A Brief History of: The Fermi 1 Reactor Meltdown (Short Documentary)

#Atomichistory #Nuclear
Liquid sodium reactors have a sordid history, as many have experienced some kind of incident.
A partial meltdown at Fermi Unit 1 in Michigan would fuel the fire of the anti nuclear movement however unlike many nuclear events, the danger to the public was negligible.
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Sources:
1.www.osti.gov/s...
2.large.stanford....
3.www.nrc.gov/in...
4.www.osti.gov/s...
5.allthingsnucle...

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Hello I hope you enjoyed the video. Do you have any suggestions for future subjects?

[@kennethdailey7660]

The Trojan nuclear power plant.

[@JDRLawrence]

The chernobyl unit 1 partial meltdown

[@yagiotoko2110]

Piper Alpha

[@Scott0047]

The Tianjin Explosion in 2015. Not nuclear related, but an interesting disaster to cover.

[@2.7petabytes]

Yes!! The Tybee Island Nuke! Pretty interesting story! Check it out

[@g.k.1669]

On coffee break here at work. Video of Fermi 1 shows up. I gaze up and look upon the Fermi 1 building about 200 yards away. Now that is ironic.

[@estosgarage486]

There has never, nor will there ever be enough money to complete decommissioning.. 😪

[@johnjones5354]

When I started at DTE (1984) there were still a lot of Fermi 1 people around. They all said about the same thing, the entire incident was about as exciting as watching grass grow. I worked from time to time at unit 1, always very interesting. The control room was mostly intact when I started.

[@EchoChamberMedia]

Small world I pass by fermi all the time and have to be by the gate sometimes

[@slipstreamxr3763]

I actually live relatively close to Fermilab here in Batavia, IL.

[@Jnor116]

I would change jobs. Fermi is not a safe plant by any means. They are finding issues at that nuclear plant on a fairly regular basis.

[@tonytwoshoes1951]

I always love the little animated sections with text bubbles and stuff.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

😬

[@DisheveledSuccess]

"This isn't the time to be thinking about that" GASP It wasn't interference, it was sentience

[@gwsmith4872]

Dude's hilarious, the comments always make me lol.

[@MiTBender]

“Am I gonna get fired?” “I dunno, computer.”

[@TheSoonToBePurgedJackMeHoff55]

Me too. It really adds some levity to the videos, along with some witty qibs and remarks by the narrator.

[@nooblangpoo]

>We almost lost detroit Even detroit isn't safe from detroit.

[@neuralmute]

Detroit isn't safe, period. It's Detroit.

[@sageg58]

Fuckers stole detroit Can't have shit in detroit

[@Jodonho]

"Panic in Detroit "

[@fixedguitar47]

I say we turn Detroit into the worlds largest paintball arena! Detroit’s devastated area should be made into “Fort Detroit” by the United States Army. It would be an ideal urban training ground.

[@neuralmute]

@@fixedguitar47 Even better, we just charge people to play paintball there! It would be awesome!

[@Olliethelabradane]

I never realized just how many nuclear and radiological accidents there have been. I enjoy your videos. They are very well done and informative.

[@fixedguitar47]

There are WAY worse things that happen at coal and natural gas power plants. But if it doesn’t use the word “nuclear” the media doesn’t care!

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Very true take the Aberfan for example that was really disastrous

[@fixedguitar47]

Plainly Difficult - Was “nuclear” in any way involved? NO! Ok it’s all good then! And Remember, there was only ONE boat tragedy, that was the Titanic. Even though there were worse ones THAT DOESN’T MATTER! The media doesn’t care. All accidents have to fit into a SPECIFIC narrative.

[@tin2001]

The list of nuclear incidents is quite long... Which the media and lovbyists sometimes use as a reason for not having nuclear power plants in places (like Australia - we have a ban on them still I think). However if you read the list, quite a lot of them are nothing-burgers, and almost all the dangerous ones were decades ago - almost as if technology has advanced and lessons have been learnt.

[@kirkc9643]

Sodium metal is scary enough without also being molten. And under pressure. And radioactive. O.o

[@neuralmute]

Right? A high-school friend of mine blew up a school toilet with a nice chunk of sodium. It was both amazing and terrifying. (He's an Emmy winning SFX guy now.)

[@Jodonho]

Since boiling point of sodium is 1621 Degrees Fahrenheit, you don't need to pressurize the coolant to prevent boiling. Since the melting point of sodium is 208 Degrees Fahrenheit, you will struggle to keep the coolant from freezing.

