Chalk River - The First Nuclear Reactor Accident in History

[@geographicstravel]

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[@poorlydunbarvideos1472]

Simon: I dont live far from the new chalk river facility. Had I known I could have gotten exclusive footage of either the new facility or surroundings

[@nuflash]

Simon, thanks for this episode. My father was on shift when the second accident happened. I believe he was a recent hire, as he didn't have much in the way of safety training, resulting in him running about the facility, shutting down the ventilation system to prevent the spread of contamination to the site, without any PPE, (no mask or respirator). He went home with a very hot thyroid gland. He once mentioned that he knew his dreams were in colour since he could see the fuel glowing red in his dreams. In the 90's he had thyroid cancer (Hurthel cell) , and passed away in 2014 , after many surgeries to remove subsequent cancers. As a beneficiary I was unaware of the compensation program and thus missed out. I echo the comments of others, sure would have been nice if this program was a couple of decades earlier, that way he would have had some cash and the recognition.

[@itsjames69]

Hey really sorry to hear about your father. He was a hero. I know the country is in shambles right now but I strongly suggest you write your MP as well as whoever administered that program. There is a chance they will approve your case. You could also try asking the Canadian Armed Forces ombudsman or even minister of defence if they would support your request.

[@bradlevantis913]

Imagine being the accountant when someone pops in and says “hey, you up for trying to put out a radioactive core fire after your break?”

[@sheldonpetrie3706]

As a Canadian I had never heard of this, like ever, until very recently. The fact that the team was led by Jimmy Carter is just another notch in the incredible life of accomplishments for that man.

[@Sniperboy5551]

As an American, Jimmy Carter was a very mediocre President.

[@p0xus]

@@Sniperboy5551 I disagree

[@j_stach]

@@p0xus I disagree with your disagreement. That said in 2023... well

[@danielreuben1058]

I think Carter had done really great work with Habitat for Humanity, and other projects. He used the recognition of being a former president for good.

[@p0xus]

@@j_stach It was Carter that comissioned a report to study the effects of global warming. It was Reagan that promtply ignored it and did nothing. We now stare into the abyss of a catastrophicly changing climate and are rapidly loosing the ability to stop it. If Carter was given a second term we could have been in a very different place than now. He could have literally saved the world.

[@RottenAnimal]

When I was in college 46 years ago one of the teachers helped design Chalk River Nuclear plant. He had a masters from MIT. He was a great teacher, a nice guy and a genius.

[@SamSung-u5k]

Mother's cousin was a nuclear engineer who emigrated from South Africa to work in Pickering in 1970. Family and friends were investigated? Harassed etc by secret police. Looking for leverage to get him to stay. Genius and a great guy too. Worked sculpture of a fire breathing dragon for burning man and accompanied it.

[@NicoleKadey]

Thank you for covering this topic. My Grandfather was in the Canadian Military and was sent as part of the clean up team. I’m so glad this is finally coming to light.

[@jackdunster-x9b]

so was my uncle - he died of cancer....

[@NicoleKadey]

@@jackdunster-x9b my grandfather did as well. Likely a lot of those who went there did.

[@JimBiddle.]

So safety officer and the fate of the locality, comes down to 4 buttons? Making Homer's job in the Simpson's seem plausible.

[@davidmorin7939]

Art often imitates life...😉

[@ljenk5]

YESSSS HAHAHA 👍

[@paulbellingham3948]

Give that man a donut 😂

[@MichaelScarborough423]

The early days....the SL-1 reactor called for guys to manually lift the control rods out just the right amount, yet they needed to pull hard because the rod mechanism often stuck. Poor guys.

[@Iffy350]

@@MichaelScarborough423 Dude. Is that how Smithers Sr died?

[@amb163]

I drive through Chalk River/Deep River a couple of times a year, heading to Ottawa. I also grew up in Elliot Lake, Ontario, once the "uranium capital of the world", which likely supplied this reactor. Yet, I never knew about this incident before today. Yikes.

[@Bear-re5xm]

i live in the area and never heard of this either...

[@goldkellum1656]

Well y'all got some good conversation starters

[@TalRohan]

Governments are very good at covering up such incidents, there is a mine in the UK that is sealed up supposedly because the armed forces detonated a nuclear bomb in it but no one knows for sure due to the official secrets act... suffice to say no one can get into it.

[@tinaroberts5858]

Omfg! Seriously???

[@mariev3821]

Isnt there's a plaque near the ice cream shop on the highway

[@KingCrusoe]

I'm fascinated by how the operator had thought he said buttons 3+4, but actually said buttons 1+4, thus causing the control to input an incorrect command before the correction was able to be relayed. I work at a coal plant, so obviously not quite so dangerous, but whenever any operators or control make commands/requests to one another, there is always AT LEAST 1 repeat on either end before anything is actually clicked or changed so that the likelihood of that kind of mistake happening is nearly null. Some operators even repeat these things more than 1 to make extra sure. Lucky that this mistake was caught so soon, but also unfortunate that it was able to happen in the first place.

