Elephant's Foot (Chernobyl)

The Elephant's Foot (Ukrainian: Слонова нога, romanized: Slonova noha, Russian: Слоновья нога, romanized: Slonovya noga) is the nickname given to the large mass of corium beneath Reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near Pripyat, Ukraine. The mass formed during the 1986 Chernobyl disaster from materials such as molten concrete, sand, steel, uranium, and zirconium. It is named for its wrinkled appearance and large size, evocative of the foot of an elephant.

Discovered in December 1986, the "foot" is located in a maintenance corridor below the remains of Reactor No. 4, though the often-photographed formation is only a small portion of several larger corium masses in the area. It has a popular reputation as one of the most radioactive objects in history, though it is no more radioactive than a given number of spent nuclear fuel rods, and the danger has decreased over time due to the decay of its radioactive components.

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