The Nuclear Waste Problem

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Animation by Josh Sherrington ( / heliosphere )
Sound by Graham Haerther (www.Haerther.net)
Thumbnail by Joe Cieplinski (joecieplinski.com/)
Nuclear reactor footage courtesy Canada Science and Technology Museum
Spent fuel pool courtesy IAEA Imagebank
Onkalo photo courtesy Posiva
Music: "Raw Deal" by Gunner Olsen, "Divider" by Chris Zabriskie, "My Luck" by Broke for Free, and "I Wanted to Live" by Lee Rosevere
Big thanks to Patreon supporters: Kevin Song, David Cichowski, Andy Tran, Victor Zimmer, Paul Jihoon Choi, Dylan Benson, M van Kasbergen, Etienne Dechamps, Adil Abdulla, Arunabh Chattopadhyay, Ieng Chi Hin, Ken Rutabana, John Johnston, Connor J Smith, Rob Harvey, Arkadiy Kulev, Hagai Bloch Gadot, Aitan Magence, Eyal Matsliah, Sihien Goh, Joseph Bull, Marcelo Alves Vieira, Hank Green, Plinio Correa, Brady Bellini

[@chillingpaully4137]

"The form of the danger is an emanation of energy. The danger is unleashed only if you substantially disturb this place." I cannot think of a better way to peak someone's curiosity.

[@jolez_4869]

Pandora's box.

[@Q3hero]

What if we build traps? Like arrows shooting from the wall, giant boulders ect ?

[@thepredurrdurr7382]

What is this Indiana Jones?

[@JamEngulfer]

*pique

[@Lius525]

The message sounds like something from epic fantasy lol, hell yeah I am going in!

[@Longbonglongdong]

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Radioactive Uranium Rods

[@fauzirahman3285]

He chose... poorly.

[@watinc.9918]

That’s a movie I’d watch

[@TonboIV]

Mysterious glow... melting faces... ancient warning... so THAT'S what was in the ark of the covenant! Maybe the briefcase in Pulp Fiction was nuclear waste too!

[@JichealMackson1]

Barest comment award

[@JichealMackson1]

@@maximogriffin487 wtf

[@shmadmanuts]

-What's it saying, blob? -Danger, Death, Radiation, Useless, Heavy. -Blob, what is it really? -Barely used nuclear fuel, for free! Just what we need for the Beta Fusion Reactor mark XVI...

[@NuclearQs]

I think Europe uses their fuel rods much more than the United States. I don’t think calling it barely used is fair

[@eclipsenow5431]

Except you don't need a "Beta Fusion Reactor mark XVI" when we already have about 400 reactor-years with Integral Fast Reactors, and are just getting started with Molten Salt Reactors. We KNOW how to convert once-through nuclear fuel rods into 60 to 90 times the energy of this wasteful cycle. The final waste product is only radioactive for 300 years.

[@shmadmanuts]

@@eclipsenow5431 people will still fear it

[@eclipsenow5431]

@@shmadmanuts People think the coronavirus is a plandemic - some kind of conspiracy. People are dumb. I want us to educate governments so they'll nationalise energy, roll nukes off the production line, bring the costs down, and clean the skies. Then we'll have a healthy population, save about a million lives a year worldwide due to cutting fossil fuel pollution, and figure out whether we can run the modern world without oil, coal, or gas!

[@mobiuscoreindustries]

@@eclipsenow5431 Was thinking about ways of doing so, but sadly there is no way of bypassing the stupid majority. Politicans just think of terms and influence. In order to convince a politican of such a public act (which would see him and you getting blasted by the medias) the public must be on your side. Forget about teaching the public about nuclear and why it is the only worthwhile energy investement for the future, because understanding nuclear energy is FAR out of their attention span. No, what you most focus on is simply deconstructing the "nuclear bad" that has been used by politicans and lobbies for decades to get easy traction behind their schemes. And obviously, in order to deconstruct a myth half a century in the making, you will need a lot of influence, allies, solid grasp of the media and a TON of resources, and that's not even counting restarting a field of research that has been neglected for decades. Sadly, you will need help, a lot of help. And the oposition will be there in spades. Oil lobbies will order the wall steet journal to give you a negative rating so no one wants to invest in your plan to starve you of resources. And if you start to get a bit too logical, they will order their army of eco-warriors to dismantle your public image and cast shade on your project. Not saying it is impossible, but going against a block which has trillions in assets, can bend any politician to their side and has proven able to make major states fall to their schemes (look at germany) is going to require just as much of a power show on the nuclear side, and it has not been enjoying that since the first reactors.

[@rhobidderskag1121]

"If you open this, everyone gets sick and dies." That's better than that mysterious interesting shit they wrote.

[@jonatanrullman]

Surely that has a striking resemblance to the messages on the pyramids?

[@patrickhebenstreit3824]

How about; "This is not an invitation and our civilization is not perfect and strives in warfare, so take it from us that opening this will definitely kill you!!!".?!

[@erseshe]

@@jonatanrullman Yeah, but the pyramids weren't a thousand feet underground. Let's say, "If you open this, everyone gets sick and dies of radiation from nuclear waste" instead of some curse nonsense.

[@dylandylandylan3940]

It really was interesting.😂

[@catfan913]

that is not the message they physically want to write (the whole point is outlasting all existing languages). that's the meaning that they want conveyed through symbolism

[@erisi236]

honestly that message sounds like some kind of amazing weapon is buried there if I was a warlord or something I might want to dig for it

[@sturggaming6759]

Erisi Dlarit that’s why they have security but say a f18 went rogue and decided to fire a middle at a cask plant then kaboom

[@DN-qd4dp]

@@sturggaming6759 the point is precisely to avoid that people try to open it long after our currrent institutions are gone

[@sturggaming6759]

@@DN-qd4dp I'm aware theres nothing on the face of the earth that can safely hold nuclear waste equivalent of leaving a ship in salt water for 2 years

[@sturggaming6759]

@cyanwaterr fact you think you wont see the end of the world makes me lol trump starting pointless fights threatening war on several countries Corona virus the high lord putin creating the worlds most powerful unstoppable nuke transgenders telling kids there not the gender there born as the end times are here we wont see 2030

[@AlexHPhommarath]

It sounds like satan would be down there

[@gmodrules123456789]

"I've got it, to prevent future civilizations from getting curious, we should build massive stone monoliths carved with hieroglyphics that detail a cryptic danger buried beneath. Surely nobody would ever try to figure out what the horrible thing buried here is".

[@appleslover]

How ironic

[@Soft_Machine]

69th like lol

[@randomrazr]

could we send them off into space and into the sun

[@hochhaul]

@@randomrazr That would be a massive waste of resources. Spent nuclear fuel can be harnessed as new fuel in one of multiple ways.

[@randomrazr]

@@hochhaul yet we bury them? lol

[@martinpenwald94]

Wendover: "the only way to secure this place is to let it be forgotten" Also Wendover: tells me about this place

[@El_Deus.]

Legit was thinking the same thing XD

[@samarvora7185]

More like : Puts it on the internet on a well subscribed KZbin channel.

[@lilnotoriginal7850]

wendover? more like bend over

[@whatdoiputhere7110]

Just create a secret society dedicated around protecting the future from the past

[@ronjon7942]

That's actually the best solution I've ever come across.

[@vantablacklogicthoughts5186]

They it will probably become a religion by then, all haile the temple of rods

[@connorthompson66]

That's an actual idea: The Atomic Priesthood. I believe it's a bad idea. If the goal is to disseminate life-saving information equally and to as many people as possible, why should that information be entrusted to a hierarchical institution that may possess political power?

[@fajaradi1223]

Thousand years later ... Some random tomb raider think he/she found an ancient artifact. Read the warning, and say : Look at these religious superstitious bloke. They think they can scare us with a nonsense mythical curse.

