A Brief History of: The Tammiku Radiation Event 1994 (Documentary)

#nuclear #atomic
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On 21 October 1994, three brothers entered the radioactive waste repository at Tammiku, Estonia, without authorization and removed a metal container enclosing a radiation source. This action initiated the sequence of events in a radiological accident.
The event would result in 1 person losing their life and many more injured.
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[@PlainlyDifficult]

Want to see more Nuclear content let me know below 👇

[@cristianaroca9085]

Of course! I live in Chile and while there aren’t any big facilities of nuclear processing we have experimental reactors, that had incidents involving low rank soldiers during dictatorship. Needles to say that due to poor management some conscripts were affected by negligent behavior of the reactor operators and this was known as the Chilean Chernobyl. There is a report of national tv about this with the surviving soldiers and others that couldn’t make it. Not many people know/care about this so f for us. Greetings!

[@q3st1on19]

Course. on a sidenote, I noticed when you write an isotope out you put the atomic weight in normal font and the element in superscript after it. Is there any specific reason you use this notation? I may be wrong, but I believe the correct notation would be the atomic weight in superscript (optionally the atomic number in subscript aswell) before the elements name.

[@Produkt_R]

Sunny today innit?

[@janosnagyj.9540]

You can provide them in any dose, we won't be over-radiated :)

[@1ytcommenter]

Yes, please. Look into Präparat38 - the Leipzig nuclear incident (Leipzig L-IV experiment accident).

[@happydudemarius9404]

Imagine calling your scrap metal buyer like "I'm bringing you some cool yellow barrels with this logo on them, it's like a circle with 3 things around it. I bet that's valuable!"

[@martinmason2198]

its possible it looked like a plain barrel with a paper sticker indicating nuclear waste, that possibly could have rotted off.

[@happydudemarius9404]

@@martinmason2198 in all seriousness, I agree with you.

[@josephvanas6352]

@@martinmason2198 very true, waste barrels at least where I work are usually just plain barrels with a bunch of stickers on them indicating hazards and yes those stickers can pretty easily rot off or degrade especially if outside or if exposed to lots of moisture. There is a reason that it is someones job every once in a while to go inspect and inventory stored waste and make sure all labels are still there and are legible. Plus if stored outdoors waste drums are subject to surprise relocation via high winds. You would think they are too heavy but its not always liquid wastes that are in waste drums. Some drums can hold other things such as light bulbs or other odds and ends that just have to be disposed of in the proper way.

[@christopherconard2831]

All jokes aside, this is actually a long term problem. What we see as an obvious warning symbol may not be obvious over time. Some radioactive material will have to remain buried for centuries. Try looking at and interpreting symbols from the 18th century. The fear is that at some point someone is going to look at an older map and not be able to tell the difference between "Stop! Don't dig here, private property." And "Stop! Don't dig here, you will die."

[@TheFagerlund]

@@christopherconard2831 I think people in the future can read text on a map but if we are talking about symbols the internet exists and so does the archives that we have expanded upon for a long time and we in turn gradually began to understand more of the past because of that and we can just spend a little time in the archives to find out what the symbols mean

[@mcblaggart8565]

97 tons of assorted material on site. Three goobers walk in and randomly pick up a few pounds of stuff so hot that the dose rate of the remaining stuff is significantly decreased. The sheer amount of anti-luck is incredible.

[@fahey5719]

I bet they arrived late at night, even better no light inside the storage tank, so they picked what they could see in the dark, meaning whatever glowed.

[@ro4eva]

@@fahey5719 -- Very creepy picturing that.

[@TheLtVoss]

@@fahey5719 beside that nuclear glow is ether Chernkov radiation (extremely simplifyed the supersonic boom of nuclear particiels) and the fluorescence of uranium oxide (the green glow when hit with uv light) but yeah they just grabbed sumthing they could see without using lights)

[@MrBirdnose]

They probably grabbed whatever seemed the most heavily protected from theft, on the theory it would be the most valuable!

[@Marc83Aus]

I would assume the newest and hottest material would have been dumped closer to the door. I guess.

[@njunderground82]

Lol: "All done" "Why can I taste metal?" "All done"

[@whitslack]

I cracked up at that too. The onscreen speech bubbles in these videos are the best part.

[@joshingtonbarthsworth631]

Hahahahaha

[@updatedotexe]

why

[@SlavTiger]

Lol

[@djarcforceable]

I love how the recovery team showed up with no tongs and decided the logical thing to do was to just pick up the radioactive item with their hands. They couldn't be bothered to go find a shovel or anything.... just picked it up with their hands. Nice work boys.

[@Mehrunes86]

Maybe they where using thongs😂

[@21stcenturyfossil7]

The first guy was smart enough to make for the exit after he dumped the drawer. Too bad he didn't loan some common sense to the next guy.

[@i.h.9829]

Soviet era guys just didn't care about safety precautions. Some of that attitude is still prevalent in todays society, but its vanishing with people like me (an office worker) taking over and being much more similar to westerners.

[@KarinaMilne]

Theywere in a kitchen… use tongs or improvise something?! Don’t use your hands 😣

[@BT-ex7ko]

​ @KarinaMilne I think the issue with improvising was that although they were ill-quipped, the whole operation seemed planned for a hasty retrieval. Limited time is one of the most important things when dealing with radiation exposure, and two minutes and 15 seconds is not long at all. I think the worker may have thought it was a better idea to just handle it with his hands (rubber gloves do provide full protection to alpha particles and some to beta) and get out of there. It's a questionable decision for sure, but I can see in the heat of the moment that it might seem like a better decision. To me, the most surprising thing was the lack of even just paper masks, as something is better than nothing. it's just such a cheap PPE piece that it's odd that they could source lead aprons but not even a simple surgical mask. You can get both from your local dentist lol.

