somewhere on the path leading to that rock should be a panel with a big red button with a sign saying "Do Not Push This Button". It should be far enough away that when pushed it notifies the local police giving them enough time to intercept people who would more than likely DIG.
@@MalinCruceru Indeed, great content but the mispronounciations are rife. If Tom Scott called Chianti 'Shan-tee' he would be stripped naked and burned at the stake the next time he landed in Italy...
Btw. High school students from back of the yard doesnt mean they were picked up from yards. It's an actual neighborhood called back of the yards. For non chicagoans
I lived in the back of the yards from 1967-1969. We staying in an apartment in the flat where my Grandparents lived. My Pop installed carpet back then and he had a warehouse in the stockyards. I remember big piles of carpet rolls and a huge sign that said 'SWIFT". I was born in 1962, so I was quite young then. It's all gone now, an office park apparently.
Years ago, before the site was bulldozed, there were graphite blocks scattered all around the perimeter of the facility. The perimeter was marked by a large chain link fence which has since been removed. I know this because I was the one who notified the authorities of the scattered material. I brought one of the blocks to what I think was called the Illinois Department of Nuclear Safety where they tested it for any residual radiation and deemed it was inert. I remember the workers there passing it around amazed that this block was probably once held by Enrico Fermi. Shortly thereafter the site was cleaned and most of the remnants of the facility were either buried or removed.
There was no radiation in the material at the surface. The scattered blocks were harmless. they were probably the cutoff pieces left after building the pile. @@acmefixer1
@@charlespatrick1572 One of the reasons for using graphite is that it like aluminium does not become persistently radioactive under radiation exposure unlike heavier materials.
This is so cool, my grandfather was a simple welder who worked there and told me in the past he was hired because he spoke German, he was working at the shipyards in the Great Lakes welding ships for the war effort. Thanks for doing this documentary.
As a kid, I rode my bike and played in these forest preserves. We never had any health issues. I must leave now, the voices from the black hole are calling me back.
You may not see what others see.lol the 3rd arm is not normal even though you're from Chicago. Sorry couldn't resist. Grew up 65 miles south of the city.
Please don't make the outro music that much louder than the average sound level. really screwed up to be wearing headphones and have your eardrums blasted out without warning.
OMG!!, I can't believe you did a video on this, I ran into this by accident about 5 years ago, I take friends here occasionally to show them it's really true. I tell them but they never believe me until they go. Awesome man, if you ever want to do any sort of collaboration I am in Chicago as well, there's only a handful of RUclipsrs in Chicago. My great uncle was a nuclear physicist on the Manhattan project.
@@miguelferreiramoutajunior2475 seriously? Because that means your dad would have to be up there in age. That was my great-uncle, my father's uncle, there were a lot of engineers and physicists that worked on that project. He told me stories about how many of the engineers didn't realize what it was going to be used for.
Small point of correction: The atomic bomb explosion shown at about 5:16 is the "Fat Man" bomb dropped on Nagasaki, not "Little Boy" which was dropped on Hiroshima. (There is no video of the Hiroshima explosion from its detonation, other than a short one one taken by a crew member of the aircraft which dropped it, well *after* the explosion and when the mushroom cloud was nearly at the same altitude of the aircraft. This is because (all?) the film from the assigned observation aircraft was damaged in some way and was effectively blank.)
Actually, and respectfully, there was a full compliment of air force and other personnel who recorded the Hiroshima blast. I knew one of the photographers as a neighbor- Bud Grice. Google Hiroshima bomb blast video.
@@neilreid9005 With all due respect, I *have* done that search, many times. And I want to stress that I am talking about *video* film here, not still images. All video film from the aircraft assigned to record the Hiroshima bombing was blank or black. There were a few *still* images (35mm film camera stock, I believe) that were recovered, but the only actual *video* of Hiroshima is this one, starting at the 6 second mark: ruclips.net/video/2Pxk4zy_SQw/видео.html .... or this one starting at the 1:11 mark: ruclips.net/video/_qh--j9_8wY/видео.html which was filmed by a crewman (in either the "Enola Gay", piloted by Tibbets, or "The Great Artiste", piloted by Sweeney) who had an 8mm (16mm?) camera and caught the result well after the explosion. The then-unnamed aircraft assigned to photograph the explosion, piloted by Capt. Marquardt, failed to capture anything that was viewable; all their movie film was either bad from the start, or was somehow exposed during post-mission handling. There are innumerable videos claiming to show the "Hiroshima" bombing that are actually showing the Nagasaki bombing. This was also in a documentary whose name I cannot remember now, but it was stated clearly that all *video* film from the assigned photography aircraft was damaged beyond recovery, and that the one short film by the crewman was the only "moving" record of the Hiroshima bombing. That said, if you can provide any link to a video of the Hiroshima bombing other than the ones I linked, I'd be very interested to see it. EDIT: Watch this video from National Geographic, it states this as fact at the 1:45 mark: www.nationalgeographic.com.au/videos/hiroshima-the-next-day/the-hiroshima-atomic-bomb-5256.aspx
DAGATHire He is Australian. Perhaps they pronounce them differently, like how Brits pronounce aluminum (aluminium)? Or how Aussies and Kiwis call the letter ‘z’ “zed”.
