Contamination Worse than Fukushima that No One Knows About
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- Опубликовано: 17 ноя 2023
- Everyone thinks that the radioactive water being released from Fukushima is the worst thing to happen to the Pacific Ocean. But something worse than that happened for almost three decades at the Columbia River on the border of Washington and Oregon.
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Tritium Compass used in video:
amzn.to/47FIWpq
Patreon Thanks:
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(Gamma Radiation Tier)
Paul Rohrbaugh
Jeremy Mattern
Don Reyes
Walter Montalvo
Brennen Boyer
Mark Vorgic
Nathan McNab
Gregory Horine
Jelly
Kyndall Taylor
Matt Pickering
Rich Hardcastle
Steve Bradshaw
Tore Christian Michaelsen
John Garbinski
Kitten1416
Mitch Hell
James Lawrie
Camera Equipment Used
Camera Used in this video:
Sony A7S3 amzn.to/3WZsU53
Lens Used:
Sony 16-35mm f2.8 amzn.to/3Gg6vub
Lens Used:
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Second Lens Used:
Sony 24-105mm f4 amzn.to/3E5WRbG
Variable ND Used: amzn.to/3g2PPvN
Wireless Mic Used: amzn.to/3WK5gZ2
Looking for something radioactive or one of the t-shirts I wear in my videos? Check out uraniumstore.com
As a retired radiation worker of 30 years, I had to have cataract surgery from the damage at 55 years old. I routinely used Gama sources. Be careful. Damage is done over time, even when using all prescribed measures of protection.
My neighbor has a Cadillac
I Always imagined it like heat, after you are exposed you need to cool down but it takes much longer and you cant sweat like being in the sun.
@christophertiredofbs8514 I know a guy that has a Cadillac to !
@@christophertiredofbs8514 mine has an Aston Martin 😅
Truth of the matter is a lot of the side effects people experience from the nuclear industry are for items other than such as heavy and toxic solvents.
Thank you for the 30-year test in reality of nuclear waste water dumping and how little it affects community's. Thank you for pointing out reality not scare tactics.
this man is probably one of the only consistently uploading radiation youtubers
There's a few others, t folse nuclear (nuclear engineer), Elena (nuclear scientist), and there's a few others that upload consistently. There's also Kyle hill (but he's not always doing nuclear related videos).
A couple others are Simons Nuclearchemistry and Neptunium
“Plainly difficult’ makes good ones also
That’s cuz he’s a radiation youtuber. If you go to a car youtuber, you’ll be surprised to see that he uploads stuff about cars
i said CONSISTENTLY UPLOADING, not just radiation youtuber.@@280SE
In order to calculate a person's dose from ingesting a radionuclide you need to use something called the CEDE - the committed effective dose equivalent for that isotope. For tritium, this is 64 mREM per milliCurie ingested. So for your sign which I see at 13:30 contains 281 GBq of activity (7,594 milliCuries), this is 7,594 X 0.064 REM = 486 REM dose, which is very serious and has a 50/50 chance of putting you into skeleton mode. However, this is only if the tritium is ABSORBED, meaning it must be in the form of superheavy water in order to give you that dose! If you just inhale the tritium gas then the absorption fraction (the part that you won't just immediately exhale again) is a mere 0.005%. Meaning your dose would be an immeasurably tiny 24 milliREM!
Thanks for that explanation. The sign I got isn't a full blast one...I guess you can pay a little extra and they might give you a 25 Curie version. I know enough when something measures the activity in Curies you should treat it with respect and have something to keep an eye on that activity. "Skeleton Mode"...hahaha...I like that.
The exposure time also matters. Albert Stevens accumulated 64 Sv over 20-year period. That is ten times the acute lethal dose.
At least there's one person out that realizes it's more than a fancy radiation detector and a calculator. Exposure detection is an extremely precise and methodical procedure and not just throwing darts at a dartboard.
I am a 70 year old who as a child played outside and drank milk from a cow that grazed in a rain out area in the 50s and 60s during nuclear testing. I recently found my baby teeth and they are still slightly radioactive. I have cancer and thyroid disease. Not paranoid because I have had enough fractionated radiotherapy to kill an elephant if it were in one dose. Like you, I love playing with my Geiger counter and finding sites and sources. Fun times. 😂
I once calculated how much radioactivity there is in all of the world's oceans that comes from natural radioisotopes, mainly Potassium-40, and compared it to the radioactivity that has reportedly leaked from Fukushima into the ocean. The ratio was in the order of many billions. This tells us that the volume of water in oceans is so huge that any human radioactive contamination that leaks into the ocean is negligible and meaningless.