[@nemo5654]

@@Jodonho Sodium, in this application, is often alloyed with potassium to form a eutectic that is liquid at room temperature.

[@linuspoindexter106]

@@nemo5654 And NaK is even scarier than sodium.

[@nemo5654]

@@linuspoindexter106 Not really, behaves pretty similarly under most conditions.

[@musicwv]

Nice video as always. I was surprised you didn’t mention that the plate that caused the issue was a secondary addition to the reactor that wasn’t properly documented or updated on equipment specifications. One of the biggest issues with this particular atomic accident was the fact that they couldn’t figure out what was at fault because they didn’t have proper documentation of the last minute additions made to the coolant system.

[@sct913]

At one point, the media speculated that the "mystery piece" of metal was an empty beer can that had somehow wound up in the bottom of the reactor and been flattened due to the pressure and action of the liquid coolant rushing across it.

[@musicwv]

@@sct913 Yeah... I have a hard time believing that an aluminum can would survive in that environment for any amount of time, but its fun to think those guys were just getting lit while building a nuke reactor.

[@barneyrubble4293]

The fearmongering from this event is ridiculous when you compare it to the handling of other radiological events that you've covered. They handled it pretty much exactly how you'd want to and they learned alot to potentially improve the design. The work that you're doing by putting these documentaries together is critical in teaching people about the realities of nuclear power.

[@Cherry-bq4oh]

ZOMG WE ALMOST LOST DETROIT!!!11!!

[@jovetj]

@@Cherry-bq4oh In hindsight, would that really be a bad thing?

[@charleshall6357]

You realize the waste from this still sits on the shores of Lake Erie? While these plants are privately owned and they make billion, when they shut they just leave all the spent fuel on our shores for us to dispose of? After we paid for the power? There is no place or way to get rid of spent nuclear fuel.

[@barneyrubble4293]

@@charleshall6357 Then that is a failure of government, one of a countless number. The waste can be contained, the problem is no one is paying for it. That doesn't mean we should abandon nuclear power. It means we should hold our government to a higher standard and that it in turn should hold those corporations to the highest standard.

[@charleshall6357]

@@barneyrubble4293 you do understand that there is no way to dispose of spent nuclear fuel no? They just pile it up outside the plant in a field and leave it there?

[@dreadpenguinlord340]

Especially compared to events in your other documentaries, it really looks like this incident was handled pretty competently

[@kristinarain9098]

They avoided the accident by not having a shift change at the most crucial moment of catching onto what was happening. They also got qualified people to do their jobs Not students who graduated from the Hollywood Upstairs Nuclear Chemistry non-accreddited school of Accredited Operators

[@advena996]

Right? I'm so proud of these people-. After listening to other videos on this channel I'm so pleasantly surprised that they contained this one so well!

[@ChristmasCrustacean1]

I was waiting for them to pull the control rods instead of scramming and then they scrammed and I was happy.

[@Laura-dj1ml]

@@ChristmasCrustacean1 they're not Soviet, they were actually trained and properly informed of emergency protocols

[@HercadosP]

@@Laura-dj1ml Who cares snowflake

[@Laura-dj1ml]

@@HercadosP lol

[@zolikoff]

- Reactor operates for no issues for 50 years providing clean carbon free electricity - Public: reactor? what reactor? we just get our electricity from wall socket lol! ... - Reactor has technical issue which results in absolutely zero external impact - Public: shut down all nuclear power now!!!!

[@derlurje1348]

Karen's dammit

[@blitzmom2674]

What do you mean, 50 years? Fermi 1 melted down during testing to full power.

[@dylanpresidafonseca2545]

@@blitzmom2674 they're not the same reactor.

[@90six90]

@@blitzmom2674 Fermi 2 is still operational. In fact, it's currently in the process of returning to full power after a lengthy maintenance outage right this moment.

[@mizz1414]

>carbon clean yes, but what about the waste? You can't just bury it underground and let it seep into the soil...

[@Tiniuc]

"We almost lost detroit" **looks at detroit now**

[@blackhawks81H]

@DANIEL NORMAN look at Detroit in 1940 vs Hiroshima in 1940... Then look at them both now. Imagine you didn't know anything about WW2 and had to guess which one got hit by an atomic bomb.. You'd guess wrong 100 percent of the time.