Echoed here as well, DAGATHire. It's not an innate thing to do, the proper pronunciation of words come from typically two things growing up: be taught by context or be mocked by your peers when you get it wrong. One being far more fun than the other depending on which side you are on. Nuclear I can forgive, but Cadmium and Chianti need to be corrected. Just go watch "The Silence of the Lambs". If your lucky Hannibal will split a bottle Chianti with you, if you're unlucky Hannibal will have a glass of Chianti with you.
@@venomq2409 Ye. Also sites like wordreferance offer pronunciation examples in English from many different accents. The trouble here is people are confusing the difference between accents and correct pronunciation. The fact he's Australian only affects the accent element and has precisely nothing to do with the correct pronunciation and indeed intonation and stress of individual syllables. Quite correct you learn it through context growing up... But this phenomenon of mispronouncing words is more common these days than ever before.
@@ChicagoAussie Ok fair enough. However, presenting scientific content for public consumption requires knowing when you've invented a new element. I shouldn't find myself in the position of having a better knowledge of the periodic table than a presenter. That isn't to say that I didn't learn things from this video, and frankly my videos are riddled with errors... But 'cadium'? Seriously? I would have deleted and re-uploaded anything I released with a boo-boo like that in it.
If it's in the Great Lakes watershed, it's definitely being monitored. I treat wastewater from my companys industrial powder coating wash line for heavy metals and I am monitored 4 times a year, more if I were to actually screw up. It's a big deal, the Great Lakes are my life.
The world's first peacetime use of nuclear power occurred when the U.S. Government switched on Experimental Breeder Reactor #1 (EBR1) near Arco, Idaho, on December 20, 1951.
I remember that the people in charge of the new Nuclear Waste disposal site were trying to come up with the proper signage to tell future humans, thousands of years from now, not to open the waste site. The location you have shown us just has English Language markings that could possibly not be recognizable to humans that may come upon that site before it is safe.
Mind you, Einstein pushed to allow Enrico Fermi to be brought into what would become the Manhattan Project. But Fermi needed a security clearance which was difficult because he was an enemy alien and the US was currently at war with Italy.
Walter Zinn went to the current day Idaho National Laboratory, where he built and tested EBR-1 (Experimental Breeder Reactor 1). Which is now a National Historic Site. During the summer months the people can tour the now decommissioned facility, walk all around, and on top of the reactor, and in the control room, and go outside and look at the engines for the Atomic airplane.
Just stumbled across your channel, I've lived in Texas my entire life and have never stepped foot near Chicago, but your channel is great! Your videos are so well made and the pacing is fantastic. Keep up the interesting videos and good work!
2:23 It's so weird to see that picture. As the narrator said, that's where the Regenstein library is at today. It's a big concrete building that students work at every day. What's even funnier is what those buildings in the background are. The one on the far left used to by a gymnasium and is now a dinning hall for students. The buildings on the right starting with the tower in the center are the northern part of the main quad. This area is possibly one of the most populated locations on campus today, really goes to show how things have changed here.
This land cap reminds me of a job site I used to work on years ago. 230k pounds of depleted uranium as a byproduct of metals smelting buried. In the middle of the land cap was a marble monument similar to the on this video with posts setup on its corners.
Somebody call Bethesda, Fallout Chicago would be epic! This could be one of the sites on the map and there are so many others they could use for the game.
Fernald preserve, 20 miles north of Cincinnati Ohio. Decommissioned feed production site where a lot of low grade and ore material is buried, but it is accessable to the public and treated as a nature preserve. Nice video though, great to know where it all started.
FallingShells hmm remember living east of tucson.near one of riverbeds city had dug a dirt cave into side of wash and put old explosives into it we used to go in and play wipe off droplets and flick and explode...turn of last century dynomite was made cheaply saw dust ..few other materials and nitro..this was old stock ..sweating...surprised havent heard anything on news about it
Thank you for sharing - I knew about the reactor under the stadium bleachers but didn’t know about the argon lab and scientists related to it all. In a way, this was the “1st moonshot program”, lending creditability to the notion that the Apollo moonshot program was a viable objective
could you provide a link to the source for the CP1 archival footage you used, e.g. graphite block machining at around 2:35-2:45 and the control rod removal at 3:20-3:30? i would be extremely interested in seeing the full source videos, if they're available (as i haven't been able to find any myself)
"quiet possibly making it the only nuclear disposal site open to the public" in Weldon Springs, Missouri there is a nuclear disposable site from WWII where there is a huge rock pile covering the waste that you can walk up. This is completely open to the public and is often visited by many people around here. Just thought I would share 👍
You must've had some influences from Geoffrey Baer because you're just like him and his tour programs on WTTW. I always thought that if you want kids to learn history you need to make it so it's fun to learn about history. I had a blast watching every tour program that he airs so I pretty much have seen all of them. So you really reminds me of Geoffrey Baer because of your style. Keep it up.
I was there. I found a block of metal that was warm to the touch even though it was freezing cold outside. I use the metal block as a hand warmer. I found out the hard way that you couldn't store the metal block near electronic stuff or the electronic stuff would just stop working like right away.
The reactor at 4:44 is EBR-1 (Experiment Breeder Reactor #1), a liquid sodium cooler reactor which used an external U238 “blanket” as a moderator, which mutated to plutonium from being exposed to the radiation of the operating reactor. It is located a few miles east of the town of Arco in Idaho. The location was originally called Argonne West. EBR-1 survives as a National Monument. Check out the excellent EBR1 article on Wikipedia. Oh, BTW, CADMIUM rods.