[@q3st1on19]

Wow, I can't believe the family dog said "balls" when it got ars. Brilliant video as always plainly

[@cleanerben9636]

Balls? Walls balls

[@Chris_Troxler]

It was the "double balls" that got me.

[@CantHandleThisCanYa]

@@Chris_Troxler same

[@matthewbowen5841]

Dogs these days...

[@oliverquach9614]

Poor pup,wish he developed superpowers instead.

[@SilentWrath123]

As an Estonian, I especially appreciate one of the thieves saying "sitapea" to the barrel falling on his foot :D

[@HiDefHDMusic]

Off I go to google translate :D

[@douro20]

That's quite a strong word from what I understand...

[@edusc6893]

@@douro20 "shithead"

[@ferretyluv]

So is that Estonia’s version of perkele?

[@Anti_Septikum]

​@@ferretyluvmore like kurat

[@odysseusofithaca1620]

"carve out a living through scrap metal" and "radioactive waste" always go hand in hand so well

[@neuralmute]

Absolutely! Just ask the residents of Goiania!

[@guardrailbiter]

It is (perhaps) a testament to the desperation felt by Estonians at the time. The actions of those three men may have been foolish, but I wouldn't wish radiation poisoning on my worst enemy.

[@1pcfred]

I thought for sure they were going to scrap the whole stainless containment tank. But what they did was nearly as bad so not disappointed.

[@essr4580]

@@neuralmute True indeed

[@ZGryphon]

@@neuralmute Or those guys in Texas who stole the gamma ray cameras.

[@CraftMine1000]

"the operators didn't think to report the cut padlocks or the drop in radioactivity" Wellp, wonder how much that contributed to the mess

[@MyrKnof]

Well, they would not have found the guys from that info alone, and the situation didn't escalade because if it.. so probably nothing.

[@tegrocket]

Meh

[@Rubashow]

A school for the training of Soviet atomic submariners was situated in Estonia. By now it is completely dismantled except for the miniature nuclear reactor. I was in Estonia for a semester and had seem websites about lost places there. The guy who made the site seemed to have entered the submariners school a few years earlier. Back then it was just a particularly creepy abandoned Russian military site. So 2 friends and I decided to go there. We closed it and discovered that the site was no more, except for the sealed reactor building. We were also almost immediately approached by vehicles guarding the site. So I guess the Estonians have drastically upped their protection of places like that.

[@belZaah]

That reactor is now being scanned by the state of the art muon detectors to see, what the hell the Russians actually left there. Because there’s surprisingly little documentation other than “bad stuff, don’t touch “

[@Rubashow]

@@belZaah I'm pretty sure "bad stuff, don't touch" is actually an overstatement. Typical Russian procedure is just dumping the stuff on site.

[@СергейКириченко-ж1ю]

⁠@@belZaah, a typical KZbin expert. What do you think they are looking for if the reactor cores were removed back in 1994, and the hulls were concreted according to a special procedure? Estonia and Russia even signed a special act after that. Your expertise level is eloquently seen when you describes the "reactor" without even suspecting that there were several of them on the site

[@news_internationale2035]

​@@belZaah Soviets, not just Russians.

[@xanmontes8715]

I wonder how the website owner fared after his excursion. You think his pee glowed?

[@MotoXplor]

If one of the cartoon characters doesn't say "Balls", then I'm disappointed. Not disappointed in the least with this episode!

[@osumbuckeyenut]

We need more funny phrases too...like cockwobbles! Lol

[@MotoXplor]

@Huo Shing It's called humor. You should try it some time.

[@gyromurphy]

The channel who single handedly made me never touch metal in the woods unless there was snow on the ground. Good rule of thumb: if you see melted snow randomly in the woods...don't go near it.

[@Mehrunes86]

Or if the snow is yellow😁

[@Lunarhero666]

Or if it is glowing especially glowing blue

[@heimirhkarlsson]

In Iceland, we have a lot of melted snow... geothermal activity. Well, and some former US bases as well..

[@mybossisdrunk]

​@cyberfox2020 why the heck would it be glowing blue?

[@Metalgearfox2000]

​@@mybossisdrunkradiation glows blue when it's ionizing the air or water.

[@siimernits3581]

A minor correction, the settlement of Kiisa is actually about 10-15km south from Tammiku, shown on the map is probably the street named "Kiisa" in Tallinn. I lived in Kiisa at that time, i was 5 years old so dont remember much about the incident, but many people decided to move away or were evacuated temporary (including my family) just in case, because at first it was not sure where and how large is the source of radioactivity. The house where the source was, is about 400m from where i used to live.

[@deprivedoftrance]

I am strangely attracted to these videos because of an interesting (and terrifying) experience I had in grade school. During 4th grade I had an hour with the science teacher one-on-one in lieu of English class because I had basically tested out. One day I went in to the science room and he wasn't there and I was just kind of looking around and there was a display case with various rocks/elements in it. One of the rocks was a very vibrant yellow and I picked it up to check it out, which is when the science teacher walked in. The look of sheer terror and his reaction made me drop it immediately and that day we learned what radioactivity was and why it was dangerous... I wasn't the type to often get scolded/yelled at and he was a pretty chill guy in general so his reaction REALLY stuck with me. Needless to say it was a sample of Uranium and the whole experience made me have a terrible paranoia about radiation and invisible death for many many years after. Looking back as an adult I have no idea why a grade school would have a chunk of Uranium just laying around where an inquisitive student could handle it so as an adult I tried to cure my fear of "randomly dying from picking up an unknown radiation source" thinking this would be a totally irrational fear and a thing that couldn't really happen. Thanks Plainly Difficult, now I know my "irrational" fears as a child were actually justified!! As an aside this would have happened around the same time this event in Estonia was happening, early 90's. BALLS indeed.