So by those words, you claim that it is 100% factual that multiple nuclear reactors that are cracked open from say a tsunami, then pulled into the ocean, no lasting impact will be had? Its fine, itll clear up eventually. No animals or plants could possibly be impacted by it. The world will take care of itself.
Bullshit. Those numbers are not logical chief. Your formula is missing a fuck ton of* variables.
That leads me to wonder how dilution would affect the scales. As on a macro level the radiological impact would be negligible. But unlike particles of isotopes pre-existing suspended in solution, humanity has a habit of concentrating radiological materials for effect. On the localized micro scale, that would manifest as a higher dose rate than should be expected in the localized environment until currents eventually diluted the material if it was suspended in a liquid. However larger sediment/material would fallout and remain till covered with mud and sea floor silt to finally lock it away. Potentially introducing concentrated radiological material into the food chain. Though that risk is probably vanishingly small.
I worked at a municipal wastewater treatment plant, and in the areas that could have explosive digester gas (where everything must be explosion proof… cannot use steel tools.non sparking metals only) all had these kind of exit lights. They where replaced like five years ago… still where able to be seen in the dark.. we’re originally installed in 1989 (I was 8 years old!).. and well past the replacement date….. just think of how incredibly long those were generating light…the Soviet Union was still around when they’re made. Crazy
Even the expired ones are going to still glow in the dark. Would take about 120 years for all the tritium to disappear completely.
@@RadioactiveDrew note that it's not just the trithium decaying, the phosphor is being slowly damaged by the constant electron bombardment
Got into it with someone over Hanford's water use and he threw an absolute tantrum that it couldn't be because no commercial reactor would ever be allowed to operate that way. He was a nuclear engineer. Dunno if he was lying to me or himself in that moment.
Edit; yes, Hanford is not a commercial reactor. That's the joke.
He's right; however, Hanford was not commercial. It was consistently and recklessly operated by various government agencies and their contractors. When it came time to clean up the site, years were wasted battling about who would pay, and what level of decontamination was acceptable.
He's probably right,No (commercial) reactor would be operated that way _now_ . And Hanford is probably a big reason why,it was early days,and things were a bit..'less than ideal'. Lessons learned,Rules are written in blood,etc.
As mentioned Hanford is not a commercial reactor for generating electricity. Hanford's purpose was to make weapons grade plutonium. Savannah River (SC) is now the remaining facility for making isotopes, for nuclear weapons. These government facilities, like Area 51, have no environmental oversight, and often recklessly handle and dump their hazardous waste.
Hanford was part of a potentially life and death struggle and sometimes you have to crack eggs to make an omelette! In the UK, I believe that our domestic Hanford equivalent was visible from the motorway as you passed the Lake District in northwest England. I heard it described as a power station “that never exported much electricity”. 😂
@@michaelmoorrees3585Santa Susana Field Lab, Southern California...
I feel like the problem wasn't that people didn't understand the risks/hazards ...
what did that man say when the demon core slipped shut...."well, that about does it for me."
They knew damn well what they were doing. The problem was that if they wanted to retain the government funding, which was a very large amount, they had to meet deadlines. The deadlines were not forgiving nor did they allow for oversight, hence the burn pits still affecting the area to this day...
They let these scientists go to work as if playing God. The knowledge disparity was enough to create "The darkness in the valley" mentality... people were genuinely scared and had no context for understanding what any of this meant.
This early research era, unfortunately cost lives then, and future lives to cancers now. But more than that, it cost the US any kind of nuclear future, as well.
Had we just built a culture of oversight and safety from the beginning, had the US actually cared about the people they pretend to protect. We might not need endless warfare for oil...
But the scar tissue from the 40's-50's has never healed. We couldn't even make Yucca mountain work! The problems are multi faceted because human emotion is. On paper, in theory, there is still no denying the potential of nuclear to be humanities savior from oil wars.
But that would mean letting go of the past, and focusing on bettering the conversation today. Fossil fuel emissions prove that humans just aren't willing to be critical about their own perceived involvement in something that someone else labels a catastrophe. We see nuclear meltdown, we don't see fossil fuel emissions... That is the plain and simple of it. Even if on a per footprint basis, nuclear will never come close to matching what oil has done to the planet.