[@iii566]

As somebody from Michigan, yeah... God damn well wanted to prevent Detroit becoming Detroit

[@princeofcupspoc9073]

This shouldn't be called a "reactor screw up." One of the important points of running an experimental reactor is to find out just how it functions. They collected much information, and then called it a day. Agreed that there should have been a decommissioning plan, but that's not an immediate danger.

[@KathrynsWorldWildfireTracking]

Right! Get this man to the infirmary! He's hysterical!

[@Tk3997]

Meltdowns aren't part of running a basically full sized experimental reactor. In small scale highly isolated proof of concept work maybe, but not one what was effectively a full scale, commercial unit. You might expect some hiccups regarding procedures and operation, stuff you'd need to note in manuals going forward, but at NO point should that progress into physical damage to the reactor core. At this stage in development this kind of major failure is neither expected or acceptable and certainly constitutes a screw up.

[@jdjk7]

A reactor is an engineered thing. You really have to be able to foresee exactly how it's going to work and what could possibly go wrong, and account for those things. If you don't, you're basically "testing in prod"-- something any programmer will tell you is an awful idea.

[@MrJamright]

"We almost lost Detroit" yet the safety measures worked like they should and the people working the plant did their jobs properly. A piece broke off only after the reactor had already been running for a long period of time.

[@blitzmom2674]

No it had not been running for a long period of time. The reactor was still being tested in the run up to full power.

[@pseudotasuki]

@@blitzmom2674 It was a prototype. The reactor had been in operation for over three years when the accident occurred.

[@burtony3]

"Somebody" called the local police and suggested an evacuation would be needed, but never really had civil defense plan in place. That is the origin of the tagline.

[@MrJamright]

@@burtony3 didn't know that. That you for the information.

[@LeeryMuscrat]

Damn. Maybe next time

[@kenanderson1362]

Awesome video! I've never heard about this meltdown before, and this was greatly informative as usual. I really hope you'll be able to cover the Cecil Kelly incident sometime!

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you!

[@colinmartin9797]

Your intro always reminds me that the only thing I miss about slide projection machines is the noise they made. They blew otherwise.

[@Roberto9696-q7s]

When nothing else was available, they were pretty cool machines

[@snapcutter9596]

@@Roberto9696-q7s Remember when spools of microfish were State of the art. In document control?

[@thevinstigator2511]

I immediately clicked on this video when I saw it! I live in my hometown Monroe, MI (home of the Fermi reactors) and part of the reason I watch your videos is my fascination of nuclear reactors, my father worked at Fermi-1 and after the meltdown worked later on at Fermi-2 as a security guard and my grandmother worked at a local (now discontinued) coal plant. I knew only some knowledge of the incident (coolant was blocked by a dislodged part) and I'm so glad I can count on your videos to go into detail. Our entire district is practically built around these reactors, my school district came into existence because of the community they created, so its awesome to see something about this involving your home town. I may myself later on work at Fermi-2! You can see the steam-stacks wherever you go, it feels cool to know the plant your power comes from. Love your videos, keep up the fascinating work, A boy in his nuclear home town!

[@lostinspace1036]

That's crazy, my father worked in the plants too!! I lived in Newport by North Elementary, very close.

[@williamAngel75]

If you live in monroe still its crazy how much impact Fermi has on the community here ( i am also from, live and work here)... By 75 they have recently built 2 and working on a 3rd hotel, along with the 3 that already are in that same half mile, just to fulfill demand of dte workers and the occasional out of town corporate ppl that go to yengfeng... But i never knew this story just knew the siren test every month for a fermi issue if it ever happened

[@thevinstigator2511]

@@williamAngel75 Right its crazy, all the new buildings they are putting in!

[@thevinstigator2511]

@@lostinspace1036 Ah I went to Jefferson, good to know!

[@jeffbrownstain]

Dont stay in monroe your entire life. Please..

[@octosalias5785]

I'm glowing, is it the radiation or Plainly Difficult notification?

[@lydiagalantmotherf]

Both.

[@AthensAtWork]

Another great video! I have a suggestion, but the story is huge, how about Rocky Flats? I live near the old facility and the history is a horror story. Keep up the great work

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you! Thanks for the suggestion

[@VanquisherUSMC]

That would be fantastic! I've lived in the Golden and Lakewood area since about 85. Bad bad things happened there!

[@henryfleischer404]

I'd also like to see a video on this, because I've never heard about it.

[@betsysingh-anand3228]

Agree! Rocky Flats would be a great one!

[@paulsymons562]

@@VanquisherUSMC i

[@TinHatRanch]

Wow. To think we could’ve gotten rid of Detroit way back in the 60’s. I️ guess that was just wishful thinking.