[@StevioGaming1]

fajar adi Pradana Hahahaha then they get fucked over and die and they think the curse is real and believe that we are gods or some shit

[@mr.randomgamer888]

Wait a minute, didn't we just do that with the Egyptians? Oh how the tables have turned

[@notkamara]

MR. RANDOM GAMER Well then, checkmate.

[@gendoruwo6322]

or a supervillain/superhero or a wannabe-supervillain/superhero: "There's a great power hidden here, a great ancient power. I better claim it, lest it falls into the wrong hands."

[@Necron3145]

reading sends so much chills down my spine

[@ErnestJay88]

Future human reading "dangerous message" be like : " *THIS MUST BE WHERE THE TREASURES BURIED !* "

[@beepfd]

Future aliens reading "dangerous message" be like" "Language unknown at this time"

[@ethandehoff3517]

@@beepfd Presumably an alien civilization with sufficiently advanced technology for interstellar travel won't be threatened by a little Uranium.

[@useodyseeorbitchute9450]

​@@ethandehoff3517 They would be. Their archaeologist would find among American waste Pu-239 and create plenty of fringe theories explaining why those Earthlings were throwing away good fissile material. ;)

[@MrGottaQuestion]

It would be a treasure. Easily separable plutonium, no enrichment needed. Could build a bomb, or a reactor. Free energy essentially. Assuming they waited long enough to not get sick from the associated shorter lived waste.

[@witheringgaming24]

oof and f in chat

[@doggo1098]

That warning just sounds too much like the Ancient Egyptian warnings which we completely ignored.

[@MH-up1xe]

We knew they were iron aged people. We weren't that concerned.

[@Rael14]

Rick Footson And the future socities will say : "They were just a bunch of internet aged ppl we are not concerned"

[@ez45]

@@Rael14 If that is the case, society will understand the concept of nuclear radiation quite well, I presume.

[@MH-up1xe]

@@ez45 Exactly.

[@combativeThinker]

Egyptian religion is bunk and they have no power to curse anyone. The warning here is worded in a formal manner that disavows itself from being misconstrued as a religious warning. It is also a legitimate warning with an actual threat associated with it, unlike the warnings in Egyptian tombs.

[@itsjustdom378]

As somebody who works in nuclear, and specifically in spent fuel storage, I can assure that a number of things stated are false or misleading. For one, dry cask storage systems (the concrete steel cylinders) have various different designs that take natural disasters based on area into account. In California, at sites like San Onofre and Diablo Canyon, the casks each have their own individual slot 20' deep inside of a seismic safe concrete pad; this design is called a UMAX. On the east coast US, you don't have to worry about earthquakes or tsunamis of course. Two... No government or company in their right mind would leave an underground mausoleum unguarded; that bunch about the Finnish site is a complete lie, or at least would not apply in the US; happy to see it's being memed.

[@NotASummoner]

Am I a dick for thinking that if humanity is completely wiped out then how likely is it that Earth is still liveable and who actually thinks nuclear waste is a big issue then.

[@akhil.bhardwaj]

@@NotASummoner if that happens (which it will) the radiation leakage due to the other 'phenomenon' happening on earth, that supposedly wiped out living beings would be much greater than the nuclear waste but that will be taken care of in due time, it's the fact that these nuclear waste will even stand the test of time for 10k years or so and that poses a threat for the new class of living beings that will originate on earth. That's just my hypothesis, maybe the nuclear waste will die down too after million years or so ...since that's exactly how much time it took for humanity to reach here!

[@RingstedHedge]

Yeah this video is full os misinformation. Like uranium is lethally radioactive for tens of thousands of years. Thats just incorrect. The longer something is radioactive for, the less lethal it is to be exposed to that radiation.

[@codenameuniccorn2412]

Nuclear isn’t as safe as you and your scientist pals wanna believe. Don’t be so arrogant, mistakes can happen and things like natural disasters can’t be stopped. Point is.. if godforbid there is a meltdown.. it’s jus too damaging.. it’s very unlikely to happen often but even happening once a decade is too much and NOT worth it to bare and the more common it gets the more and more radiation accumulated. It’s suicide and we jus can’t trust private companies enough to actually follow all the safety requirements even tho there is massive oversight and regulations things still happen jus look how Fukushima plant was wanted about not having adequate wall to stop waves and were warned years before the meltdown.. and didn’t fix it. You really trust other people to govern such a dangerous thing that has been proven to release all hell several times before.

[@TheSupriest]

@@akhil.bhardwaj The waste that live for thousands of year or more are a small part of the total. The immense majority (90%) have a half-life of less than the lifespan of a reactor (about 31 years). And if the long lived waste are some days exposed , it would not be that dramatic. It would not "release" radiations, rather emit (they are not bombs dropped from far above the ground really). And the waste are solid so they won't leak or anything. The α and β rays are stopped by pretty anything. The γ and x rays are blocked by a good concrete thickness, lead or even soil (a few meters is largely enough). If their is nothing the radioactivity declines with the inverse square law. And for exemple after Chernobyl, the wildlife has increased much more than since man lived there. The catastrophe for the population was due to the incompetence/tentatives of cover up of the leaders of the USSR more than anything. I don't say that we should not take great care of the nuclear waste, but rather that it is not the absolute nightmare a lot of NGOs like Greenpeace portray.

[@Pwn3dbyth3n00b]

Just name the site Flint Michigan and I'm pretty sure any government will forget about it if not ignore it.

[@Defender78]

Or Camden, NJ

[@toyotaprius79]

**This**

[@maybe3430]

Flint Michigan happened because the leaders of flint Michigan we’re dumbasses it’s not the feds responsibility to deal with it

[@kelwebster7392]

@@maybe3430 Great take dude, the federal government shouldn't care about its citizens. Seriously are you losing it or what...

[@gordon9232]

Kel Webster local government should look after the citizens. Federal gov should look after the country

[@ateebtahir7226]

"The form of danger is emanation of energy. The danger is unleashed only if you disturb this place" there are no better words than this to make them more curious.😂😂😅😅. In every sci-fi movie they type the exact same words near a super-powerful material like vibranium.

[@xanmontes8715]

Truth be told, I'd say that it's a self-curing illness here. You dig it up? You die. Someone touches it and gets dosed? They die. Repeat until people stop touching it.

[@mehedihasanmuaz2540]

Warning message written on an Ancient Egyptian Tomb (Pyramid): "Watch out not to take (even) a pebble from within it outside. If you find this stone you shall transgress against it." Modern humans: "Yeah, let's respect the warning and never touch any of those pyramids."

[@joshuajoe1419]

To be fair in the future people might be able to handle nuclear waste better than us.

[@boygenius538_8]

@@joshuajoe1419 what if there is an apocalypse and we return to the stone age

[@MadisonRamanamabangbang]

Tbf those aren't "This place is cursed, you will die" messages, it's literally just a Ye Olde "Do not trespass, private property" message

[@infinite_twelve8577]

@@boygenius538_8 I think there would be bigger issues to worry about

[@infinite_twelve8577]

@Eli Shhh I know, I was saying if a apolylpse would happen, that would be the biggest current problem.

[@bryanturnbow8189]

From what I can observe, it looks like containing the nuclear waste would at least be easier than pulling a bunch of carbon dioxide out of the air.

[@beringstraitrailway]

Exactly!

[@hostomelhorsehoarder]

@Skel Archer plants have enough CO2, we do not need this much

[@hostomelhorsehoarder]

@Skel Archer Respect the trolling hustle, also yeah nuke waste is way less of a problem

[@hostomelhorsehoarder]

@Skel Archer aus means autsralia or austria or is it a city

[@hostomelhorsehoarder]

@Skel Archer OTB?

