A Brief History of: The Wood River Junction Criticality (Short Documentary)

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#Nuclear #History #Atomic
On the afternoon of Friday the 24th July 1964, Robert Peabody set out on his 5 minute commute to work, little did he know that this would be for the last time.
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Sources:
1.newengland.com/today/living/n...
2.ncsp.llnl.gov/LA13638/reports...
3.www.world-nuclear.org/informa...
4.www.ecori.org/smart-growth/20...
5.www.nrc.gov/docs/ML0601/ML060...
6.turnto10.com/news/local/the-l...
7.www.researchgate.net/publicat...
8.digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/...
Source of title card photo
citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/...

[@holnrew]

Dying from nuclear radiation exposure scares me, the way you can feel fine immediately after but you're a dead man walking

[@dacypher22]

The demon core accident at Los Alamos is particularly scary. Harry Daghlian got dosed with just enough to be guaranteed fatal, but not so much that he was immediately incapacitated. He himself did the calculations and determined he had received a fatal dose. How scary is that? To do some calculations on paper and the result is that you have less than 10 days to live. (EDIT: Sorry, wrong person to die from this ball of plutonium. It was actually the second victim, Louis Slotin who calculated his own dose and died within 10 days)

[@dacypher22]

@@maeton-gaming Yeah, it is very scary. The story of Ouchi from the Tokaimua criticality accident is possibly one of the worst cases. All of the chromosomes in his body were destroyed but it seems like the doctors and even the government were interested in what would happen so they tried to keep him alive as long as possible, even after they knew he was doomed.

[@hoghogwild]

@@dacypher22 BOTH Daglian and Slotin were both killed during experiments involving the "demon core".

[@dacypher22]

@@hoghogwild You are correct, which is why I got confused. But the details were fairly different between the two, including what condition they were immediately in afterwards, how long they lived, etc.

[@StormsparkPegasus]

@@dacypher22 In the case of doses like that, where they are high enough to be guaranteed fatal, I really think euthanasia would be by far the best course of action. Nothing you can do can possibly save them. By keeping them alive you are doing nothing but making them suffer. Although I believe in Louis Slotin's case he was ok with it...he knew he was dead, but he thought study of the progress of his symptoms could possibly help others.

[@matt-kv1nu]

Oh boy what could go wrong with storing two different chemicals in the same type of container- one of which has to be shaken and the other must never ever be shaken

[@deadfreightwest5956]

It's the Bond-Martini principal at work.

[@billrich9722]

matt So... in other words, you weren’t paying attention at all. The incident was caused by poor vessel geometry in the agitator and the fact that he was using a high concentration of radioactive liquid material. Pay attention. Wow.

[@matt-kv1nu]

Bill Rich Damn who pissed on your cornflakes?

[@rippedtorn2310]

@Mike Cruickshanks really? you genius lol

[@billrich9722]

matt and yet another stupid question from you.

[@joshelliott1826]

I've never understood the "these safety measures are in the way" mentality. I've never worked anywhere that paid me enough to risk my life for them

[@TBone-bz9mp]

Humans are great at getting complacent, even around the most dangerous stuff in the world.

[@PierceyeG]

You are in possession of critical thinking skills that the average person is not. Most people are not capable of making that elementary analysis and coming to an intelligent conclusion. This is unfortunately why these rules have to exist in the first place. We're making it possible for the lowest common denominator to function in a complex, technological society. We're also coping with the fact that that person is dumb enough to ignore those rules.

[@marianmarkovic5881]

@@TBone-bz9mp there was quite case in my country like 15 years ago in facility that was demounting unused amunition,.... most of victims bodys were never found,....

[@jameson8682]

@@PierceyeG /r/iamverysmart

[@PierceyeG]

@@jameson8682 No comprende, Senor.

[@christopherconard2831]

There's an old phrase from the Navy. "These rules are written in blood." Translation, yeah they seem silly and redundant. But someone didn't do it right and either they, or people around them, ended up dead.

[@johndemeritt3460]

There's a reason military organizations strive to make procedures "GI-proof". Hand the procedure to the newest, lowest-grade enlisted person and have them follow it -- if they can without finding some way to destructively fail, then submit the procedure for publication. If not, go back and re-write the procedure until it doesn't result in a catastrophe.

[@JR-gp2zk]

Similar thing in the civilian world. Behind every warning label is a million dollar lawsuit.

[@johnd9357]

That saying is everywhere. Aviation, diving, many activities and institutions. It’s a good thing to remember.

[@inscrutablewut]

I've heard it as "safety regs are written in blood."

[@trespire]

We had the same saying in the Air Force.

[@DarkPhaaze]

I think it's actually incredibly admirable that, after this horrible mistake, while probably panicked as all hell, Peabody still had the foresight to take off his contaminated clothing. It probably wouldn't have killed anyone if he hadn't, but he probably saved everyone else some horrible injuries.

[@sarahamira5732]

Yup, even in a case like that, I probably wouldn't have even thought about anything other than running like a bat outta hell. To be fair, I imagine he has probably been trained to do that. Kinda like how you are supposed to immediately remove any affected clothing if you accidentally spill something in a chemistry lab

[@cats.m.2853]

Right?! Really good reaction

[@sarahamira5732]

Update on that chemistry lab thing... Yeah last week I spilt 6 Molarity hydrochloric acid on my hand, casually rinsed it off, and didn't even realize I probably should've mentioned that until I got home. Don't be like me kids

[@Petra44YT]

Isn't it only logical? The contaminated clothing also contaminated HIM further.

