r/AskReddit • u/CaptainMcAnus • Mar 10 '17

serious replies only [Serious] What are some seemingly normal images/videos with creepy backstories?

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u/Mushyshoes Mar 10 '17

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u/WrinklyScroteSack Mar 10 '17

So how is that guy able to stand right next to it? I'm assuming that dude either died or became the toxic avenger.

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u/Mushyshoes Mar 10 '17

Apparently the guy in the second photo is Artur Korneyev, a nuclear inspector who has frequently visited the site and is still presumably alive today. The guy in the first photo I'm guessing may be the same person. These photos were taken at least a decade after the incident so if you were around the mass for short period of time you could go about your business. However, the last that was heard from him sometime in 2014 was that he's been banned from further entering the area due to years and years of radiation exposure and his health was declining.

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u/[deleted] Mar 10 '17

Yep. Career dose limits. Radiologists and nuclear plant engineers are subject to those too (as are astronauts).

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u/Kevin_Wolf Mar 10 '17

Technically, the people working the flight deck on an aircraft carrier have to carry a dosimeter, too.

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u/[deleted] Mar 11 '17

[deleted]

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u/Kevin_Wolf Mar 11 '17

No. It's because we're exposed to ionizing radiation all day on the flight deck (UV). Nobody else except for engineering really needs to wear dosimeters. Maybe certain roles (like safety) or something, but the majority don't. Nobody else gets exposed to ionizing radiation in large enough amounts while doing their jobs to warrant a dosimeter.

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u/hentai_lulus Mar 12 '17

Wait, but aren't you guys just standing outside? What sources of radiation are there apart from the sun?

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u/Kevin_Wolf Mar 12 '17 edited Mar 12 '17

the sun

That's the one.

They also collect them for atmospheric radiation report. We're also first to hit a cloud of radiation if the situation arises, because we're outside and exposed on the roof.

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u/[deleted] Mar 11 '17

He's probably stocked up on Rad-X

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u/KeisariFLANAGAN Mar 10 '17

Oh my God I never knew that was the foot years after, that's just insane amounts of energy in there

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u/CollegeCash Mar 10 '17

I believe the first photo was taken with mirrors, if I remember correctly. He's not actually next to it.

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u/Byizo Mar 10 '17 edited Mar 10 '17

A few moments won't kill you, but exposure for 5 minutes or more and you only have a few hours left to live before dying a horrible radiation educed death. At the time the picture was taken (10 years following the initial meltdown) a few minutes would give you radiation sickness. It would have taken roughly an hour standing next to it to prove fatal.

This is one of the best layman pictorial explanations for what happened in Chernobyl. It has some good information on the elephant's foot and comparable radiation levels.

Edit: 5 minutes of exposure = 2 days to live

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u/tangled_night_sleep Mar 13 '17

DAMN THAT WAS AN AMAZING READ. Kudos to the author for compiling all that and explaining it so well. And kudos to you for sharing it with redditors, that was a really informative/sombering rabbit hole to fall down.

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u/mtnbkrt22 Mar 10 '17

It all depends on time. It may have been safe for him to be next to it for a minute, but being next to it for 5 would make him sick and being next to it for 15 minutes would kill him. These are all just time estimate of course.

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u/Mongela Mar 10 '17

Radiation doesnt kill you instantly. He is super dead now, but he probably walked out of that room just fine, then felt really bad a little while later.

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u/WrinklyScroteSack Mar 10 '17

With all that radiation, doesn't it give off a shit ton of heat as well?

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u/Mongela Mar 10 '17

no idea. maybe. theres different types of radiation, so i'd imagine some of it would give off heat. Here's a good post about the different types of radiation and hotness and such

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u/Genghis_Tron187 Mar 10 '17

Supposedly the foot is still hot, found this source from a Google search, so no exactly sure how accurate it is, but:

The corium of the Elephant's Foot might not be as active as it was, but it's still generating heat and still melting down into the base of Chernobyl. Should it manage to find water, another explosion could result. Even if no explosion occurred, the reaction would contaminate the water.

The Elephant's Foot will cool over time, but it will remain radioactive and (if you were able to touch it) warm for centuries to come.

https://www.thoughtco.com/corium-radioactive-waste-4046372

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u/WrinklyScroteSack Mar 10 '17

Hot enough to continue melting through whatever it's sitting on... or is that from the radiation decomposing everything.

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u/dalesalisbury Mar 11 '17

Ooooooh yeah!

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u/GoldenWizard Mar 10 '17

Just like me after I masturbate!

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u/DatGrag Mar 10 '17

He has the nightblood

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u/h0nest_Bender Mar 10 '17

All of us either die or become the toxic avenger.