[@jeremyw9709]

7:55 Wow that message TOTALLY won't just make them more curious

[@CosmosGTGaming]

Right? When I was listening to it I was just thinking of some monster made of energy that ruled over the world and finally got captured or something lmao

[@sekgo1265]

Especially if it is humans, they would want to research it in order to figure out if they could use it to kill other humans... That's the sad truth :S

[@TheEgg185]

I know. That would make me want to open it more than ever. May I suggest an alternative? "Behind these walls are nude pictures of Hilary Clinton". That'll keep people away.

[@Ayveh]

Exactly! That is the WORST message they can leave. Might as well write in a big sign "ENTER AND DIG!!" How can they be sooooo stupid and not write "There is a bunch of radiation waste that will cause cancer if you get too close. The only thing that lays here is simply waste that will keep being harmful to humans and Nature for thousands of years to come"

[@UndergroundResidu]

Jeremy Wells didn’t the pyramids warn about curses and shit like that? Look how much we cared.

[@kuntahouen3835]

7:55 If that message was in a video game I would dig that up in no time.

[@graphicshold20]

that message made me curious to open the mine

[@ohyeah5806]

Clicked on this expecting to learn about nuclear energy, left questioning my existence

[@Tdot_7866]

Exactly man all I learned from this video is that humans will not be existence in 100 000 years

[@INFINITYLover]

Same here

[@davidmendoza4387]

yay il die in 100000 years

[@shintyty]

Left me wondering about the future

[@fluffybeast5819]

Just reminded me how stupid humans are to get into this mess in the first place

[@murdlep3463]

"the only way to truly forget this this place, is to forget humans entirely" "TODAY'S SPONSER IS" what an oh so good transfer of topics

[@Luka__1]

In one thousand years someone will find one of those caskets, read the message, and it will become a creepypasta about some ancient demon that is trapped in it

[@kevray]

It’s going to become the Area 51 of their era

[@mashucha]

"Forbidden blocks" Wow I really want to open it up now

[@HuemanBean]

>Convey a vague warning about death and destruction awaiting within >Build a landscape of inhospitable and evil-looking structures around it to ward off intruders This is how you get a classic dungeon

[@xiuxiu1108]

A dungeon that gives you cancer as loot

[@catarmour375]

Is that why the monsters are so scary?

[@evrensaygn1017]

And what do we do to dungeons? Explore them.

[@The_Undead_Mage]

But instead the vault was just filled with tentacles

[@Delgen1951]

and a bunch of adventures hunting treasure.

[@spencer3823]

Between 2008 and 2017 there were over 1500 deaths resulting from oil extraction. The argument against nuclear power being safety issue is not a good one…

[@connorthompson66]

Not only that, but as easily accessible coal reserves dry up, we'll have to go deeper below ground to mine coal, so far below ground that we would encounter the earth's natural radiation.

[@engineergaming5478]

Just flex tape it.

[@dwaaag]

Just smack it on the side she'll be right..

[@soarinskies1105]

Donkey *The Government Wants to know your location*

[@lukakresoja5297]

Thats a L O T O F D A M A G E

[@uncharted7againblackking256]

@Frank Heuvelman hahaha yea them guys.

[@The_Wolfdale]

pfff, just some wd 40 and shes good to go again

[@TechnicFlow]

"This information needs to not be spread and be forgotten" 2.3 million views.

[@toyotaprius79]

Planet of the Humans? Huh! 😂

[@jamier65551]

3.4 million.

[@rat4289]

"Nuclear waste here, if you open this everyone will die" that's a better message :)

[@jiffil]

its lies, they dumped all hazards into ocean

[@uniqhnd23]

Hilarious. Your joke was very funny and not at all unoriginal like every other comment on this amazing video.

[@Ben-li9zb]

@@uniqhnd23 its still true

[@alexandertheok9610]

"Right here, below the ground, is something very very dangerous, and we put this here, because it emits a lethal dose of radiation, a force that can kill you very quickly and can only be detected using devices you likely not have, wich means that when it's already too late for you, you didn't even notice yet. Please refrain from digging, looking for closed off tunnels and populating this area. If the material deposited under the ground gets to the surface, it will probably kill every living thing in a very large radius, wich you hopefully do not want to happen"

[@davidmendoza4387]

@@alexandertheok9610 what is some wone wants it to happen???

[@paytonkorns6755]

So glad this video is 4 years old and we have technology to store the waste and a better understanding that the actual harmful radiation comes from 1-3% of what’s actually used. We also have the ability to use the same drilling practices as the oil companies and use bore holes to store the material at much much deeper depths

[@luigimarroquin4872]

That sounds like a good Netflix plot SMALL FINNISH TOWN NORMAL LIFE SUDDENLY NUCLEAR STUFF SOME KID DISAPPEARS PEOPLE LOOK FOR HIM GO INSIDE NUCLEAR WASTE STORAGE MONSTER OR SOMETHING DUN DUN DUN

[@colorado1164]

STRANGER FINNS

[@SebAnders]

Pitch it to Netflix, they'll green light it 100% guaranteed.

[@The97gtrs]

This guy halloweens

[@t.lnnnnx]

that show is called DARK

[@HK-gm8pe]

Greetings from finland :)

[@LilChid]

they should fill the tunnels with flex seal

[@leonst99]

Clay is exactly that

[@samildogansd]

With instant noodle

[@mustang8206]

@@leonst99 No it is not

[@jannikheidemann3805]

That stuff could be eaten by plastic eating bacteria of some sorts.

[@abhigyanverma6542]

That's a lot of damage

[@anubhavpal5782]

On the contrary, that's the exact kind of message that increases the curiosity

[@cafemm]

Who in their right mind would abstain from further research with that message? What would we do if some ancient civilization sent us that message? I know what I would want to do

[@sebastianramadan8393]

They'll likely stumble across our thorium reactors first... and be like... "neat, this advanced species found a way to reuse nuclear waste..." "... and they called it a 'MSR reactor'...". Yes, I think that's what they'll probably think.

[@rhael42]

@@sebastianramadan8393 Heh... Wishful thinking.

[@Maxime_K-G]

Wait, but stonehenge, the pyramids of Giza and the statues on Christmas are super touristy these days because of how mysterious they are. If we build something like a "spike field" or "forbidding blocks". I think that it's only natural that future societies will also flock there in huge numbers to experience and better understand them. I don't think that that is really what we want, especially with radiation!

[@dallonknox7018]

Especially with that kind of written message. Even they can read and understand it, they might not believe it, and it could be irresistibly fascinating even if they do. People might go poking around anyway just to know what's up.

[@gustopher6500]

You know there's devices to indicate radiation, right?

[@TroggacomCactus]

@@gustopher6500 We know that they exist, we don't know that future civilizations would have access to them.

[@gustopher6500]

@@TroggacomCactus we knew about radiation before we knew anything about computers, if they could land on our planet, they most likely know what radiation js

[@damenstravels9810]

Tröggâçom Càctüs you’re trying to communicate a message to essentially infinity... assuming they would have ANY kind of technology at all is ridiculous...

[@beefcakeandgravy]

A message to future civilisations saying essentially "keep out, nothing but danger here" will NOT stop them from opening up the site and taking a peek. *After all, didn't the Egyptians leave messages about "Nothing but Death and Curses come to all who disturb this place"??* We (humans) didn't take heed of dire, death warnings then, and we won't in 1,000 years. Essentially the message should describe exactly what is there, why it is what it is and how it is harmful. Full explanation so that future people will know EXACTLY what it is, and not something cryptic that they will be curious to look for. After all, in 1,000 years, humans could have figured out how to get more energy from the waste using technology we don't have now, and they could in fact make very good use out of it. If the decay is consistent and significant, there may be a way that we haven't learned yet to use it......

[@Nizmarck]

True, but we still need to find a way to let them know what it is.

[@sebastianramadan8393]

That "full explanation" will probably fade before the material containing the nuclear waste disintegrates in fifty years or so... so regardless of whatever you're gibbering on about, I'm so sorry that your school failed you.