[@sarahamira5732]

@@thefriendlymadman229 nope, I managed to get it under running water within less than five seconds. Started to tingle though 😂

[@jacob_90s]

There's a good rule of thumb I remember from my ethics in engineering class: "it should always be difficult for person to do things the wrong way, and easy to do things the right way". Safety should not just be you saying a person should do X this way. The entire procedure and equipment used should be designed to make it as easy as possible to do it the right way, and difficult to do incorrectly.

[@KarenKubliski]

This

[@mbvoelker8448]

Yes. Excellent design works to minimize accidents.

[@Tula-cs1ef]

I was taught that if you make something idiot-proof, someone will just make a dumber idiot.

[@jacob_90s]

@@Tula-cs1ef Can't solve everything. Doesn't mean you don't try to do better though.

[@Tula-cs1ef]

@@jacob_90s that was his way of saying never underestimate the depths of human stupidity. Cuz you can never be prepared for private schmuckatelli.

[@j.peters1222]

For context, exposure to 400 rads has a mortality rate of around 50%, while 1,000 rads is considered a lethal dose to just about everybody. This man took 46k and 14k to his pelvis and head respectively. Radiation is really nasty stuff. Truly one of the worse ways to go.

[@StormsparkPegasus]

You don't actually use rads to measure a dose rate to a human. It's a subtle difference, but rads are used to measure the amount of radiation absorbed by a material. The actual dose received would be measured in rems (obsolete unit which has been replaced by the sievert). The relationship between rads and rems is complex, a lot of people use them interchangeably when they aren't. Rems take into account the way the human body handles each type of radiation, so to get rems from rads, you have to multiply by some fraction (called the weighing factor) based on how the body handles the particular type of radiation you're exposed to. Just saying rads = rems won't get you an accurate dose, but for doses this high it doesn't matter. It's 40x the lethal dose. Even assuming the equivalent dose is only 75% (it would probably be higher than that), it's still far far beyond lethal. The best unit to use for actual dose to a human is the sievert. The US insists on still using the obsolete rem...but at least the rem is a metric unit, and it's easy to convert. 100 rem = 1 sievert. This article explains the difference between absorbed dose and equivalent dose. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equivalent_dose Equivalent dose (rem/sievert) is what you would use to measure health effects.

[@ToOmAnYBLUNTS420]

Sounds like the perfect way to deal with pedophiles

[@sokjeong-ho7033]

What if by an amazing coincidence the radiation happens to miss all of the atoms in your body and you're completely fine

[@AHHHHHHHH21]

@@ToOmAnYBLUNTS420 46,000 reads sounds perfect for them weebs

[@GregoryMcStevens]

@@StormsparkPegasus mmm yes nice Google search

[@neuralmute]

You know things are going well in your nuclear waste processing plant when you're dealing with a "black goo-like substance", safety protocols are being considered a hindrance, and you're only 3 mins into the video... :D

[@iciajay6891]

I got nervous at same type of jars to store dangerous substances. Never use the same type. Crazy.

[@VictoriaPatricia]

@@iciajay6891 in any industry. Autoshop I worked at was (sometimes) dumping antifreeze into used oil containers, almost screwed over the disposal center we sent it too, could've been a several thousand dollar fine!

[@solonsaturngaming3727]

Wonder if it’s great on Toast like Marmite 😂🤣😂🤣

[@chiphenderson1609]

@@solonsaturngaming3727 almost as good as a PBJ

[@tmseh]

Excellent Smithers......

[@gcfournier3386]

My favorite thing about KZbin is how even on a well-researched, niche topic about criticality, somehow 11 people disliked it

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you for your comment

[@bartfoster1311]

I think a lot of the dislike clicks are accidents, I have caught myself accidentally hitting dislike while scrolling down or sticking my phone in my pocket at least a dozen times. It is also possible they are all relatives of Mr. Peabody since he had 9 kids!

[@malfuller3367]

23 now

[@lunapyrope9683]

They’re all from the company executives :p

[@EgoSumSimia]

@6 6 The perfect* English* makes it easy* and desirable* to watch in addition to* the interesting subject.

[@freshwaterrex]

I know one of Peabody's children Charles. This is exactly as he describes the incident. Cool that someone finally made a youtube video about it. One detail missed by the video is that the ambulance that transported Peabody to the hospital was so badly contaminated that it had to be buried. They would not return the wedding ring to his widow because it was contaminated

[@confucheese]

You got a source for the ambulance thing?

[@hotpocketoverlord7800]

@@confucheese yeah… read the first 7 words.

[@confucheese]

@@hotpocketoverlord7800 That isn’t a source, professor Einstein. It’s equivalent to me saying I am one of Peabody’s children myself. There is nothing to back it up.

[@kenhammscousin4716]

I am Peabody

[@Amped4Life]

@@kenhammscousin4716 hahaha this gave me a cheap and good laugh! thx mate!