Don't forget, The neutrons would have activated any trace elements in the river water and created N16 . N16 has a short half life but we had to hold if in our Waste Gas Decay tanks for several months prior to releasing it due to the energy level of the of even a single gamma decay. I was employed a Crystal River 3 from 1984 until 2009. The waste decay gas tank room had to have its entrance filled with 2 ft. of concrete. An18 by 18 inch crawl way was left as the entrance to the room . The new door was a was made of 24 by 24 inch lead plates totaling 12 inches thick on a steel frame cart that could be rolled out of the way if necessary for entrance. During my 25 years there the lead cover was never moved. The pre job briefings for Reactor Building at power entries always covered the danger of these gamma's.
As a Washington state native and semi-retired radiation oncologist with a background in pharmacy, nuclear pharmacy, osteopathic medicine, and radiation oncology who has worked at Washington State University Tri-Cities, your explanation of the risks of tritium release from Fukushima was perfect. Great job! GJBrownDO 11/18/2023 13:55 Eastern
I'm glad you enjoyed it. People just need to see what those numbers mean.
@@RadioactiveDrew Just going to breeze past a Doc Brown leaving a 4th dimensional reply... ask if he has a plutonium powered Delorean, perhaps a pooch named Einstein.
"The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has cited Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., with four
violations concerning improper disposal and transfer of tritium exit signs at its stores
throughout the United States and Puerto Rico.
The violations, issued Oct. 28, concerned the improper transfer or disposal of
2,462 signs from Wal-Mart stores in states under NRC jurisdiction between 2000 and
2008, and the improper transfer of an additional 517 signs between various Wal-Mart
facilities. The company also failed to appoint an official responsible for complying with
regulatory requirements and failed to report broken or damaged signs as required."
I have indeed never seen an exit sign made with radium but I do have these plexiglas capsules made by the Radium Company that they placed above light switches. They are rare items here in Belgium as I only have seen them once. I got them from a factory that was being demolished and the workers just pilled them up to be picked up for proper disposal. I took 2 of them (knowing well what they are) and while they are at least 60 years old they are still very reactive to my Geiger counter. That puts Tritium into a whole new perspective for sure.
Great explanation you did here, people know so little about radiation and the press often blow it way out of proportion because they know nothing of it either.
Beautifully done, Drew. You caught me with the Oppenheimer 70mm piece. Here’s something completely different but just as interesting. Your attention to detail shows. Please keep it up
Thanks for the video Drew. Standing back and thinking about this and how you explain it makes so much sense. Where the radiation release at Fukushima is bad. It's nowhere near as bad as people make it out to be. And thanks for making that very clear.
None of them are 🙄
I don't even know if I'd say it's "bad". It's obviously not ideal, I'll grant that, but just about every scientific study predicts virtually zero risk from what they're doing right now. The only reason we even heard about it is because of China's crying. They saw this as a propaganda torch they could carry for a little bit to try and get people negative towards Japan, so they ran with it. China doesn't give a crap about Fukushima, they know there is little to no risk. But people who don't know much about nuclear power don't understand just how little risk there is. Moreover, China is a MASSIVE freaking hypocrite. The amount of radioactive debris that enters the atmosphere from their massive coal plants dwarfs anything from Fukushima (and yes, coal plants produce radioactive ash/waste. Only, their waste just gets released into the atmosphere where a nuclear power plant's waste is stored for safe disposal). Fun fact: China pumps more C02 into the atmosphere annually than the U.S, the E.U and India ... COMBINED.
It’s absolutely as bad as it is made out to be… not so much the filtered water…. But even that is immediately deadly for fish.
But the mox fuel was airisolized
Enough for there to be 3 grams of plutonium for every person in the known world.
But thankfully the dispersion patterns and soil samples suggest a lot of it is still in the sky… and oceans are a greater surface area with more precipitation.
Some have suggested it comes down more at night.
Periodically raining metal larger than nano particles. If 30% fell in the 3 years I kept track… that’s about 10% every 3 years.
Within 4 months after the disaster I was still hit in the eye with charged particles during a light rain…
Bright blue flash that felt like I got punched in the eye… I had a black eye for a few days… and swelling like I had burned my eye with light or welding…
It’s sopposed to disperse this energy with everything it touches even air.
But this injury suggests that there could still be charged particles floating around with enough energy to cause immediate injuries. That could be permanent. And lead to cancer later on.
This kind of capacitance wasn’t seen with other fuels… but mox mixed plutonium and uranium together… they are not stable and create their own energy in this state when nothing separates them.
Mixed with old fuels of various blends the outcome is unpredictable… but we are witnessing multiple extinction events… as well as new life forms and buckyballs.
@@pazsion
Nonsense!
I crunched the numbers in my own video on Fukushima. But I don't think people really understood or appreciated the insignificance of the contamination. I think your video does a much better job by using the exit signs as a comparison!