[@beefcakeandgravy]

Sebastian Ramadan Nice try troll. No food for you. Bye Felicia

[@Mrdark7199]

They will want to use it as a dirty bomb If they know what it is, and wouldn't avoid it if they don't know what it is.

[@combativeThinker]

The warning was worded in such a way that it could not be misconstrued as magic or a curse.

[@chrisflannagan643]

Im surprised you left out the US's waste deposit site in Yucca Mountain. Billions of dollars went into it and is very similar to the one in Finland. Isolated and deep into earth for permanent waste disposal.

[@haruhisuzumiya6650]

And bikini island

[@markae0]

The native people did not want the waste? did they?

[@1230986666]

I love how the message isn't even written in simple English

[@uniqhnd23]

The message needs to be translated to every other UN language. What you consider simple english would be exponentially difficult to translate to other languages.

[@archonjk1196]

@@uniqhnd23 ??? That's not how translating works. They just need to have the same meaning, not exactly the same sentence structure.

[@lucasballares2553]

it should be like this "here danger dig you die"

[@lilmane1070]

Yeah I want to strangle the idiots that came up with that

[@Petitmoi74]

I think you got it wrong, this is to deter people in a distant post-apocalyptic future from digging in here, therefore assuming they don't speak any of our present languages.

[@trumpetperson11]

Just tell Candice that Phineas and Ferb made the radiation, and it will all be gone before mom gets home.

[@slightlyexistential1640]

😂😂😂

[@jacyaug]

@Frank Heuvelman You didn't get the joke.

[@koichihirose2175]

Oh my god this person solved all the problems ever

[@alexwang982]

bws And then dr doofenshmirtz goes and steals it

[@djlawlz4041]

How does this not have more likes...????

[@JustinY.]

What if we took our nuclear waste... *And pushed it somewhere else?*

[@grrr1351]

While getting radiation.

[@japzone]

Where? Your back yard?

[@leonverbakel3889]

That idea is so crazy... that it might work

[@nitehawk86]

I read this in Michael from Vsauce's voice.

[@stevenha283]

I see you everywhere wtf!

[@jacobdorph816]

Nuclear waste does not have to be buried/thrown away, if it's recycled dangerous radiation levels only last about 100.years, and these wastes are more compact, and we get more nuclear fuel to produce power for several 100 years - this without removing any ore from the ground.

[@peterfmodel]

Generally accurate, but very selective use of facts. The reason why the rods are in temporary storage is because they have value for future energy generation, in summery when we run out of Uranium we can reprocess the rods and get more energy. When we need to dispose of it we need to remembered no radiation is being created, its just being concentrated. It can be merged in with another inert material in low density to be placed back, in the same density as it was originally mined, such as Synroc. This technology exists today. Burying it in a concentrated manner is cheaper, avoids the not in my back yard protests and can earn Finland a great deal of cash. But at this point in time there is very little high-level nuclear material that anyone would want to dispose of, its simply worth too much money and has too much value for future energy production. Only contaminated material is being disposed of, such as the 5 t of plutonium-contaminated waste at British Nuclear Fuels Sellafield plant, on the northwest coast of England. There is no insurmountable nuclear waste issue; its just no one wants the diluted radioactivity material in their back yard, even if was originally in that location. As a result we have to bury it in a concentrated format using a technology like synroc, or not so smart, contained in its original form in steel containers.

[@slithra227]

The Finnish site also isn't the first attempt at a permanent location, there's a site in New Mexico, US that's already been constructed. It relies on a 2000 foot salt bed to insulate radiation underground: wipp.energy.gov/wipp-site.asp

[@yaff1851]

Knave In Germany we have a similar situation: There is a site in Gorleben, which is being tested for suitability. In 2000, the leftist parties stopped that exploration and prevented its restart ever since, but did NOT declare the site officially unsuitable, indeed signed a document that all known facts point to suitability. So much for it cannot be solved.

[@jackfanning7952]

Peter F-model. Wrong. The reason rods are in temporary storage is because a permanent waste site has cost $15 billion so far and another $95 billion over the next 30 years... and this is the kicker - NIMBY. And the taxpayers are paying power plants almost $1 billion a year to store their own crap. Why should they change a sweet deal like that?

[@jackfanning7952]

@@slithra227WIPP is for transuranic waste ,not high level radioactive waste. And it has already been shut down once for problems with emissions. We also started on the Yucca site. Cost so far $15 billion. Shut down because of NIMBY. If construction restarts it will cost another $95 billion and take 30 years to compete. Would not even hold all of the 750,000 tons of high level waste in US already in existence. Doesn't include all the waste overseas that the NRC promised we would take care of for the gullible countries stupid enough to buy our technology. How many 100s of billions do you want to spend?

[@peterfmodel]

@@jackfanning7952 There is a mystery and you could be correct, whenever government interferes rent seeking follows, but the mystery is why do they store the rods instead of reprocessing them and reusing them. As each rod costs a fortune to manufacture and a fast breeder can make it usable again, no one wants to make the rods useless by using one of the existing disposal technologies. The NIMBY issue is also a major factor, but this tends to be driven by lobby groups and politics rather than logic, as no one is disposing anything next to the local playground. But i suspect that is the real reason.

[@braedonp6999]

Hey lets make an extremely vague and interesting message to scare away future humans they won’t possible look if we tell them it’s dangerous

[@bornhunter100]

Scribbles seriously, that message would make me very curious.

[@kylerharris4246]

Scribbles- it's so vague that I'd feel an intense need to figure out what it was. Especially if there were spikes and stuff.

[@deekei]

future civ: hold my beer

[@Jungstertag]

What a waste of money that "study" was. Make the door of solid titanum. Primitive cultures can't cut through it. Advanced cultures would presumably detect the radiation.

[@marcusinternet]

yea just make it “THERE IS TOXIC NUCLEAR WASTE BURIED HERE THAT WILL KILL YOU”

[@alessandromestri9004]

the part about translating the message in every UN languages made me think it might become the future Rosetta stone maybe 🤔

[@McLarenMercedes]

For certain it will make any future civilization have a way easier time deciphering what it says.

[@brutustantheiii8477]

Absolutely, one of the UN Languages may survive (Traditional Chinese lasted hundreds if not thousands of years for example) and this could be it

[@Ruinenoberbaurat_Weckenbarth]

Imagine a future civilisation: "So, our miners found this cryptic messages in a vault deep under the earth. The archeologists say, these are written in ancient languages that are barely understood even by scholars, such as English and Chinese. There are also fragments in other languages we cannot translate, yet. This message, for example, might be Finnish." - "This might be the key to understanding the mysterious forgotten languages. We need to excavate all of this and study it thoroughly."

[@RB-xq7qh]

Your video forgot to mention that we already have the technology to use “spent fuel” - this is why spent fuel is left on site because nuclear physicists have known of this technology since the dawn of nuclear energy (1954). It’s called molten salt reactors or just the regular current generation of CANDU reactors here in Canada.

[@caspix]

"Do not open. Extremely toxic waste"

[@sakykBzz]

DO NOT EXTREME OPEN TOXIC WASTE

[@benjamericana1088]

Danger. Do not danger open. Extremely dangerous danger toxic danger waste.

[@TeknoKseno]

DON'T DEAD OPEN INSIDE

[@liamwalton4183]

@@sakykBzz I understood that reference

[@sushizombie_222]

@@TeknoKseno oh shit.

[@shyammalasani3623]

That message low-key made me even more curious

[@TechDeals]

At the end, talking about humans being gone and aliens visiting... anyone able to travel across space to Earth will not require a warning, they probably could detect the waste site from orbit, they will know what nuclear power is.

[@hedgehog3180]

I mean they'd have to know what radiation is and how to shield yourself from it in order to safely travel across interstellar space.