[@Drommund]

This was one of the incidents that caused repeat backs to be a standard for control of operations in many industries.

[@justinmckeiver7070]

In James Mahaffeys book, Nuclear Accidents, he notes the worker pushing g the buttons had to put down the phone to press the buttons. If he had been able to hold the phone, or have the operator on speaker, the accident may have been averted. There was some bad design in this facility, but luckily we learned.

[@gill998]

That's why 3 way communication is now standard. "Press buttons 1 and 4", "I understand you want me to press buttons 1 and 4", hopefully the response given is "wrong, I want to to press button 3 and 4" and then it starts all over again. This conversation decreases the chance of misunderstanding a direction and also slows the direction givers thoughts down enough that they hopefully catch any of their own mistakes.

[@nitronoah1265]

This was the very very early days of nuclear when the actual dangers of it were not yet understood and there weren’t any disasters to learn from. Today nuclear plants are FAR more safe than like you said a coal plant, because of the danger we now understand, the safety is best of the best (at least in developed nations like the US)

[@chillmonkey6782]

I think some degree of panic may have contributed to the error. That panic is perfectly understandable in a nuclear accident. Safety measures need to be idiot proof. You must engineer the human error quotient as completely out of the equation as you can.

[@jimbobur]

2:35 No it doesn't absorb the neutrons, it absorbs some of their kinetic energy. A neutron moderator slows down fast neutrons produced by fission reactions. This reduces their kinetic energy into a range that makes it more likely for them to trigger further fission reactions in the fuel.

[@spencerleava2502]

Simon, I do need to correct two major mistakes you made in the video. A moderator in a nuclear reactor slows neutrons, neutrons at different speeds have different probabilities of doing something (ie: fission, absorption ect) when they hit a nucleus. In simple terms, in a nuclear reactor it brings neutrons to the correct speed needed to allow fission to occur. The role of the moderator is not to absorb neutrons, or to slow a reaction: without a moderator a reaction cannot occur at lower enrichment levels. Heavy water is an ideal moderator specifically because it does not absorb neutrons easily. Using heavy water as the moderator is what actually allows CANDU reactors (the kind Canada uses for generating electricity) to use unenriched uranium as their fuel, and one of the safety features is that to stop the reaction all you need to do is add normal water to stop the reaction. How the reaction was actually stopped was that they drained the heavy water from the calandria: no moderator, no fission. I think this mistake stems from the fact that most reactors nowadays use normal "light" water as the moderator. Light water does also absorb neutrons, so there is a bit of a balancing act in how it affects the reaction. The neutron absorption of light water is also why light water reactors need to use enriched fuel. For these reactors, they have what is called a negative void coefficient, which means that if the water boils the reactor slows down: less water lower moderation. The NRX kept the heavy water used as the moderator, and the light water used for cooling separate which caused it to have a positive void coefficient, which means that if the cooling water boils the reaction speeds up. Less light water means less neutron absorption meaning the reaction speeds up. I know this can sound a lot like technobable, and to be fair I only have a basic understanding of nuclear reactors myself, but understanding the roles played by each component of a reactor is essential in understanding how nuclear accidents happen. I know I shouldn't volunteer others, but there is another youtuber whom I believe still lives in prague called Thunderf00t who I believe still lives in Prague as well who has worked with nuclear reactors. He is also another brit : P. Perhaps it may be worth firing a message when covering nuclear topics, he may be able to help you catch tricky errors when it comes to nuclear topics.

[@richardfortescue5583]

I was about to make these points, Spencer, before I saw your explanation. I would take slight issue with your point about void coefficient, however. NRX appears to have had a positive void coefficient, which I think we agree is (Chernobyl level) undesirable in a water cooled reactor. However, my foggy recollection is that SGHWR, in the UK, had a negative void coefficient, despite many common feature with NRX: vertical pressure tubes, light water cooled, calandria for the D2O moderator. It was a boiling water reactor, (clue in the name Steam Generating Heavy Water Reactor) the coolant boiled in the primary circuit (only circuit - the primary coolant was fed as saturated steam to the turbine). How could that be different despite the similarities in design? I don’t actually recall the key design features that made this so, but it is likely that the use of a ‘chemical shim’ (boric acid) in the moderator, the physical dimensions of the system and the use of enriched fuel were all factors in this. I worked on SGHWR for all of two months, so others may be able to make much better informed comments. One way CANDU gets around this by using D2O as the primary coolant, as well as the moderator - so in principle, any boiling in the pressure tubes will displace moderator giving a negative void coefficient.