You have such a great skill of explaining things for the average person to understand. Well done.
Thanks. I try and present subjects in a way most people can understand.
Every single video is an impressive new demonstration of your filming skills. Keep the good job! I just love watching them! Take it easy!
Thanks…really like hearing that.
Thanks for releasing this one early on Patreon, love the videos!
No problem. I figure I need to start doing early releases for my members on there.
few other points about Hanford…the open trenches they filled and covered over. The leaking double walled tanks…all contribute to ongoing leaching into the Columbian River. The cases of anencephaly along the Columbia River are much higher than the mean average in newborns born elsewhere…Fukushima was a great headline to use, to direct attention away from the polution right in their own back yard. And almost never mentioned is the whoops at WIPP…remember?
They'll claim it's from Zika and get folks to approve more GMO mosquitos 😢
You Tube , " Hanford's Dirty Secrets .... King 5 News " ! Great investigative teamwork revealing just how bad Hanford and the contractors are !!!
Thanks Drew ‼️another great show ,I always wish they were longer ‼️👍
Great video as always! Love those Cammenga compasses, they were my first memorable experience with radioactive glowing things when I was in the Army. Aside from being sooo much better for land navigation than what I had in boy scouts as a kid, it was incredible at night. Way better that the glow in the dark painted stuff, and probably the first radioactive thing I bought after how well it served me previously. Really cool to see one in your collection.
I remember watching a 60 Minutes segment about it like 20 years ago but no update... Thank you for this video!
Excellent Drew! I finally ordered a Radiacode 102. Keep em coming!
Awesome. Hope you enjoy it. I get a lot of use out of mine.
This is so cool to see you filming in my state! Great vid, per usual! 👍👍
Oregon is a pretty beautiful state. I really want to go back to Astoria and do some more exploring in the area.
Excellent video!
Thank you for putting things in perspective!
I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Excellent production value. Very educational from a laymans perspective as well. Thank you for the information.
I was looking through the comments and your little profile picture jumped out at me and made me feel nostalgic lol. I'm starting to get old. I haven't seen that logo in so long.
I live just south of there in Corvallis, Oregon. It's funny that the more i learn about radioactivity, the more i realize how strange people are about how we've reacted to different things depending on the way it's been communicated. Then on top of that, it feels like even tho modern day nuclear energy options have advanced so much with their engineering designs, safety measures & understanding of safety protocols, etc. it still doesn't matter to a large amount of people.. it's like they are ingrained with a natural negative response when talking about certain nuclear energy & radioactive topics. It's a bummer because i truly believe that our best option for our future is to start utilizing Modern advanced nuclear energy options in our electrical grid. It's just proving to be challenging to get people & politicians to sign up and get on board.
It will really allow places to be much more energy independent. Less reliant on fossil fuels. They'll have efficient, stable electrical grids and the rest of the grid could experiment with alternative power sources, etc.
We need to heal from the trauma of our past. See & learn that those things only happened solely from Us not understanding what we were doing when it came to nuclear energy at the time. We didn't have advanced enough technology, material science, engineering, safety measures, understanding of how to go about everything, etc. This source of energy will greatly help the world improve towards the future and lowering emissions. More than anything else could, while also providing a very stable electrical grid system. Currently we have alternative energy options but the majority of our grid is powered off of fossil fuels and emission producing sources of energy. We will be so much better going forward commiting to modern advanced nuclear energy options.
AMEN, burning carbon based fuels will kill millions more people than all the nuclear power plants ever will.
Fantastic video as always Drew. Cheers!
Thanks.
Great video! As always, very informative.
Glad you enjoyed it.
Great video. Really puts things in perspective. Thanks.
Glad you enjoyed it.
Yes,finally! The Hanford site is a nightmare. The more I learn about it,the more I'm horrified...and It seems like very few people around here even know about it. I'm happy to see you in my neck of the woods,and glad you're bringing light to the Hanford site. I'm not too worried about the cooling water/river,or residual radiation from it these days,but maybe I should be.. The "unknown slurry" left in those huge storage tanks,the contamination everywhere at the site,and what is being stored there,is what scares me. If those tanks start leaking (and many are) God Only Knows what is coming out of them. I urge people to research the Hanford site,and what is being done there. The cleanup is pretty interesting. There is still a reactor running near there for electricity generation.
I hope you're going to make a stop at the old Trojan site. Or maybe the abandoned cooling tower site just outside of Elma,Wa. (Satsop,I think. -IIRC,there is another type of reactor running near there,also.)