[@MrSunrise-]

Actually, your teacher grossly over-reacted. Uranium just isn't that radioactive.

[@ActionCow69]

@@MrSunrise- Yeah, plain uranium ore can be bought basically over the counter. Believe its only real use is in testing equipment.

[@sb-cz7fk]

I think the radiation wouldn't be that bad however accidently eating some wouldn't be very pleasant

[@deprivedoftrance]

@@sb-cz7fk This is true, but of course at like 10 years old I was properly scared!

[@Chad_Thundercock]

@@sb-cz7fk What? Nah, guy, yellow cake is delicious and nutritious. Soak it in milk and add sliced bananas for a breakfast treat.

[@S1L3NTIGamer]

I want to say thank you for the videos. They have legitimate helped me become a more personally responsible. I recently found out that my work uses some nuclear based industrial scanning systems and many of them are in non functional. I double checked with my manager about the last time they were leak tested. While everything ended up being totally fine. I genuinely never would have known the potential for danger when it comes to non functional or ignored nuclear technology without this channel.

[@BT-ex7ko]

It's a bit of a shock how much Radiation safety is ignored in areas that still use it. I worked in a facility that had some equipment that held large radiative sources for some of our processes, and yet, all of our safety documentation glossed over it completely saying basically "the equipment vendor will deal with it". I understand that they probably don't want people freaking out over it over the fear we all have over radiation sources - but really? Maybe they thought it wasn't worth the questions since we were in full clean suits and respirators all day and the only thing we really had to do was leave the place. But It always struck me as odd though since they didn't cover any of the effects or symptoms to watch out for regarding radiation exposure. These machines were not isolated pieces of equipment and the entire workforce walked past or dealt with them several times a day.

[@KingOhmni]

A Plainly Difficult upload just in time for me to watch before work? Yes please!

[@PlainlyDifficult]

I hope you liked the video

[@cobeer1768]

@@Stevie-J My boss knows 15 minutes of Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings are for "The History Guy" uploads. Lol

[@cobeer1768]

@@Stevie-J Headphones and eating breakfast. Lol

[@SavedbyGrace7773]

got work here soon. ;(

[@KingOhmni]

@@Stevie-J I'm British and work in a pub kitchen. Average start time 1600 GMT. Got no time for vidya when the ticket machine goes burrrrrr. Besides. What happened to the 'Murincans being captains of industry :P (Actually the reception in my 1960s pub sucks big time so there's just no point trying. bwteen ticket machine burring)

[@astrixistheman]

How such quality content can be released so regularly is beyond me

[@locklear308]

I'm imagining he uses tricks like I do when I'm at work, not for video per se but just when I'm making some kind of a template or document or something. I have a bunch of files with a bunch of pre-made things that I can quickly rearrange or change if needed. This allows me to make these things much faster than normal. So I take it he has some kind of human templates and stuff that he can manipulate

[@astrixistheman]

​@@locklear308 Oh yeah Definitely. When I write programs I usually just copy over the code I wrote in a previous program and modify it for the new program. And I guess that means the biggest part for all of us is research into newer concepts :)​

[@locklear308]

@@astrixistheman That the ticket man. I've got so many random snips of code for Quickbase and the word documents with formats setup and shapes/designs ready to use. Lol. At the same time in doing that, other people at work struggle to use the word "there" correctly...

[@floorks]

maybe he has a group of editors and researchers? his channel is at a point where he could start outsourcing most the work

[@user6826]

I'd read about this incident. It never ceases to amaze me how were people just unaware of radiation and its potential hazards, this soon after the whole Chernobyl fiasco.

[@CB-py1xh]

These 3 guys probably belonged to dumbest 5% in town. Hearing their story I can imagine how they lived...

[@oldi184]

Some people live in ignorance. Actually, many people.

[@Mart77]

All this stuff was kept as state secret back then, so probably they didn't even know. Tbh i found out about this today, and i live 40km away from that site.

[@이주영-h5j9n]

Chernobyl? I'm from there. It's overblown

[@tomlxyz]

​@@Mart77 The state that kept it secret didn't exist in 1994 anymore. Besides, Glasnost made it so it did become officially broadcasted that it did happen, although with a delay

[@twocvbloke]

Guard to Manager: "Shouldn't we have 24 hour security here boss?" Manager: "Nah, the people wouldn't be that dumb to break in here!!" The people: .........

[@colinstewart1432]

The people...hold my geiger counter🙈

[@neuralmute]

@@colinstewart1432 The people: Who needs a geiger counter?

[@MrBirdnose]

The tricky thing is lots of physical security can signal to people that something here is dangerous, but just as often it means "something here is really valuable..."

[@caroldowning7671]

@@neuralmute they might not even known what a geiger counter is

[@chrisperrien7055]

Throw the security guard a bottle of Vodka , he will open and close the gate for you, going in and driving out. Works at Russian Naval bases too.

[@SuperMAZ007]

As an Estonian. I remember hearing about the incident. Unfortunately this was not the first and last of its kind. According to wikipedia Tammiku has been closed sice 2011 and all the waste was moved into a proper place where there is no risk of contamination ,leaks or theft. et.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tammiku_radioaktiivsete_j%C3%A4%C3%A4tmete_hoidla

[@hauntedshadowslegacy2826]

Good. I hope there's also been an education stint where everyone learned what those funky-lookin' signs mean, yea? Y'know the 'super danger murder death stuff' signs?

[@MrBirdnose]

@@hauntedshadowslegacy2826 For some reason this reminded me that Verizon once out "DANGER: HIGH VOLTAGE" signs at the entrance to a fiber optic cable vault, to deter trespassers. That backfired when the fiber optic cables were destroyed by someone who thought they were stealing copper power lines.