[@kevinvilmont6061]

Look at the big brain on Brad! You got all that off Wikipedia? I'm just kidding you're clearly extremely well informed. Thanks for that. It was very interesting.

[@FatherDraven]

Twenty grand doesn't feel like enough compensation for a 50 year late program. They probably spent more money flying politicians about to discuss the idea than the entire program paid out.

[@Larken42]

Conveniently late enough for most to be either dead, or forgetful

[@louisemorgan3237]

Undoubtedly

[@ScubaSteveCanada]

They paid more to a trrorist.

[@CharlesReece-nr2wr]

It was McKay the gutless coward under harper. The same clowns who were giving vets one time payments when they still needed help....if it was harper it was for the benefit of the conservative government and no one else.

[@paulcooper9135]

Welcome to Canada.. these results are far too "normal" here.

[@tristanpritchard6273]

Cool video! I worked on the NRX and NRU decommissioning and it's a pretty cool facility to see in person. After the accident a lot of procedures were put in place to prevent a similar accident. The 1958 accident is pretty interesting when you start to look into the details of how it happened, it happened less than a year after the NRU went critical and it was the first time the operators had experienced a fuel failure.

[@johntrottier1162]

It took me a while a some research to understand what Simon was saying and how the accident occurred. The first thing I needed to understand is that even though the reactor was water cooled and moderated by heavy water, it's actual design was much more on par with the designs of the Hanford Reactors. In other words the fuel models were square Aluminum Cans with aluminum fuel tubes inside the cans. The space between the tubes was to be kept full of cooling water (normal H2O) pumped through each of the cans. This was river water is strictly for cooling and is NOT supposed to boil (the same as at Hanford). These cans sit is a pool of heavy water contained by the calandria (reactor vessel). Thus the heavy water replaces the graphite used in the Hanford reactors. The numerous horizontal control rods of the Hanford reactors were not needed because the output of the reactor was controlled by the level of heavy water in the calandria. The vertical rods performed the emergency safety function (as at Hanford) but also could be used to control what modules were going to receive enough neutrons to take part in the chain reaction. For this last test, the control rods were positioned to direct the neutron flux to the test item that was being irradiated. The reactor was running at a low power level controlled by the level of the Heavy Water. (sound familiar?) A maintenance man turned the wrong valves, which started raising the rods. The supervisor saw it, got the valves shut, but power was still rinsing. Pushing the wrong buttons just made it worse. The power surge cause the river water to boil inside the fuel cans. And just like Chernobyl, this reactor design has a Positive Temperature Coefficient. The water boiling created steam voids which created MORE reactivity in the core, which increased power, which increased boiling, until the elements melted and the Heavy Water was drained. The government agencies had a program of checking the river downstream for radioactivity. After the accident the found some samples with low levels of radioactivity. They labeled the samples as CRUD, for Chalk River Unidentified Deposit. The samples are long gone, but the term lives on in the US Nuclear Navy, where CRUD is the term for radioactive deposits found in primary piping.

[@martylost167]

Thank you for your explanation.

[@rolomaticz5009]

Yes, these are called CANDU reactors and there are still several of them in operation. There are 30 worldwide still in operation and 19 of them are in Canada.

[@BaloneySandwichWithKetchup]

@@rolomaticz5009 CANDU had generations. there are no gen 1 CANDU reactors in use.

[@cocomojoe8963]

Super weird. Recently discovered all your channels and been binging my way through. I’m from Deep River, right next to Chalk River, and both my parents worked at AECL, and my Uncle still does. I had done some reading about the accidents but hadn’t heard of the compensation efforts at all. My family all worked/work in the IT department, but I still remember them coming home wearing their dosimeters, and there was one time in my childhood when they tested the meltdown siren and that noise lives in my brain for eternity. Love your content, and thanks for spreading the word about this. I’m sure I must have met some of the workers who helped with the cleanup and I never had any idea.

[@kenkesler3087]

I saw this item just today (25 April 2023). A coincidence. I lived in Deep River from 1966 to 1969 with my mother, stepfather and brother. My stepfather (Vern Amunds) worked at the CRNL as an electronic engineer. Nothing about this piece of CRNL history was ever mentioned. There were, however, certain areas between Chalk River and Deep River where it was forbidden to go. Reasons for this were vague at best. I've sometimes wondered if my stepfather's sterility was caused by his exposure to long-term low-level radiation. I'm glad I only spent 3 years there, knowing what I know now. I live in Alberta.

[@robvannNS]

I have heard Lukemia incidents at McKenzie High School were very high..this would have been in the 80's and 90's.