Used to party at that site back in the 80's before they put up the placcard he was standing next to. We'd drive our cars up the winding road back to the site ro drink and smoke as teens.Lots of memories.
Wasn't Dresden Nuclear Power Plant reactor 1 in Illinois part of the University of Chicago test nuclear reactors. Also part of the Red Gate Forest Preserve. Before it was shut down. Dresden reactor 2 through 4 were the new Nuclear reactors at Dresden Nuclear Power Plant. Also in the Red Gate Forest Preserve, there is a water pump well near the parking lot. The water well could be radioactive water. So, there is no lever on the water pump well.
Great video! I've just come across your channel for the first time and you do a great job. (Ignore the accent/pronunciation nitpickers, I get them too. Americans can't handle hearing an accent that isn't British or their own)
Hey I went there once for Boy Scouts! The area around it is honestly pretty beautiful. We would always make jokes about reactors and nukes when we were there! And it wasn’t really radioactive at all
I've picked up on one thing you've said maybe you misspoke or got it wrong but if there was no radiation leaking than why did they have to do "a few clean ups" after everything was sealed up?
Just thought of a video idea for you. Could you cover the Great Chicago Flood of 1992? It's coming up on April 13th, but that's probably not enough time to do proper research. You could also arrange a tour of the tunnels from Chicago's DOT.
Dawsonville Forest, in Georgia, used to be a nuclear power research center. Where they would exposed a hot reactor to the open air. Killing the surrounding trees from radiation. They decommissioned the lab, and left many underground structures.
Living in DuPage/Cook area my whole life, passed down Archer Avenue and Red Gate woods dozens of times and never knew this! Not as catchy a story Bachelors Grove Cemetery I suppose. I gotta go visit this when the weather breaks now. Thanks!
Occasionally went hiking there back in the late 70's. There used to be a number of hand pumped drinking water wells. They were locked and later removed in the 80's or 90's because the water had higher than recommended levels of tritium.
Have a couple of radium watches and ashtrays that were sold to tourists in Utah, Arizona and other SW states all have radioactive rocks glued in place. When I first had access to a Geiger meter in school it blew my teachers away at the rads coming off. Keep them all in a lead sealed box now. DHS tried to get an order for seizure about 12 years ago, the judge ruled they’d have to pay the antiquities and collectibles value that I placed on them. Since the watches were family heirlooms I told them 10 million they laughed, Judge said put up or shut up. I am enjoined from sale, donation or display but the government lost. Not like enough to make a dirty bomb. Cancer risk is higher from cigarettes or vaping. But having worked with & for the SOB’s as long as they lose all that matters
Nukerler or nuclear ? Getting a like anyway :) impressive how things went in the beginning of new-clear chain reactions. I’ll get my coat. It’s the one with the Geiger counter in it...
Joshua Joestar Thank you so much you’re my fellow American patriot my son is the same way serving in the military in the Marine Corps is very conservative pro Trump
@@johnydoe7065 so now you've seen that millennials are a little more diverse than you originally thought, next time you get an urge to (metaphorically)bash Millenials, don't forget where we came from.
Just came across this video. Back in the 80's I used to hike those woods and the surrounding area with a friend of mine quite often. On one of our outings we came across this site but it didn't look like it does in the video. The fences were still there but they had fallen into disrepair. The main gate was long gone. The foundations of the buildings were also visible though no actual structures were still standing. Heading into the site we discovered that the reactor was exposed. Yeah, you read that right. Exposed. One whole side was completely visible, just lying there for all to see or in our case, walk on. Which we did. However, in our defense, because the stone marker was covered with weeds, neither of us were aware of what it was that we were looking at or, at one point, literally standing on. We visited it at least two more times after that. Then one afternoon my friend called me up and said that he had just driven past Red Gate Woods and the entire place was covered in protective material. There were a number of government agents walking around in protective suits. This would have been in the mid '90s. Needless to say we were mildly concerned. Nope, not too creepy. I currently have a miniature version of our discovery just as it looked when we originally found it as part of my HO scale railroad. And yes, it glows green.
Great video. It’s not the only such place, though-Atlanta has its own known as Dawson Forest. I highly recommend anyone interested in such things read up on it... especially since it had a pretty unique open air reactor.
@@ChicagoAussie yeah the buildings are fenced off but you can get pretty close--they were used for storing & analyzing irradiated equipment (at the scale of a freight car per test) immediately after exposure to the open-air reactor. There's still a decent amount of contamination around, although I think the reactor site used to be accessible in the past.
Somewhere a OSHA inspector is screaming at all the missed fines thinking what they could have gotten if they've been around back then. It's not like that graphite dust won't fill your lungs like coal dust
@@chibobird482 They tried very hard to meet life expectations of that era. It takes quite some effort to die younger. That's why they all smoked and took that harddrug called booze happily. Or they flew to Europe.
Relax it only kills you if you known that it’s bad for you besides the 3 packs of Lucky’s he smoked a day since he was 12 years old had case hardened his lungs years ago
Those signs "Do not dig" can help people today, but if our civilization collapses another civilization would be happy to find out what's in those "ancient tombs" with "warning signs against unsealing" just to die mysteriously from an ancient curse of acute radiation sickness/rad-exposure induced cancer.
