What if you swam in a nuclear storage pool?
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- Опубликовано: 1 апр 2024
- Get a copy of What If? 2 and Randall’s other books at: xkcd.com/books
More serious answers to absurd questions at: what-if.xkcd.com/
What if I took a swim in a typical spent nuclear fuel pool? Would I need to dive to actually experience a fatal amount of radiation? How long could I safely stay at the surface?
Randall Munroe is the author of the New York Times bestsellers What If? 2, How To, What If?, and Thing Explainer; the science question-and-answer blog What If?; and the popular web comic xkcd (xkcd.com). A former NASA roboticist, he left the agency in 2006 to draw comics on the internet full time.
Henry Reich is the creator of MinutePhysics and executive producer of MinuteEarth and MinuteFood and founder of Neptune Studios (the parent company for all three youtube channels).
Credits
Narrated by and based on "What If?" by Randall Munroe
Written & Directed by Henry Reich
Illustration and Video Editing by Lizah van der Aart
Illustration and Animation by Ever Salazar
Music & Sound Effects by Know Art Studios
What If? The Video Series is the official adaptation of the What If? books by Randall Munroe and is produced by Neptune Studios LLC.
©2024 xkcd, inc. 
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Not so fun fact: There actually was a radioactive energy drink in the 30’s called Radithor and a golfer named Eben Byers drank so much of it that he had to be buried in a lead coffin.
that’s pretty fun actually
Dude thought he was the Scout from TF2
His bones literally melted, to the point that his jaw fell off.
@@MSCDonkeyKong Pop Quiz: How many radioäctive drinks does it take to kill a golfer? Brrrhm, times up, you're dead!
@@anomaletixHis jaw fell off due to radiation poisoning.
The moral of the story is that we should be storing spent fuel in public swimming pools. The water will be warm, the radiation would kill the germs and you can sell any excess water as an energy drink.
If you had that idea in 60s you probably could have had a solid business plan AND your own minute in some Atoms for Peace newsreel.
Genius. Using different problems as the solution to eachother.
Minecraft-theme it, put a female twitch streamer to "just chat" from there, sell the water, and your kind will never have to work again.
Just dont try to touch the bottom 💀
Well, maybe not very fun but also maybe interesting : I visited a tropical reserve a few years ago that was almost across the road of a nuclear plant in France.
Have crocs, gators etc they had massive pools of pretty hot water and that part of France isn't hot enough for it to be trivial so I asked if they had a deal with the powerplant concerning the energy bill to keep the water at good temp. Figures out that they instead use the cooling water of the power plant (not of the spent fuel pool tho) : It's already warm, is produced at a steady rate, the plant would reject it in the local river anyway but would have to cool it down to almost the same temp as the river temp before doing so.
That last line is probably my favorite set of sentences ever. “In _our_ reactor? …You’d die pretty quickly, before reaching the water, from gunshot wounds.”
Agreed. It's a tie between that and making something smaller "Oops, we accidentally built a particle accelerator"
My college had a student-run reactor and when I went there they were telling stories of something that had happened a year or two previous. See, some people had decided to do an "expose" on how lax security was around the country and had released a video of talking their way in with a hidden camera and being given a tour. What they didn't show in the video was everyone instantly knowing something was off, playing along while watching everywhere they tried to go, and then all sorts of three-letter organizations showed up at their hotel room later.
No guns though, those are FAR more dangerous to have around undergrads than fuel rods are.
made me LOL too.
i had heard it before this video but i dont know where, prettysure its a common answer for that question
@@mcharblebarf4964 this is just a video version of his old blog post
3:45 "Sudden Acute Lead Poisoning"
Like a rapid unplanned disassembly
“Cessation of Myocardial Function Due To Sudden External Kinetic Force” 😂
@@Bxu021 Technically, guns are particle accelerators, so being in the path of a bullet or 500 is also a nuclear accident.
And it's perfectly false bragging from an asshole.
I live in a third world country.
We have that kind of poisoning all the time in our streets
Ok, lethal radiation at the bottom, gun shots at the top. Noted.
But given the relative low depth bullets from a handgun can penetrate into water and still harm you, there is a Goldilocks zone in those pools where I am basically invincible and god like, living forever!
or at least until the lack of oxygen and/or food gets you.
@@laurencefraser So fish can live underwater and you can't?
Talk about a skill issue.
