The Soviet Nuclear-Powered Lighthouses
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- Опубликовано: 15 окт 2024
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There's a part 2 in this for one of your other channels: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lia_radiological_accident
Megaupload :]
No! Fuk off surfshark.
Utter B.S. .. VPN's are a TRAP.
No
After reading some of the comments, I feel I need to differentiate nuclear power from nuclear batteries, as a nuclear engineer. Nuclear power harnesses heat produced by nuclear fission (splitting atoms in a controlled manner) to heat water into steam to drive large electric turbine generators. Nuclear batteries simply use decay heat from a small amount of a radioactive isotope, like Strontium-90, to heat one end of a thermocouple, inducing a voltage across it. They made for great small power sources in remote, unmanned locations. The Russians also used them for remote Siberian airport runway lights. But in the days of terrorism, the risk of them being stolen and attached to conventional explosives (a "dirty bomb") and promptly dispersing their radiative materials across a small urban area is too great. The chemical properties of Strontium make it seek out bones if ingested (like its relative Calcium) and cause a permanent internal body burden of a highly radioactive source.
You say all this but the hulk seemed ok so I think your wrong
We can not be afraid of nuclear power sources, but we must ensure they are PROPERLY safeguarded, big emphasis on properly for all the governments and shadey corporations out there :3
@@netslum12 Unlike the coal, oil and gas industry (which kills thousands every year), nuclear has kill WAY less people. Propaganda by COG has blackened nuclear's profile. If we are to act to slow the mess we've made, then nuclear (NOT renewables!) is how we're going to do it...
As someone interested in all things nuclear thanks for this explanation!
Agreed on all points, but "small amount" is a bit of an understatement. Some of these had up to half a million curies of Sr-90, which is pretty scary. Small by nuclear power scales, but a staggering amount nonetheless.
There was a radiological incident involving Soviet RTGs. A few hunters found a couple of incredible canisters that were melting the snow around them and warm to the touch. Naturally, they decided to take them with them; they even slept against them at camp that night. Medically, they did not fare well.
Cooked em. I remember that story.
RTG fell out of a truck and cracked open falling down the mountain.
I think Plainly Difficult had a video about that case.
@@abpsd73 ruclips.net/video/23kemyXcbXo/видео.html
plainly difficult did that video
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lia_radiological_accident Found it.
This actually makes a *lot* of sense. In remote parts of the Arctic and Antarctic regions, nuclear and wind are pretty much the *only* reasonable solutions. And wind wasn't real cost effective during the Cold War.
Solar works remarkable well too. All the automated weather stations in Antarctica run on solar power and a massive lead acid battery bank. (Though I'm sure they use less than 1 watt of power on average)
@@martylawson1638 for Australia, maybe. Not for the Arctic.
Wind and solar aren’t reliable enough for something like that tho. Most storms are dark and cloudy, so solar is out considering there isn’t good energy storage, and wind doesn’t work if it’s not windy or if it’s too windy, so again not a good option in a storm.
@@ryanhamstra49 and yet they use wind in Antarctica.
not only that, but wind machinery has a tendency to freeze and fail in the conditions encountered there.
Solar isn't good either, especially during the arctic winter (though the shipping lanes will likely be frozen over then anyway).
That Aniva lighthouse looks very appealing from a "mystery" point of view, like some kind of ancient unknown structure that would not be out of place in some exploration role playing game featuring ancient mysteries!
I've been nearby it once. A truly astonishing sight to see
I have seen similar lighthouses in Russian hidden object games! The very best hidden object games are written in Russia.
Looks like a set from Stargate SG-1.
1:50 - Chapter 1 - The northeast passage
3:40 - Mid roll ads
5:00 - Chapter 2 - The lighthouses
7:20 - Chapter 3 - The nuclear batteries
9:35 - Chapter 4 - The lighthouses now
Never underestimate people's ability to steal shit, even if it's hundreds of miles from civilization.
Scrap metal can be valuable and tempting, especially if one is poor and doesn't understand radiological hazards. More than a few more local nuclear disasters have been caused by poor would-be scrap metal sellers getting their hands on a radiation source. Cobalt is especially bad in that regard because it is *extremely* radioactive and emits a blue glow that people seem to be drawn to.
@Aitch so get a radiation dosimeter and see what it says.
@@vic5015 I would suggest "nuclear disaster" is a bit of a stretch as a way of describing such radiation exposures....
West Virginia, USA is proof of this!
@@buddyclem7328 human civilization and highlited the English colonial system goes to prove that.
I visited the Aniva lighthouse in Sakhalin this August. Quite a sight!