[@pulchrare2]

Also from Deep River! Lived there from 1997 to 2005. My dad was military and my mom was an anthropology and historian, and she died at 29 from cancer. We'll never know if it was related, but I know cancer rates are pretty high in Deep.

[@adamfoster2121]

Thank you simon and to the gang for covering some local history :)

[@GuntherRommel]

been through many times on my way to and from Petawawa. Cute little place.

[@dlo111]

​@@GuntherRommel same.

[@21stCenturyPrep]

I actually live a town over from Chalk River and have many friends who work at the facility today. Great story and it's nice to see one of Whistle Boy's stories hit so close to home

[@Sevo-]

Wasn't it shut down in 2018? Or was operation haulted then?

[@justwillwastaken5626]

@@Sevo-i grew up in deep river area it is definitely still open

[@samking7213]

Not an accident. But it would be interesting to hear one on the Nuclear testing in Australia. In particular the nuclear Tank (a centurion tank that was placed near an explosion). Many Australian Servicemen who were used as labour during the testing were treated terribly when they started getting sick.

[@LaurieAnnCurry]

I’ve never heard of this, very interested

[@skwervin1]

@@LaurieAnnCurry Maralinga - Testing done by the UK and they told the govt. they had cleaned up, but when some scientists went into the area in the early 80s its was still super hot. Another time the UK stuffed us up...sigh

[@snakethepeg7828]

An Aussie and a legend👍 cheers mate, will look into it

[@skwervin1]

@snake thepeg there was a movie made about it in the mid 70s.... Ground Zero. Has some photos and film of the after effects on the local indigenous community, people going blind, cancers etc. Truly shocking stuff and this was when France was still doing tests in the Pacific and why the Rainbow Warrior was blown up by the French Secret service.

[@samking7213]

@@skwervin1 oh yes, Rainbow Warrior. That's worthy of an episode in its own right.

[@tkskagen]

I don't know what upsets me more, the 30 years of suffering, or the fact that it took almost another 20 years for compensation...

[@micahphilson]

Gotta love how government works. "Eh, we'll worry about that later." "Oh, people are getting upset now? Let's start talking about getting on that."

[@noobovsky420]

Welcome to Canada

[@allenlane3345]

Great episode! Thanks for shining light on this issue.

[@ianweniger6620]

Thanks for this report. I visited Chalk River in the late winter of 1979 on a high school field trip. It was the pride of the Cdn science establishment at that time. AECL had already established Cda as a world leader in nuclear medicine was fresh off developing the CANDU reactor as an export model for the third world. The Cdn govt was doing victory laps at the time after selling a couple of CANDUs to India. No one told us about these nuclear accidents but we all knew Jimmy Carter was a submarine captain who had done research at Chalk River. We were equipped with badges that contained pieces of photo film. Every other doorway, we put our hands into a toaster-like device that inspected us for radiation. And the other doorways had commissionaires who wanded us with Geiger counters and checked that the film in our badges hadn't started to expose--a trick they'd learned from Kodak back during the Trinity tests. As far as I know, none of us were exposed to enough radiation to cause early deaths. No one was freaked out when Three Mile Island happened. I didn't even get excited when we saw the actual reactor core in the deuterium swimming pool. We just felt honoured and lucky to have been permitted to visit a historically significant crown jewel of Canadian engineering, science and technology.

[@janetyeoman1544]

I did the student visit tour in 79 also. Always wondered about my exposure to radiation. Then got a job in Arctic doing exploration drilling for Uranium., lots of it up there. So far so good.

[@masondench2669]

I live about 1.5 hours away from chalk river and recently did some maintenance work on all of the warning sirens in town. I never knew of this accident before this. great video!!

[@hotelmag-a-lardo]

My father was posted to CFB Petawawa in 1959. I was 6 yrs. old. For three summers our family drove down a steep gravel road to a beach on the Ottawa River but we were never allowed to go swimming. I remember him telling me about the Chalk/Deep River nuclear power plants like it was yesterday.

[@zRxxBurnsy]

Nice to see a video of a place where I am familiar with. Thanks Simon for sharing this Canadian history, this truly made me appreciate the history of what I can call home as I have been living in the area for most of my life. Especially the people I see commute as I see them commute to work in Chalk River.

[@Squeezmo]

In Navy Nuclear Power, We called surface contamination: CRUD… after Chalk River Unidentified Discharge.

[@eldertrumpetgirl16]

Chalk River Unidentified Deposits. Discharge makes no sense for what it was describing. Also that's always been a rumor and never confirmed.

[@ffffffffffiji]

I’m from the area near chalk river, trust me when I say that lots of shady shit was covered up there over the years. Having said that, I doubt very much that that’s not true of every nuclear facility on the planet.

[@tgmccoy1556]

Jimmy Carter was a hero here.