@@lordpisces5019I doubt there would be either enough food or oxygen in those pools to keep fish alive for very long either
@@francesconicoletti2547 Pfff, you still need to eat? Get on my level. That goes for the fish too.
Also, oxygen diffuses constantly into the water from the surface; so a pool that size should have enough oxygen to sustain a fish indefinitely.
So what you're saying is, nuclear fish.
What kind of supervisor is like, “Yeah, just pick up that unidentified object in the radioactive pool.”
You never know it might be a gold bar
The diver didn't mention any activation of his radiation alarm, so they probably assumed it had recently been dropped in, as opposed to having sat unnoticed for several years.
He was a fan of Caddyshack and thought it might be a candy bar.
Considering the level of incompetence we've seen in the world in general, I'd say probably quite a number of them...
"It's glowing bright green."
"Oh it's just a health pickup then."
I appreciate the bit at the beginning about how long you could swim in a regular non nuclear pool. It gives a good starting point. I like these videos.
Except the treading water for 10 hours part… is that the minimum for a good swimmer? 10 HOURS? surely not.. I’d drown in less than 10 minutes…
Ok 2 minutes
@@patrickbyrne5070 then you are not a good swimmer.
@@patrickbyrne5070lmao
@@patrickbyrne5070 Even a very inexperienced swimmer can tread water for some time - especially if it has near optimum swimming temperature and no waves like the ocean. If you have access to a shitload of salt, you can even dump it in the pool and skip treading ;)
Legend has it that length of tubing is still down there... waiting for its next victim.
Until, when chance came, it ensnared a new bearer...
A sentient radioactive tube?
Call SCP!
So we had the Demon Core and now we have the Demon Tube.
@@asandax6oh no
Post apocalyptic pool noodle. brb, just changing my account name...
Love that these older what-ifs are getting animated. remember reading this one in highschool.
Right? It must've been at least 10 years!
i was obsessed with this book when i was a kid. I still remember "technetium 99 -- not a hat"
@@Chikn2532god i hope the periodic table (literal) chapter gets animated. It was definitely my favorite
You are making me feel old, it seems like it was not that long ago I shot off that question to Randall. 😂
@@originalname1876 Oh absolutely agree. The fact that of all the most famous elements it was Astatine which really sealed the deal was always weirdly hilarious to me.
As a reactor safety tech in training, I've actually heard that last line before. They take the "no touchy" rule rather seriously. :D
The US has nuclear weapons that are randomly driven around the country as a second-strike deterrence, and places that see them semi-frequently have to tell their cops not to assist or approach them under any means as they'll be treated as hostile on-sight. People who guard nuclear material take their jobs incredibly seriously and have zero patience for those who interfere with their work.
Apparantly nuclear pools are *increadibly* delicate things and so much as an errant hair can throw things out of whack. So yeah.
@@setyourhandlex the worst part is in most cases its not even about second strike capability but the need for them to be serviced like a car, those Ballistic Missiles are incredibly complicated machines not to mention ensuring the core is still enriched enough.
@@Hurricayne92I believe the standard lifespan of a nuclear warhead is around 3 months... which is a bit distressing how often the cores need to get replaced.
@@dojelnotmyrealname4018 There's some chemistry aspects to spent fuel pool water. But the bigger concern is 'foreign material exclusion' or FME. The spent fuel pool, reactor cavity, reactor pressure vessel and 'laydown' area (where reactor internals are stored during refueling) become a common pool of water during refueling outages. If some of that foreign material were to make its way into the reactor pressure vessel during refueling - it could damage the fuel rod's cladding when the reactor is running and change the integrity of the fuel or cause damage to reactor internal components. It doesn't take much - but an errant a staple from some paperwork can do it. Doesn't seem like much - but when the reactor is at around 1,000 PSI and 550 deg F with a LOT of water recirculating in and out with a flow rate of 10's of thousands of gallons per minute - that little staple gains a lot of velocity.
So during refueling outages - the entire area is considered an FME zone with FME inspectors making sure you're briefed and are not carrying anything that would create FME problems when the plant is brought back online.
No mention of seeing the cool blue glow from all the Cherenkov radiation! A friend worked at Penn State’s research nuclear reactor and he shared photos of the pool there, and it looked positively eerie with that glow.
That's the reason to swim, though!
Nice that they don't have to waste electricity illuminating the pool. Thanks radiation.
@@NONO-hz4vothey could do that for every pool! Think of the savings!
Would the spent fuel *storage* pool still produce enough -raisin- _radiation (stupid swipe prediction)_ to cause the lovely Cherenkov glow?