Fun fact: the Lighthouses found on the island in the video game "Rust" are closely based on these nuclear lighthouses.
Cool, it's not just me who noticed that.
Hell yeah! A megaprojects that I have never heard of or even imagined someone doing.....leave it to the Russians lol
We do it all nuclear. Surprised we didn't use those nuclear cars
@@WvlfDarkfire too dangerous and heavy with all the radiation shielding that would be required. The US Air Force also looked into nuclear powered planes. Same issues, except that the weight issue is even more of an problem in an airplane.
Years ago I read an unconfirmed story of Russia having developed nuclear warheads that were small enough to be used in small arms ammunition. using much hotter material then u235/p239, iirc an americium isotope.
@@MrDJAK777 SADMs (so-called "backpack nukes") were real. But they've allegedly all been "decommissioned". And there may be nuclear artillery shells. Chemical and biological warfare shells *definitely* exist.
@@vic5015 yes aware of the backpack nukes, and several countries did live tests of nuclear artillery so that for sure existed but I was referring to rumors of a serious possibility of Russia using a fissile material with critical mass in the gram range to make 7.62 bullets. that could be fired from standard machine guns with a yield great enough to wipe out a tank.
RTGs are awesome tech. Love how you incorporated their utility in space exploration.
They're great but i honestly wish they were more powerful, producing a couple of kilowatts instead of a few watts.
Lighthouses are so awesome imo, they have such an eiree and creepy but sturdy and defiant atmosphere and I love them. The Aniva lighthouse also just looks so damm cool, like something right out of a fantasy story.
The background of nuclear batteries used in pacemakers would be a interesting topic.
Plainly Difficult did a video about a group of people who found a stray soviet RTG in some mountains, not knowing what it was, and it being very cold where they were, they used it to stay warm overnight like a campfire as it radiated a lot of heat, only to end up suffering radiation sickness as a result, and the military having to be called in to retrieve the device... :S
“The Soviet government did not want to subject anyone to that life”, … Oh please, that’s not it.
Then I look at the amount of American homeless living the dream.
Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators are great!
Every Household should have one imho!, no more grid affected Blackouts & truly off-grid!
Actually, yeah. But you need at least 10kW per household for future proofing, and those units are quite big. You also need to build them like a tank. LITERALLY. Houses collapsing by accident, earthquake, and stuff. Also, need a sane population not to open it with a welder for yolo, or Allahhu ackubaru! Hey! I am random dude, and this is jackass, and we will use this oxyacetylene torch on this RTG!
@@bandiras2 I hate to be that guy, but you don't use a welder to open shit
Use a thermal lance, fast, efficient and the sparks look incredible. Better than an oxy torch
Sure till the first YeeYee idiot decides to see what happens when you pack about 100lbs of tanerite around it and see what happens.
@@newname4785 *_"Ferb, I know what we're going to do today!"_*
Canada built a RTG powered lighthouse in Brockville Ontario in 1970 utilizing an AECL MAPLE-1B RTG. It operated for 3 years then AECL decided this was not a viable concept.
8:00 Iirc, and this may be mentioned, but not only were they using Strontium-90, but they were also unshielded...which was...wise(*ahem* if you consider theft, losing them, accidentally dropping them all over the place, and what not as 'wise'), considering what happened to quite a few of them
In the 1930's the Soviet Government didn't want to subject anyone to that kind of a life. Ha Ha good one Simon.
what would be the purpose of that, fr tho? there is literally no reason to put people in those kind of harsh environments when they could be left mostly unoccupied.
@@forever-and-a-day2043 Oh, there is no reason and it might not be a very feasible thing to do, for various reason, but USSR just... doesn't really have a great track record for avoiding subjecting people to awful life.
The "we might not realize they're dead and the lighthouse would go offline" or "they might run away leaving their post" sound like distinctly more credible arguments in Soviet Russia than "we can't have someone live such hellish life".
@@Eliastionну давай пиши гадости про мою страну, транслируй заплесневевшую пропаганду ты ведь так много знаешь не от людей напрямую заинтересованных в том чтобы максимально нас очернить
@@МаркМаркович-н3иruzzia is a hellish dystopia
Polluting the planet with radiatiin
You had me at Soviet Nuclear Powered Lighthouses
I love how everything was nuclear during the cold war
Yeah it made you glow
Actually, this makes some sense in remote regions where it is simply too difficult/expensive to use other power sources. Wind and solar weren't exactly cost effective during the Cold War.
They use wind power in Antarctica now because it's finally cheap enough to be practical and the Antarctic has the strongest winds in the world. If wind turbines weren't cost effective, those research bases in Antarctica might well have to use RTGs.