[@mrsmerily]

@@MrBirdnose Actually stealing of actual electric lines in Estonia (i mean those what were active) got so bad, that they made it illegal for people to sell electrical cables to scrap yards.

[@uwuingallnight7381]

as a finnish person i've got to ask: does tammiku mean january? Our word for it is Tammikuu which is what made me click on the video originally lol

[@SuperMAZ007]

@@uwuingallnight7381 Tammiku in Estonian stands for Oak grove. But in finnish it dose stand for the month of january :P

[@cleanerben9636]

Just praise Atom! Embrace the glow!

[@sean.durham999]

LMFAO!!!

[@nonna_sof5889]

Love the bomb.

[@rileyreid4175]

Now tell me why I see this comment just as I was thinking of doing a children of atom run thank you

[@cleanerben9636]

@@rileyreid4175 You have Atom's blessing my child. Make haste! Bring the glory of division to the people!

[@The_Sharktocrab]

Behold! He is coming with the clouds!

[@duzehalo]

Thanks for adding the historical context - it's easy to not realise the crazy reality after a country gains an independence especially if one was born after it happened.

[@Martinsamuli2]

Yeah, nobody really gave a shit during the 90s here. Everyone was stealing metal from everywhere and people were killed on daily basis by explosions and gunfire. Basically was a lawless time period.

[@steliosarvanitis5606]

@@Martinsamuli2 the first 5 years would have been hell on earth for them!:\

[@apathtrampledbydeer8446]

@@Martinsamuli2 The crazy thing about the explosions was that the Police bombgroup consisted of policemen and cars with sand in the trunk to haul the bomb of to "safe" detonation, sadly many policemen where injured or killed during these opertions. It surely was a lawless time, nowadays Sweden is the European capital for bombing and shootings.

[@infiltr80r]

90s was crazy, dark and unstable time. Also more fun.

[@heitikulmar3060]

"Regains". Estonia established an independent state in 1918 which lasted until the 1940 Soviet occupation of the Baltics. Just like Latvia and Lithuania. the Re-independence was in 1991.

[@ExperimentIV]

me who speaks finnish and not estonian looking at “tammiku” and being like “where’s the second u” until i saw estonia in the description. i’m having a slow morning

[@ExperimentIV]

(“tammiku” is a town in estonia. “tammikuu” is january in finnish)

[@sirandrelefaedelinoge]

@ Experiment IV • PERKELE!

[@AssassinAgent]

I might have read the title as "the tammikuu radiation event"... "WTF was tammikuu rad... oh, Estonia. Nevermind"

[@ExperimentIV]

@@AssassinAgent ahahaha, this is gonna get every finn/finnish speaker isnt it

[@elmoantero99]

@@ExperimentIV it got me too lol

[@Donice09]

Imagine you being that bloke who took home the piece of metal. You not only killed yourself, you killed your dog, injured your stepson and I’m sure the other family members were likely somewhat affected as well since there were living in the same house as it.

[@Stalker6622]

Play stupid games ,win stupid prizes.

[@jackfanning7952]

@@Stalker6622 Nuclear energy is a stupid game.

[@zenshy2139]

@@jackfanning7952 Used safely by professionals it isn't but in this incident with uninformed regular people it is dangerous.

[@jackfanning7952]

@@zenshy2139 You are uninformed. It is not possible for anyone to use radioactive isotopes safely.

[@johnnyx53]

That was crazy hearing about the brother who received 2000-3000 grays per hour! As a comparison, my wife had cancer radiotherapy and she was given just 2 grays per treatment!

[@Ganiscol]

So, did Moe and Larry of the three Scrapmetal Stooges suffer any health and/or legal consequences or was Curley the only one paying the full price? 🤔

[@Milnoc]

@CRAM MARC Also, anything related to nuclear stuff was top secret in the former USSR. I doubt the brothers even knew the meaning of a typical radiation warning sign.

[@hauntedshadowslegacy2826]

@@Milnoc "anything related to nuclear stuff was top secret in the former USSR", which is really crazy to think about. They took secrecy to such an absurd extent that they didn't even bother to tell the general public that 'this sign means super danger murder stuffs, and you should steer clear'. There's keeping a secret, and there's laying the groundwork for untimely deaths. The USSR considered both to be the same. Like, seriously, how hard is it to say 'sign means danger'? How is that in any way problematic for the *actual* secret stuff?

[@ReverendTed]

I'm curious about the technician(s) responsible for disposing of the source.

[@viktordubowskii695]

Working at a place like that, I'm pretty sure they knew what they were playing with. Scrap metal wasn't on their mind, getting top dollar is what they were looking for.

[@Volodimar]

@@Milnoc after 1986 Everybody knows the meaning of radiation sign.

[@handlesRdumb]

The scrap metal dealer i use most has installed radiation detectors. Surprisingly others still haven't. It's also surprising where the stuff will turn up. I set it off one time with a wall oven. Some sort of sensor inside it used radioactive material.

[@yoozoh]

in 90's estonia there was entire maffia around that scrap metal and people got killed over it because after soviet union the price got high and gangs started because of metals

[@handlesRdumb]

@@yoozoh crazy stuff,. Around here a lot of things get stolen but I've never seen more than a fist fight. My favorite was they stole a pair of cars the fire department were using to practice with the jaws of life

[@yoozoh]

@@handlesRdumb it ended in early 2000's when last mayor crime leader was shoot dead in front of her house and kids he got shot 20 times and the shooter was never caught

[@daviddavidson2357]

@CRAM MARC Prisoner 1: "So what are you in for?" Prisoner 2: "I killed a guy and sold meth, you?" Prisoner 1: "Scrap metal" *Prisoner 2 slowly moves to other side of cell*

[@hauntedshadowslegacy2826]

@@daviddavidson2357 Prison Guard: Three-Thumb Tom, the doctor's ready for your check-up.