Awesome video!!!!! I grew up and lived in Willow Springs Illinois on Archer Ave not too far from Red Gate Woods in the 1980's as a kid through to the early 1990's when I was a teen and went to Stag High School in Palos Hills for my freshman and Sophmore year than moved to Rockford Illinois with my mom and went to Rockford Guilford High School for my Jr and Senior years and became a high school grad in 1998. My dad use to take my little bro and I there in the spring and summer. Also further up on Archer is a old Irish church built by the Irish who built the Illinois & Michigan canal and the Cal-Sag channel. =^.^=
@@cthuthu333 Okay, that was a long time ago. I remember a prisoner and a story about dying lambs. Lamb and death is quite a symbol. Was there a hidden cross perhaps? The liver is gone. I'll need to find and see it again, I guess. The movie, my liver is still there. Thanks.
Now, the management of these sites hinges on a mere 300 million dollars compared to the 54 billion dollars for defense. This is all the money it takes to monitor hundreds of irradiated sites and protect the environment, the animals, and the people that live in these areas. A small army of people constantly monitor these sites for possible release. If you meet one of these people you should thank them because trust me, they don't make very much money.
![Seungmin "그렇게, 천천히, 우리(As we are)" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/kAzmhLHePqU/mqdefault.jpg)
30 high school kids helped build the 1st reactor. Now that's a story to tell your kids. "You know what I did in high school...?"
Great video.
It is pretty hardcore... Lol. 😂 😂 😂
That would be cool!
What happened to Back Of The Yards is probably the story they tell.
hahah...what kids? you would probably be sterile then dead in a few years after being exposed to this radiation with no ppe
@@jacobpoucher Graphite and concrete are not radioactive. Nobody got sick from the Chicago experiments.
"Caution, DO NOT DIG"
this gives me a weird desire to dig
somewhere on the path leading to that rock should be a panel with a big red button with a sign saying "Do Not Push This Button". It should be far enough away that when pushed it notifies the local police giving them enough time to intercept people who would more than likely DIG.
I thought it said do not die….
Sweet. I've found Australian Tom Scott.
Fucking right tho
Love Tom Scott!
I had exactly the same thought watching this. :)
discount Tom Scott.
@@MalinCruceru Indeed, great content but the mispronounciations are rife. If Tom Scott called Chianti 'Shan-tee' he would be stripped naked and burned at the stake the next time he landed in Italy...
Btw.
High school students from back of the yard doesnt mean they were picked up from yards.
It's an actual neighborhood called back of the yards.
For non chicagoans
Oh and I'm currently at UofC working overnight.
Nice to be part of history.
I lived in the back of the yards from 1967-1969. We staying in an apartment in the flat where my Grandparents lived. My Pop installed carpet back then and he had a warehouse in the stockyards. I remember big piles of carpet rolls and a huge sign that said 'SWIFT". I was born in 1962, so I was quite young then. It's all gone now, an office park apparently.
The RUclipsr ChubbyEmu is from back of the yards. Back meaning behind and of-the-yards meaning belonging to the yards.
Years ago, before the site was bulldozed, there were graphite blocks scattered all around the perimeter of the facility. The perimeter was marked by a large chain link fence which has since been removed. I know this because I was the one who notified the authorities of the scattered material. I brought one of the blocks to what I think was called the Illinois Department of Nuclear Safety where they tested it for any residual radiation and deemed it was inert. I remember the workers there passing it around amazed that this block was probably once held by Enrico Fermi. Shortly thereafter the site was cleaned and most of the remnants of the facility were either buried or removed.
WOW. That's interesting!
Let's hope the people far in the future who can't read English don't take the graphite blocks home as souvenirs. 😵😵😵
There was no radiation in the material at the surface. The scattered blocks were harmless. they were probably the cutoff pieces left after building the pile. @@acmefixer1
I held the demon core while pissing on the elephants foot
@@charlespatrick1572 One of the reasons for using graphite is that it like aluminium does not become persistently radioactive under radiation exposure unlike heavier materials.
This is so cool, my grandfather was a simple welder who worked there and told me in the past he was hired because he spoke German, he was working at the shipyards in the Great Lakes welding ships for the war effort. Thanks for doing this documentary.
Jake
That’s awesome!!
As a kid, I rode my bike and played in these forest preserves. We never had any health issues. I must leave now, the voices from the black hole are calling me back.
Huh, well it's good you don't have cance- WAIT WHAT.
I'm not sure why, but I want to drink with you.
You may not see what others see.lol the 3rd arm is not normal even though you're from Chicago. Sorry couldn't resist. Grew up 65 miles south of the city.
Please don't make the outro music that much louder than the average sound level. really screwed up to be wearing headphones and have your eardrums blasted out without warning.
Well sweet.
As a headphone user I've been warned....
Josh B don’t get rickrolled? 😂
OMG!!, I can't believe you did a video on this, I ran into this by accident about 5 years ago, I take friends here occasionally to show them it's really true. I tell them but they never believe me until they go. Awesome man, if you ever want to do any sort of collaboration I am in Chicago as well, there's only a handful of RUclipsrs in Chicago. My great uncle was a nuclear physicist on the Manhattan project.
My father worked in there too!🤣
@@miguelferreiramoutajunior2475 seriously? Because that means your dad would have to be up there in age. That was my great-uncle, my father's uncle, there were a lot of engineers and physicists that worked on that project. He told me stories about how many of the engineers didn't realize what it was going to be used for.