@@vic5015 nor are they now, with few exceptions. You can't use solar when you have no sun for a good part of the year, nor wind if the temp is cold enough to freeze up the wind turbines.
It was a hot cold War
@@noth606 so you weatherize the turbines. That's what they do in Antarctica today. They may not be *super* cost-effective, but other power sources are even *less* feasible.
3:16 did my guy say “world war one” and edit in a “two” hahahaha
Sounded like it was an Achoo with how it was edited in
"No keeps wanted to volunteer for that task" I don't think motivating people to "volunteer" was really a problem in the Soviet Union.
Super interesting find, Fact Boy! Great video :-).
I think that if there were no Russia, Simon's channel would only have three videos. You can count of them to come up with dangerous radioactive things, weird projects that involve subjecting their own people to certain death, or a huge amount of cannon fodder.
You realize he has at least 5 channels and covers quite literally everything across the world?
Yeah, there are only a handful of nations that are as technologically optimist and at the same time as careless with their inventions as Russians.
They perhaps are a primary contenders to inadvertently end human civilization by some technogenic catastrophy alongside with Americans, Chinese and Japanese.
12:10 RTGs make super bad choice for dirty bombs. What you want to find in Cesium irradiation capsules because its a sand like material. If you blow up an RTG you would only have to pick up a handful of the fuel which is super easy to find with a Geiger counter. Oh and you have to do this in less than an hour or you will be dead from radiation poisoning. That's the real reason we have not seen a dirty bomb. Anything radioactive enough to put in a bomb will also kill anyone in the room assembling it. Radiation suits dont protect you from anything other than contamination so you dont have to scrub off the top layer of skin you still get the full dose of gamma rays.
I guess Russia's version of Energizer's are more hardcore.
They just keep glowing and glowing and glowing....
The bunny is thirty feet tall, has an extra arm, and glows in the dark.
Canada is part of the Arctic too, 40% of Canada is in the Arctic.
🇨🇦❄
Yes, but there is few living there.
Part of Canada if former Soviet territory though.
Sr-90 decay generates about a Watt per gramme of heat, but thermoelectric conversion efficiency is generally quite low - about 5%. A kg of Sr-90 would yield only 50We or so, yet would contain a huge amount of radioactivity - several thousand TBc. I am thinking many kg of Sr-90 were required to supply all these lighthouses, and the source would have been large nuclear reactors.
Most definately
Thanks for the video, i have never heard of the nuclear lighthouses before.
This segment is very well done! The depth of information provided is appreciated
And I thought that old Lighthouses with floating mercury bearings for the heavy Fresnel lenses were interesting.
This is even more interesting, and probably even worse in some respects.
I think this is the first video in quite some time that I've literally never heard of the subject before. Like, I know a lot of planes and infamous weapons but a nuclear-powered lighthouse? Frikkin' Soviets just gonna send it!
Me: hey it's a lovely day
Simon: there's nuclear lighthouses in the arctic
Me: fuuuu...
The Aniva lighthouse at 6:30 looks like a structure from Minas Tirith.
Welcome back, this is Mr. New Vegas. Residents of novac were treated to a surprise light show when Aniva Lighthouse unexpectedly began firing lasers.
Holy Cow! I suggested this topic. You actually did it!
Great video! A bit hyperbolic though to show a mushroom cloud visual while you’re talking about dirty bombs. People tend not to understand the huge difference between a conventional explosive that disperses radioactive material and an actual nuclear explosion.
Please do a video on the French palace of versailles
Thank you simon these devices have so much potential.
Lighthouse in the artic?
Well... Time for the casting call...
*Call of the Dead flashbacks intesify*
America powers their installations in Antarctica in a similar way. Here in NZ we are nuclear free and the US Navy is not generally allowed here. But there is an exception. The nuclear power packs can transit through Christchurch, NZ on their way to Antarctica.
I didn't know about RTGs. Very cool stuff.
Very, very interesting. Thanks for this one folks.
Hi, thanks for the interesting report. Sorry for my bad english.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Estonia soon became independent. There were at least 60 lighthouses on the North coast of Estonia. Almost the entire coast was a Soviet military zone. Newspapers reported that the lighthouses were powered by nuclear generators. Does anyone know what happened to them? Did the Russians take them with them or were they destroyed? The island "Naissaar" near Tallinn was full of abandoned sea mines and cannon shells, a few years ago they were visible on Google Maps.
Near Naissaar was Soviet Union's largest nuclear submarine base, Paldiski.