Also, this reminds me of the, completely unrelated, Jesus LOL meme from the early 00s
__
Kid: _Jesus, why does it glow??_
Jesus: _I don't know! _*_LOL_*
@@DUKE_of_RAMBLEno, there wouldn’t be enough to produce light in a spent fuel pool
Ah yes. The gunshot wound is far more dangerous than the pool. "Stand down, do not (possibly) kill yourself, or we will shoot you"
Killing yourself is _not_ what they are concerned with here. "Unauthorized person with unknown intentions running toward radioactive material" is what they are concerned with. At best, you are making some very poor choices. This is not the kind of person you want near radioactive material. At worst, you have malicious intent. This is _really_ not the kind of person you want near radioactive material.
It's all about the safety record of the pool.
@@stephenju1966 Underrated reply. Glad to be the first who liked it.
to be fair, it was an obvious line, that didnt get a chuckle. at our facility? we dont certify divers from the streets! another dumb one. at our facility? they would have to have a key! another dumb one. usually its a non funny guy (working at a nuclear factory here) subconsciously flexing that he has protection. i forget what psychologists call it, but we all know THAT GUY that is like "you cant do that in my neighborhood, you'd get shot!" or "you couldnt do that where i come from!" lol. humans are funny🤣🤣🤣
Yeahhhhhhh I don't think the person sprinting at the reactor pool just wants to go for a little leisure dip, maybe play some marco polo
I asked the Dresden NPP in Illinois to swim in their spent fuel pool to prove a point, but the water was too clean for me. I am dirtier than fuel pool water.
Filthy or clean we love you Kyle!! :))
Love ya Kyle
hi kyle!
You here Kyle?!?? Love you my dude ❤❤❤❤
Well you look it you filthy hippie. Also love your content bro! ❤
This "What If?" has one of my favourite closing lines ever. Someone who knows what they're talking about being all like, "Hey yeah, it's fun to discuss the theory around this but _absolutely do not_ try this in real life."
I visited a research nuclear reactor recently and I vividly remember the researcher saying "if you manage somehow to reach the pool, there is no way you are getting out alive"
So... backyard swimming pools are just shy of deep enough to rent out as spent rod storage. Darn.
Sorta. You have to keep a constant flow of cool water cause the rods are literally hot. Instead of a pool heater, you'd need a pool cooler.
@@gamemeister27 Literally _and proverbially!_
That would be awsome! Free income and pool heat. I'd volunteer. Just need to get it by the HOA...
What is that truck doing unloading casks going into your backyard?
Oh, I'm doing a pool "renovation". ;)
Why do you think they go no deeper
They are fine, just lay the fuel horizontally on the bottom. you only need a couple to keep the water nice and warm.
I worked at a nuclear power plant over twenty years ago as a contractor on a y2K project. Security was intense. There was an area called 'hurricane alley' near the low level waste disposal area where winds got funneled to be very strong. One of my coworkers got knocked off his feet and blown into the no-go area. Security was on him in an instant and we had to make do without him for over a day. He was pretty shaken up when he got back.
Somehow, until this particular video, I didn't realise that these were from the first What If? book and thought they were ones that were considered for the books but didn't make the cut.
Now that I know, I am eagerly waiting for the animated version of the literal half full (50%water 50% vacuum) glass What If?
As someone who liked the website ones better than the books, I was hoping for more website ones
The literal half-empty glass (vacuum) is a website one
whoever made the decision to make all the foley with mouth sounds deserves an award. It's delightful every time!
Production quality on these is wonderful, glad you're making them
3:51 The real danger of getting close to a nuclear reactor, not the radioactive material safely contained at the bottom of the pool, but the large number of armed guards (who are arguably both more dangerous and more lethal)
I do honestly wonder how many (lethally) armed guards there really are in/around such a facility. US and Germany as two points of measurement please ^^
The “nice” thing about being shot by the guards is that it will be faster and less painful than dying of radiation poisoning.
@@QuintarFarenor At my power plant in the US, I would guess (and it's a rough guess) around 40 at any given time? You run into more guards than anyone else on an average day. They're always patrolling, or staring at CCTV screens in the watchtowers, or standing around in the access facility. I don't envy them haha, it's a monotonous job.
@@Kerithanos oof that bad...wow
@@Kerithanos Given the number of people that might have dumb idea about nuclear power plant, and the political fallout (Ba-dum-tss) if any of them break into one, I don't think that would be exaggerated.