I did a video about Satsop. I went there with the Seattle fire department when they were doing some training exercises there. One of my favorite places to photograph.
Sharp memory good info listen up people
It isn't hard to find out about the wastes in the underground waste storage tanks at Hanford and the work being done to remove it from the tanks and convert it into glass. The EPA, WA and Oregon environmental agencies are intimately involved in the decisions. It isn't a secret.
It isn't probably as scary as you think it is.
@@richardom6539 probably scarier than the agencies propaganda machine says it is
@@richardom6539 Unfortunately, you get more attention with "We're all gonna die" than you do with "TSCR" or "DFLAW". The uneducated will always panic and freak out. Personally, I'm enjoying the nice breeze through the windows and having my snack. I'll admit to working somewhere miles NW of the Columbia Generating Station and leave it at that.
Very educational. Loved the explanation.
Thanks. I try and approach the subject so that most people can get a better understanding.
Have you ever thought of teaching nuclear science formally? Your presentation is excellent and you keep it interesting. I don’t know much about radiation but I learn from your videos.
Awesome video! I really like your content! It's awesome!!
I have enjoyed your videos for some time now. Always great information that is presented well. Thank you also for the drone footage accompanied by music. Those videos have also been continuously improving. A Happy, Healthy, 2024 to you and yours!
Thanks so much. Have a happy New Year.
Very interesting! Thank you Drew
I have to say that you have done an Amazing job of truly putting the levels of radiation coming from Fukushima into perspective!!
Hat's off to you sir! Thumbs up too, but I'm already subscribed so thats the best I can do right now!
Glad you enjoyed the video and thanks for the sub and comment. Everything helps making this content possible.
@@RadioactiveDrew Thanks for replying bud! Do you have any members services to chuck some $ your way? :)
Always interesting. Keep up the good work.
Thanks.
Man, I love your videos. Thanks for enlightening us.
Just ordered my Radicode 102. They are running a 10% off sale right now.
Oh wow, I didn’t even know that. Good for anyone looking to get a Radiacode.
Always the best. Thanks Drew!
Love the show and tell, can't wait for the next video
Thanks. Hopefully new video this week.
Thanks! Very informative.
Such a great video know I am starting to understand thanks so much!!!
Glad you enjoyed it.
Not only was this interesting and informative, it was unexpectedly cinematic and beautiful.
Thanks…glad you thought that way about the video.
Thanks Drew. A well presented explanation that anyone can relate to. You asked why the media like to use those esoteric units of measure when reporting and sadly it’s because they use it to create tension, sensation and drama (for many reasons that I won’t go into). If the media used your rational form of presentation for their report on Fukushima, that alternative version would not be “marketable” - as in “who cares” instead of sounding scary and dramatic.
My new Radiacode 102 arrived in just a few days after ordering, a far cry from the long wait I had for the ‘101 a year ago. It actually arrived ahead of their estimate! It really is a well-designed, simple device and a tenth of the cost of the Rad-Eye detector you also showed. The small form factor makes it something easy to throw into a pocket or backpack and doesn’t draw attention, something I can’t avoid with my much larger Canberra/Mirion RDS-100P (AN/PDR-77) system.
Another great video, Sir!!!! Keep it up 👍🏼💪🏻💪🏻
Thanks.
From the Netherlands thanks for this interesting video what will explain alot for everyone!
Yet another excellent factual analysis, thanks for posting.
Glad you enjoyed it.
Nice video, keep up the good work 👍🏻
Thanks.
Absolutely great video!
Thanks. Glad you enjoyed it.
Very helpful to understand the basics for ocean radiation contamination.
13:14 Reason to identify location, for firefighters? a fire would burn the plastic case and expose the element?
Thanks for another great video! Love the nerd knowledge!
No problem, glad you enjoyed it.
I really enjoy your production Drew! Thank you for taking us along with you and for helping to educate us along the way. Keep up the great work!
Thanks. Glad you enjoyed the content.
Yeah, they do do a horrible job explaining nuclear physics. Thank you for explaining it. It still fascinates me that you can put two materials next to each-other and they get hot. Almost like a magnetic effect but we're not allowed to play with it so it's always a mystery.
Amazing video! As someone who just got into the hobby of finding radioactive items I really love your content, it really helped me understand things that I didn't know before. You're one of the best creators on the platform man!! 🙏
Thanks so much for that comment. Always nice to hear someone enjoying these videos and getting a new interest out of them.
If a year ago someone were to ask me if I would be interested in this type of content; I would've said, no, on the face of it. Though somehow this is one of my favorite channels. I suspect I'm able absorb Drew's pedagogy, because he truly enjoys making these videos.
