive.

There is a very interesting documentary from 1991 made as<p>part of BBC Horizon series called &quot;Inside Chernobyl<p>Sarcophagus&quot; --&gt; www.imdb.com&#x2F;title&#x2F;tt1607059

When they selfie, was the camera on timer? What is the source of the lightning looking stuff?

Always makes me wonder whether these people know what the radiation is doing to them and they&#x27;re doing it out of some heroic duty, or whether they have no idea whatsoever ... I can&#x27;t stop looking.

I can&#x27;t get past seeing two users of the Speed Force--one bent over an electric guitar, the other thumping along on bass, captured in a flash of lightning.

“Soviet radiation,” he joked, “is the best radiation in the world.&quot; :)

More complete quote of the photographer&#x27;s joke:<p>&gt; <i>&quot;Don&#x27;t worry, Soviet radiation is the best in the world. It makes hair thicker and men more potent.&quot;</i><p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.travelandleisure.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;alive-in-the-dead-zone" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.travelandleisure.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;alive-in-the-dead-z...</a>

I bet bionerd23 knows Mr. Korneyev quite well.