As the Soviet Union hurtles toward its demise, a new group of scientists seeks to answer the biggest remaining questions surrounding Chernobyl: What happened to all the molten fuel? And what of the 16,000 tons of material dropped by General Antoshkin’s helicopters? As the scientists carefully probe Unit Four’s ruins, remaining in some dangerous areas for only minutes at a time and others not at all, they come across what comes to be known as the Elephant’s Foot, a giant black stalagmite-shaped object emitting 8,000 roentgen an hour. Too hard to drill, the scientists only manage to obtain a sample when one of them fires a pistol at it. After analyzing the sample, they determine the Elephant’s Foot is comprised of a small amount of the molten radioactive fuel. There are no traces of lead or any other substances used to douse the core from above.

In 1988, scientists manage to drill into the core chamber itself. Using a periscope, they peer into the core to find no trace of the core fuel. They do however discover that only the smallest trace of the 16,000 tons of Antoshkin’s material actually hit its mark and made it into the core. Moreover, the water suppression tanks supposedly emptied by Zborovsky’s team to avoid a steam explosion still contain several meters of water.