[@anhedonianepiphany5588]

[7:48] "At the time there was no treatment for the amount of exposure Peabody had received" There _still_ isn't any treatment for doses _that_ high, and it's hard to imagine that there _ever_ will be. Also, with criticality events like this, some neutron activation products are already part of the body and continue to irradiate surrounding tissue (and those in proximity to the patient).

[@catalintimofti1117]

there are a few treatments including exruciating bone marrow transplants plasma transplants and saline injection to flush the blood of radioactive elements but they only give you a marginaly higher chance to live truly one of the worst ways to die

[@shaneclarke6307]

@@catalintimofti1117 All those methods won't help with THAT high exposure. Better just give man anesthesia to avoid feeling the torture and let him pass away.

[@sarahamira5732]

@@shaneclarke6307 would he have been lucid enough to say goodbye to his family if they gave him that much anesthesia?

[@wouldntyouliketoknow644]

@@sarahamira5732 its hard to tell

[@wouldntyouliketoknow644]

@@sarahamira5732 probably not tho

[@Dantastic]

Glad you put this up. The site of this is right down the street from my neighborhood, and surprisingly not too many people around here remember it. Fun fact: Robert Peabody was actually a mechanic as his day job. He took this position as a second job because he had a large family to feed.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thanks for the comment, I did read that he was doing two jobs, it is sad leaving behind a family

[@bethc3796]

Wow! I grew up 1/2 Mile from my this place! Crazy things happened there! To this day, I believe the crud there was in the ground and caused major medical issues for people in that area!

[@Richard0915]

i lived like 10 minutes away from this, ive never heard of it

[@ianmacfarlane1241]

"Confusion" isn't a good word in the nuclear industry. A tragic and infuriating story.

[@MatFlyinFoolHarris]

Thing is, people in the area after that happened were dying of all these rare, exotic cancers that couldn't be positively tied to that incident...United Nuclear through the years was caught doing all manner of things, and with all the towns along the Pawcatuck River, Locustville Pond in the general vicinity, a lot more than just that one guy were effected by that place. I live in Westerly by the way...

[@JohnDoe-vf2yo]

Might I suggest a future video on the Nazis primitive reactor and the missing fuel cubes? Only a few out of 255~ have been found and the last one that was found was in the back of a desk of a professor. It's likely the cubes are in a warehouse in a plain wooden box that's been forgotten because it's frickin heavy.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thanks for the suggestion!

[@armyofninjas9055]

I'd watch that.

[@JohnDoe-vf2yo]

@@armyofninjas9055 It's an interesting story of Nazi engineering that has ties to some of the more famous endeavors of WW2, such as the dam busting bomb and it's famous missions of destroying a dam supplying energy to a facility that was producing heavy water for the reactor. It also ties into the little heard of task force called Alsos, who's mission was to gather intelligence on Nazi nuclear developments and subsequently raided the reactor facility and found the 600~(I was incorrect in my initial guess) some cubes of uranium. One was found in a creek that was discarded by the famous Heisenberg.

[@supernautacus]

Or, were shipped to Japan...

[@meesalikeu]

John Doe whoa now thats a story - anybody glowing at night over there in germany?

[@fulkthered]

Just the simple act of putting the different chemicals in different shaped containers may have saved the poor man's life.Well unless he was a real life Homer Simpson just dumb lucking through his job until he ran out of luck.

[@PongoXBongo]

Or even just painting them different colors, like gas cylinders are.

[@alexeil7050]

they could have even just painted a stripe on it if paint was “too expensive”

[@sarahamira5732]

@@alexeil7050 hell, scribbled on it with a sharpie if they couldn't be bothered with paint, that or throw a stop of electrical tape on it

[@theproplady]

This was like in Victorian times when pharmacists sold medicines and acids in the same types of bottles. You'd think someone would have stopped and thought about what might have happened if the containers were ever mixed up.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

You would think lol

[@richcast66]

My throat dried up real bad reading this

[@chrisjones3901]

In UK poisonous bottles made of glass are everywhere not buried deep,local kids collected them,no idea what poison was in them,but thinking of that day and age you can guarantee it not be something nice

[@mr.pavone9719]

I bet a lot of them took it personally when the suggestion to differentiate the bottles was made. "You think I'm too stupid to tell the difference? I know where EVERYTHING is in my lab!"

[@soylentgreenb]

There is also the famous arsenic pastilles incident where a mixup of that kind led a chemist to create throat lozenges with lethal quantities of arsenic.

[@wormwoodbecomedelphinus4131]

The lessons of the Demoncore and this incident taught us well. Rods of radioactive material have information engraved on their surface - the more dangerous rods have the words "DROP AND RUN" on them, since the rods are either too dangerous to handle without a full radiation hazard suit or too dangerous for humans to directly hold at all.

[@fastinradfordable]

Makes me wonder. How many times they accidentally went critical before they figured out the container dimensions.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Probably a few times!

[@tramachi7027]

@James Sloan But isnt this like....The only (as of now) found nature-made nuclear reactor? Due to the *very* specifics and pre-requisits you need to have inorder to have an actual reactor?

[@jfan4reva]

I strongly suspect that they didn't come up with those shapes by accident.... People who new what they were doing figured out the shapes before anything dangerous was put in them. People who didn't know what they were doing decided it was ok to put dangerous stuff in some of them and less dangerous stuff in others. Twenty years before, during the Manhattan project, they were well aware of the dangers of accidental criticality. Read 'What Do You Care What People Think' by Richard Feynman. There's a chapter or two where they sent him to the uranium processing plant (Oak Ridge?) to help with the design. He quickly pointed out that they couldn't store containers next to the walls of adjacent rooms. But he also couldn't read blueprints and had to wing it when analyzing the processing.