Great job making this video!
you seriously need to upload more, nothing I love more than learning about Chicago and its rich history, my current and forever hometown.
My Great Grandfather was on the Manhattan project in Oak Ridge TN. I have the papers thanking him for his service with it.
Small point of correction: The atomic bomb explosion shown at about 5:16 is the "Fat Man" bomb dropped on Nagasaki, not "Little Boy" which was dropped on Hiroshima. (There is no video of the Hiroshima explosion from its detonation, other than a short one one taken by a crew member of the aircraft which dropped it, well *after* the explosion and when the mushroom cloud was nearly at the same altitude of the aircraft. This is because (all?) the film from the assigned observation aircraft was damaged in some way and was effectively blank.)
Actually, and respectfully, there was a full compliment of air force and other personnel who recorded the Hiroshima blast. I knew one of the photographers as a neighbor- Bud Grice. Google Hiroshima bomb blast video.
@@neilreid9005 With all due respect, I *have* done that search, many times. And I want to stress that I am talking about *video* film here, not still images. All video film from the aircraft assigned to record the Hiroshima bombing was blank or black. There were a few *still* images (35mm film camera stock, I believe) that were recovered, but the only actual *video* of Hiroshima is this one, starting at the 6 second mark: ruclips.net/video/2Pxk4zy_SQw/видео.html .... or this one starting at the 1:11 mark: ruclips.net/video/_qh--j9_8wY/видео.html which was filmed by a crewman (in either the "Enola Gay", piloted by Tibbets, or "The Great Artiste", piloted by Sweeney) who had an 8mm (16mm?) camera and caught the result well after the explosion. The then-unnamed aircraft assigned to photograph the explosion, piloted by Capt. Marquardt, failed to capture anything that was viewable; all their movie film was either bad from the start, or was somehow exposed during post-mission handling. There are innumerable videos claiming to show the "Hiroshima" bombing that are actually showing the Nagasaki bombing. This was also in a documentary whose name I cannot remember now, but it was stated clearly that all *video* film from the assigned photography aircraft was damaged beyond recovery, and that the one short film by the crewman was the only "moving" record of the Hiroshima bombing. That said, if you can provide any link to a video of the Hiroshima bombing other than the ones I linked, I'd be very interested to see it. EDIT: Watch this video from National Geographic, it states this as fact at the 1:45 mark: www.nationalgeographic.com.au/videos/hiroshima-the-next-day/the-hiroshima-atomic-bomb-5256.aspx
@@sidewinder666666 Can't like this refutation enough.
The man, the myth, the legend has returned!
"Nu-kee-lurr" - Nuclear
"Kay-dee-um" - Cadmium
"Shan-tee" - Chianti
It's very annoying isn't it. Basic pronunciation is being lost
DAGATHire He is Australian. Perhaps they pronounce them differently, like how Brits pronounce aluminum (aluminium)? Or how Aussies and Kiwis call the letter ‘z’ “zed”.
@@MrTangent No they don't I'm an English teacher. Trust me. It's quite simply that he doesn't pronounce them at all correctly. Simple as that.
Echoed here as well, DAGATHire. It's not an innate thing to do, the proper pronunciation of words come from typically two things growing up: be taught by context or be mocked by your peers when you get it wrong. One being far more fun than the other depending on which side you are on. Nuclear I can forgive, but Cadmium and Chianti need to be corrected. Just go watch "The Silence of the Lambs". If your lucky Hannibal will split a bottle Chianti with you, if you're unlucky Hannibal will have a glass of Chianti with you.
@@venomq2409 Ye. Also sites like wordreferance offer pronunciation examples in English from many different accents. The trouble here is people are confusing the difference between accents and correct pronunciation. The fact he's Australian only affects the accent element and has precisely nothing to do with the correct pronunciation and indeed intonation and stress of individual syllables. Quite correct you learn it through context growing up... But this phenomenon of mispronouncing words is more common these days than ever before.
3:05 - Cadium? I think you meant cadmium. Or do you remove a consonant to pay for the extra cost of aluminium vs. aluminum? >.
I think you meant 3:08.
😎😎😎
That was the funniest comment I’ve read in a while. Did you write for that show House, M.D.?
His mispronunciation of Chianti was even worse....
@@ChicagoAussie Ok fair enough. However, presenting scientific content for public consumption requires knowing when you've invented a new element. I shouldn't find myself in the position of having a better knowledge of the periodic table than a presenter. That isn't to say that I didn't learn things from this video, and frankly my videos are riddled with errors... But 'cadium'? Seriously? I would have deleted and re-uploaded anything I released with a boo-boo like that in it.
My concern would be groundwater contamination not general exposure. Glad there's proper monitoring wells in place.
If it's in the Great Lakes watershed, it's definitely being monitored. I treat wastewater from my companys industrial powder coating wash line for heavy metals and I am monitored 4 times a year, more if I were to actually screw up. It's a big deal, the Great Lakes are my life.
@@commodoresixfour7478 That's because you're a private company, no one watches the government sites because government doesn't care.
The world's first peacetime use of nuclear power occurred when the U.S. Government switched on Experimental Breeder Reactor #1 (EBR1) near Arco, Idaho, on December 20, 1951.
Wow...crazy, it's just buried there, no big deal. You're safe people.