So happy that xkcd is making videos, reading what if? 2 and absolutely loving it!
I'd still love animated versions of the comics.
Starting to relax and then: "At least in theory", stress-levels rising faster than a meltdown
Now that's one hell of a swim!
This is the type of pool they'd have in hell
And start your own energy company
I work in a nuclear plant and do routine maintenance of radiation monitors around the spent fuel pool. The water is so heavily borated, that if you fell in, you would just float there, like in the Dead Sea. They still make us wear life jackets though 😂. Nobody would shoot you (at least not at my plant) But you would be in a heap of trouble. The water is very pretty though 😂
Boron's pretty good at eating neutrons. Thanks!
Makes me wonder, how much did cosmic radiation have an effect on evolution once land-based fauna started emerging from the oceans, which largely shielded life from said radiation.
That’s a great question! Made me wonder whether fish are more susceptible to radiation-induced cancers than us, because they haven’t had to adapt to their DNA constantly being bombarded by cosmic rays? Or might we find better tumour suppressor genes in high flying birds like cranes and vultures?
Probably more than one
There is one major change. Fish do not produce blood cells in bone marrow. It is believed that sequestration of new blood production in marrow is an adaptation to keep sensitive hemopoietic stem cells as far away from radiation sources as possible. Bone is dense, so it hopefully absorbs charged particles before they hit the stem cells. Because those cells are constantly multiplying new blood cells, and if one were to get mutated by radiation, the results could be disastrous. Given the number of cases of leukemia and lymphoma that arise anyway, you can see the selective pressure is real. All the nonsense about sharks not getting cancer is nonsense. They do get cancer. But their rates of blood cancers are indeed far lower, and that is not do to magical cartilage, but because the water is shielding them from radiation.
Maybe background radiations is one of the factors in DNA mutation thereby evolution?
@@pavankumarachanti We know that exposure to radiation increases mutation rate (just ask the "Rio Red" grapefruit) and higher mutation rate leads to generally lower fitness of a species (most mutations do nothing or have adverse effects on the organism), but also a higher adaption rate. While background radiation is certainly a factor, i am unsure how many mutations out of 100 are caused by background radiation alone.Would be a nice experiment: Split a bacterial culture into two, put one of them in a lead box, let them grow for enough time (i don't know how long bacteria need to procreate to make out a mutation rate) and compare the sequences. If the hypothesis holds true, the bacteria in the lead box must have evolved slower.
When I was 5 I was strangely into nuclear science, for some reason. I had heard similar information to this video from somewhere and was inspired to write a short story during school writing class. In it, a unicorn visited a boy and offered to take him anywhere. The small boy asked to swim in a nuclear waste pool (knowing safe), the unicorn took him there but the boy accidentally touched the bottom and immediately died.
i feel like all children's written "stories" are about someone dying suddenly in a strange situation
@@theplayer4664 Children are dark. They know the world's a scary place, but they haven't gotten the hang of it yet.
attending school at 5y... where are you from?
you. as a child.
@@deniskhafizov6827 Australia, we actually have pre-school as well which starts at 3 but proper primary school starts at 5. Where are you from where you start school after 5?
Ending is the best
And false.
@@lajoswinkler congrats on being able to withstand bullet wounds?
@@lajoswinkler Try hopping the fence of a nuclear power plant. Let us know how that turns out for you. Pro-tip - get your personal affairs in order first and kids your wife and kids goodbye.
@@lajoswinkler How do you know?
@@cameron7374 he doesnt, thats why he hasnt replied yet. Just an air head average joe.
--Counterpoint: You would die before you ever got to the pool. The bullets from the guards firearms would get you.-- Aww, that was at the end of the video. Variations of that joke has been around amongst us nerds for a few decades now,
Imagine being going through the series of events
-notice object in pool and alert staff and be told it’s been there for years
- be sent to retrieve said object from pool
- retrieve the object only to be told to immediately drop it
-you don’t get the object you wanted everyone about and now your hand is mush.
I toured a part of the Davis-Besse nuclear plant with a boy scout troop.
This was one of the questions.
Your friend's response was one of the answers.
The other popular question was "would it give me super powers?"
2:50 I'd never heard of that incident so I looked it up. Absorbed dose was estimated at 7500 mSv to the hand, for an effective (whole-body) dose of 28mSv, at the upper end of CT scans.