[@mroeplz]

I think they could probably figure it out theoretically by math without any criticalities.

[@cocojeffrey8502]

Not a simple problem... Certain materials can absorb, slow down or reflect neutrons too. Neutron radiation should be taught in schools...it's the most dangerous form IMO, it smashes materials, molecules, and is deeply penetrating.

[@jts0221]

Im from Rhode Island, I only ever knew about this from my father. School never mentioned a thing about the incident, even in an engineering ethics class

[@mikewheeler1712]

I've lived in RI all my life, this is the first I've heard of this.

[@ricka015ify]

Same

[@jackfanning7952]

@@mikewheeler1712 The nukies probably spend more on repressing negative publicity than they do on safety. If you are receiving flak from them for revealing their screw-ups, you know you are over the target.

[@Bender24k]

"Has anybody authorized this?" "Should be ok" BOOM < How many accidents does this wrong thinking apply to.....unreal. I watch all the CSB videos too and the causes are this a lot. Thanks for a great video!

[@natesmodelsdoodles5403]

I was thinking it sounded familiar.

[@fastinradfordable]

It’s like a blender spurting a nuclear reaction. Terrifying

[@larrygall5831]

Yeah, and someone actually had to go up there to deal with it.. Not me. I read the white paper on this years ago, and it happened at the top of a 3-floor tower, and when the emergency team came, they said there were rays of radiation coming out of the doorway at the base in a cone-shaped pattern, and crossing into it exceeded their safety equipment.

[@basementchemistry2334]

Have you considered making a video on the Church Rock Uranium Mill Spill? It remains the worst radiological accident in the United States, but almost nobody has heard of it because local officials diverted attention from it. Overall very interesting stuff. I believe it involved the same company discussed in this video, too.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thanks for the suggestion I’ve read into that it will be a future subject!

[@jackfanning7952]

Still not cleaned up. Still being swept under the rug. Nukies don't care about the Native Americans on the res.

[@AtheistOnTheEdge]

I always thought the depictions of American nuclear waste handling in the Simpson's were an exaggeration, now I know better.

[@jameson8682]

It was the very beginning of nuclear energy, a lot has changed.

[@lillexus5589]

@@jameson8682 the total amount of incidents is rather high though, look at Union Carbide alone as an example

[@jackfanning7952]

@@jameson8682 What has changed? Oh, that's right. In 2012 the American taxpayers started paying nuclear reactor operators almost $1 billion a year to store spent fuel rods (nuclear fission by-products and plutonium) in overloaded pools and casks that the manufacturer said would last for 10-30 years within 100 miles of every major population center in the U.S. The storage is not in hardened structures, like what Europe requires, and is 1000 times more dangerous than the U-235 that went into the reactors. Yeah, a lot has changed. 5 meltdowns since 1978 and the economy of the former USSR destroyed. Millions of deformed births and miscarriages in the Ukraine, Eastern Russia and Belarus, 300 tons of radioactive water leaking out of the destroyed Fukushima reactors every day. Finaciers have realized that natural gas and renewables are more economic than nuclear, even not including the costs to store the irresolvable nuclear waste issue and the costs of decommissioning old, brittle reactors.

[@exexpat11]

When the labels are being held on by rubber bands go ahead and shake them. It'll be alright. You'll be fine.

[@magoolew5131]

My day always warned me about that and I always wondered why.

[@BenjaminBrillat]

I can't believe I have never heard of this before! I grew up in Richmond and at no point did we ever learn anything about this place or this accident! What an amazing accidental find - thank you, KZbin recommendation algorithm!

[@michaelmcdonald3057]

The video failed to mention that after Peabody expired his head was removed from his body and his remains were buried in seperate locations, his head being placed in a sarcophagus in an Alabama salt mine.

[@PinePrince]

His head is here in Alabama? 😬

[@postmortemspasm]

You cant just give us that fact and not explain why??

[@wolphin732]

@@postmortemspasm likely due to how radioactive they still were (and would still be)

[@russbennett5470]

Look up the body snatcher of low alamos

[@lee2217]

When I saw the same containers being used I knew what was coming next Poor man and his family

[@anhedonianepiphany5588]

@Prairiedoggen Uh, "the guy" wasn't incompetent or negligent, that's pretty clear. A foolproof method of checking that the solution in the bottle wasn't of a different concentration would be to pass each bottle by a radiation meter. If the counts are below the criticality-safe threshold, go ahead and pour.

[@radioactivegoldfish9166]

I highly recommend the book “Atomic Accidents” by James Mahaffey

[@lkexpress]

I have it, great read.

[@ajfurnari2448]

Username something something

[@rekeamohcsreed7719]

The book "Atomic accidents" Is another read that is good

[@tactcom7]

absolutely agree. got it as an audio book. fascinating.

[@ianmoseley9910]

I was reminded of the old joke with someone saying how well they covered up the 3-mile island incident "but it was on the news" "Yes, but it used to be 5-mile island"

[@certaindeed]

I grew up near this area and UNC was a large employer. This story is legendary. The security guard that night was father in law of employee family business. He got exposed and was ill for rest of his life.