[@Peter_S_]

Jimmy Carter has been a hero almost everywhere he has been. I salute that man.

[@christinearmington]

Always 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

[@chaosXP3RT]

Where was he a villain?

[@tgmccoy1556]

@@chaosXP3RT didn't imply that. I worked with a couple of nuke engineers who were ex Submariners who knew JC.

[@JoshuaTootell]

Ask Ronald Reagan ​@@chaosXP3RT

[@cmajor5605]

My grandfather was employed at Chalk River at this time. He and several colleagues were in hospital for radiation exposure after this incident. He died of brain cancer.

[@MrBiPauler]

So was my grandfather and he died of cancer too.

[@simonallard3770]

My grandfather was apart of the cleanup there too. Never got any compensation

[@Tara-Lynn1524]

My Grandfather was also there and died of cancer many years later

[@MWL4466]

My mother was born and raised in Chalk River. She was married by 1952 and had moved with my dad further south. The good people living in and around the area we quite proud of this facility. Thanks for this video.

[@charleschristner7123]

Jimmy Carter was a good man. I saw him speak in 2003 at a church convention, didn't know he helped clean up nuclear waste before i saw this.

[@ImpmanPDX]

Haha I thought this was a "Plainly Difficult" production. Fun to hear your/(writers) take on a nuclear disaster

[@Sing_A_Rebel_Song]

Surprised to find another Plainly Difficult listener here 😂 I thought the same thing at first lol

[@natecody3305]

I just knew it was Jimmy Carter you were alluding to. The guy just radiates heroism.

[@LaurieAnnCurry]

I see what you did there

[@rcrawford42]

Unless there's a bunny involved.

[@scottysgarage4393]

Worst president of the modern era...until Pedo Joe, anyway...

[@juandomingoperon828]

Pun intended ?

[@blakedurrant9399]

Clean-up and orphan source retrieval crews are wild. The coordination and staging that goes into something like that blows my mind every time.

[@jimrudolph1582]

Thank you and all your investigators who produced this amazing and detailed video. I live in Ontario have my whole life. I’ve always been proud of the contributions that chalk river has made to nuclear science. I was aware of the 52 accident but not 58 and certainly not in the detail provided here.

[@23rdGiant]

Great information, my next door neighbor started employment at AECL in 52' and told me the story about how he was at the hospital, during the first accident, expecting his first child and in 58' he helped "mop-up" the mess at the second accident, his name was Enard Neiman. He had 2 children and passed in 2016, at 90, his wife passed, in a Home, in April 2024 and i now wonder, if Enard's family ever gained the recognition there father deserved.

[@lannynavitka8949]

I'd never heard that story about Carter, but when you hinted at it in the intro, I knew it would be him. An incredible story!! What a contrast to today's guy. And to think he sold his farm and spent the last quarter decade building homes for the needy. Not someone to worship, but a decent and caring man.

[@EvanHT]

I’m actually so stoked you did a video on this.

[@Tara-Lynn1524]

My Grandfather was part of these cleanups and he told us stories as we grew up. I truly didn’t appreciate the severity of events until I was much older .

[@theonlyalexoliveira]

A grateful nation thank you Jimmy, he lived to be 100 and passed just a few days ago. A legend.

[@rickschlosser6793]

RIP Mr. Carter

[@toddzachary7318]

Seriously my favorite channel followed closely by biographics

[@Benson_aka_devils_advocate_88]

The History Guy, a channel here on YT, does a far better job in nearly every metric. In fact he even gives classes on how to be a more effective orator. Plus, seeing he's got an actual degree in history you'll come across far, far fewer mistakes.

[@toddzachary7318]

@@Benson_aka_devils_advocate_88 thanks I'll check it out i honestly enjoy Simon's personally and will always be a fan

[@jimrudolph1582]

@@Benson_aka_devils_advocate_88I also enjoy history guy. He does provide very detailed and correct information as does John I’d plainly difficult. All come at these topics in various ways. Any inaccuracies are usually small and are weeded out. Together they provide excellent coverage. Cheers

[@Benson_aka_devils_advocate_88]

@@jimrudolph1582 I love John's sense of humor!

[@animn7386]

Thank you for doing this piece; many have served silently

[@knife_knut]

Another fun fact regarding Chalk River. Used throughout the nuclear industry is a term called CRUD, referring to radioactive contamination/particles. This acronym means Chalk River Unidentified Deposits.

[@PhanieDaemonia]

This video is an almost word-for-word translation of an article published in the canadian magazine "Québec science" October-November 2021 edition. I hope the original author got recognition for her work!

[@draphix1]

Yep. Also, that was not Université de Montréal in the picture

[@dlo111]

Really? I thought Simon had writers. I'm going to check the sources, I'm sure credit would be given.