[@elbalalaw1781]

Maybe they wouldn't even be harmed by nuclear energy

[@smorrow]

He didn't mention aliens.

[@stratdaddy]

He talked about non-humans exploring the planet. Unless he thinks cows will become woke af in a couple thousand years he was probably talking about aliens.

[@0Clewi0]

"Emanation of energy", probably wouldn't be able to detect it before going in but would likely recognize as radiation if they can crack the message.

[@hyun-shik7327]

Imagine being alive in the year 32094 and the ancient languages expert translates the sign, only for everyone to conclude that humans of the era in which it was made were too primitive to have known such a thing. Then they pick you to investigate.

[@astrum097]

That message sounds ominous as fuck. I think it would do the opposite and attract more people than it scares off. It kind of sounds like something that would be in a horror movie.

[@astrum097]

It kind of sounds like a call to adventure 7:54

[@samcolgin]

I agree. It does sound interesting

[@puskajussi37]

Better would be "Nothing here, move along"

[@x--.]

Just like in horror movies, once they started dying, they'd want to bury the cursed items. Sometimes you should heed the warnings.

[@1503nemanja]

Yeah sounds like something that can inspire a nice sci-fi story masquerading as a fantasy story. Primitive (or even our era people) discover this site and despite warnings dig to uncover its mysteries only to discover the folly of the people who came before and the danger that awaits. Of course Holywood would mess this up by adding deadly mutants or some other pseudo-science schlock for action and drama.

[@richardschofield2201]

Surely if they can read that long message, then just saying "dangerous radiation" is all you need to say.

[@jager_123]

but languages dont survive very long...i would say that english after 2000 years sounds same to those humans (if humans survive that long) as Egyptian hieroglyphs sound to us currently.

[@SouthernHerdsman]

Death is the only message we need to convey at this site. Just more death at deeper level.

[@whatevernamegoeshere3644]

You need a pretty long sample and well separated into blocks to reconstruct a language. If I said "Sugárfertőzés veszély" you will have no idea how to even start. If it was in a 600 page book though, you would have emotional reactions, descriptions of noises, greetings, question-answer pairs, things that introduce you to a language which you can use to reconstruct what the small bit of "Sugárfertőzés veszély" meant back then

[@crystalwolcott4744]

If they are smart enough to figure out the message they would certainly be smart enough to understand the danger if we just spelled it out. "Radiation" might not translate, but an explanation of what radiation is would surely be understandable to any civilization advanced enough to decipher it. The symbol that is basically an atom is probably the clearest thing they have labeled it with. Maybe they should use the code based on the atom that was used to send a message on Voyager.

[@jesseberg3271]

@@crystalwolcott4744 I think the issue is, we don't know who we're communicating with: Sure, if these people are on our technological level, they'll know what radiation is, and they'll pick it up as they dig. But if they're more primitive than we are, either humans after a bad dark age or some other terrestrial intelligence evloved in our wake, they might not have discovered radiation yet. Granted, such a civilization might not be able to decipher that text on its own, but they might not have to. They might have discovered numerous examples of writing from our time period, and developed a rough ability to translate it. However, unless they've discovered detailed records of our technology, they might still be left not knowing what radiation is or why to avoid it. That, I think, is where this kind of text would come in.

[@SacredDaturaa]

Seems to me like the problem with the "this is not a place of honor" message is that it's too complex and prone to linguistic and physical corruption. Let's say we carve that in stone, but the stone becomes weathered over time, and what remains is: "... powerful culture. .. This ... a place of honor… esteemed deed ... commemorated here… valued.... ... dangerous and repulsive to us.... warning ... danger. " It gives the intriguing impression that something frightfully dangerous but very powerful is buried there, that curious individuals or ambitious polities would spare no expense in digging up.

[@whatevernamegoeshere3644]

What I think was the point is to make sentences that are word-to-work equal in all 6 languages used, for easier decoding later. And if you ever tried doing that boy will it be difficult!

[@jeffbenton6183]

@Thunder Life Or use Tungsten Carbide instead of stone.

[@jeffbenton6183]

@Thunder Life Err... gold-plated Tungsten Carbide? I have no idea if tungsten oxidizes.

[@ikagura]

This gives me chills

[@Adelaide_Transit]

The general idea is that there's levels of messages and at the most basic of levels it simply says "something man made is here and it is dangerous"

[@Chris-fh3db]

wendover is like the more depressing twin brother of HAI

[@illuminate4622]

This video exaggerates the danger of nuclear waste massively. Mixes up radiation and radioactivity.(radioactivity is like poop, radiation is the stink, except it's rays, not gas) The whole nuclear scare is funded by the fossil fuel industry. A 20-fold increase in nuclear energy production can and(I hope) will save the world.

[@1stMjolnirMarkV]

A liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR) burns up 99% of the fuel put in to it and the remaining radioactive isotopes will disappear in 300 years. The LFTR can also utilize current stock piles of Nuclear Waste to produce energy and again, reduce it down to something that disappears after 300 years.

[@geonerd]

They do produce some transuranics. And ten half lives isn't going to make all that CS completely disappear. That said, the thorium breeder route really needs to be properly researched!

[@pXnTilde]

How dare you bring up technological advances!

[@parasujjainia9497]

I heard about MSR and LFTR about a decade ago. Where are they ? That NASA engineer/scientist is a good tedx talker but not a real scientist.

[@JamieBainbridge]

Yeah TED is media nonsense, not facts or science.

[@donny234]

MONAY

[@tmanepic]

I swear this is like the beginning of every sci-fi adventure novel ever written. Literally the worst way to disinterest people possible

[@jumpingspider7105]

I love how nuclear waste is supposedly such a big problem for people that nuclear technology is nonviable, yet fossil fuel waste (which (1) kills millions of people every year as a result of air pollution, (2) Has contaminated large areas of our planet with toxic chemicals from spills and the dumping of organic compounds as waste, (3) is poisoning our oceans and cooking our atmosphere) is not sufficient motivation to abandon that technology. Nuclear power is to coal what airplanes are to cars. The failure of an airplane is more scary and spectacular than that of a car, and (as we saw in 9/11) airplanes have the potential to do a huge amount of damage in a worst case scenario. However, when you look at it statistically airplanes have a much better safety record than cars, with far fewer incidents per mile traveled. Same is the case with nuclear, one of the safest power sources in terms of deaths per unit energy generated. Managing risks is an inescapable part of our existence on this planet. If we want to unleash massive am amounts of energy on the surface of our little planet, (so that we can drive cars, and watch TV, and have air conditioning) we have to expect to pay some price. People need to think about the risks and ask what they really want. Because of how the grid works we need consistent power from a turbine generator to balance supply and demand on the grid, nuclear is the only option that is really viable.

[@pro272727]

I think you're being too nice to coal.

[@acmefixer1]

Jumping Spider You make some good points. But the new nuclear power plants cost far too much and take far too long to bring online. The whole nuclear industry and coal, too, are being made obsolete by renewable energy - solar and wind. There are already solutions to peaking power to make baseline power plants not needed.

[@snekwrek5454]

@@acmefixer1 solar is incompatible with the current grid, it will never fly. Not until super batteries arrive.

[@goksanbetas]

@@acmefixer1 ""The whole nuclear industry and coal, too, are being made obsolete by renewable energy - solar and wind."".... Bruhh

[@thijskroft785]

@@acmefixer1 Humans consume most energy at night, which is when there is no solar energy produced. Wind should take that up, but what if there's no wind? that's where water turbines come into play. What if there is not a whole lot of water and hight? Your only option is nuclear if you want to go clean...

[@mikezhang7646]

Japan 2021: I do apologize for all that I ve done Japan 2041: its not my fault, it was done by a previous generation Japan 2071: there is no such thing

[@devenswiergiel9324]

The "WARNING" seems like a riddle characters in a movie would find before royally messing everything up from doing exactly what is says not to do.