[@brettchenier1010]

Good job on the video. I teach Nuclear Criticality Safety at a facility that used to enrich Uranium. I have used this example of the outcome of not following approved procedures.

[@derekp2674]

Most of these accidents also show that better plant and process designs would rule out most, if not all, criticality accidents. That said, we still need our procedures for defence-in-depth.

[@NeoRipshaft]

Personally I keep my orange juice and my nitroglycerin in the same container in my fridge - well, one of my fridges. You see one of the fridges contains a multitude of venomous snakes. But it's cool I have to step on a particular combination of tiles to open either fridge so accidents are unlikely. Though if I step on the wrong tile I've got a series of shotguns set to saturate the area with fire - I don't want people stealing my OJ after all.

[@ProjectInfinity1]

I live in Rhode Island and I actually went to the location last summer. Crazy this happened in my state.

[@user-lb8do4ew6k]

Wood River Inn has some good bluegrass lol

[@gatermap]

Where is it located exactly?

[@JoeDiGiovanniIV]

I'm shocked. Honestly am. As a huge history lover and consumer of such material- I learned something new today thats for sure. Most shocking to me I live barely a half hour away in Rhode Island, and never heard about this

[@sinebar]

Lab techs have been killed by pouring radioactive solutions into round bottom flasks unaware of the dangers and regulations prohibiting of such procedures. It's amazing how little training is sometimes provided in handling dangerous substances.

[@mecrook5305]

Really love your content on criticality incidents. It’s been really interesting watching these vids over Corona times :)

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you glad you’ve been enjoying the videos

[@NickManJams]

I both live in Rhode Island and am aware of Wood River Junction as simply a location, but I never knew about its history. This was fascinating and informative; well done!

[@Iain_LaMunyon]

I LIVE HERE AND NEVER KNEW ABT THIS

[@-yeme-]

"his right arm swoll up" pic shows his left arm swollen

[@jeffdriggers4139]

He also said the swelling caused his wedding ring to be cut off. So you're right, it was left arm.

[@michaelfisher7170]

Hello viewers! Welcome to another episode of "Let's Screw with Radiation!" And as a sidenote...oh...youre the wife with nine kids? Here..22,000 bucks. That makes it all ok! Good luck!

[@Itried20takennames]

The work motto of the “Demon Core” crew.

[@larrygall5831]

I read the white paper on this years ago, and it happened at the top of a 3-floor tower, and when the emergency team came, they said there were rays of radiation coming out of the doorway at the base of the tower in a cone-shaped pattern, and crossing into it exceeded their safety equipment.

[@colchronic]

I'm a simple man, I see your videos and instantly updoot.

[@jhutsebaut]

I worked in two uranium enrichment plants. We had a Nuciear Criticality Safety Advisory (NCSA) program that ganerally worked very well, but design of equipment is equally important because it's impossible to completely eliminate personnel errors. The biggest danger is complacency.

[@chriscunningham9740]

I just went and visited the nature preserve the other day. It was very beautiful, filled with eskers and glacial erratics, but there were several large groves of bare, dead trees scattered across the park, which were accredited to “Gypsy moths” Overall, it was very enjoyable, and I strongly recommend it to anyone who enjoys nuclear history and a good walk in the woods.

[@takeandbakejake3271]

You forget one thing. I'm broke af and live across the country 😂

[@jasonbowers9210]

Thank you so much for taking your personal time and making such great videos for me to watch. I literally binge watch you videos all day even though I have watched them all before.

[@99123d]

Me when “24,000 Rads” Rad-X can fix that

[@StormsparkPegasus]

Rads are not the appropriate unit to use for a dose to a human. It measures of absorption of radiation by a material, not a human. Rems are a better unit for that (to convert rads to rems, you have to multiply the rads by a fraction that takes into account the type of radiation and how it's absorbed by the body, because the body handles each type of radiation differently, and rads do not take any of this into account. Even the rem has been replaced by the sievert in most of the world (except the US who just has to be different). At least in this case though, the rem is still a metric unit, and the conversion is simple. 100 rem = 1 sievert. "24,000 rads" would equal 240 sieverts. Receiving 4-6 sieverts all at once is pretty much 100% fatal. There have been RARE cases of people receiving between 4 and 6 and surviving (usually due to dose fractionation)...but anything over 6 is 100%. He probably didn't actually receive 240 sieverts though, it would've been some fraction of that (due to the difference between rads and rems as I said). But even being VERY generous and assuming he only actually received 75% of that, that's still 180 sieverts = 100% guaranteed fatal.

[@jodiepalmer2404]

@@StormsparkPegasus I think he was referring to Bethesda Games Fallout Series where in the game you take Rad-X to reduce your radiation levels.

[@bneuer]

@@jodiepalmer2404 RadAway*

[@ryankirkpatrick8561]

There's always rad-away if you forgot to take your rad-x!

[@petergambier]

Thanks for this story I'd not heard before PD. It's quite amazing that something so deadly isn't kept in a unique kind of container. The mind also boggles when you think of how much material has to be taken away from an area after a radiation spillage. Fukishima is still in the news after the 2011 disaster because of the huge tonnage of radioactive waste water they want to dump into the Pacific ocean anytime soon today. I laughed when I saw that one of your commentators asked why you hadn't done a film on the church rock uranium mill spill yet, and, when I looked for it you had so I'm going there now, thanks Basement Chemistry.