The pilgrim nuclear power plant where I live they were denied releasing a million gallons of water. They used all sorts of scare tactics and it was going to be released over something like 10 years
If it was only tritium contaminated water it would have been fine to be released.
Radium(Ra, 88) was probably put in some of the paint for compasses, but the biggest usage of all time was hands in clocks and watches.
I have some radium clocks, compasses and aircraft gauges. The earlier items doped with radium usually have a lot of the material in them.
@RadioactiveDrew that's Kewl. I have a lone hand in a glass ampule.
Great explanation correlating the exit sign tritium content to the Fukushima seawater equivalent. I had figured the concentration to be super low, but you nailed how to describe it concisely. Thanks!
That's what's missing from all these explanations on contamination...a physical object for people to see. Its meaningless to not have some reference to go with those numbers.
I bought a Bauer gravy boat from an Antique Shop a few days ago. The person at the front desk was a fellow radiation hobbyist, and showed me some old Soviet geiger counters, and some fiesta ware. I found a piece, (the gravy boat), that was making my geiger counter angry as soon as I pointed it in the direction of the pottery. It got up to 12k CPM.
Sounds like a nice find. What color was it?
@@RadioactiveDrew It was bright orange, and it was only $15! :)
@@venomstorm53 that sounds like a good deal.
@@RadioactiveDrew I agree! :D
Good video! I can understand in the 40s the lack of concern at releasing contaminated water in the river since they did not have a full understanding of radiation hazards, but by the late 50s and 60s they should have known better. The various ways of measuring radiation is so confusing so thank you for making it more understandable. I have some understanding of micro sieverts and CPM and can relate that to my background level, but the others have no meaning to me. You always put radiation levels in terms we can understand and that is very useful. I have a tritium compass but it stopped glowing years ago.
I try to explain the radiation in my videos as best as I can without getting too much into the weeds on the details. I want to entertain and educate people. There is a fine line to do both.
@@RadioactiveDrew-You do that very well! I think the reach will always be more if technical information is kept relatable, but accurate, which you do! Stay safe friend and keep up the good work.
They knew and tested it on blacks that got hurt in Oak Ridge. Then there was the demon core and there was Marie Curie(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Curie).
Why build a reactor Hanford Washington?
They had 1 in Oak Ridge.
@Junkinsally thanks. Glad you liked it.
Tritium is such a "soft" radioisotope that it is even used in consumer products. It is not an environmental problem by any stretch of imagination.
As I recall, the water from the reactors had to sit in the holding ponds appx 14 hours before it was down to a low enough level considered marginally safe to be released into the Columbia River. HOWEVER, as the demand for increased Plutonium production increased, the time allotted for the water in the holding ponds was reduced and the holing ponds were emptied of their much HOTTER contents,... including IRRADIATED FUEL from split and cracked fuel elements that happened often and without warning in the reactor, the result of hot spots in the fuel cans , poor sealing during the canning process , pin holes in the joints and seams and over heating causing the fuel cans to rupture and the cooling water to carry this now radioactive fuel out into the open air of the ponds ! The only safety was that this very heavy metal would sink to the bottom of the ponds and be shielded by the depth of the water alone ! This now presented a new set of problems that the entire capacity of the holding ponds COULD NOT be emptied and a minimum water level had to be maintained over the OUT-OF-THE-CAN fuel to prevent exposure to personnel outside near the ponds.
I am very used to the seivert scale (Milli and Micro) for my 5 years in the nuclear industry. Love your channel and your content!!
Thanks so much. It seems like people that have worked in the industry really like the content. Other people that see themselves as professionals that have never worked a day in their life around sources are very critical of some of the things I do. Again, glad you enjoy the content.
We use mrem at work, and I always have to convert seiverts to mrem when watching videos. We're probably the only ones still using mrem.
@Kriss_L it seems like the nuclear industry as a whole uses mrem.
@@RadioactiveDrew I thought it was just the US Navy that still used it.
I love this. This is live science. You are showing what you are doing, and making a point to show that radiation isn't always a boogeyman. I hope you live past 90 and show that radiation exposure isn't a death sentence even a bit high over time. My question is, if you become terminally ill in your 60s, would you automatically be like, "just the luck of the draw, wasn't all that radiation I got." or automatically "Well I screwed up, I thought I was fine with a little bit at a time over many years." You see where I am getting at, nuance matters. I appreciate your commitment to it!