[@Dravde]

2:00 Estonia had actually some reactors, 2 in Paldiski: 1st was was started in 1968 and was rated to 70MW, 2nd was started 1983 and was rated to 90MW. Both were used mainly for training the atomic-submarine crew. By the time they were shut down in 1989 they had 20821 and 5333 working hours respectively. Estonia also had a uranium enrichment plant in Sillamäe. Uranium enriched there was used in the USSR´s first atomic bomb/nuclear test in 1949 code-named RDS-1.

[@Bert2368]

Bump_In_Night37 RSD-1 was a Plutonium bomb made with Pu 239 produced at the Chelyabinsk-40 facility.

[@Dravde]

@@Bert2368 Correct. But to get plutonium, first one needs uranium. U-238 captures a proton, becomes U-239 and by beta radiation turns into Np-239, and after some days by beta radiation turns into Pu-239. Literature on Estonian history and former workers of the facility (Combine No 7, nicknamed "Paint factory") say that the uranium for the first atomic bomb was enriched from the local graptolitic argillite, but the output of uranium was not great - far less than it was necessary for the first bomb. I think this is where the Chelyabinsk-40 facility comes into play by upping the production of uranium enough to get the needed amount.

[@Bert2368]

@@Dravde Uranium for first Soviet graphite block/channel Pu production reactor came from USSR mining and production at Taboshar/Tajikistan starting in 1942, also from German WWII nuclear program materials confiscated in East Germany (Nazis had looted this Uranium from Belgium, original source was Belgian Congo), oddly enough, USA allowed some Canadian mined Uranium oxide to be sold to USSR by a US company during WWII as well?!

[@Mart77]

Both those reactors were related to Russian nuclear program, getting electricity out of these was kind of "byproduct"

[@apathetk]

Great video! It's really annoying how many different measurements there are of radiation.

[@tncorgi92]

Definitely, I can't memorize what one unit equates to another. If you tell me 2,000 grays I'd say, "Well ok, I guess that's bad?"

[@rrknl5187]

No kidding! When he said 'grays', I had no idea what a 'gray' was. Is 1 gray deadly or can you take 50,000,000,000,000,000 grays and survive........

[@AngDavies]

@@rrknl5187 for a 60kg person 3600G/h is equivalent to swallowing a 60W lightbulb that's producing radiation instead of light. (Gray is joules per kilogram) Seems weird, wouldn't something so active be unpleasantly warm

[@thomasguilder9288]

@@AngDavies not great, not terrible ;-)

[@MrBirdnose]

Part of the problem is some are measures of quantity, some are measures of activity, and some a measures of dose rate, which are all different things.

[@NesNyt]

I love how you give the characters in your diagrams little plot lines and stories that are unrelated to the story it's like watching two things at a time but you're reading one of them

[@Tafka17]

I'm from Estonia and i didn't know about this. 🤔 This reminded me how I used to sneak into some industrial area with my friend as a child and we stole some random chemicals from some shed and did "experiments" .. good times. 😂

[@TBizzell68]

These orphan source videos always intrigue me. I have a basic understanding of radioactive materials, they are pretty terrifying, luckily we have access to detection equipment if there's even a slight suspicion of radiation.

[@SangheiliSpecOp]

I'm amazed of how such a small amount of material can cause a huge catastrophe

[@hauntedshadowslegacy2826]

Interesting way to view it. I just find myself frustrated and silent-screaming at the idiots, but to each their own.

[@qzh00k]

Fire departments should have the equipment and training but very few budgets allow for extras like that. The proper meters are not that common here either.

[@flemmingsorensen5470]

Yep, being a thief can be dangerous ! Being a nuclear thief, can be deadly…. Great video, as always 😉👍

[@fnamelname9077]

I was just reading a news story. "Grandfather of burglary suspect complains that homeowner's AR-15 made for 'an unfair fight'." People never change, lol.

[@Mehrunes86]

I guess you can say, their career went nuclear😂

[@Mehrunes86]

@@fnamelname9077Like 10 years ago, in my country, an old man beats up a homerobber with his cane, the old guy gets the biggest punishment and the robber even asked for compensation🤔

[@fnamelname9077]

@@Mehrunes86 The judge involved should get a proper caning, for that one!

[@Mehrunes86]

@@fnamelname9077 Sadly that's kinda, our justice system in a nutshell.

[@jimmycodingmusic]

Love your videos! Well done. Two ideas: - video explaining units - there are so many different units and measurements of radiation that it’s confusing - back in soviet days, army was doing underground tests in Kazakhstan exposing nearby villages to effects. Often locals went to the sites to dig out cables used to detonate bombs.

[@Thinker2-truth]

Given that Chernobyl occurred in 1986, the brothers must have been living under a rock not to know the danger of radation!

[@kdarkwynde]

Chernobyl was 26 April 1986.

[@Thinker2-truth]

@@kdarkwynde sorry, typo.

[@svensik4858]

Yeah, because the USSR shared this incident with it's citizens

[@AlexSDU]

I was 7yo back then, and I only knew & understand about it years later when I knew English better(it's not my native language). And then Internet help me more about it. But back then I remember saw some pictures from magazines about cleaning vegetable that came from the Eastern Europe, and some illustration showing of some cloud or something that moving west from USSR. These is what I still remember strongly as a kid about the Chernobyl incident. I think it was from the Reader Digest magazine or something.

[@kenanfurcle786]

@@svensik4858 Actually yes

[@henriknilsson7851]

I went and read the report after watching this vid. The dog had it right “double balls.” Another great vid. Love the radiation/nuclear stuff!