[@petermuller6658]

A destroyed Detroit would have saved so many lives over the years.

[@KoreaMojo]

WTH

[@hauntedshadowslegacy2826]

Reactor: (melts 3% of its fuel) Some 'opportunists': "OMG we all almost DIED! Buy my book/song about it."

[@iviaverick52]

"almost lost detroit" Me: "not great, not terrible"

[@johnleeson6946]

Detroit was lost a long time ago! Slay me as you wish... Thank you Unions and Democrat/Liberal Policies for destroying a great city...

[@gtasanandreascluckinbell]

Back then, detroit was important

[@mrbwa1]

When you get to EBR-1, let me know if you need any modern pics of the site. I should have a few floating around.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you! Aren’t the HTRE no2 & no3 are on display outside

[@mrbwa1]

@@PlainlyDifficult I believe it's 1 &3. Have pics of those and of the crazy shielded locomotive used for towing stuff around the site.

[@TheMTBhunter]

This the most tame and well responded to meltdown I think youve covered yet

[@chrisperry7963]

Lot of solid, subtle little references in this, very entertaining! Great job as always!

[@Chironex_Fleckeri]

Got an idea to throw out there. How about some Broken Arrow incidents? Or just general nuclear weapon mishandling incidents. You're doing great work here!

[@robertoskeetrech3206]

You do an excellent job of making an informative and accurate, brief description of reactor incidents. Bravo!

[@PlainlyDifficult]

thank you

[@prplprince8730]

I randomly stumbled across your videos a few weeks ago and now watch a couple during lunch every day. A great learning experience

[@stephenhanley2563]

Very cool learning about this especially since I live directly next door to fermi 2. Always wanted more info on fermi 1. Thank you for the effort you put into this

[@off_mah_lawn2074]

Wow finally a meltdown that was actually handled responsibly by properly trained operators!!

[@lostinspace1036]

Love this because I grew up in this town, my father used to work in the fermi 2 building but mostly in the newer Detroit Edison building with the cooling towers. Went as a field trip in middle school too!

[@williamAngel75]

Did you go into the cooling tower?? I remember that field trip from my sodt elementary days and i was so excited as a kid to go

[@KingLoon3y]

I work in Health & Safety, I really find this investigations so informative the learning for future is crazy. You have these very well put together and it’s incredibly interesting!! Did you look at any of the industrial accidents or failures such as BP or Monsanto or any of those large plants? Crazy chemical’s released some deadly incidents however all preventable.

[@Violet_chan4499]

To be honest I hate anti-nuclear movement because of just removing the safest power production it’s a shame that people are so not educated on this type of industry if people were actually to get educated and actually understand the actual health and risk of radiation instead of the fantasy stuff you get in the movies and dumb documentaries it wouldn’t be that way Thank you for making these videos and I appreciate the amount of work and effort and knowledge that comes with these videos greatly appreciate it

[@verstumfung43]

I had the opportunity to go into the Fermi 1 Containment Dome back in 1999. Got to see the rotating shield plug. Very cool to see in person.

[@mikehaynes85]

I grew up there so I was really hoping that you’d cover this. We talked about this all the time in Monroe.

[@adangerousboy]

Fun fact: I lived and worked in Monroe for many years, and they eventually DID get a Fermi-3, but it's literally just the name of a mini-mart off I-75 exit 21

[@aaron50snickers79]

I was up in Monroe county as a part of a survey and we were in a neighborhood near it. As we were working the alarms went off and it wasn't the noon sirens. It was a alarm for an intruder and loudspeakers were telling the intruder to turn around now and we realized it was some idiot boating who got too close. The plant threatened the boater with sending the cost guard out.

[@motrhead69]

@@aaron50snickers79 lol ...I'm in visual sighting of these ugly cooling towers,and mostly in the warm months the boaters get too close and the warning recorded message sounds over and over again....they need to put .50 cal positions with shoot to kill orders THEN people wont get close.

[@JamesMcGillis]

When I was a student at UCLA in the late 1960's, it was rumored that there was an uncontained nuclear reactor in the Engineering Building. I never heard more about it, other than it was decommissioned and removed (?) at a later date. A nuclear reactor without a containment vessel in the middle of a major university... really?

[@Waldemarvonanhalt]

Usually when talking about "containment" with regards to reactors, that means there isn't a reinforced concrete bunker constructed over the building containing it. The first ever successful reactor was also at a university IIRC, constructed out of bricks.