Love see next version videos about rtgs use electricity
Simon all your channels are good. Thanks for the content
I want one in my truck, unlimited power through its lifetime
That's gonna be one heck of a heavy truck. Or your lifetime won't be all that long.
@@vic5015 it's still a lifetime, even if it lasts 6 months
Kidding aside, though, having one in my neighborhood would make electric vehicles very practical.
@@itsapittie I think you're over estimating how much power these things make... lighthouse RTGs only made 50-500watts of power... you'd need 4 of them big ones to give you the same wattage as a standard household outlet, and the cost would be... prohibitively expensive.
@@bmw328igearhead You're probably right. I was just spitballing. Although I suppose they could be scaled up. Regardless, it's not actually feasible.
7:42 hated throwing grenades at these on call of the dead zombies
Come on Simon! Do both or either Bagger 293 or the Bingham Canyon Copper mine! They are both mind boggling in scale!
shut up 293 nerd! Bagger 288 is king!
Whoever wrote this script must be a guy with kids, because the puns are definitely dad-level in this video. Well done.
There was an incident i Georgia where a group of woodsmen found the remains of one that had been dismantled by metal thieves all were poisoned one woodsman died the other two spent months in hospital and it required a group of brave Georgians to undertake a Chernobyl like recovery effort in the remote location with men running in for the 45 seconds that was safe and in relay transferring the core into a lead container
Ya the guy finds a metal ball in the deep wood that all the snow has melted around and is hot to the touch and decides to take it back to camp and sleep next to it for warmth...
Something: **Exists**
Russia/Soviet Union: let's put a nuclear reactor in it
Glaciers and sea ice have been melting the last 18,000 years, coincidental with the expected affect of the Milankovitch cycle.
Wonderful Job thank you.
3:35 The shipping passage was not open during "just the winter months" it was open during the summer months.
Another scary nugget of engineering from mother Russia.
Do a mega project on the Causeway Bridge in Louisiana. It'd be cool to see what you could dig up that some might not know.
Again, an interesting but scary bit of information!
Awesome episode, Simon!
Cool. The battery stuff alone would be a good side project
Awww Now i know where the Light house in Rust comes from .Thanks
RTG "RADIOACTIVE DANGER"
Metal thieves "It's free real estate"
Nuclear powered Soviet lighthouse: perfect down low location for a supervillian to HQ, of course after he builds the giant base under it, of course of course.
of course
How to reach net-zero in America : "Russia are going to benefit massively from global warming"
There's a simply fabulous conspiracy theory that Putin wants global warming to happen; to melt the siberian permafrost and make Russia the largest food growing country on the entire planet
for some reason I can't see your reply to reply to it properly, sorry mate. It comes up on notifications then vanishes when I click!
@@michaelchildish that's because the reply got deleted, likely by RUclips's automated systems
@@michaelchildish Whats hilarious about that is there is a terrifying number and variety of horrible diseases and plagues in and under that frost that will be released once it thaws enough. Global warming really is the least of our worries once the mass deaths start worse then even Covid
Looks like Simon has been sticking the heed into something with his lumpy nugget. Great video as always.
Wonder if they ever tried to put the rtgs under the floor, wire up a rebar reenforcemrht cage around the rtgs and then pour the concrete around/over them, cementing them in place? They don't have any moving parts, it would be practically impossible to remove them, but it's something capable of being done every 20 years
these need to be cooled down, the heatsink wont work under the concrete
Not really viable, and not really necessary… just wire them up with a beacon. If anybody bothers them, what are they going to do hop in their helicopter and try to fly away they’re in the middle of fucking nowhere, and they either need an icebreaker to get there, or giant brass balls, to fuck with the Russian military.
Video request: Lake Vostok in Antarctica.
Okay, you got me to laugh with the "radiate enthusiasm" comment. Thumbs up.
Nuke light houses? Now I heard everything and its great
8:34 "study staturn" lol
That was good, thanks for sharing.
In one of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan books there's a part that terriost go to one of the nuclear powered lighthouses to steal the nuclear material. Hopefully it will never happen IRL.
Yeah, I'm in the middle of that book now! It's called " Dead or Alive".
@@Tim67620 It's a great book and a great series! I drive a lot and listen to a lot of audio books. I'm on my second time though listing to the Jack Ryan series along with the John Clark and Jack Ryan Jr books. I hope you enjoy the rest of the book!!
I don't quite understand concepts of losing a lighthouse, it's function is to be visible for miles in order to protect navigation of shipping , so you would have thought somebody would have noticed the lighthouse disappearing all things that increase in beechings??
Northwest Passage. Great song.