[@fireballninja01]

thank you for citing this

[@RottenAnimal]

The Candu reactor has 3 fail safe systems. 1 control rods. 2 poison injection. 3 moderator dump.

[@pamelamays4186]

Jimmy Earl, a legend for eight decades and counting.

[@FakeMoonRocks]

It was this radiation exposure that gave him his superpowers.

[@DavidL-ii7yn]

Long before joining the nuclear industry, I toured those buildings as a member of the public, including standing on top of one of those reactors. Interestingly, members of the nuclear industry have longer lifespans than the general public. This is likely nothing to do with radiation but a life-long focus on health and safety that is part of the nuclear culture.

[@davida1hiwaaynet]

Such respect for these folks who showed this amazing level of bravery.

[@timperry6948]

I visited this reactor back in the 80s as part of a school trip. Was very interesting. Probably my favorite school trip.

[@66kbm]

Not heard of this one before. Possibly one for the channels "Plainly Difficult" or "Kyle Hill" for a detailed explanation of the reasons why.

[@jimbobur]

True, and they might also do a better job of getting basic information right like what a neutron moderator does.

[@LadyCooper]

I was not expecting jumpscare Peter MacKay at 13:48 😂

[@Kdogg613]

Chalk River Laboratories is located in Chalk River ON. Deep River is the next town over. 15 km from Chalk River and is a different town all together.

[@zonavarbondagoo4074]

Great channel - thanks for covering all these industrial oddities and disasters.

[@micahphilson]

I knew Carter had a part in visiting and assessing Three Mile Island, but I didn't know he had prior experience cleaning up an accident with Chalk River! He consistently becomes more and more one of my favorite Navy Nukes of all time!

[@noahmontgomery9902]

It’s crazy how connected this story is to my life, i grew up really close by, the company i work for has huge contracts with CNL, and has some with previous management of the plant too

[@markboucher5776]

When I was in college in 1984, one of my classmates was from Deep River, ON and his father was a nuclear physicist at the Chalk River facility. His father gave us a very special tour. I can still remember feeling of standing on top of the NRX and NRU reactors.

[@kevinfoster1138]

WOW Geo team, I really hope this video does help spread the word! Good job on this one.

[@WamocIsolda]

Interesting video. Another subject that would make a good video is the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant in Colorado. Multiple radioactive contaminations and an FBI raid. Now it is a wildlife refuge and there is a recently built housing development nearby that a lot of people were against for fears of leftover contamination in the soil.

[@voivode2591]

Actually I found the incidents where the plutonium chips caused fires in the production areas interesting.

[@vanshankguitars]

Thank you Simon for publicizing laws that have come into effect in Canada in the last few years that have not made the news in any meaningful way here in Canada. Again, thanks for doing what our news networks have failed to do...

[@HeritageStacking]

My stepdad's father was an LT at the clean-up. He helped bury the reactor die of Cancer in 2005. He struggled with cancers for 50+ years over and over. He died without compensation.

[@andrewduff2048]

Three mile island wasn’t that bad but the private company mishandled it and misled the government who then confused the public. The breakdown in trust is its most enduring effect.

[@teressamirault4729]

My father was military and was part of the 1958 clean up, so I heard about this while growing up. It was the reason why when our class went there on a field trip my parents refused to let me go. My dad was one of the lucky ones, who at 87 this year, is still cancer free, although he missed out on the compensation because he had moved to Nova Scotia and was never told about it until it was too late to apply.

[@xm1193]

Congrats on the million Simon

[@barackobama9343]

I like to think, had the song existed back then, the clean-up crew would be blasting "We didn't start the FIRE" on an endless loop!

[@kenh9508]

Another great narration of history. Thank you

[@FarrellMcGovern]

I knew about the incidents at Chalk River...I live just downstream from it in Ottawa. I was very interested in the subject of nuclear energy in my late teens and considered a career in that field, as I was a huge physical fanboy. 🙂 I had read about the NRX and NRU reactors and their respective incidents. The were a big influence on the design of the CANDU reactors by AECL, and it is why the CANDU is probably the safest reactor designs out there.

[@saulthechicanootaku]

Hey, Simon. Good to see you cover another Geographics episode set in Canada, though, quite crazy it's one revolving around disaster, like with Halifax. One topic I have for a future episode relating to disaster is The Love Canal, as I've read it was one of the worst environmental disasters of the early 80s.

[@coconutsmarties]

Well my Love Canal has certainly been an environmental disaster lately

[@JaneDenton-t3u]

@@coconutsmarties they have pills/medicated creams for that.... or go the other direction and collect a yeast sample, feed and nurture the culture until you've got enough to finally start feeding it flour and water with a touch of honey/sugar and a pinch of salt and have the guaranteed SOUREST of Sourdough starter for making your own LITERALLY FROM A CRACK SCRATCH THEN FROM SCRATCH BATCH of THE SOUREST OF SOURDOUGH'S THATS EVER EXISTED!!