Well if I did get cancer I would do research on that type and see if its linked to radiation exposure. I don't smoke and try to get out an exercise in a somewhat regular fashion. So if I do get cancer of any kind I could see it being skin cancer because that does run in my family and I spend a lot of time outside exposed to the sun.
Thanks Drew!
This is awesome! I had no idea about that part of history along the Columbia =) ... gives me something to look into when I get my radiacode!
I would like to investigate the Columbia River a bit more and see what can be found.
Thanks for sharing.
Great video 👍👍
Thanks.
Yeah the single pass reactors at Hanford dumped a lot of isotopes into the Columbia infact there is still detectible amounts of Cs-137 and other fission and activation products downstream of Hanford in river sediment especially sediment holdup on the lower Columbia dams. I think it was PNNL who did a study of this about 20 years ago. That is just what ended up in the river. There was also emissions from the chemical separation facility stacks especially early on with things like the green run. There is a reason that the downwinders filed a lawsuit I believe in the 90s.
Yes, for not only the GREEN RUN ,... (1949,Nov. ) but for the entire operating life of the reactors and the Chemical Separation Bldgs. Also was the wild fire that hit the Hanford Site and all the radiation monitors were going off due to the re-release of radioactive materials sent into the air from the fire and smoke ! This is PROOF POSITIVE of the vast amounts of radio chemical releases at Hanford and from the venting of the radioactive materials from the Tank Farm as well !
I'm 77 and when I was a kid we would go to shoe stores and the salesman would take us over to an x-ray machine and we could see our feet inside the shoes to see how well they fit. I remember wiggling my toes and seeing them. I could see the bones because it was x-ray. Crazy. They finally outlawed the machines. There's no telling how many shoe salesmen died before their time from being exposed to x-rays day after day.
I’ve heard of these fluoroscopes before and they have one at the Nuclear Science and History Museum in New Mexico. I want to do a video about it but I need to find someone that has a working one that’s willing to fire it up.
My friend blamed those x-rays for his cancer of the big toe. I still examine my toes for cancer after his experience.
Omfg lol.
If you think that's bad. Three Mile Island in PA sits on the Susquehana River - the same river the Hershey's chocolate plant takes all its water in from for making Hershey's bars. Also Portland, OR is on the Willimette River which forks right off the Columbia.
Well done!... That's a very realistic explanation of what's going on.
Using myself tritium for professional systems, I'm quite chocked that this Exit sign uses an expiry date instead of the manufacturing date which is the universal common usage to timestamp the activity of a sealed sources. The first label in the video at 13:06 shows this activity obviously at the manufacturing time (0.281 TBq) but without any manufacturing date. This may complicate a lot further activity decay calculation. We can just assume that subtracting "10 years" (based on what?) to the expiry date could be the manufacturing date. But what can we say when for example several "expired" exit signs are stored somewhere believing they are useless, but still radioactive?
I have a RC102 too and I really appreciate it, and can confirm it's the only simple sensor able to peak the bremsstrahlung of tritium... (if enough material)
The 10 years number is based on the "Half Life" of Tritium, which is about 10 to 12 years, so what this means is the sign would lose about 50% of its brightness in 10 years. Of course if you didn't care about the loss in brightness you could leave the sign up longer but being aware of the loss in visibility. The same is true for your gun sights, compasses, watches, etc. they will all lose brightness as they age.
GREAT VIDEO!!
Thanks for watching and the comment.
sadly, people might assume that because there's plant and animals and they seem unaffected in their environment, that there is no contamination here and they're safe to eat. happens with heavy metals and radiation, the organisms either don't live long enough to be affected or aren't affected by it. so they enter the food market. a habit of eating food like that is not good.
All food on the planet, plant or animal, has always been radioactive.
Love that they included not only the statue but also his mom's favorite part.
Any chance you would do a video about using the Radicode102. Like a how to or setup guide?
when i was a kid i used to swim in the columbia river all the time. i was a good swimmer. even better now thanks to my third arm
I really appreiciate you common sense approach!
Oh my gosh, didn't know about this cooling water dumped into Columbia river. That was bad 🙈
Much worse than what Fukushima is doing.
Neat! That’s a very interesting and helps to put things into perspective. Thanks for sharing cutie!
We were looking at some Hanford Site cleanup contracts back in the 1990s. Kind of glad we ended up passing on the project; not out of fear of radiation, but because it would've meant leaving Montana for extended periods over years.
That place is going to be a problem for a long time. I could see working the site if I lived somewhat close. Montana is a bit of a trek that’s for sure.