This is in significant excess of statutory limits (500mSv/year for hands, 20mSv/year whole body) and was reported as such, however there was no sign of acute radiation syndrome and there were no expectations of long-term consequences.
The piece of tubing was measured at activity of 1.8 TBq, and a contact dose rate of 100Sv/h. As the video notes, stored closer to the body (without the shielding provided by water), as well as closer to major organs this would almost certainly have been a fatal incident.
According to the report, the diver had not been briefed on handling unidentified material ("don't").
An important note because it's not clear from the video: the diver was in the transfer pool, which does not contain spent fuel. The diver *was* instructed to not move past the gates and into the spent fuel pools, and did not. Because there was no separate written removal order, radiation protection (RP) technicians were not involved.
Regulatory corrective actions following that incident:
- radiation detector alarms were moved to the headset (as the video notes, they were previously from the device itself, dampened by water and ancillary noises)
- additional dosimeter points were added to the dive suit
- job briefing was improved around location during job (including downtimes) and unidentified objects
- a formal procedure was put in place for loose material collection, including requirement to use a tool for all interactions with unidentified objects
- RP tech supervision for all dives
I used to work at nuclear power plant and can confirm. The nuclear facility is also Very heavily armed. Also the rods are larger than I thought they would be
That's what she said.
ive never really thought of what kind of security a nuclear reactor has until i saw a Kyle Hill video where on a tour or something they walked past one
Some countries have a military base in there, others...a few lazy guards playing with their phones.
These videos are genuinely a 10/10
Dude. Your radiation chart is amazing. One of my professors in undergrad showed it to us after Fukushima over a decade ago. I am so happy I just discovered your channel!
I hate that took this long for xkcd to start a brilliant youtube series and the fact that there aren’t 1000s of videos for me to binge makes me want to cry. I need a time machine to the future so I can watch all the great things that are going to come out on this channel. Such a great episode!! I had no idea you could swim in a nuclear pool.
Is water a better shield than solids like lead at shielding radiation?
No, but it's much cheaper in bulk.
@@PatrickKQ4HBD I kinda thought that would be the case 😅
Shielding radiation is sheer number of electron shells between you and the radiation source, so denser materials like lead will block more over the same thickness. But lead isn't a good coolant for this application, and it's a bit more expensive than water.
If you don't need cooling, such as with dry casks or building walls, concrete is best because it's structurally stable and cheaper to make 5-6 inches of concrete wall than 1 inch of lead wall. The half gamma value layer given here was 7 cm of water (he rounded down from 7.62 cm), for concrete it's 3.3, iron is 1, and lead is 0.51 cm.
@@Merennulli That’s some really great info! I had no idea it was based on electron shells. My main curiosity was for space station shielding for long distance multi generational travel. I was imagining a giant spinning torus filled with water which would be below the walking surface or something.
Sounds implausible.
@@BlackFoxLovesYouI'm oversimplifying it a bit, but yes, electromagnetic repulsion from the electron shells is by far doing most of the work.
And you're absolutely right on all counts. Water storage outside the living space is exactly the plan for interstellar shielding. And it's currently implausible due to the "tyranny of the rocket equation".
Getting the book What If? and thus being introduced to xkcd was quite a Christmas gift. This is amazing.
wow! you have quite a history to discover, friend. I recommend visiting explainxkcd if you haven't already. while it is of course very helpful when the comic runs into topics the audience isn't familiar with, it's also just generally the next step in the rabbithole full of fascinating connections. it's like TVtropes for a single webcomic lmao
Well, I stood in the actual reactor core of a nuclear power plant 44 years ago and I’m still here.
Of course, it was a nuclear power plant that was under construction at the time and was nowhere near having radioactive fuel rods in it. I don’t think the fuel rods were put in place until about 1987 or 1988. But it was amazingly cool to be able to go into the actual reactor core, along with the rest of the facility. Benefits of having a dad who worked for the power company, which I also worked for a few year later. And I used to have to do site visits to the nuclear power plant during the construction of the electrical substations, since I worked in Substation Engineering. Back before I abandoned a career as an engineer and became a professional photographer and then a professional musician. Now I work in opera, which is so far removed from working at a nuclear power plant that I can’t even remember how my brain understood the engineering…
"Before reaching the water, from gunshot wounds." I actually lol'd.
Moral of the story : "It's not my job" can literally save your life. Instead of asking "what's this tube, should I bring it up", think "do MY job and clock out". 😂😂
I think the moral of the story is, if you are a diver in a radiation pool, bring one of those grabby claw thingies.