[@scrambledmandible]

@@Waldemarvonanhalt In fact I'm pretty sure UCLA was that university, or at least one of them. Remember reading it in a nuclear history book but it's been a while

[@SimonBauer7]

nowadays most research reactors at universities are Swimmingpool reactors, so even if the reactor fails, the huge amount of coolant just sucks up the heat.

[@notapplicable6611]

Seeing thus series uploaded is always a treat thanks !

[@AB-80X]

The point of the conical flow guide was not to direct coolant upwards. The point of the conical flow guide was to disperse the fuel in case of a meltdown, which would render the mass sub-critical. An interesting addendum to the Zirconium sheets, is that they were added after the design was approved and they were in fact more of an afterthought that had not been researched. To begin with, it was thought that someone had left an empty beer can in the core assembly during installation. It wasn't until the debris was retrieved that they realized what it was. The cone should never have been clad with the Zirconium as it was in fact not even needed.

[@kelleybrown1666]

Nerding out now! Keep up the good work.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@stephenhatch7198]

I took part in the Fermi 1 decommission and worked with some amazing people in that project spent 5 years there. Won't ever forget it.

[@homeofthegooddeal]

Why is it still there? I'm not denying what you have said just curious

[@gyromurphy]

Another great story! I seriously can't get enough of your videos

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you!

[@landmineremover5676]

I live 10 min away from this place never heard about this thank you great work as always

[@Jablicek]

Had to judiciously pause to read dialogue between sentient computer and bemused operator. Absolutely worth it.

[@shetto]

sounds like someone bought a thesaurus 🤔

[@pepe6666]

thanks mate. ripper video as always. i get kicks out of watching these videos. i been learning about nuclear stuff.

[@Moon_Dog_]

Dude I love this channel. Always interesting and well done. Deserve far more subs!

[@DistortionSociety]

I love the fact there are so many youtube videos about a power plant that is quite literally in my back yard

[@alittlebitintellectual7361]

There is Something i wanted to ask for a long time. When youve finished a "chapter" there is always those white and black bars at the top right. Why ? For the Algorithm to put in an ad?

[@tin2001]

They're cue dots (or cue markers). The UK used to use them to indicate breaks were coming up. I don't think they serve any purpose here other than nostalgia.... As far as I'm aware, no one in the UK uses them anymore, though the marks are still embedded into older TV shows so still appear when rebroadcast today.

[@g.k.1669]

David Parry- Should I discontinue using deodorant and switch to salt & pepper?

[@mpeg2tom]

I didn't realize these cue marks existed! In the US, we use SCTE 35 markers out-of-band (although at times DTMF tones in audio have been used). Here are some ITV cue marks: kzbin.info/www/bejne/b53LXo2krLSHqKM

[@alittlebitintellectual7361]

More often than not the algorithm Puts an ad after these markers. But it cant be the algorith actually uses them... So yeah cue markers as nostalgia. Thanks

[@crispkreme]

You should do the Davis-Besse Reactor Head incident.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

thanks for the suggestion

[@neuralmute]

Could you do a video about Fermi II now, and its multitude of screw ups, mistakes, and especially the Christmas meltdown? I grew up near there, and have fond memories of it being a constant potential disaster in the making in the back of my mind...

[@blitzmom2674]

I'd like to see that too. In "We Almost Lost Detroit", it was said by a resident that fought the first plant that construction wise, Fermi II was even worse, with leaking concrete and other issues. It was a PWR, though, so less complicated than Fermi 1. I enjoyed this video, but even if the damage to Fermi 1 was limited, and there was little radiation leaked off site, I still think it was a terrible accident. The use of liquid sodium, which can explode on contact with air or water, in a nuclear reactor, just seems incredibly reckless to me. All it takes is one broken weld for a disaster, and how common is a broken weld or pipe? From what I remember of the book, they had a leakage and explosion when they were testing the sodium coolant before the nuclear fuel was even loaded.

[@johnjones5354]

Just exactly WHAT "Christmas Meltdown" are you referring to? I worked at Fermi 2 for 31 years, and never experienced any fuel melting incidents. Not a single one. On Christmas day 1993, the main turbine suffered a blade failure, causing the plant to experience an emergency shutdown, and resulting in significant damage to the non nuclear side of the plant, but there was absolutely no core damage. If you have memories of a constant potential disaster in the making in the back of your mind, then I suggest that there is plenty of room for them, as it appears that your "mind" is otherwise empty.