Well, at least it's not like the Love Canal.
I remember that the people in charge of the new Nuclear Waste disposal site were trying to come up with the proper signage to tell future humans, thousands of years from now, not to open the waste site. The location you have shown us just has English Language markings that could possibly not be recognizable to humans that may come upon that site before it is safe.
That's their problem
@@MrBen527 That's what I was going to say.
Mind you, Einstein pushed to allow Enrico Fermi to be brought into what would become the Manhattan Project. But Fermi needed a security clearance which was difficult because he was an enemy alien and the US was currently at war with Italy.
Glad to see that you are back with very interesting content.
Finally! I was waiting and you delivered!
Wow, so interesting to learn local history! Great to see a content creator in Chicago.
I'm only 2.5 hours away from that and I never knew it existed. Or at least that is where it all started. It's on my bucket list now to visit!
Walter Zinn went to the current day Idaho National Laboratory, where he built and tested EBR-1 (Experimental Breeder Reactor 1). Which is now a National Historic Site. During the summer months the people can tour the now decommissioned facility, walk all around, and on top of the reactor, and in the control room, and go outside and look at the engines for the Atomic airplane.
Chitown has changed big time since my time in the 60's
That was really so well researched and very informative. Great work
Always here when he uploads. Been waiting for 2 months
Very interesting. My Mother worked at the Met lab.
@@ChicagoAussie
Can I ask your opinion on the issue of circumcision? Do they do that in australia.
If you follow the orange trail there are old building foundation stones from the”metallurgy labs” that were operating those woods.
02:10 Must have been one hell of a meth lab if it was ran by a nuclear reactor.
WaxP3 sure..... meth labs. Because _that’s_ what he said.
Another interesting physics fact is that there use to be a Particle Accelerator in Chicagoland in Fermí lab.
@@ChicagoAussie They have a section of restored prairie there and a heard of bison as well as the accelerator.
Uhh they still do. They have several. It was just the Tevitron that was decommissioned.
Awesome facts, I didn't know EVERYTHING you've just said... Thanks, very very interesting.... Keep on enlightening the web
Brilliant... Thanks for taking the time to make this!
I live in south Florida- getting hit by lightning is more common that you would think.
Thats like a mile from where I live! Incredible historic place!
Dont drink the water...
Just stumbled across your channel, I've lived in Texas my entire life and have never stepped foot near Chicago, but your channel is great! Your videos are so well made and the pacing is fantastic. Keep up the interesting videos and good work!
2:23 It's so weird to see that picture. As the narrator said, that's where the Regenstein library is at today. It's a big concrete building that students work at every day. What's even funnier is what those buildings in the background are. The one on the far left used to by a gymnasium and is now a dinning hall for students. The buildings on the right starting with the tower in the center are the northern part of the main quad. This area is possibly one of the most populated locations on campus today, really goes to show how things have changed here.
This land cap reminds me of a job site I used to work on years ago. 230k pounds of depleted uranium as a byproduct of metals smelting buried. In the middle of the land cap was a marble monument similar to the on this video with posts setup on its corners.
Those watts you mentioned were the heat the reactor was putting off, not how much electrical power it could make.
Somebody call Bethesda, Fallout Chicago would be epic! This could be one of the sites on the map and there are so many others they could use for the game.
It could be a holy place for the children of atom
@@TheObsidianX good one! Children of the atom megachurch.
Call Obsidian, not Bethesda, since Todd Howard is a tool that's only good for wrecking franchises.
Great vid. Just visited this today. Neat stuff.
Fernald preserve, 20 miles north of Cincinnati Ohio. Decommissioned feed production site where a lot of low grade and ore material is buried, but it is accessable to the public and treated as a nature preserve. Nice video though, great to know where it all started.
FallingShells hmm remember living east of tucson.near one of riverbeds city had dug a dirt cave into side of wash and put old explosives into it we used to go in and play wipe off droplets and flick and explode...turn of last century dynomite was made cheaply saw dust ..few other materials and nitro..this was old stock ..sweating...surprised havent heard anything on news about it
@@miguelcastaneda7236 That sounds rad!
I had experiment piles once, hurt like hell.
I seen mail order Pile cream
Thank you for sharing - I knew about the reactor under the stadium bleachers but didn’t know about the argon lab and scientists related to it all.
In a way, this was the “1st moonshot program”, lending creditability to the notion that the Apollo moonshot program was a viable objective
could you provide a link to the source for the CP1 archival footage you used, e.g. graphite block machining at around 2:35-2:45 and the control rod removal at 3:20-3:30? i would be extremely interested in seeing the full source videos, if they're available (as i haven't been able to find any myself)
McTavish McArdle
*FBI joins the chat*
@@mikecorleone6797 LOL!
Some of that looks restaged for a documentary type film reel.
@@MilwaukeeF40C ah, that's a good point - still would be interesting to watch the full reel!
"quiet possibly making it the only nuclear disposal site open to the public" in Weldon Springs, Missouri there is a nuclear disposable site from WWII where there is a huge rock pile covering the waste that you can walk up. This is completely open to the public and is often visited by many people around here. Just thought I would share 👍
Chicago Aussie wait he did? That's news to me!
Excellent research and spot on production.