[@ronblack7870]

it was really created by govt forcing the company to sell them the land so they could put a school. the company told them it was a dump and was a bad idea but they insisted.

[@fireballninja01]

watch wtyp

[@FritzMoney]

I've been living about 25 minutes away from Chalk River since 2008 and had no idea this ever happened. Very interesting!

[@lynnharvard2927]

Holy shit, my dad actually worked there as a rad engineer a few years ago, and I never knew the history of the place. I just thought it was another old model of reactor that was being decommissioned for safety reasons really fascinating video!

[@renbro2592]

I did live an AECL community and knew all about this. Interesting to see your view. There also was a heavy water leak at Chalk River causing medical imaging issues across Canada.

[@shaldana]

I'd heard about this, many moons ago. When my dad's side of the family Immigrated to Canada in the 1840s, they settled in Chalk River. The last name of my family takes up a good chunk of the old graveyard, all the same last name. None of us live there anymore (well, there's not much left. It's been absorbed into Renfrew, I think?), but I've always wanted to go back and search archives.

[@joryclouthier]

Love hearing the stories of my area, work there often. I love the stories from staff. No reactors are in use currently though

[@RavenStewart-ih4xc]

I grew up in deep River, we were never taught about any of this! Always good to learn more about home.

[@aceheller11]

I grew up near Chalk (which is a completely separate town from Deep River), my dad grew up in Deep River and was only a few months old when this happened. His dad worked at the plant, I have no clue if he was there that day or not. I had never heard of this until a few years back when I was showing a lot of interest in nuclear disasters and other such things and my dad informed me. There is a yellow line on the walls where the water level was. It is still there to this day.

[@samanthabloggins1775]

I'm a Canadian growing up in Ontario, born in the 1950's and I have never heard of this! Thankyou for giving me some of my Canadian history!

[@FlickeringSoul]

From Ottawa and only vaguely knew about Chalk River when the news talked about the facility shutting down their medical radioisotopes production some years ago. And again when Carter's death was announced. Honestly never knew how close we were to something so much worse!

[@ElicBehexan]

I heard you say a future U.S. President and said: Jimmy Carter. I did not know it previously, but between all the presidents the U.S. has had, it was a pretty short list. Carter and the first Bush, but Navy was the better choice in my head, so I went with Carter.

[@ex-navyspook]

He was a nuclear officer on submarines, so he was my first choice.

[@ElicBehexan]

@@ex-navyspook That was certainly part of what was part of my reasoning. However, there were other parts. "W" was only 6 in 1952, only 7 years older than I am. Reagan was a busy actor in 1952, Nixon was already well into his political career. Clinton was also only 6, so that pretty much narrowed the field. I believe Bush (H.W.) had left the military after the war so that pretty much excluded him anyway. So, the field pretty much was narrowed down to 1. He might not have been considered a "great" President, but he certainly was better than many. Oh, and I'm not over looking LBJ... I live in Texas, I KNOW what LBJ was doing.

[@michaelplunkett8059]

First Bush also served in the U.S. Navy as an aviator.

[@ElicBehexan]

@@michaelplunkett8059 but flyers aren't really in the same sort of field as sailors. Besides, in 1952, "H.W." was already a father and in the oil biz. If you didn't notice, I did say in my response to @ex-navyspook8766 I'm in Texas. Funny story, when "W" ran for Governor of Texas, a rabid Republican friend wondered why the former President would step down to be a Governor, I had to point out that it was "H.W.'s" son.

[@ex-navyspook]

@@michaelplunkett8059 Yup, we know (Bush got shot down in 1944...got the DFC for his actions in that battle and subsequent downing, too), but I think I'd trust the Navy nuclear officer to help clean up a nuclear disaster, as opposed to a Naval pilot.

[@debbieguitor1745]

I live in Ottawa and while I had heard of this incident I didn’t know many details. Thanks for this video.

[@johncgibson4720]

Wow. Thanks to this episode. I didn't know Jimmy Carter is such an admirable man until now. Really excellent work.

[@vernonfindlay1314]

Peter Mackay, my neighbor and went to school with the family. His middle name Gordon,his grandfather. Peter,and his father Elmer was our member of parliament. Dad went to school with his Dad,Elmer,good family. Thanks for the video, more Canadian history never heard off.

[@brentsutherland6385]

My aunt worked as an intern at the Chalk River accident when she was right out of medical school. No; she did not meet Jimmy Carter-he was just another guy on site at the time. However, she told me that when she started her own GP practice back in the day-there were men who walked out as soon as they realized the doctor was a woman!