[@royalewithchz]

It’s kinda crazy how excited I get for your videos but kudos to you sir for your amazing content on the regular!

[@grahamsawyer831]

please can channel 4 or Vice somebody give this guy a series + camera crew and send him round the world!! would be so awesome this guy visiting places like this (or as near to them as possible I suppose) talking to involved persons etc. have really appreciated this channel, clear comprehensive explanations of sometimes really significant/world-changing events. BIG UP P.D.,TOP MARKS MY MAN.

[@Hydrogenium1]

Hey plainly, just wanted to thank you for five years of interresting - albeit horrifying - stories straight. As a thank you, in case you'd be willing to take video ideas, i think we might got you covered with a case from austria, namely ignaz semmelweis. So as far as i know the story, a sickness called "Kindbettfieber" was quite prevalent in pregnant women in Vienna at the onset of the 20th century, which one man named Semmelweis eventually traced back to the habits of learning anatomy on corpses and not washing hands before examining pregnant women. And as a result, he was interned in what would later become a proper insane asylum in Vienna, the Narrenturm. If you need someone to take some snapshots or the like, feel free to hit me up.

[@FatBlockOfHash]

I like this idea for a video, if you ever go pictures if the insane asylum would really add to it too

[@rpgspree]

Of all the bleak wonders in dystopian fiction, I don't recall haphazard scavenging of radioactive contaminated metals ever coming up. Just one of the sad ways the real world can be worse than we'd imagine.

[@valeriekravette787]

I vaguely remember a radioactive wedding ring and someone innocently collecting and trading radioactive jewelry in *Alas, Babylon* one of the first nuclear dystopian novels written in the 50s. I don't think the author had figured out the nightmare of waste disposal yet.

[@rpgspree]

@@valeriekravette787 At that point, no one figured out industrial scale waste management. And last I checked, the US hasn't yet sorted out its long term containment strategy.

[@jamieweldon3493]

Pretty sure its a plot point in tenet

[@bubblegumpurple7525]

I think there was a nuclear waste slavery zone in 1984, I might be remembering wrong though, it's been nearly a decade.

[@Paultimate7]

You havent read many stories then. This is very common. There are many games even made with that theme in mind. You an alien?

[@ajfurnari2448]

Last time I was this early, the ARS symptoms haven't started. Pretty crazy that the recovery team didn't even bother with a pair of tongs, especially with being in a kitchen. BRB, think I have a great new way to cook my Saturday morning bacon! Another great video Plainly_D

[@Galfrid]

11:50 Hazmat guy: Living the dream 🤣🤣🤣 Excellent video, as usual!

[@russlehman2070]

The fact that it is necessary to post guards on a radioactive waste dump to keep people out makes me question whether there is any hope for humanity.

[@Zorro9129]

Makes you think about how much radioactive material has gone missing without anyone finding out.

[@Omnywrench]

After watching a bunch of these radiation exposure incident videos, it seems to me that the biggest threat when dealing with radioactive material is not the radiation, but other people's carelessness and complacency in handling them.

[@JoeyLovesTrains]

12:50 I never thought I’d hear the words sunny to describe anywhere in the UK

[@Weaponsandstuff93]

2000-3000 Gy an hour, so basically dead in a minute, unless that's meant to be milligray but still insane

[@CoastalSphinx]

That was the dose rate at the surface of the source. Further away it was much lower, for example 0.3 Gy per hour at 1 meter distance. However the high dose rate at the surface easily explains the radiation burns. Holding the unshielded source for several seconds would produce an appreciable radiation burn.

[@kurtpecsenye9806]

One gray equals 100 run

[@kurtpecsenye9806]

100 rem

[@Jabarri74]

Despite all the warning signs people on the edge will break into and steal anything or just be curious. Reminds me of thew magic sparkling dust story. So tragic that the authorities cant stop petty thieves and kids obtaining such materials

[@friskyhearttryhardus3283]

it's called natural selection. With any luck, the radiation will neuter the survivors, thus removing that lineage of stupid from human society.

[@bjarkeistruppedersen8213]

You should start a gofundme for new boots to the hazmat guy - but buy them for him instead of giving him the money 🤣

[@neuralmute]

Can't trust a hazmat guy with a gambling habit... so sad. :(

[@nobodynoone2500]

And just by real rad boots and do the worlds only YT reviews of radiation hard boots.

[@bjarkeistruppedersen8213]

@@neuralmute can't really blame him though

[@neuralmute]

@@bjarkeistruppedersen8213 Well yeah, he's gambling with his life every time he appears in one of these videos!

[@JasonFlorida]

Larry and Moe!

[@shaunsmith9801]

Best thing about Saturday morning: sleeping. Second best thing: Plainly difficult

[@MrEvan312]

Amen.

[@dmhendricks]

I can sleep any day, but it's not every day that I get a PD video.

[@bun8170]

Thanks!

[@MintyLime703]

0:15 so in other words secure, contain, and protect.

[@Yourlocal_theiran]

Yes

[@riibuns]

hehe exactly 😏

[@kevinroan570]

Thank you for the well made videos!

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you!

[@volvo09]

Yeah, i love the animations and narration :)

[@DraigBlackCat]

@@PlainlyDifficult the videos are cool but you saying 'Becqules' instead of Becquerels is infuriating!

[@JGV_IX]

Thanks

[@gearloose703]

The greatest threat to scrappers these days is asbestos and electricity. I think it would be far more exiting if radiation sources would be just laying around like that.

[@Titus-as-the-Roman]

Your videos are enjoyable to watch even though sometimes, because of the source material and the countries involved makes getting information difficult at best sometimes, leaving us with many questions, like here, What happened to those contaminated aluminum barrels

[@TheRealZenman]

The LoFi graphics are my favorite part. This is great stuff.