The real moral is, think for yourself and don't blindly obey clueless supervisors in matters of safety. Who thinks to pick up a random unidentified object in a nuclear storage pool without examining what it is first?
@@michaelburke4048 "Granby claw thingy", SHOULD, in fact, be part of their kit. Seems like a crazy oversight. 🍻
To be fair if you work in a nuclear plant diver, you probably have a different risk tolerance than the average person.
Identifying mystery objects that might indicate something going wrong with the pool is in fact part of a maintenance tech's job, though in this case it feels like there were better ways to do it
1:46 I feel like drinking the water in Illinois is more dangerous!
hehheh I remember Kyle Hill answering this question a while back, and I was wondering if this video would have the same punchline. I was not disappointed X-D
So what I'm hearing is spent fuel rods can be used to keep your pool warm as long as they're placed deep enough.
I've read your "What If" book and I loved it. I was so excited when I realized it's actually you by recognizing this story. Browsing this channel is gonna be so much fun. Keep up the good work!!
I once worked in a research reactor and I had the change to dive in the pool to film some repair maneuvers. That was awesome! One thing you don't mention in your video: the water is borated to be more efficient against radiations, that is very irritating to your skin. So keep a full body suit!
2:12 BONK! ATOMIC PUNCH MENTIONED RAHHHHHHHHHHHH
I don't know what temperature it becomes an issue, but you cannot swim in water at body temperature. You overheat very quickly because you have nowhere to lose your body heat to. There was an episode of a Dutch science quiz where they tried it and as I remember it, the person came out of the pool like they'd just swam a marathon after 10-15 meters.
but then how can you bathe in hot water🤔
@@crispyandspicy6813Relaxing in a bathtub isn't work, swimming is. And I like bathing in 37°C.
@@crispyandspicy6813 you're not really swimming in a bathtub. most people just sit in it, which uses way less energy.
For those who are interested, read on about Andreev Bay nuclear accident (1982). There were two seamen who dove into the water pool containing used reactor fuel assemblies during the clean up attempt (one of them accidentally fell into the water and the other dove in to rescue).
On the subject of radiation, there was another radioactive product called the Radioendoctrinator which was sheets of paper soaked in radium salt. Men were encouraged to put it under their crotch at night and “radiate as directed.” It even came with a jock strap to ensure you got the full dose. The inventor, William J.A. Bailey died of bladder cancer in 1949, and he also invented Radithor.
Why am I not surprised that he was the malicious dipshit behind Radithor?
Radithor! Half off your face, or your money back!
goodness this was a good one, both from the book and here. Would be nice if these videos were slightly longer format. However, I'm sure the length/format is how Randall/his producer/marketing team wants them. Thanks for doing these, they have helped me share with others stories and ideas that come from the book.
FINALLY! I’ve been waiting for someone to answer this question for at least the last amount of time.
I've barely started the video and I'm already dying from laughter from the little "ERR ERR ERR ERR ERR woOoOooOOooOOo" 😂
I remember laughing at the ending line for minutes on end when reading the book :)
To be clear, we've found several great options for where to put spent fuel casks, but ignorant public backlash and government red tape keep them from being able to be used.
The main solution is to teach people about radiation, so they don't think radioactivity equals chernobyl and nothing else.
"great options" . . . let me guess, Native American land?
@@timetraveller6643 a single football field sized hole in the ground is enough to hold almost all the nuclear waste the US has ever produced. Even fuckin throwing the rods into the ocean works and isnt that bad
@@timetraveller6643 Isn't it all, technically, Native American land?
So yes. There.
@@timetraveller6643 You could literally just store them in a small warehouse right next to the power plant and not run out of space for the next 100 years. They also tend to be decent passive heat sources.
@@ForOrAgainstUs No, there's a whole planet out there?
The density of good points in these videos is amazing!
The last lines are my favourite from the original article, and the kind I like to share. Thank you for posting this one!
The last part reminds me of a line from the preshow to a motion simulator ride at the Kennedy Space Center.
"Within 400 feet of the pad, the flames and heat from the engines will kill you. Within 800 feet, the sound will kill you. Within 4,000 feet, the snakes and alligators might kill you."