[@Justin-ym4pm]

Disappointed that alternatives weren't even mentioned in the video. Thorium waste is safe after only hundreds of years, rather than hundreds of thousands. It's something that really needs more exposure.

[@TheTpointer]

yes and we cant use it at this point in time to produce energy. Nuclear waste isnt such a big problem. The pictures we saw in the video were probably the waste that a hand ful countrys generated since they started their first power plant.

[@pizzaowl1305]

And there's a ton of it unlike uranium. They used to just throw it away before.

[@Daphne_o7]

This video is full of shit. It's clearly anti-nuclear propaganda.

[@Daphne_o7]

@TheCrazyKid1381 well for one he only talks about burying nuclear waste without going into other alternatives like Waste-Annihilating Molten Salt Reactor (acronym WAMSR) and really overstates the impact of nuclear waste. In fact Molten salt reactors are not even new. They were developed and tested in the 60's. But its videos like this that scare monger people into not supporting nuclear funding... which makes your problem worse. Fukushima was made in 1971. ALL of the reactors were generation II. In 1990 US NRC pointed out the problem in the reactors design and in 2004 japan NISA also cited the report. They knew and did nothing. The problem is not nuclear power. It is the fact that nuclear power is seen as a boogie man so no one wants to support it.

[@leonardodavid2842]

kyletheok Nuclear power just like carbon and solar and many more, has drawbacks. As an Italian, I am happy that we don’t have to worry about some idiots poisoning a 30km square (which is less than half of Chernobyl) area, because of a serious power failure, natural disaster (What happened in the case of a level 3 Vulcanic eruption? That eliminates a good 20% of the Italian coast, than you could have serious earthquakes...). Honestly even just having them in France is a little bit of pain in the ass. Why should we worry about something going wrong there?

[@FLIGHTCOMPANY]

Best message would be, "Buried below is your total amount you owe for you student loans" NO ONE will touch that.

[@WakefieldTolbert]

Winner

[@Rebel37th]

What they fail to mention: both “nuclear” disasters actually were due to human error- particularly in the case of Chernobyl, where VITAL safety measures were IGNORED! Also, nuclear power is INCREDIBLY dense in compared to the space it takes up AND the waste it produces.

[@MrDaAsif]

I'm a nuclear energy fan, but I don't think this is one of the stronger arguments -- human error will always be there, perhaps better to emphasize it as an opportunity for future power plants to get better

[@NotASummoner]

@@MrDaAsif Fukushima got hit by a 14 m Tsunami wave from the fourth biggest earthquake we've ever measured yet it's sister powerplant which experienced the same thing was fine. Their construction was finished in 1971 and 1976.

[@yesyes-om1po]

@@MrDaAsif human error + outdated technology, this is the soviet union were talking about after all, modern reactors are significantly safer

[@americameinyourmouth9964]

He forgot about the Kyshtym disaster in 1957 when a tank of liquid nuclear waste exploded and rained down on Chelyabinsk.

[@suntzu1409]

Right, its not like other sources of energy have not had accidents or killed humans, due to human error or otherwise. Only photovoltaic solar energy appears to have little to no opportunities for accidents

[@Mirandorl]

Why did they write that piece in such a cryptic, "OH NOW I GOTTA KNOW" way? It was so odd and flowery, more like some hypnosis youtuber's attempt at "induction"

[@gilgabro420]

They should clearly write what it is maby provide a sample at a lower level to discourage them and write that it can't be used as a weapon. Provide them with information so that they may evaluate it to come to the same conclusion.

[@amieliskandar1361]

BREAKING NEWS! Surviving Area 51 raiders raid "secret nuclear waste area" in Finland.

[@witheringgaming24]

um ok anti matter finland for soviet russia

[@gray3508]

@@witheringgaming24 what?

[@jacksonmuszynski9217]

This time they're not Naruto Running, they're gonna be Naruto Digging.

[@witheringgaming24]

i dont know what i siad here can we forget this day and time

[@UsmanAjazKhan]

That message though😅 Sound like some evil soul burried😂

[@wsa6688]

Usman Ajaz haha yeah😂

[@AnonyTests]

Usman Ajaz xD

[@VArsovski10]

IKR, worst idea possible

[@ryansmith6619]

stop using emojis instagram normie

[@kevray]

Sounds like humanity captured some ancient demon that’s been terrorizing them for centuries

[@snakevenom4954]

Casks are permanent storage devices. They’re laced with cement so it water gets in, the cement activates and fills the seal. And casks can be kept in the ground for centuries and nothing would happen to it. So what if an earthquake occurs? The cask shakes a bit in the ground. And nuclear fuel can be recycled into the next batch. Meaning somewhere in the neighborhood of 10% of all the spent fuel needs to be sealed and stored. The rest is used up or recycled. Just like in France

[@pavel9652]

France runs some 70% of their grid on nuclear for decades now, but I have heard they are planning to start decommissioning some of the nuclear power plants by 2050, which will reduce the percentage.

[@crispyanakin3798]

"hey you wanna buy some death sticks" if you know, you know Edit: typo

[@jd_kreeper]

"Ooooh wepons"

[@dane1317]

Hello there

[@jd_kreeper]

@@dane1317 Hi

[@jixo6294]

@@jd_kreeper you uncultured swine!

[@jixo6294]

@@dane1317 General Kenobi!

[@MultiCheeseGrater]

If a future civilization is learning about the site in Finland through books or the internet I certainly hope that they would have the requisite knowledge to understand what radiation is. There are after all books and pages on the internet discussing just that...

[@krashd]

You've just made the dual assumption that both books and the internet will exist in 1,000, 10,000 or 100,000 years when we've only had the internet for a few decades and books written just a few hundred years ago are jibberish to anyone that no longer speaks the language they were written in.

[@infinityideas5038]

@@krashd Umm if the future archaeologists somehow found out about these things in some form i guess that the rest of the thing would also be in the same language and form so i think it is highly unlikely that they can only decode the dangerous portion and leave the caution out.

[@jordanreeseyre]

@@infinityideas5038 it seems likely that if records of a nuclear waste repository survive then so will at least the concept of radiation. Plus such records would likely have to be substantial to motivate people to dig through 1500m of granite in an unmarked & inhospitable part of the world.

[@Delgen1951]

@@jordanreeseyre two words. Great Pyramid of Giza! how many have dug into it over the years?

[@jordanreeseyre]

@@Delgen1951 the great pyramid is only 230 meters wide & has been a vast, obviously man made, landmark in the midst of one of the longest continually inhabited areas on earth. An unremarkable clearing in the sub-Arctic forest will probably not draw the attention of a non industrial civilization. Especially if glaciers eventually crave thw top 100 meters away.

[@MrGottaQuestion]