You must've had some influences from Geoffrey Baer because you're just like him and his tour programs on WTTW. I always thought that if you want kids to learn history you need to make it so it's fun to learn about history. I had a blast watching every tour program that he airs so I pretty much have seen all of them. So you really reminds me of Geoffrey Baer because of your style. Keep it up.
I was there. I found a block of metal that was warm to the touch even though it was freezing cold outside. I use the metal block as a hand warmer. I found out the hard way that you couldn't store the metal block near electronic stuff or the electronic stuff would just stop working like right away.
Nice knowing you pal LOL
The reactor at 4:44 is EBR-1 (Experiment Breeder Reactor #1), a liquid sodium cooler reactor which used an external U238 “blanket” as a moderator, which mutated to plutonium from being exposed to the radiation of the operating reactor. It is located a few miles east of the town of Arco in Idaho. The location was originally called Argonne West. EBR-1 survives as a National Monument.
Check out the excellent EBR1 article on Wikipedia.
Oh, BTW, CADMIUM rods.
I would love to see someone explore this area with a giga counter
I guess you mean Gaga counter
Geiger counter?
yep spot on, typed that quickly while i was out
Used to party at that site back in the 80's before they put up the placcard he was standing next to.
We'd drive our cars up the winding road back to the site ro drink and smoke as teens.Lots of memories.
Did not know this. Thank you for this info. Very interesting part of history.
Wasn't Dresden Nuclear Power Plant reactor 1 in Illinois part of the University of Chicago test nuclear reactors. Also part of the Red Gate Forest Preserve. Before it was shut down. Dresden reactor 2 through 4 were the new Nuclear reactors at Dresden Nuclear Power Plant. Also in the Red Gate Forest Preserve, there is a water pump well near the parking lot. The water well could be radioactive water. So, there is no lever on the water pump well.
Man, this kind of stuff is so motivating.
Great video! I've just come across your channel for the first time and you do a great job. (Ignore the accent/pronunciation nitpickers, I get them too. Americans can't handle hearing an accent that isn't British or their own)
i'm aussie and i nitpicked, because it matters.
Hey I went there once for Boy Scouts! The area around it is honestly pretty beautiful. We would always make jokes about reactors and nukes when we were there! And it wasn’t really radioactive at all
I've picked up on one thing you've said maybe you misspoke or got it wrong but if there was no radiation leaking than why did they have to do "a few clean ups" after everything was sealed up?
When you highlight an individual by blurring out there rest of a group, it causes headaches.
Just thought of a video idea for you. Could you cover the Great Chicago Flood of 1992? It's coming up on April 13th, but that's probably not enough time to do proper research. You could also arrange a tour of the tunnels from Chicago's DOT.
Dawsonville Forest, in Georgia, used to be a nuclear power research center. Where they would exposed a hot reactor to the open air. Killing the surrounding trees from radiation. They decommissioned the lab, and left many underground structures.
very high quality
Fascinating piece of history.
A stop by the Reg and the monument is always on the tour list when I show people around Hyde Park.
Living in DuPage/Cook area my whole life, passed down Archer Avenue and Red Gate woods dozens of times and never knew this!
Not as catchy a story Bachelors Grove Cemetery I suppose.
I gotta go visit this when the weather breaks now. Thanks!
You miss a whole lot in life if you never leave the road.
Occasionally went hiking there back in the late 70's. There used to be a number of hand pumped drinking water wells. They were locked and later removed in the 80's or 90's because the water had higher than recommended levels of tritium.
Breader reactor, smoke detectors (americium-241) and the watch hand glow in dark paint containing Radium-226 work well.
Have a couple of radium watches and ashtrays that were sold to tourists in Utah, Arizona and other SW states all have radioactive rocks glued in place. When I first had access to a Geiger meter in school it blew my teachers away at the rads coming off. Keep them all in a lead sealed box now. DHS tried to get an order for seizure about 12 years ago, the judge ruled they’d have to pay the antiquities and collectibles value that I placed on them. Since the watches were family heirlooms I told them 10 million they laughed, Judge said put up or shut up. I am enjoined from sale, donation or display but the government lost. Not like enough to make a dirty bomb. Cancer risk is higher from cigarettes or vaping. But having worked with & for the SOB’s as long as they lose all that matters
Nukerler or nuclear ? Getting a like anyway :) impressive how things went in the beginning of new-clear chain reactions.
I’ll get my coat. It’s the one with the Geiger counter in it...
Great mountain biking trails there.
@@ChicagoAussie once it gets less muddy you should try them out.
@@ChicagoAussie once it gets less muddy you should try them out.
I live 100km (60 miles) from a planned town that was a huge part of the Manhattan project...
I wonder how small you could make a nuclear reactor for personal use.
Very well made video I subbed
diction note at 3:58 'chianti' is pronounced 'kee-ahn-tee'
Best with liver and fava beans according to Dr. Lecter.
@@RCAvhstape I think you mean "lifter" and "flavour" beans to go with that shanty.
A part of history I was not aware of...till now.
Key on tay
Thanks, I was wondering what happened to those reactors!
I've lived here all my life and had no clue it was there
And the Millennials say when was America great, they should make this video mandatory before graduating High school......
Joshua Joestar Thank you so much you’re my fellow American patriot my son is the same way serving in the military in the Marine Corps is very conservative pro Trump
@@johnydoe7065 so now you've seen that millennials are a little more diverse than you originally thought, next time you get an urge to (metaphorically)bash Millenials, don't forget where we came from.