I've lived in Richland, WA for almost 20 years now. My dad worked in the nuclear industry for 30 years, mostly construction related, moving all over the place. Would be great to see you do more content related to Hanford; past, present, and future. Maybe you have? I haven't looked thru your video history yet.
I have done simple geiger counter testing in and around Hanford, including B Reactor. Spent overnight in Richland and did an overnight reading there as well. No different radiation levels than anywhere else in the country at that altitude.
So as an exit sign with a tritium core, I am in the understanding these are supposed to be used in areas where it is unfeasible to install an electrified sign or in an area where electrifying a sign could be hazardous as these are intrinsically safe. Does that seem right?
Great stuff.
Thanks.
I really like seeing the numbers they talk about expressed in terms that are more intuitive. It really helps explain what's actually going on when the media or polititions are trying to sensationalize what's going to to scare folks.
Drew works with radiation so much, he might as well be a nuclear engineer.
By the way I mostly watch on RUclips what I call "Tractor Porn" farming and saving old tractors, but I always look forward to Radioactive Drew popping up in my feed. I have a fewling we would get along quite well (20+ years experience as an Emergency Manager).
Its nice to be educated while not left feeling dumb, also you do beautiful camera work.
Your other Friendly Nuclear Physicist 😉
This puts things into perspective indeed, the general public easily gets overwhelmed by all the numbers and units!
THANK YOU FOR THIS TEACHING!! But I am really curious what was dumped into the Columbia river and how radioactive is it now? Is it worse than the Trinity site?
You would have a very hard time finding anything radioactive along the river unless it was right at the shore of the old reactor sites. The Trinity site has much easier to detect radiation.
My mother and aunt were down winders during beginning of Hanford. Back in WWII .
Hi Drew... Were you able to pickup anything in or near the Columbia River that was above the background radiation? I have lived in Oregon for most of my life. Mostly in Portland, but now in Salem. I know the Columbia Gorge well. Lovely area. Also, do happen to know if any Uranium Ore mines were in Oregon? I am thinking eastern Oregon area... I just subscribed to your videos. Great! Thanks!
I wasn’t able to explore the area near the Hanford site on this last trip. If I was going to look for something that’s where I would start. I’ve read a couple reports about the discharges into the Columbia and I think finding anything where significant radioisotopes have accumulated would be quite a chore.
As far as uranium mines in Eastern Oregon I would look up thediggings.com and the USGS site on old mines. I’m planning on doing a video explaining how I find all these areas I explore.
@@RadioactiveDrew Hi Drew. Thanks so much for that great information. And thanks for the thediggings web site link. What state do you live in BTW? Do you get out to Washington or Oregon now and then?
@TheAuriconGroup I live in Montana and I visit Washington a couple times a year to see family. Might be making my way back to Oregon next year to visit some friends and do some videos.
@@RadioactiveDrew I am new to all of this, but would be happy to meet up with you if you are heading into the field or other places to check things out with your equipment. Thanks again for the great youtube content. I am now viewing your past youtube videos.
Great to see someone talking radiological sense, and great to see you back in the saddle. One of the big problems here is, who's going to believe anyone from government or industry to tell the truth on the dangers involved - that's where Drew steps in!
Back in the saddle? I try and put out a video every two weeks...or sooner if I can.
Great - that means I have some serious catching up to do...@@RadioactiveDrew
Not quite finished with the video yet but out of curiosity, would wearing a small vial of tritium as a necklace be safe? It’s only about the size of two grains of rice.
I would imagine it to be safe. I’ve found those vials of tritium give off a decent amount of that braking radiation, which is low energy x-rays.
great video so interesting
Always a pleasure to watch your videos man. 👍 Thanks again for the work you put in to try and educate folks since there is just so much misinformation out there about radiation and the severity of it. I appreciate what you do very much! 😎🙏
Drew, do you know a company where I can get the vials for that keychain? I ordered some from a place in England and the order never showed up.
I’m not sure who is a reliable seller of tritium. I’ve only bought those ones I have a couple years back off of Amazon.
Good job on explaining something that is really difficult to exlpain as not really a measurement for it that just anyone can understand .."i got it on the first time watched " good job.
How do the old glowing disks "roughly 2.5in circle " used on navy ships way back when conpare to the "exit sign" or "gun sight "
Those radium deck markers are much more radioactive. I’m going to do a video on the ones soldiers use to wear during WW2.
@RadioactiveDrew yeah it didn't feel like I should be handling it at the time. Glad wasn't for very long thanx for the info & I'll be looking for ya videos
It doesn't help that the Colombia river has the most industrial waste dumped into it along most of the river. The Colombia river also has nearly the most dams along its length