[@ichwill7536]

I cant thank you enough for making these videos. Its helped me find things i enjoy doing like work place safety, worker safety ect

[@monsterjotunn5257]

About 10 miles from where I grew up, the lot is still fenced off.

[@chrisperry7963]

This one is pretty near to me and I had never heard about it...thank you for a stellar job, as always!

[@andie_pants]

So it literally took 50 years for the incident to be fully cleaned up. Just... wow.

[@fastinradfordable]

grovermatic Yay superfund sights.

[@KB4QAA]

@J Fz No. It is not possible for them to glow given the low amount of residual Uranium material.

[@SamwiseOutdoors]

I never knew about this one, I really appreciate you bringing it to light.

[@johndemeritt3460]

Just one comment on the accuracy of this video: the agency in charge of regulating nuclear energy in the United States in 1964 was the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). The AEC became the Department of Energy (DoE) in 1975, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) took over the nuclear regulatory function as part of the new DoE.

[@cindyscrazy]

I live here! Thank you for a very well researched and informative explanation of what happened. I've been interested in this topic since I found out about it. The Regional High School for Charlestown, Richmond, and Hopkinton (named Chariho) is in Wood River Junction fairly close to the site. Pre-Covid, I drove past it every day on my way to and from work. There is no indication there that anything happened, and I sincerely doubt there are any radioactive dangers there now. It is a very interesting piece of history, however!

[@themajorskoodlers1997]

had a real surreal moment where my brain messed up and forgot what i was watching and i thought this was a satirical description of 1 man 1 jar

[@giladpellaeon1691]

Wow, this one hits close to home for me, never heard about it before even though I study history and have lived in Rhode Island all my life.

[@bethc3796]

I know it well.. I grew up 1/2 mile from this. I was real young when it happened.

[@1kiffertom1]

Super! worth the wait! you are one of my favorites! i look forward to the next! Thanks!

[@quistan2]

"46k Rads to the Nads"or 46kRN, only the the N is backwards. Thats my new band name.

[@tonyduncan9852]

Your work is important. We are going to need thousands of nuclear reactors in the future, and people don't understand that radiation is perfectly safe IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING. Just like FLIGHT.

[@neeneko]

With flight, planes crash every year, with new problems being discovered or old issues about economic factors impacting things like maintenance and schedules rearing their heads again because they never go away. Nuclear.. same basic problem, only the clean up time is a lot longer and more expensive than a plane. Radiation is only 'safe' in a NIMBY way, it is safe enough one when is benefiting and others are taking the risk. Very different equation otherwise.

[@flagmichael]

It will be one of a growing number of industries in which procedures have to be formalized and very strictly enforced. I recently retired from a large electric utility; when I started the primary focus was working around live equipment; by the time I retired it included many aspects of operating vehicles as well as security. The beat goes on.... Everything is a technicality until something goes wrong.

[@neeneko]

@@flagmichael yep, and the industry has come a long way in terms of improved equipment and procedures over the years, no doubt about that. The thing I worry about is what comes after good procedures.. complacency and reduction. The more distant the memory of disaster becomes, the more abstract it gets, and the more people start cutting corners or getting regulations/procedures scaled back. Any solution that can not handle humans being human, doesn't work forever ^_^

[@JohnDoe-vf2yo]

@@flagmichael My grandfather use to wire nuclear power plants and he always said it's the most efficient way to produce power. Also, he said that all nuclear power plants only run at 20% of their max output. Is that true?

[@noth606]

neeneko many of the new reactors being built have automated systems that when they work correctly do not allow an operator to do something wrong. The issue is more that many reactors currently still operating are far beyond their design life and pretty much obsolete, having been designed in the 50s-60s and usually built then as well. As such they are still largely manual, and in my opinion should have been replaced already some time ago, but the more they keep being used the higher the risk becomes. The issue is of course that energy demands keep going up and building reactors is not only very costly but also a bureaucratic nightmare.

[@jeanninepeterson7681]

I've lived in RI for 70 years and have never heard about this. We spend many hours a week at ninigret state park playing disc golf which is across the street from this facility. Its called the carter preserve and is maintained by the Nature Conservancy

[@mihai08]

Great video, as always well edited and great content 👏 👍

[@Lomni]

Are you ok? You sound very different compared to usual.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Sorry all good just using a new mic and was recording in the early hours of the morning, thanks for your concern

[@bernieponcik1351]

I'm glad you are doing well. Thank you for doing such a great job on your videos.

[@christiantaylor7883]

Plainly Difficult “upon reaching va fuurd floor. “ I love this mans accent

[@martinmpaz]

Got worried too

[@martinmpaz]

I'm glad you're ok. Thanks for your amazing content

[@devikwolf]

I'm familiar with most nuclear accidents you've covered, but this one was brand new for me!

[@drisbain]

I think the change in procedure was not just known by the supervisor but also OKed The Radiation alarm was giving false alarms previously (suspected water shorting it) the label for that jar listing it as concentrated uranium was found on the floor (not on the jar)

[@Mickey-os2my]

The site is now a nature park which features a herd of 2 headed horses and 3 eyed fish .