[@Graff-zr3tn]

More isotopes please! I was unaware of alot of incidents before your channel! You present them in a fulfilling & informative channel.

[@0error.389]

The second I hear “scrap metal”… I know shit is about to hit the fan. Nice videos.

[@BobTyler321]

I've been watching your videos for almost a year now, and I wanted you to know we've been using your videos in our accident-and-safety class! Haha, keep up the good work!

[@eesti919]

6:10 Funny how 'sure' means 'die' in Estonian and that's exactly what happened to this guy. Planned or accidental pun? 😅

[@spiritx13]

Great video as always! Thank you for equalizing the volume of the title card to be more in line with your voice, my ear drums appreciate it! Maybe turn up the entirety of the producing though, you're noticeably quieter than the KZbin ads. Cheers!

[@GeneralThargor]

who else watches these just for the weather report at the end? happy to hear it's sunny over there, bit rainy and cloudy today, more of the same expected for tomorrow.

[@neuralmute]

I love the weather reports! Comparing the weather in London to the weather in Toronto has such a nice feeling of commiseration to it, most of the year! ;)

[@MrIdklolidk]

Estonian here! and i didn't actually know about that event before i saw your video.

[@hishouha]

I've always had this weird curiosity about radiation and radioactivity. Now I'm studying in Radiotherapy for many reasons, but I can finally understand the amount of damage caused by these exposure. Now, in a standard Radiotherapy treatment for a lung tumor, we would think about 6600 cGy (66 Gy) / 33 fractions, which means 200 cGy (2 Gy) / fraction, each fractions are separated by one day so Monday : 2 Gy Tuesday : 2 Gy Wednesday : 2 Gy … until 66 Gy The goal being the destruction of the cancerous cells. Extensive mesures are taken, positioning being milimiters precise, in order to save as much as possible the healthy tissues and important organs (Liver, Spinal Cord, Heart...) following the ALARA (As low as Reasonably Achievable) principle. Now bear with me... The guy was exposed to 2000/3000 Gy/ hour, which means 1000x more than a patient would get in a Radiotherapy session. Yet 2 Gy/day is enough to cause from red rashes to necrosis if not controlled. Impotency, infertility, heart problems.... 3000 Gy/hour is also around 40 times more than the total dose of a FULL Radiotherapy treatment. A dose of 46 Gy on the spinal cord can provoke paralysis. I don't know how long he stood next to the radioactive source, but for one minute he would've received around 50 Gy.

[@jscanl]

Great start to a Sunday morning. So enlightening. Greetings from Ireland 💚🇮🇪

[@golfhax]

recovery team shows up and picks up the deadly item w/ their hands after already knowing one of the brothers has severe burns from picking up said item and the other brother died from being in close proximity to it for a short period of time. sounds like an intelligent group of people.

[@Kizunaut]

Never heard of this incident and Estonia is right across the Gulf of Finland. Thanks for bringing this to light.

[@kalle911]

Yeah, you could say the government had things to worry about in the 1990s. 1994: the sinking of M/S Estonia in September. And then 426 murders in one year with 364 traffic deaths. Now it's around 50 and 60, respectively. 35 murders in 2019, but then came Covid. In 1991 there were 491 traffic deaths.

[@vincentrusso4332]

Thanks for all the editing, research, and animation, much appreciated. - Surry Virginia

[@psychologicaltirefire8190]

You should do a video on the Washburn flour mill explosion in Minneapolis. The largest flour mill in the world(at the time) was blown apart in an instant and cut the city's flour production by nearly 50% moreover the Minneapolis/St.Paul area produced the most flour in the world. The explosion occurred an hour after the 14 man nightshift crew had taken over the 200 man day crew. The explosion launched several ton granite blocks up to 8 blocks away and shattered windows for miles. This caused fires in several more mills that also caused the Diamond and Humboldt mills to explode as well. The explosion was fueled by flour dust in the air from the production process used in the mill and started by a spark from a grindstone being run dry. This sadly killed all 14 in the Washburn A Mill and 4 more in the Diamond Mill and Humboldt Mill. The remains of the building are a museum now.

[@dragoncarolinethefirst6432]

Always my most awaited video of the week... Plainly Difficult, the most informative and entertaining nuclear incident and general engineering F-ups on the net. Thank you again ⚛️👍🏻

[@MakeItWithCalvin]

You know it is bad when the dog says double balls!

[@tncorgi92]

He was probably reminiscing back to when he had them.

[@jaaktrumm]

The IAEA report states that the containers which housed the deadly part were found in a metal scrap yard during regular radiation inspection and were then transferred to Tammiku for storage. Where they came from originally is unknown, probably from somewhere in Russia with scrap metal. Tammiku storage was closed in 1995 and decommisioning started, it is scheduled to end in 2022. Today all the waste has been removed, the two containers, one of which is the main character in this story made up 90% of the site’s radioactivity.

[@jamesjenkins3384]

Same thing happened here in the U.S.. Came from a x ray machine sent to Mexico. Ended up in a scrap yard. Sent back to us as McDonald's tables, and chairs. If you sat at one of these tables you got about 300 xrays in a hour. Metal was detected on a interstate travelling semi going by a nuclear power plant that had radiation monitoring, and took pictures of vehicles going by that triggered radiation alarms.