I want to know how the RTGs could possibly provide enough energy to power these lighthouses. RTGS only produce a small amount of energy. They most likely just powered the radio transponder beacons as the lights would require more energy then RTGS could ever possibly provide.
good question
Bigger rtgs? If your not sending them to space you can give them a lot mpre umpf
@@the_retag yep, thank you, that was my default assumption as well, based on the pics available, but i still wonder if they used two of those bad boys connected in parallel or something as well. I don't recall Simon presenting data on power output from those rtgs. In space application they are limited by weight and space and shielding constraints, none of which were on the lighthouse applications, considering the poor regard for human safety and quality of materials and designs on the soviet rule, demonstrated by the Chernobyl disaster.
@@tonnylins there were multiple in the same pic a few times, and it didnt look like a disposal site, so i assume they were at least sometimes use din clusters
@@the_retag i didn't pay much more attention then 😁
Please talk about the sea dragon and The Horten H.XVIII 18 Flying Wing
You could do video on New Zealand’s Waitaki hydro scheme
Simon you might be one of the most prolific educational content creators on the platform at the moment. Your work is outstanding. Thanks.
You referenced this video in Deciding the Unknown your tangents do work, Simon! 😇
3:36 - I think the passage was more likely passable in the summer months than the winter?
It is passable in July-November. Not immediately when it becomes warmer since you would want ice to melt somewhat.
8:35 "Suddy Staturn"
The Aniva lighthouse looks like my dream home.
aniva lighthouse is one of the coolest things ive ever seen!
From what I remember, there are some minecraft and rimworld mods that add RTGs!
If you haven't already you should make a video on the Fukushima ice wall
Most people have a distorted perception of the dangers of nuclear energy. The U.S. and other militaries have used hundreds of nuclear power plants since the 1950s with a remarkable record of safety. Even considering the reckless disregard for safety practiced by the Soviet Union, they experienced only one incident that actually killed anyone. Quite a few U.S. military installations have been powered by nuclear reactors, including one (now closed) built entirely under the Greenland ice cap. The Chernobyl disaster happened because the Soviets did not include safety features which were standard in other countries' reactors. Fukushima resulted from a perfect storm (literally) of everything that could go wrong converging all at once. Even so, newer reactors have systems in place to prevent such an occurrence. Neither incident involved a nuclear explosion. Chernobyl did spread a lot of radioactive material because they had no containment system (again, standard in other countries). Fukushima resulted in a surprisingly small amount of contamination which is diminishing. Three Mile Island? Total nothing burger. The reaction started to overheat, the safety systems kicked in, and the reactor shut down. No increase in background radiation was detected outside the facility. We have now have the capability to build reactors that literally can't go critical.
Atomic batteries are safe if properly maintained but I do recognize the security issues and for the most part they probably shouldn't be put in some remote location and left unattended. However, a limitless supply of electricity can certainly make a remote station less unpleasant for the staff.
😂 Oh, what could go wrong?!
Northwest passage is a internal route as your are going through Canadian islands.
6:28 Any RUST players immediately recognize that lighthouse lol
That was my thought, dirrty bomb. THANK GOD These people who do that HATE THE COLD and didnt know about this some 50 years ago
Do the Boeing Bird of Prey next!
The reason we haven't had any incidents of dirty bombs is that radiation is not detectable to human beings so there's no danger sense at all until it's far too late. So naturally the process of attempting to build such a device proves to be fatal long before construction of the device itself can be completed.
It feels like I'm watching someone speed read a narrative for something that could be interesting and then stops for a commercial break halfway through.
Good video 👍
Pretty sure that was the plot of a Clancy novel...Dead or Alive?
Wow this is very interesting! 😯🤩🤩👍👍
Seriously.
Fascinating!
Something exists.
Soviet Russia: Put a nuke in it!
Holy cow, never heard of this. It’s as amazing as it is terrifying and reckless! Wow!
Nothing terrifying or reckless about it. These things were placed in places no humans should be....and if you are concerned about them leaking into the ocean, you really should google how nations used to get rid of nuclear waste ;)
@@victorzvyagintsev1325 the fact that hundreds of these were built and nobody was able to account or keep track of this material is definitely reckless and terrifying.
The fact that these are on land where nefarious people can access them with no security or safeguards is also reckless and terrifying.
Nuclear wast dumping at sea was reckless but at least the average terrorist couldn’t just take a sub down and grab it for a dirty bomb.
Why do you protest that this isn’t reckless, dangerous and terrifying Victor Z? Are you that triggered and sensitive to criticism of anything dumb that Russia did?
Your videos always seem to relate to current events. I just heard we're heading for a nuclear revolution if the upper class buying stock relating to the field are anything to go by.