[@notthatcreativewithnames]

Now that you mention you like to talk about anything railway-based, how about Quintinshill Disaster in 1915 or Summit Tunnel fire in 1984? King's Cross fire in 1987 is also interesting.

[@Studio_WabiSabi]

RHODY LOCAL HERE!!! The fact I didn't know about this and i've lived here my entire life! I really thought we would be talking about this in history! Thanks for the amazing video!

[@NyanyiC]

I have watched several of your radiation videos and only now have I understood what criticality is thanks to the illustrations. Thanks 😊

[@fensoxx]

Feeling alright bud? I don't sense the excitement in your voice I usually get when the radiological feces hits the proverbial fan

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Sorry still all good here, it’s a combination of two things early hours of the morning and a new mic 😬

[@deatheternal720]

@@PlainlyDifficult i figured it was early morning haha

[@K74amina]

@@PlainlyDifficult I was wondering as well, am glad you are well

[@martijnburer]

Will Bailey thats a wholesome comment right there

[@deatheternal720]

@@martijnburer yeah it was. He's the kind of commenter i like to see ^-^

[@qzh00k]

Damn this is sobering, little has changed. The CFCs used in processing was immense, across the planet. Hasn't changed much

[@deadfreightwest5956]

I work at Boeing in Auburn, WA. We have a "tank line" that's been in use since the late 60s. There's trichlorethylene in the ground water. If you examine a map of the site, you'll notice an odd water feature called, I believe, the "Boeing ditch." They used to dump waste into that years ago. The tank line uses some pretty nasty stuff to pickle and anodize metals. The worst is hexavalent chrome, or chrome 6. Look that up if want an excuse to wash your hands vigorously. Back in the late 90s, I worked at the Kent Space Center. Down the street was an outfit called Western Processing. Look it up. Paid to deal with industrial waste, and they mostly dumped it onsite. In the early 90s I worked at Plant 2 in Seattle. My building had been used for many things over the decades. At one time it had a plating shop. One of my supervisors told me that when the solution was spent, they'd let it go down the drain. One of the old-timers in the bench mechanic area told me of when they concrete floor was cut open to install foundations for new machine tools. People started getting rashes and blisters and had trouble breathing. Management said to quit whining. Somebody blew the whistle and got OSHA and WISHA involved. Place had to be remedied. Management wanted to find the whistle blower, and that got them in trouble all over again. At one time, a contractor came through and installed monitoring wells. We had a monthly crew meeting one Friday night, and one my coworkers asked the supervisor, "Hey, Morrie! I see they took the drilling rig away. Are they done?" He replied, without a beat, "No, no. They were afraid that if they left it there over the weekend, the tires would rot off!" Plant 2 was built on one of Seattle's early landfills, right on the Duwamish River. Back in the old days, EVERYTHING went into the landfills. Fun times!

[@magoolew5131]

There was a place not to far from me that you used to be able to smell PCBs when you rode by. The govt made them clean it up, You can't smell a thing anymore.

[@MarkusxJxKeetz]

Very good video! I had almost forgotten about this incident!

[@ajconstantine3593]

Incredible piece. 👏👏 First time I’ve seen this channel.

[@BlackFlightNY]

Might as well call this the “Demon Core Cinematic Universe” 😂

[@RoamingAdhocrat]

Would love to have Well There's Your Problem cover this too, just for Alice's reaction to the black goo…

[@PlainlyDifficult]

I love that podcast!!

[@RoamingAdhocrat]

@@PlainlyDifficult Yeah! I mean I love your videos too; similar subject matter but presented in a _very_ different way :D

[@stanislavkostarnov2157]

@@PlainlyDifficult for some reason I sort of had a hard time imagining that you watch it... those guys a awesome though, just like yourself.

[@evemarkley1596]

Great video, as always. I enjoyed this video more than previous ones because the speaker's voice sounded more relaxed and normal. I'm glad for the change. Previously, the speaker's voice made me feel anxious.

[@ob2110]

It was his left hand that swelled, not his right. Not being a brat just correcting one slip up in an incredible video. Love your work

[@rejecteddriftwood314]

Who's old dude that keeps popping his head up at the bottom of the screen, is he lost or looking for someone or something?

[@peterencobie]

This incident has some similarities with the criticality incident that happened in 1958 in los alamos with a man named Cecil Kelley. Can you do a video about that incident? Thanks, you make great content!

[@huwwilliams2018]

The Tokaimura incident near Tokyo was very similar. Factory workers bypassed the criticality safe equipment to speed up some Uranium reactant mixing. They did it in a steel bucket instead. Went critical, blue beams and sparks ensued. At least one worker died.

[@thatsnodildo1974]

First hearing your voice made me concerned you were doing bad but i saw the comment about the new mic and early morning recording so im glad you're alright

[@solonsaturngaming3727]

I am hooked on your Disasters in history some i never hard of at all like this one

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@leonotthelion]

In the 27 years that I've been alive, I have come to the realization that if something bad is going to happen.......its going to happen on a Friday. Car Crash? Friday. Flat tire on your way to work?Friday. At the gas station miles away from home,on empty and realize you left your debit card at the restaurant and your phone is dead? Friday. Dying from Radiation poisoning? F R I D A Y

[@theq4602]

This is probably because everyone gets thier weekend on the brain and forgets about important details of the tasks they are doing.