[@danb6398]

My father and most of my childhood friends fathers were involved in the cleanup (1958). Watching the Fukushima explosions on the news with my dad, he commented,” That’s nothing, we did that in the 50’s.” Lived to be 93 when he passed.

[@Floydie88]

Deep River is a separate town a few KMs West - the plant is located in Chalk River

[@krisjones74]

Actually, although the road to the main entrance is in Chalk River, the plant itself is inside Deep River town limits.

[@jimconnelly816]

Good work brother and very well commentated.

[@michaeldowson6988]

My family has worked in our energy sector for a couple of generations, so this event was no secret.

[@Karlylite1]

my mother side is from chalk River and own farmland there for many years. My mother worked there, she still alive and well, but I also have other family members who work there, two of which have passed away from cancers, along with my grandmother who passed quickly from cancer and lived a couple kilometres away.

[@NoknOnDors]

Insane to think I'm learning of this from a KZbin video, long after the deadlines have passed. Because I know if called for volunteers, I would be the first to show up to help clean a nuclear accident in my area. And knowing it would be decades before I could get any help from the government and I would have to tell my wife, that I'm going to die young of cancer would be heartwrenching.

[@stanislavkostarnov2157]

correction: Chalk River has categorically caused more injuries than the series of accidents at Fukushima-Daichi, if for no other reason, than for the fact many more people were involved in the handling of the cleanup... though irradiating a sizable area of ocean and land already devestated by the Tsunami, Fukushima usually lists 3 confirmed irradiated workers... *(unnofficially, it can be estimated probably a dozen or so recieved lesser doses not regestered or needing immediate attention) this compared to over 50 people certainly effected by the Chalk River Disaster.

[@a_man_named_daaave]

Right on time for my break! Cheers

[@kevingehon3028]

Renfrew county not Renfroe my dad used to work for aecl other site in pinawa mb the original candu reactor site

[@AliOfBaba]

A Vanport video could be really cool. My grandparents told some crazy stories of the whole creation and destruction of that community.

[@patrickdegenaar9495]

Moderation is to slow down the neutrons as the nuclear reaction works better with slower neutrons. Control rods on the other hand are to soak up excess neutrons to control the reaction rate and prevent a runaway reaction. Otherwise great video, as usual.😁

[@kendellstewart2090]

Well done on this episode - hope the beneficiaries receive the compensation

[@EvanHT]

I spray foamed the entire plant a few years back while they were renovating. It was an unreal cool experience.

[@MrBiPauler]

Closed or open cell foam?

[@Moremetal..]

I lived in Chalk River Ont. while stationed at CFB Petawawa....i had heard there was a constant leak on a reactor there...

[@chefyffar9827]

You heard wrong lol

[@GreenspaceGeckos]

As the person who samples the groundwater wells from Baggs rd landfill site some of the wells are on the nuclear site property so trust me there is nothing truly leaking into the environment at least on the chalk river town side, I know a bit more but it's not public available information so all I can say it's within reason and is safe.

[@Dylan-hh7vo]

I have been on top of the NRX reactor. It was successfully cleaned up and operated until the mid-90s. It’s currently in decommissioning

[@AlanTheBeast100]

RIP Jimmy Carter - regrettably this video does not go nearly far enough in describing the extent and importance of his role. He was told that he would have a high probability of cancer and likely would not have any children ...

[@eliasalmeida5245]

Damn, the quality of filming and audio was much, much better on your older videos. That Kowloon Walled city video is a masterpiece.

[@sage5296]

Honestly it's impressive that they managed to contain the radioactivity so well. Mad respect for those civilians and servicemen who risked their lives and health for this, and we owe it to them that it's only them we're talking about and not a whole province of people

[@Axonteer]

Will you do a video about the meltdown we had in our swiss reseach / test reactor too? Would like to get that info out. Most have forgotten by now

[@CharlesReece-nr2wr]

I was in the army with a fellow who was at Chalk River as a recruit in the Canadian Gurards out of Petawawa. I was standing with him in Germany in Mortar platoon in Baden in 3 RCR when he got the letter informing him of something about Chalk River and his participation. He told us they were in the water with straw sopping up something. He has since passed.

[@rolomaticz5009]

And to this day, there's no discussion about why Fukushima was allowed to put the crucial backup gensets in a vulnerable place when they could have easily installed the backups way up the hillside safe from 100 meter waves. The SCRAMED reactors would have been safe with just 1 week of cooldown water supply. That one week would have also saved the spent fuel tanks as they were damaged from the hydrogen explosion and had survived the quake and tsunami wave. Tokyo Power CO made a huge mistake just to save some short run wire up the hill for the backup cooling gensets.