#reactor 4

What do these two pictures have in common?

That's right, they both occur in the year 1986. In fact they occur only one month apart. Stranger things season 4 takes place during spring break of 1986 and the finale, in which Vecna opens the gate to Hawkins, takes place on march 29th. Almost a month later, on april 26th 1986, reactor 4 of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant explodes.

Now you may be thinking, wtf does Chernobyl exploding have to do with stranger thing season 4??

Let me tell you. And yes, I am aware that the Suffer brothers are just lazy and forgot about the russian plot line, but I'm here to make it make sense.

Chernobyl exploding was such an insane disaster to the soviet union, it literally cost billions of dollars. BILLIONS. The clean up and putting the first sarcophagus over the destroyed reactor cost them around 18 billion usd. That is around 84 billion today. Scientists, biologists, chemists, physicians were called from all over. Plus the liquidators. We're talking about hundreds of thousands of people here. And yes, ik that the lab that the russians were studying demogorgons and mind flayer dust was in Kamchatka, but let's be for real.

The ussr is NOT gonna fund research of some sci fi creatures over a literal global disaster. The entirety of Europe could become inhabitable and some guy in Kamchatka tells you he wants to poke an interdimensional lizard with a stick to see what's it made of. It's NOT happening.

Plus almost everything was destroyed by hopper and friends. They wouldn't be sending anyone to go chase some american sheriff while all of that is happening.

Also imagine how the normal people of Hawkins were probably feeling. Your town just split in four parts and there's military everywhere and now they're saying on tv that a nuclear reactor exploded.

Before the Ukraine-Russia war, people were able to tour the city, staying well away from the 1,000 sq mi exclusion zone around the plant.

The most fascinating thing (to me) is the Elephants Foot. Its a large mass of radioactive and man-made materials that formed after the meltdown. The material flowed 49 ft to the southeast of the reactor and 20 ft below ground level. It melted through 6.6 ft of reinforced concrete before settling in the back of room 217/2.

Radioactivity near the Elephants Foot was approximately 80 to 100 grays per hour, delivering a 50/50 lethal dose of radiation (4.5 grays) within five minutes. Between May and November 1986, a shelter (the "Sarcophagus") was constructed to help seal the radioactive materials inside Reactor Number 4.

In 1996, Radiation Specialist Artur Korneyev took several photographs of the Elephants Foot. Some call him the most radioactive man in the world. Artur took up close photos of the mass and produced a very famous "selfie" seen below. The grainy effect is due to the high levels of radiation.

His current status is unknown, but in a 2016 interview he said he was working on construction of a $1.5 billion arch that, when finished in 2017, will cap the decaying sarcophagus and prevent airborne isotopes from escaping. In his mid 60s, he was sickly, with cataracts, and had been barred from re-entering the sarcophagus after years of irradiation.

Pictured below:

☆ Artur Korneyev with the Elephants Foot 1996

☆ View of the city of Pripyat with Chernobyl in the background 2009

☆ The "Sarcophagus" + a picture of the destroyed reactor right after the accident

☆ The "Red Forest" around Pripyat 2009

☆ A piglet with Dipygus at the Ukrainian National Chernobyl Museum

☆ Map of radiation levels around Chernobyl in 1996

☆ Radiation exposure to first responders at Chernobyl in comparison to a range of situations