I like a lot of your videos, but this one is horrible. You imply that most nuclear waste is sitting in pools at the moment (it's not). You imply that there are only 230 years' worth of uranium, and fail to mention 99.5% of nuclear waste is unused fuel, and that there are much larger theoretically recoverable sources of uranium (like the ocean), and make no mention whatsoever of thorium (which has a comparatively limitless supply). In noting the economic costs of the exclusion zones, you don't mention they were made far too large around the melted down reactors, and basically result in unofficial nature reserves, probably more pristine than our national parks flooded with poorly-behaving tourists. "As a radioactive element decays, the individual atoms split into two." REALLY? You mean fission, not decay, right? How are you even making this video while mixing up these terms, ESPECIALLY because you are making one on nuclear waste (where "decay" becomes an important concept). Shaking my head. You state that the fuel rods "use up" their energy which is why they are no longer useful in the reactor. NOT TRUE. It is because of gaseous fission products building up inside of the rod, causing it to swell and crack. Most of the "fuel" remains unused, as there is a lot of uranium 238 which could absorb neutrons and become fissile plutonium, which would keep the reactor running for decades more just fine. The problem is the solid fuel currently used would break the reactor due to the gaseous products breaking the rods. You imply that nuclear waste is dangerous for hundreds of thousands of years. It's not really, since the radiation emitted will be low. This is a necessary consequence of long-lived nuclear waste having a long half life. An intrinsic property to long-term nuclear waste. You also completely ignore that "new" technologies (50 years old, but newer than the current concepts of nuclear reactors we keep building) could burn up all long-lived nuclear waste and leave us with rapidly decaying (in 300 years) fission products. That's right. We could completely rid ourselves of long-lived nuclear waste, while at the same time providing carbon free energy, for thousands of years, all without mining another single atom of uranium. This is because nuclear waste is 99.5% unburned fuel. Who would pay for this? The taxpayer? NOPE. The power companies for decades have paid a nuclear waste fee, and the fund now has 46 billion US Dollars in it. Google Nuclear Waste Fund. The federal government promised to collect the waste, and the companies have been paying for the fee, and yet so far, anti-nuke activists and paralyzed government have crippled responsible stewardship. Let's develop reactors that can burn up the waste (my preference would be by using molten salt reactors, first developed in the 1970s) and get to a zero carbon economy within the next decade. Using the fund, development and much of the construction of these reactors is even already paid for! No business case in selling the electricity needed (though for technical reasons it should be the cheapest ever generated, except from perhaps hydro). I really cannot understand the stupidity of our elected leaders and the electorate in general for not having done this ages ago. We need scientific literacy NOW. Your video FAILED in even mentioning this quite important point. And it's not like "closing the nuclear cycle" is a new concept. It was the idea from the beginning. It should have been included in merely talking about the history of nuclear waste storage and the motivation for the pools and dry cask storage. You say that every little bit ever is currently in short term storage, but this is clearly not the case. Stalin put some nuclear waste in long term storage, pumping it underground in a sealed aquifer. Also, the french put nuclear waste in glass, and to me this is long term storage. Sure, it's not buried, but it's also not going anywhere, even if we disappear. How do we know this? The vitrification (glass) of nuclear waste happened because they saw how nuclear waste was stored billions of years ago in the natural nuclear reactors in Gabon. No, i'm not making this up. You have a laptop - go google it. NATURAL nuclear reactors stored their fission products (obviously by accident) in a way that kept them from escaping "into the environment", even though they were in ground water. Actually, I would say this is another reason your claim that no nuclear waste has ever been disposed of long-term is false, even though people didn't produce it. You say that when the spent fuel rod pool is dry, the radiation "goes out into the environment", implying it's the same as a cloud of caesium-137 or strontium-90 approaching Tokyo. But it's not. Maybe a discussion about what is meant by the term "radiation" is warranted here. Yes, you'd have radiation coming off the rods (alpha, beta, gamma particles), and it could induce some radiation in items exposed to it, but it's not the same as having the radioactive particles directly on your farmland, in your body, whatever. It's not like the fuel rods would magically move out of the pool unless there were some other type of problem, like an explosion. Then you say that "thousands would have been killed". How? Were thousands in a direct line of sight with the rods of the pool? Please explain yourself. I will give you props in correctly asserting that NOBODY was killed in the Fukushima reactor meltdown from radiation (two were killed in car crashes during the evacuation as a consequence of the exclusion zones being too large as a response to unreasonable and unscientific fear of radiation). But you then incorrectly state that 130 early cancer deaths are expected. I assume that this is due to the linear no threshold "theory" of the effects of radiation on humans, when the reality is that you need to have a dose of radiation above a threshold to be harmed by it. At lower levels, radiation is even good for you, protecting you from cancer (google radiation hormesis to read up on it). Evidence suggests the latter, fear mongers love the former. Finally at least the "scientific" UN changed it's stance on the matter and rejects the linear no threshold model. So when you say 130 deaths expected, please state your source. I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's anti-science hogwash, unless you can show that that many people received more than a threshold of 100 mREM (they didn't). Instead of accurately describing nuclear reactors and the nuclear waste problem, and showing potential plausible ways for long term disposal, you take the narrow political view that it's an unfeasible problem to solve. It's not. You use anti-nuke fear mongering instead of elucidating the science. Thank you for not adding any value to the lives of your viewers with this video due to careless research and narrow political aims. 100,000 years from now long term buried waste would not be waste anymore. The "bad stuff" would have long since decayed away to safe levels. Though still radioactive, I wouldn't mind touching it! But one thing it would contain plenty of - Plutonium. And you'd only need chemical separation to get it refined, with nearly no radiation to make it in any way difficult. It would be a perfect plutonium mine (not a "naturally occurring" element). We will have succeeded in giving whatever warlord owns the territory above in a post-apocalyptic world a monopoly on easily-buildable "gun type" nuclear bombs. Especially if we mark the X on the map with a thorny landscape and pictographs to help her or him figure out what lies buried there. No discussion of this either. Aaaaand at the end you have an advertisement for math and science education. The irony is thick here.

[@Kimmaline]

I scrolled a LONG way to find this comment after reading you mention it in a reply near the top. You should be the top comment here. I ADORE Wendover Productions as well as Half As Interesting, but I strongly feel that they mucked this one up badly.

[@odustbrown1836]

@MrGottaQuestion - You seem to have a lot of information for someone who's not making a difference. Have you got a plan that makes thorium feasible?.............No?..................Then shut the fuck up.

[@corneliusmcmuffin3256]

odustbrown yes but India did, and they made a working one... lol I don’t need to be a Nuclear Engineer to understand that... It’s called research sputniknews.com/analysis/201802261061995444-indias-thorium-draem/

[@sigilhunter3199]

This comment needs more upvotes.

[@anasaamoum5565]

After reading this. I know I have got a lot to learn

[@Nyitemare]

I would literally travel to see a huge field of 30' spikes at odd angles with huge blocks of black dyed granite.. I cannot possibly be alone

[@ravyo8821]

Imagin finding warning signs in an unknown language while searching for a place to get rid of nuclear waste in Finland ... realizing that we aren't the first to use nuclear power

[@mukrimmowlana1206]

this shit hits home

[@jager_123]

plot twist: we find a nuclear waste storage right now while looking for place to make one.

[@hotmojoe2483]

5:45 “It fell, and so too will the West.” *_the CIA wants to know your location_*

[@powelllucas4724]

...and so will all of humanity.

[@Delgen1951]

We. Do. Know.

[@MarkoDeLaVoota]

cia works on it every day ( how to destroy west )

Implying that the CIA is the guardian of western civilisation. What a fucking stupid proposition.

[@lentoturmahub8214]

Kikuyu Kiiru I don’t think anybody thiught that.

[@greeny5549]

There are also other elements, such as thorium, that can be used for nuclear power that are safer, cleaner, and easier to get than uranium. On top of all of that, the likelihood of a truly catastrophic meltdown is lower

[@rustylugnut755]

Hear hear! But to be truthful, there is NO possibility of catastrophic meltdowns in the right designs.

[@businessproyects2615]

Thorium is none of those things; it is another nuclear fuel,stop the nonsense please, Uranium is better than thorium, it breeds faster and is denser so the reactor can have more fuel. It is more expensive too; but thorium is not a magic wand, do not conflate a reactor with its fuel. Thorium reactors aren't a thing, reactors which may use thorium are a thing.

[@human8985]

@@businessproyects2615 but thorium is denser it need another element with out it it wont be dangerous by just removing in and placing thorium in water, it also has more fuel and there's more of it. and there are less waste but it's still expensive and emit gamma rays if something is not removed. well i agree that it's not a magic want it's still better than uranium

[@businessproyects2615]

@@human8985 Thorium is not denser; Uranium is denser, both in therms of density and energy density when it fissions. Most reactors use U235 and not the other isotopes, but that's a fault of the reactor not the fuel.