[@johnjones5354]

@@blitzmom2674 I worked at Fermi 2 for 31 years, and knew many people who were at Fermi 1 during the incident. They all said that the entire thing was almost as exciting as watching paint dry. I have read the book in question, both before and since I started working there, and it was, and remains, a bunch of overhyped BS.

[@blitzmom2674]

@@johnjones5354 I guess they would say that, wouldn't they? Just like the "experts" on Fukushima kept saying a meltdown was impossible. At Detroit, the fuel still melted in an accident that was never supposed to be possible. It certainly wasn't an easy or risk free job to get the damaged fuel elements out of the reactor, so I doubt it was like watching paint dry, even though it was, by necessity, a very slow process.

[@johnjones5354]

@@blitzmom2674 I guess you were there, since you are such an expert. I only have 31 years on the site to rely on, so I guess I know nothing.

[@slick4401]

The alarms of every nuclear reactor in the world should have the soundtrack of this channel's title sequence.

[@williamdunnamjr972]

Good morning. Another great @plainly difficult nuclear video👍 our fav. But I enjoy all your videos

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you!!

[@lukelevangie]

I’ve lived in the metro Detroit area my whole life and I’ve never heard this crazy story. Thanks for sharing the knowledge

[@wolfcatsden]

can you look into of of the Canadian reactors and refineries

[@josephastier7421]

"We almost lost Detroit, but somehow messed up our calculations"

[@mjgasiecki]

Thanks for the video. I have lived in Newport MI since 1996 and always wondered what happened.

[@garrydavis3475]

Plainly amazing job as usual

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you!

[@midwesturbex7762]

Great video. I live in Monroe County and have read the book many times

[@Mizzle420420]

Fermi is super famous around where I live, I'm one town over from Fermi Lab in Batavia Illinois which is an underground facility with a giant particle accelerator. He also made his two first experimental nuclear reactors in Chicago under the bleachers of the college football stadium I believe, I think they were the first two nuclear power generators in the world (this was around the time he was working on the atom bomb during WW2) now they are buried in the woods in Palos Park or Palos Hills Illinois because they failed and were releasing dangerous radiation. If you get a chance you should do a video on the Fermi Lab or the two reactors.

[@shayamaddex996]

I was born at UChicago hospital, about a block away from the site of Fermi's original reactor. There's a monument nearby, as well as a research building named after him on campus.

[@rwdplz1]

A breeder reactor near Detroit? Maybe that was why David Hahn was interested in that design?

[@fakenews_scientist]

So my grandfather was part of this team that went into and repaired the reactor. I recently discovered all the paperwork (training materials and extremely dark humor about dying) given to the team. I'll gladly share additional information

[@UncoordinatedPixie]

I love the videos. They’re well done and educational. What I love even more are the cartoon graphics like the Ah shit one. Thanks for the laugh.

[@skittyrocks]

Seems like this was one incident handled pretty quickly. Neat!

[@_clapped740i6]

It was also a tiny reactor

[@ZGryphon]

As an aside, John G. Fuller also wrote a book entitled _The Ghost of Flight 401,_ which purported that Eastern Air Lines L-1011s that received parts salvaged from the wreckage of N310EA (which crashed in the Everglades in 1972, while operating the eponymous Flight 401 from New York to Miami) were haunted by the original aircraft's crew. This should tell you something about how scientific his claim that "we almost lost Detroit" was, if the style of the cover art wasn't enough of a clue.

[@jefferyindorf699]

John G Fuller wrote some very entertaining books, but if you wanted facts, basic science, or engineering, you will never find it in his books.

[@RkEr-hd3xg]

I know you usually like to cover nuclear incidents but If you ever get the chance I think the blunderous journey of the Russian second pacific squadron would fit in this channel quite nicely.

[@jefferyindorf699]

Drachinifel has covered that quite well.

[@djwilson48625]

I worked there in 1997. Fermi 1 was still intact. The old control room was pretty cool. We used to hot rod the maintenance trucks around the cooling towers, and just wander around the site when we had spare time. When they installed new offices in the OSB building, they threw out tons of shit, including old "blast danger zone" maps... I'm 180 miles away now, and still in that zone according to that old poster I had from there.

[@wearyatlas]

As an aspiring ecotoxicologist, I’m a big fan of your content!

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you!

[@ths3297]

If I wasn't studying Reproductive Science I'd be doing what you do. I have a huge fascination for the topic anyway, hence following this channel. Closest I've got is an essay on the effects of Cadmium on testes physiology and sperm production

[@Purplexity-ww8nb]

Would you profile the 1978 explosion inside the reactor compartment of the USS Gato (SSN 615) while in overhaul at Ingalls Shipyard, Pascagoula, Ms.?