[@squeakyrabbit]

He died on a Sunday night.

[@AHHHHHHHH21]

@@squeakyrabbit *FRIDAY*

[@AlejandraLopez-nb2yj]

I once saw a news on television that unforeseen storms are more likely to occur on a Friday ... they said the explanation, something about the charges in the atmosphere and all that, but the truth is I forgot about it :D

[@DurzoBlunts]

Ever any investigation into what the "black goo" was?

[@keepinmahprivacy9754]

I think there is a documentary about it, called "Prometheus".

[@martinharris5017]

Yeah that got my attention. Heard the term "black goo" before.

[@nicoleyoung529]

Wow I've lived in RI all my life and had no idea. My dentist was in Wood River Junction when I was little. But the plant was long gone by then. Thanks for information.

[@jamest5149]

Your pronunciation of some of the chemicals makes me smile.

[@arleccio]

I'm not entirely sure why KZbin recommended this video to me. And I haven't understood half of it. (And been shocked and scared by about a third of the things I did understand.) But it's well presented and your playlist has some titles that sound interesting.

[@matthewkeefe1563]

Never thought I would see my state in one of these videos...

[@adnan_velic]

Once you see the blue glow it’s game over. I understand that something similar to this was observed with the “demon core” when one of the handlers screw driver slipped causing the core to become unstable. Crazy to think the lack of any sort of safety during those times is mind boggling to me.

[@dreadpenguinlord340]

Yikes! I saw the title and got the creeps. (I live in Wood River Illinois!) But I'm also fascinated by criticality and accident documentaries, thanks!

[@updownstate]

Several years ago I learned that my father had been involved in nuclear work. When I thought about it I knew it must have been the derailment cleanup at Rocky Flats, Colorado. We knew he had National Security Clearance but thought it was only to do research in Antarctica. We were wrong. It must have been hell for my mother with three little kids at home knowing he was going out there. But really I don't know what she knew. The nuclear information came to light after they died. He wasn't away from home any so Rocky Flats was the only place he could have done that work. So don't fuck up.

[@kenbellchambers4577]

Thank you for this story. I learned some new things about criticality avoidance. Who would have ever guessed that a mixer kept a critical event from occurring? Also, very amazing that the dimensions of a vessel can determine criticality. Thanks again., much appreciated.

[@guyheater457]

Thats a good one that's where I grew up thank you I was always wondering

[@ricka015ify]

This is like 15 minutes from my childhood home and I've never heard if this.

[@shdwdrmr-dq3lo]

Oh wow, this happened barely twenty minutes down the road from me.

[@theginganinjaofficial]

'Right hand swells leading to his wedding ring being cut off...' Aren't wedding rings worn on left hand? Wasn't his left hand swollen?

[@armyofninjas9055]

He was probably left handed dude.... Southpaw here...

[@danielwilliams1672]

If you look at the video, it is his left hand that's swollen, he just misspoke...

[@sithlordhibiscus9936]

Depends on your culture or preference. I consider the right hand to be the "wedding hand" (along with Germany, Greece and a bunch of others). Your left hand is the "engagement hand" wherein both partners switch the rights to the right hand at the time of the of vows and engagement rings aren't given at all - just simple bands (or whatever you choose). I"m fine with a $15 Amazon buy myself. lol

[@perryrose8843]

I worked at UNC from 1977 until it closed and became the glowing Mohegan Sun Casino. What isn't mentioned here is that the victim contaminated everything and everyone that he touched from the site to the hospital. That cleanup was just as bad as the site. The corporation has a history of skating out from under disasters they made. There is a site in Eastern New York state, one in Bridgeport, Ct, and they operated Hanford, Wa for a while. They lost the bid for an extension, on purpose, and skated away from that disaster like all the others. A lot of UNC workers became sick and died after it closed. This report, while pretty good, doesn't do it justice.

[@josephastier7421]

If you create the opportunity for a tragic misunderstanding, someone will eventually take you up on it.

[@cgirl111]

The LD50 in rem ( the dose which will kill 50% of those who receive it) is 450. He got at least 700.

[@jamesjoiner5766]

Did they ..."censor" his eyes in the photo or was that an actual physical object they placed on his eyes ?

[@SeedlingNL]

They were censored. His eyes were likely a gorey mess by then.

[@juanma4777]

They're censored. It's quite a common way of concealing a patient identity. Apparently eyes are among the most identifying features of a face, so unless you know the person beforehand very well, it confers anonymity while still allowing the picture to be shared in, say for example, medical literature.

[@spef7396]

Great vid bro, keep it up!

[@trespire]

As a structural technician in the IAF, we used trichlorothane as a solvent for cleaning parts. Out of all the solvents it was the best at cleaning. The fumes were strong but dissipated quickly, very volatile. Came in a big blue drum.

[@charlesalberti563]

When they paint over the effected areas ( floors ,walls) would it be beneficial to use the lead based paint ? Probably a dumb question but I know they use lead to protect against certain radiation

[@sarahamira5732]

I imagine the amount of lead in the paint wouldn't be enough to block any significant radiation, but it could perhaps be feasible for minimal contamination, not a dumb question at all I never wouldve thought of that