BBC News | Chernobyl | Containing Chernobyl?
Here's the skinny on the Chernobyl elephant's foot.
It burned itself down into 6 feet of concrete and this is exposed.
The individual and the photographer of which you refer are likely a long time dead.
"Lava, glass and crystal flow discovered in the base of the reactor In December 1986, an intensely radioactive mass was discovered in the basement of Unit Four and scientists rigged up a crude wheeled camera to investigate. The mass was more than two metres across and weighed hundreds of tons. Because of its odd wrinkled shape, it was christened, “the elephant’s foot”. To approach it meant certain death. Analysis of the material showed that it was composed of sand, glass and nuclear fuel, and the proportion of sand suggested to scientists that a large amount of fuel had escaped from the reactor in this form. Underneath the reactor, the investigation team found steaming hot concrete and, draining into the basement, lava and spectacular unknown crystalline forms - Chernobylite."