Am I the only one amazed by the power of water ? Sounds like magic or similar, it’s crazy that it can protects us from deadly radiations
Concrete, lead, beryllium. Many materials can do so. It's just that water is the most convenient one
The fact that hydrogen atoms weigh only one proton (or so) means that a fast particle can collide with it, separating it from the water molecule, and give up lots of speed/energy to it. The heavier elements don't slow them down as much, like playing pool with a bowling ball on the table. But those are dense/heavy materials, so there are lots more atoms available for crashing into.
@@davisdf3064 ✨magic✨
I love these videos, your book, and your webcomic. I also find the little sound effects you add (presumably by mouth) extremely entertaining.
This is one of my favourite What Ifs, so cool to see it animated!
Very interesting how results may not be what you expect sometimes.
So theoretically, you can design heated pulls based on used radiative rods and be completely safe
dont steal!
Would be a more sane approach to keeping fuel safe than some government programs.
Back in the early 2000s I worked at a university that had its own research reactor. I used to walk by it going to and from my office every day, many days the door was open to the reactor (not even kidding). I wondered about it at the time and decided it must be OK, surely they knew what they were doing. A year or two after I left I saw an article on the news that the NRC was threatening to shut it down and revoke their license because an inspector had found "a door to the reactor standing open and unattended". So...I guess it _wasn't_ OK.
Assuming you are OK, glad you are OK
@@DavidRNeff OK.
@@morskojvolk XD
I knew the punch line and still waited for it, I'm so glad you are making these and can't wait for more
The end was honestly gold great touch earned my sub
The sound effects really bring it all together. Thank you, my dude!
:)
that's a pretty good answer there at the end.
This was the story that got me into XKCD! Love this
I definitely found a gold mine in this channel! Love to see shower thoughts answered.
I love the homemade sound effects :D
Casually calling your friend who happens to work at a research nuclear reactor is a goal I aspire to in my life
Thank you for making these, they are great
Oh man. Only just discovered today that there's an XKCD RUclips channel. I grew up reading XKCD web comics, so this is a pretty special find.
Love these videos. This is awesome!
I love this channel
I remember the original comic. Very nice
this is one of my favorites because of the twist at the end.
I only saw the web version of this recently. This is so well done.
Top 3 tips for swimming in a nuclear storage pool :
1. when swimming in a nuclear storage pool don't touch the nuclear fuel
2.when swimming in a nuclear storage pool don't dive to the bottom
3. Don't swim in a nuclear storage pool.
4.don't enter a nuclear plant unauthorized.
@@segadoeswhatnintendont welcome to our Nuclear Storage Ool. Notice there is no P in it, please keep it that way.
3 but with "without asking permission first"
@@cjcomrie There are however, detectable amounts of Pu in there. Be advised.
Sir! SIR! Put. The floaties. Down!
I loved this one! Learning about how good water is at containing radiation was amazing!
I love the voiced sound effects, great stuff
I’d love to know, is there a speed at which a million successive raindrops would be counted as one to deliver enough force and break a roof? Or is that not how inertia works
That gun wound would be still safer as if they used lead bullets it would protect a small part of your body from radiation 😂
I think most security services are using rounds intended for cavitation rather than expansion, so you don't even get to keep the lead.
Lead wouldn't protect you if it was inside you. Lead is not an antidote to radiation, it's simply the most massive materials that's commonly available.
I have all of your books including thing explainer how to and xkcd volume 0. You're just so funny but also educational and I love it!
I love the punchline of this one!! Also it's really fascinating how much water protects from radiation!
You had me at disclaimer
Mm thorsty
Funny Gatorade
Radithor 😋
You probably won’t see this, but I’m so happy you started positing these videos. I remember getting the first What If? for Christmas back in middle school and being instantly hooked. I’m in college now, yet I still remember mole of moles question like it was yesterday. It’s the perfect mix between science and absurdity.
Seems like they should have a warning light in the scuba mask aswell 🤔🤔 2:38
According to a different comment on this video, they ended up doing just that, along with adding more sensors
@@supersillysammy272 aha!
Have they since built a radiation alarm that can be heard over the sound of dive bubbles? Sounds like there's an oversight there worth fixing.
Don't know. But I'd go with something that vibrates and/or flashes, so you've got multiple ways to be alerted.
@@jackielinde7568 vibration might be dampened by the water, i would go with flashing lights
Some other guy wrote this in the comments:
Regulatory corrective actions following that incident:
- radiation detector alarms were moved to the headset (as the video notes, they were previously from the device itself, dampened by water and ancillary noises)
- additional dosimeter points were added to the dive suit
- job briefing was improved around location during job (including downtimes) and unidentified objects
- a formal procedure was put in place for loose material collection, including requirement to use a tool for all interactions with unidentified objects
- RP tech supervision for all dives
@@philippbrogli779 what other commenter?
