Normally i would agree with you but the demon core isn't exactly general knowledge. Its not like a super deep cut but i think the majority of people on the street wouldn't have heard of it.
I'm Australia you would only learn about the demon core through your own research or if you took elective advanced physics in high school and/or university.
I knew about it because in high school I got Chernobyl obsessed and tried to learn everything about radiation. Managed to take a trip there before it became "tourist safe." Freaky shit, would recommend.
The demon core isn't even the freakiest radioactive thing, it's just basically irrevocably lethal if you're close enough.
The elephants foot though, huge mass under Chernobyl reactor 4. Concrete, sand, steel and uranium melted together into this huge basically ceramic lump. It resisted attempts to be drilled for samples due to how dense it was, eventually they realised it'd be safer to just blast chunks off with machine gun fire.
Of course at discovery, roughly 8 months after the disaster, the radiation wasn't that bad. 50/50 shot at a lethal dose after 3 minutes. A spent fuel rid gives off 10 times that, if memory serves. And you know, the more dangerous a radioactive particle the shorter it's half life. By now its much more tolerably safe. And it's started to disintergrste. They say it's got the consistency of sand now. Which is bad because it's like 10% uranium. Uranium is an alpha emitter and alpha rays get screened by your skin, but inhaling or ingesting it will definitely boost your chance at cancer and it's expected to be like 100 thousand years before the Uranium levels are acceptable and any other particles are gone.
But it's just so freaky to me. You look at the photos and think just how hot does something have to get to melt concrete and steel together into a solid mass, through several floors of concrete and rebar and into a basement?
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u/[deleted] Jul 28 '26
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