[@theinquisitor3930]

Why can I taste metal? ALL DONE! 😂

[@jwarmstrong]

I don't need a night light anymore =

[@teethendrikson]

I live in Estonia and I’ve driven alongside of tammiku so many times, never have I’ve heard of something nuclear about it 😬. What else the goverment keeps as a secret ?! 😳

[@TheBloodandbone1]

I Think is more because you lack of interest. Pretty sure there’s many,Many places what have some history and you dont know about. Not Always a Governmental secret:D haha

[@indrekk5]

It's public, Estonia has no nuclear secrets. The government confessed that they fucked up and then asked for international help. The place has been closed for like 10 years. Anyways from the year 1994, most people can only mention the sinking of MS Estonia

[@77thTrombone]

That was very gracious of the Estonian authorities to dump out the drawer with the slug in it. Most authorities I know would've just excised the corner of the house where the cabinet was with a lead-shielded bucket loader.

[@harcourt2003]

haha, as a native .. the "sitapea" was a nice touch ^^

[@darrellshoub7527]

PD. Amazing unusual unexpected episode ; Thanks so much for this one !

[@irvan36mm]

Another excellent episode, as usual. Is it common for Europeans (or Estonians) to break into a nuclear waste dump dressed like they’re going out to the club on a Sat night? Balls!

[@svensik4858]

Not really, this was in the 90s, so these guys were, how should i say it, not very intelligent

[@vibrantdream8524]

this kind of stuff happened in post-soviet countries during the 90s, not in all of europe

[@stevehiler5021]

Your channel should be much bigger friend, I love your content keep it up as always

[@nobodynoone2500]

Can you do a vid on what Greys vs Rads vs Seivs vs Narglebarfs are? Would love one in your easy to understand style, no matter how boring a topic. It would REALLY help me to enjoy your videos.

[@nobodynoone2500]

Oh god theres TBq now. HELP!

[@LordWaldema]

-Gray/s (Gy/s) is radioactive energy per second emitted by a source. 1Gy=100rad -Becquerel (Bq)is activity as in atoms split per second, each releasing radiation in form of gamma rays, electrons (beta radiation), alpha particles or neutrons. Depends on the material, more exactly, the isotope. -Sievert (Sv) effective dose on the body, can only be estimated and tells, how much "radioactivity" you got to your body, either by just existing, being x-rayed or handling a radioactive source

[@PMA65537]

@@LordWaldema Curie is the same as Becquerel but with a big scaling factor.

[@johngormley2192]

Great videos. I always enjoy the no hype delivery of facts and information.

[@MrWeebster]

I literally live 10 km away from that site and I had no idea that anything like that had ever happened. To be fair though, it did happen 4 years before I was even born

[@ek8710]

I had no idea there were any weebs in Estonia :o

[@jadesmith6823]

Enjoy your life and can you uploaded a video of how your body can popcorn 🍿😂

[@FenianAn1mal]

have a friend from/in estonia and he said the same thing.

[@princeofcupspoc9073]

Well I live IN the facility. No wait, I AM the facility!

[@obscurity3027]

I love the accuracy of the illustrations. Of course at least two of these guys were wearing tracksuits!

[@KarinaMilne]

Love learning about the USSR and the aftermath- so many more issues that people would never realise.

[@pilarboutte392]

Such interesting content. I love these informative videos. I’m fascinated by radiological accidents (it’s horrendous for the sufferers), but so very interesting as well!😕

[@consolehacker54]

The guy literally pulls a Homer Simpson and just leaves with radioactive material in his pocket 😅

[@flower_chick1979]

DOH! 🍩 ☢️

[@mauricedavis8261]

Oh this will not end well, they never do!!!🙏😪 Excellent episode as always Plainly Difficult!!!👍

[@astronomydemon6312]

Just in time, I was freaking out, I needed something to calm down to right about now

[@maksphoto78]

I was born and grew up in Estonia, and I had no idea about this!

[@prismstudios001]

How about a tutorial on the. Various nuclear units? Gtays, Becquels, Curies,etc.Their power,and how they relate to each other…..

[@ctrlz4439]

Very interesting. Minor detail - pictures at 0:30 to 0:50 are not from Estonia, but from Riga , Latvia. First one is Saeima (parliament) building with a temporary protective wall and second one is Riga Central Market.

[@shadowcaptaincain]

This reminds me of the one West Wing Episode where this Georgian emissary is wanting to give weapons grade plutonium to the US as a gift. The Chief of Staff says "It's kept behind what they describe as a very nice padlock. Don't the Russians secure this stuff?" To which the NSA Advisor responds, "They do, they gave them the padlock."

[@RCAvhstape]

Read the book "The Dead Hand" about Soviet WMD stuff. Among the other absolutely terrifying things you'll read will be about a facility in the former USSR where nuclear fuel elements were stored in a warehouse, stacked up next to each other on pallets, behind a padlocked door surrounded by a rusty chain link fence. The only precaution was the pallets were separated by so many inches to guard against a criticality accident. The facility was visited by Americans who had been invited to take some of this stuff away and use it as fuel in US nuclear power plants instead of leaving it sit unguarded in Communist Fail-topia.

[@sarasmr4278]

@@RCAvhstape sure just let me pop that in my pocket!

[@ZGryphon]

Makes me think of that one James Bond movie where he's reconnoitering a black market arms bazaar and comes across some old Soviet nuclear torpedoes or the like. Back at headquarters, watching the video feed, the RN officer in charge of the operation turns to his Russian counterpart and demands furiously, "Can't you people keep _anything_ locked up?!"

[@zuluhyena305]

"All done" "Why can I taste metal?" "All done" Cracked me up lol

[@TheCrimsonS4ge]

This truly is a strange, dark and mysterious subject matter. I feel as though I have heard this tale elsewhere.

[@Militaria_Collector]

And also told in story format. Eerily similar.

[@Idaho-Cowboy]

Awesome I was 'afraid' we had run out of nuclear incidents to cover on the channel.

[@MarcoWalther]

One of the reasons why many scrap metal dealers have radiation detectors at their gates here in Germany.

[@nickv4073]

"Why are your balls glowing in the dark?"