[@relentlessexplorers5251]

Wow, great to see this! I actually worked as an engineering apprentice for two months in 1985 at Fermi 2 in Monroe, Michigan. I modified plant drawings per ECNs and also entered inventory changes on a Hazeltine terminal. I worked in the engineering building and never actually entered the plant building.

[@lynex83]

Kinda funny to know that Messy Bessie is just across the lake.

[@hygri]

Awesome. Worth noting a correction; U238 breeds Pu239, not U235. Th232 breeds U233.

[@mauradavis2221]

Another plainly amazing job thanks 🙏

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you!

[@judyfps5059]

I love the videos. Every single one, but I’m curious. There’s only so many melted reactors in the world and radioactive accidents. I don’t know how many but what will you cover when meltdowns and criticality incidents become scarce to cover

[@PlainlyDifficult]

I will probably walk into the sea

[@PlainlyDifficult]

In all seriousness I will probably move onto sh*t show that are industrial disasters

[@judyfps5059]

Plainly Difficult those are definitely giant sh*t shows. Like when those Germans spilled tons of that specific fluorine compound I can’t remember the name of that ate though 3 or so feet of concrete. Things like that are always good content and interesting to learn about .

[@steveducell2158]

@@PlainlyDifficult perhaps you might consider that fertilizer warehouse that caught fire and then blew up, down in Texas. The most intriguing, events is what the politicians chose to do after the explosion. It makes you truly wonder if we are not our own worst enemies.

[@AC-io8qs]

Nice work by the operators. I know if I were a reactor operator my finger would probably be hovering over that scram button for most of my shift while I look for any excuse to press it, lol 😂

[@dreemsnake1]

Have you done the Santa Susana Field Lab?

[@jasoncyrbok5520]

Thanks. on a clear day I can see Fermi from home.

[@a.j.carter8975]

❤️😀🇬🇧 put a PIDS System round Windscale/Sellafield in the UK. when they were practising in the fifties any scrap or bits left over were chucked down an old well in Drigg 3 miles down the coast. Then it caught fire. Cleanup costs, unestimable. So they just changed the name. Thanks Tony Benn.

[@22fret]

Have you ever done a video on the 1957 Kyshtym accident in Russia? Quite interesting, indeed. And one of the most irradiated places in the world up to this day. (see also Lake Karachay)

[@Jazzy-kz6wd]

I'm very confused about the black and white "flag" thing that appears in the top right corner of some slides... what does it mean?

[@PlainlyDifficult]

It means an advert is coming up

[@ths3297]

In the UK (maybe other places) up until the 90's, there used to be that flag to indicate the adverts were coming or the end of the episode. It's called a cue dot or cue marker, it is used to indicate to downstream systems and technicians that a commercial break is about to occur. The systems downstream of the studio need to insert adverts and in a channel which has a single output it is easy. TV channels like ITV has regional advertising so they use the cue marker to tell the multiple regions when to do their thing. In today's totally digital ecosystem this shouldn't be necessary, they should be using SMPTE-104/35 signalling which is not visible.

[@DarkKitarist]

Legit question you make so many in-depth breakdowns of so many reactors, are you by now a nuclear reactor specialist? :) PS. Don't know if you are one by profession :P Are you?

[@PlainlyDifficult]

I have a rough idea of different types of reactor but by no means are an expert. Thanks for the comment

[@jamesocker5235]

Could you find out more about the nuclear jrt engines sitting in the idaho desert near arco

[@mikeward7290]

Keep up the good work. This is our American history.

[@jeffreykielwasser3637]

Ive actually been on the grounds of fermi 2. I was picking up some electrical tool boxes for transfer to another power plant. This was the only place that made me nervous because they were doing their annual tactical drills,so there were a lot of people around with tac gear on and armed to the gills

[@djwilson48625]

They are heavily armed in the inner plant. They spend their days chasing geese outta the microwave sensor zones....

[@sct913]

@@djwilson48625 For a moment, I read that as "cleaning cheese outta the microwave ..."

[@idho0869]

You need to check out the SL-1 Reactor that had a melt down in the 1950s at the INL in Idaho

[@buzza2077]

Or the Kyshtym disaster in Russia and their solution to it 🙄

[@a.sanford8731]

Imagine my surprise when you began talking about a power plant that's fifteen minutes from my house. I used to drive by it every day for seven years, always thought it was really cool. Never knew there was an incident there until this morning.