A bottle of shanty??? LMAO
Well produced
Just came across this video. Back in the 80's I used to hike those woods and the surrounding area with a friend of mine quite often. On one of our outings we came across this site but it didn't look like it does in the video. The fences were still there but they had fallen into disrepair. The main gate was long gone. The foundations of the buildings were also visible though no actual structures were still standing. Heading into the site we discovered that the reactor was exposed. Yeah, you read that right. Exposed. One whole side was completely visible, just lying there for all to see or in our case, walk on. Which we did.
However, in our defense, because the stone marker was covered with weeds, neither of us were aware of what it was that we were looking at or, at one point, literally standing on. We visited it at least two more times after that. Then one afternoon my friend called me up and said that he had just driven past Red Gate Woods and the entire place was covered in protective material. There were a number of government agents walking around in protective suits. This would have been in the mid '90s. Needless to say we were mildly concerned. Nope, not too creepy.
I currently have a miniature version of our discovery just as it looked when we originally found it as part of my HO scale railroad. And yes, it glows green.
I can verify this. I am the other person in this account.
I still glow slightly green 😁
It was great to see a new video!
Great video. It’s not the only such place, though-Atlanta has its own known as Dawson Forest. I highly recommend anyone interested in such things read up on it... especially since it had a pretty unique open air reactor.
@@ChicagoAussie yeah the buildings are fenced off but you can get pretty close--they were used for storing & analyzing irradiated equipment (at the scale of a freight car per test) immediately after exposure to the open-air reactor. There's still a decent amount of contamination around, although I think the reactor site used to be accessible in the past.
You should visit the waukegan water plant! Lots of history here. Nothing like this, but still pretty cool!
Thats wicked! I didn't know about this and I live so close to the University.
I grew up nearby and used to take field trips to Argonne NL. It was only recently that I found out that all that nuclear stuff was right there.
Any superpowers?
4:08 sorry but 200 watts is less than a 1/4 of what it takes to run a microwave. Definitely wont run a house.
"...more than enough to cover your house in lights." Supposing those are 6w LEDs indoors or LED Christmas light strings, I'd say it could be accurate.
@@donaldglaser7686 - At the time, man, at the time.
I believe he was talking about the world war two houses'
He didn't say run your house, he said run your housing lights. In the 1950s 200w probably would be enough for lighting in a 2br or 3br house
But it will run enough LED lights to light a house
2:44 it's just graphite, who needs a dust mask?
Somewhere a OSHA inspector is screaming at all the missed fines thinking what they could have gotten if they've been around back then. It's not like that graphite dust won't fill your lungs like coal dust
It’s still metal dust. Not good for you in any kind of way. Wear your damn PPE!
@@chibobird482 They tried very hard to meet life expectations of that era. It takes quite some effort to die younger. That's why they all smoked and took that harddrug called booze happily. Or they flew to Europe.
ya seen that too...thats crazy...
Relax it only kills you if you known that it’s bad for you besides the 3 packs of Lucky’s he smoked a day since he was 12 years old had case hardened his lungs years ago
Great video! Knew part of the story - now all of it.
Those signs "Do not dig" can help people today, but if our civilization collapses another civilization would be happy to find out what's in those "ancient tombs" with "warning signs against unsealing" just to die mysteriously from an ancient curse of acute radiation sickness/rad-exposure induced cancer.
Had never heard of this. Subbed. Thank you. ✌
Awesome video!!!!! I grew up and lived in Willow Springs Illinois on Archer Ave not too far from Red Gate Woods in the 1980's as a kid through to the early 1990's when I was a teen and went to Stag High School in Palos Hills for my freshman and Sophmore year than moved to Rockford Illinois with my mom and went to Rockford Guilford High School for my Jr and Senior years and became a high school grad in 1998. My dad use to take my little bro and I there in the spring and summer. Also further up on Archer is a old Irish church built by the Irish who built the Illinois & Michigan canal and the Cal-Sag channel. =^.^=
Cool, grew up in Roselle, moved to Rockford in 2000, now live in garden Prairie IL.
3:58 whats a bottle of shanty?
@@ChicagoAussie oh you mean chianti, wow :D
It's what you drink in a small, crudely built shack.
Subscribed. I gotta go visit these areas.
And 3:57 the first bottle of Chianti matter was discovered? 😅
Anti Matter. In case you missed the pun.
Maybe they had the chianti with some fava beans and liver (human or otherwise)!
@@cthuthu333 Is that the chi energy?! Human liver?
@@voornaam3191 Just a reference to the movie "'silence of the lambs"
@@cthuthu333 Okay, that was a long time ago. I remember a prisoner and a story about dying lambs. Lamb and death is quite a symbol. Was there a hidden cross perhaps? The liver is gone. I'll need to find and see it again, I guess. The movie, my liver is still there. Thanks.
Nice video much love from Denver 😎🙋
Now, the management of these sites hinges on a mere 300 million dollars compared to the 54 billion dollars for defense. This is all the money it takes to monitor hundreds of irradiated sites and protect the environment, the animals, and the people that live in these areas. A small army of people constantly monitor these sites for possible release. If you meet one of these people you should thank them because trust me, they don't make very much money.
I fix the HVAC at your sponsors property.
At 5:00, Chicago Aussie's great grandfather is the first guy in the second row in this photo.