@@theplayer4664 I found him through scrolling through the comments. A bit of effort and you can find him too.
Love whenever a new What If XKCD comes out! Thanks for uploading!
(Although, this topic seems like a pretty simple one, so I'm wondering why it's being tackled as opposed to the more wild ones.)
Ah, one of my favorite citations, now as video! Much appreciated!
Nuka Cola wasn't such an unrealistic idea from the makers of Fallout, after all.
And here I was wondering if anyone would mention "Bonk! Atomic Punch"
I can't believe that water is this good at shielding you from radiation. Turns out the stuff that is incredibly readily available all around us is so good at absorbing radiation that 7cm are enough to halve the energy. It's utterly insane
This is just because this particular form of radiation is mostly alpha and beta particles, which are easy to shield. Even a few metres of air should keep you safe. Gamma rays are extremely hard to shield and are only halved by 13cm of lead, or about 100 metres of air.
@@mingyi456 I'm not sure why the video depicts it this way, but gamma will absolutely be the dominant form of radiation to be concerned about over/in any normal spent fuel pool. At my plant, when the spent fuel is being moved the top of the fuel assembly is about 9 feet underwater, which is enough shielding that dose rates on the bridge don't change significantly. I typically see about 5 mR/hr in the trolley, which is not much at all. I imagine that dose is mostly coming from the water itself, which is lightly contaminated by the fuel (we would never say the fuel is "leaking", which always refers to significant and unacceptable leakage, but spent fuel is NEVER going to be perfectly contained, and the filtration system is never going to be perfect either).
As for water being a good shielding material, remember that that's only by virtue of its density. Density is the only factor that matters for that purpose. Dirt works even better than water. Not a very good coolant though haha.
@@mingyi456 Gamma is halved at different distances depending on the energy. For what uranium releases, it's 7.6cm of water, 0.51cm of lead.
@@Merennulli Wouldn't be uranium in there though, as that's what the fuel was /before/ it was spent.
@@dojelnotmyrealname4018We don't actually use that much of the fuel in modern reactors because it's all low enrichment now. It's 95% U238 (still radioactive but less useful), 0.8% P239, 0.19% P240, 0.8% U235, and a mix of other decay products, so it's basically natural uranium with a lot of (useful) impurities. That's why fuel recycling is so appealing despite the concerns of nuclear proliferation.
cool to see what if topics i remember reading over and over when i was younger be animated now
We are blessed enough to get this channel explaing our quirky questions
never clicked on a youtube video faster
I appreciated the twist at the end. I kind of saw it coming too and that made it way better
My mom would buy me your books when I was in middle school, always loved em. Super cool to see you in my recommended
This one, just like all other XKCD media, is golden.
But also a very simple question to answer, even for someone without knowledge on the subjects.
If they keep it in open pools of water, chances are that the water is what's keeping them from irradiating everything around them.
And we all know how anal and people are how many layers of redundancy is needed around nuclear stuff.
If a pool of water is all it takes, that water is most likely doing an incredible job at keeping radiation at bay. (And not Michael Bay... No explosions)
As for long term storage, there IS a solution. It's just that stupid people refuse to accept ANY solution.
Finland has chambers dug deep in bedrock for long term storage. This is many many times better than those pools.
The long term solution is to just put it far enough below ground to where it's completely harmless to humans.
We already do this with other types of waste, mainly human bodies.
There's a reason it's 6 feet (2 meters) below ground. It's the accepted safe depth to prevent decomposing corpses from spreading disease and other nasties.
It's so easy to accept this for corpses... But storing nuclear waste a few hundreds of meters below ground? NU UUUUH! It's NUCLEAR and therefore it's BAAAAAAAAAAAAAD.
Meanwhile, people sit in congested traffic every day complaining about nuclear waste... While they ingest way more toxins than any amount of nuclear disasters have ever produced.
... While i am at it... Coal power plants have killed orders of magnitude more people than nuclear power ever has.
Yet, the stupids of the world demands nuclear be shut down and the only viable alternative is coal and oil power to meet the demands.
Those against nuclear power are actually doing more harm than good with their activism and protests.
3:30 lol
falling into a spent nuclear fuel pool has always been the worst scariest thing I could ever imagine. but this video alleviated that phobia! love your content, great video!