[@DeepblipRecords]

I live just 15 miles from this plant. I never knew any of this. Thank you.

[@God-gn2yo]

i have watched too many of your videos. now im researching which geiger counter to buy

[@bansheemania1692]

I Never Ever Knew About All These Site's 1 state away from me.

[@simonbecker748]

Yeah it's crazy how many close calls we had....

[@pseudotasuki]

@@simonbecker748 Very few accidents were close calls. This one never came close to putting anyone in danger.

[@ivorbiggun710]

Very interesting as always. Just one small point Gil Scott-Heron is pronounced with a hard G, like a gill which a fish breathes through, not with a soft G like gelatine (or Jill). .

[@christopherdurham1999]

Pretty sure Fast Breeders turn U238 into Pu239, not U235.

[@colchronic]

I can confirm

[@blitzmom2674]

yep

[@thejudgmentalcat]

Fermi 1: Not good, not terrible. Flint: Way ahead of you, pal.

[@missyd0g2]

My grandfather was one of the master high pressure steam pipe fitters on Fermi I. He was there when they first loaded the fuel.

[@sass1ap]

I live about 1.2 hours north of there ;)

[@neuralmute]

I grew up about a 1/2 hour drive across the river from there. We heard lots of horror stories about Fermi II, but nothing about #1!

[@fixedguitar47]

So one hour and twelve minutes away?

[@rawlahiabetes6969]

So is it still there?

[@danm936]

I live about 2 1/2 hours north west of there

[@PlainlyDifficult]

I live about 12 hours away by Taxi, Train then plane and taxi. Probably a safe distance

[@royrogers3133]

How many meltdowns have there been?! Until I started watching this channel I was only aware of Chernobyl, Fukushima and 3-mile island.

[@blackhawks81H]

Plenty of small ones. But since they don't really cause any major issues and are usually kept almost completely contained in all but the absolute largest of fuck ups, you just don't hear about them.

[@gusbailey68]

Nice one.

[@MichalProzac]

I have a pretty challenging one. Late 1970ies, behind the iron curtain, Czechoslovakia. Town of Jaslovske Bohunice. Reactor A1. INES level 4. Fuel meltdown because of a refueling accident caused by silica gel clogging the coolant pipes. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KS_150

[@marianmarkovic5881]

I live like 40km nearby

[@MichalProzac]

@@marianmarkovic5881 Me too, there is still a lot of secrecy about this accident and well the meltdown is just the tip of the iceberg. Go to "ustav pamati naroda" and you can find that some things went even worse than in Chernobyl. I did a bit of digging there and it was not nice to read (I can provide the names of the files, as for me I changed plans where to live). But I am still a big proponent of nuclear energy, because all the mistakes there were done by human negligence.

[@marianmarkovic5881]

@@MichalProzac Well i give them bit of leavey here, it was kinde experimental project, and they neglect lot of things to accident happend(not cleaning Silicagel in assembly, not watching thermal monitors during inserting rods into reactor). Still situation could go much worse, Leak of radiation outside plant was minimal(they had to sanate part of river near plant) overal damage could even be repaired, but cost/performance was not there, buying blueprints to VVER440 build it home and buy fuel from ZSSR/Russia made in the end much more sence. (and those reaktors work well). www.idnes.cz/technet/technika/ako-vyradit-jadrovu-elektraren-gulockami.A170220_123929_tec_technika_mla

[@shayamaddex996]

Looks like even nuclear reactor aren't supposed to eat those packets lmao.

[@donparker8246]

Can you do a story on the nuclear plant that was in Zion, Illinois?

[@shelby3822]

Loved the Chernobyl reference

[@Astrolnauty]

I've been waiting for you to do this video for awhile. I live a couple miles away from fermi and I have family that works there and that's probably where I'm gonna go once I'm done with my schooling. Hopefully fermi two doesn't have a melt down too.

[@jeffbrownstain]

Dont stay in monroe you entire life. If you get out, dont come back.

[@Astrolnauty]

I don't plan on staying here forever but I probably will work at Fermi for a few years just because it looks amazing on a resume

[@afx935]

@@jeffbrownstain It wasn't always that way...sadly.

[@busterbeagle2167]

Cheers from West Michigan

[@LordOceanus]

Hey Plainly Difficult would you consider looking at more conventional accidents such as the Halifax explosion, or the New London School explosion?