[@prodigypenn]

@@human8985 thoriumitself doesn't produce energy, it is used to create U233 which is then used as the fuel to create energy

[@Grivian]

8:00 That message was so fascinating that I almost want to dig it up even though I know what is inside. Big mistake, you just made the future civilizations even more curious

[@happyhouseghouls4061]

present people: do not go there it is uninteresting and dangerous future people: *how bout i do it anyway*

[@lookattheflowers969]

The letter condemning the future generation from opening up the Nuclear waste storage, sounds to epic. They might be even more motivated to open it up, just make it boring and simple not a start of a movie trailer.

[@andricmr]

3Niggasflying exactly my thoughts. I know whats in there but would still open it after I read it

[@rafafr9]

It sounded like a kind of religious text about a forbiden land

[@legionxiii8055]

3Niggasflying It should be like: "Hey guys of the future. We just put this thing here cause it is literally nothing. Stop wasting your lives here and go away. Thanks!"

[@rjfaber1991]

That's what struck me as well. It might well become the future equivalent of a "pharaoh's curse"...

[@x--.]

It *must* be simple for the best chance of understanding. The curious will die, yes, but combined with the message their deaths should be sufficient to keep people out.

[@pmp1337]

7:52 Somewhere in the far future: "These condescendent primitive individuals buried down tons of perfectly good radioactive uranium, what do they think space ships run on? hopes and dreams?"

[@Luka__1]

it's radioactive waste, it's useless, nuclear power plants use heat from the reaction, not the radiation itself

[@MichaelRicksAherne]

​@@Luka__1 France recycles all their "waste". Fissile materials are useful and can be reused.

[@Liam-vn2ht]

@@Luka__1 not true, nuclear waste can be recycled

[@usamasohail3309]

Thoughts and Prayers

[@BallHeadFreak]

@@Luka__1 Holy shit you're dumb, actually lmao. Typical example for someone having zero clue what he is talking about and yet still stating "facts".

[@ramonschliszka6332]

Question: where is the waste from wind, solar and carbon based energy production? Nuclear energy production is the ONLY way of energy production where we have figured out before production starts what we are going to do with the waste.

[@SyrianArrow]

Even if the languages survive in some lucid form, the substance of the message doesn’t sound that different than the foreboding warnings of damnation left on the tombs of the ancient Egyptians.

[@MattiasThing]

Correction. Most of Fukushimas exclusion zone is safe now and people are returning, only a small area near the plant is still closed. Most of the chernobyl exlusion zone is not very dangerous, while the nearest town pripyat will remain uninhabitable for a long time there are already thousands working in chernobyl and mainy who are living there permanently within the zone. I've been there and it's surprisingly clean.

[@josephburchanowski4636]

Yeah, but telling the truth about nuclear accidents and waste isn't as popular as fear mongering. Got to get those subscribers and views. For bonus points, make longer half-lives sound more scary than shorter ones.

[@MattiasThing]

Yeah, i just saw first part and made comment and then started to watch all this about how "dangerous" waste is and also no mention about thorium reactors which will be much more efficient.

[@thedavischanger]

I'll bet it's clean. It's probably sterile!

[@robertbarrass9176]

But what about the mutated mega-wolves that are the size of skyscrapers that inhabit Chernobyle. #TotesWoke #WhAtThEyDoNtWaNtYoUtOkNoW!!!!!!

[@NardoVogt]

Not very dangerous is not something that would attract a lot of tourism

[@wkm345]

I doubt any alien civilization capable of interstellar travel will not know what radiation is.

[@the_puzzle3412]

Doesn't need to be an alien civilisation. It's posible that a new "humanoid" species develops on earth, after human civilisation breaks down.

[@hjembrentkent6181]

The aliens are probably nuclear powered anyway lol

[@namewasstolenstresslevel2111]

maybe radiation is only harmful for earth life.

[@wkm345]

@@namewasstolenstresslevel2111 Radiation is harmful for every life, it only depends on how much radiation are we talking about and time of exposure. Too much radiation kills anything made out of matter when directly exposed. Too low radiation and nobody is killed - like on Earth. We are constantly irradiated from cosmic rays (including Sun) and radioactive source in the soil, atmosphere, water and ourselves (potassium 40 in our bodies for example) and we don't die. You can always find a threshold for any species which is lethal. But I agree, that high radiation resistance is an advantage. I think it is - as all - related to the species home world. We live on relatively radiation-free planet. So we don't need natural body protection. If we evolved somewhere else into sentient beings, strong radiation resistance could be incorporated into our bodies somehow.

[@namewasstolenstresslevel2111]

@@wkm345 your comment seems to agree and disagree at the same time with my comment... confused.

[@igorbalanovski182]

Very informative documentary, thank you so much!

[@lxmedia3911]

That is a long text message for the future. Just put "Danger: Radio Active Area". I mean doing those pictograms or images is pretty much the same as ancient civilization did. But we human, opened and explored those sites.

[@eclipsenow5431]

Or burn it in a breeder reactor and it won't be a problem.

[@djmonli8928]

"Danger: Radio Active Area, if you want to kill yourself and other people, you can dig this and let the radiation come out you will suffer various diseases that never been discovered"

[@eclipsenow5431]

@@djmonli8928 Or just burn the nuclear waste in a breeder reactor for 90 times the energy because the only reason it stays radioactive so long is because it has stacks of Actinides = NUCLEAR FUEL. Once this is burned and you are down to the real nuclear waste - vitrify the remains into ceramic glass - and bury under the reactor carpark for 300 years. Then it's safe.

[@djmonli8928]

@@eclipsenow5431 what I'm talking about is the message for future generations, people can only grow more curiosity if they are prohibited, so better dare them to dig it and scare...hahahaha, people nowadays don't believe in dangers, better let them die because of their own stupidity than warning them not to do such thing...hehehe peace

[@blackheart1842]

The warning message just makes me want to explore it, more.

[@boygenius538_8]

Yeah it makes it sound bad ass

[@awitchwith3diplomas426]

I live near olkiluoto in finland and have been in the upper levels of the tunnel system where they store the less radioactive waste, the place is also open for tourists sometimes.

[@yassyaszz9942]

Im glad i live in bulgaria, were its totallllllly safe from all kinds of radiaton disasters.......wait why are there two suns?

[@jacqueslefave4296]

The message left out some important facts. The most significant one that I am aware of is that the rod is considered spent not because it lacks sufficient energy to continue using, it actually has 95+ percent of its fissionable material. The problem is that the rod pellets take on mehanical changes that make them unsuitable for continued use. THEY CAN BE REPROCESSED. This is CURRENTLY BEING DONE by other advanced nations such as France, UK, and Russia. It reduces the need and timeline for disposal, dramatically increase its efficiency, and extends the supply of uranium by leaps and bounds. It also minimizes the need for storage both long term and short term. The other shortcoming is the failure to mention the heavy water reactors, in very wide use, developed in Canada, and spread all over the world in a safe and efficient manner. Uranium enrichment is unnecessary, natural uranium is fine, and there are models Canada has developed that even can use spent rods. Each reuse cycle efficiently reduces the radiological danger, and the tiny remainder is very manageable. There is also another sin of omission. The failure to mention thorium as an extension of the usable supply of fuel. It is of itself not fissionable but what nuclear scientists call fertile, if bombarded by the same kind of radiation emanating from a reactor, it converts over to a fissionable form of uranium. The bundle of uranium reactor rods, if surrounded by a couple of rows of thorium rods, will create new fuel as the old is being used. It is thereby called a "Breeder reactor", and currently generates 80 percent or more of France's electrical energy grid. It has done so safely for decades. Finally, permanent disposal. Really very simple. There is a huge area in the North Pacific ocean. At the bottom, there is a huge area that has a deep muddy bottom, with the consistency of peanut butter that runs very deep. The long term storage concrete cylinders that it is currently in can be dropped down from a ship, and they will sink down in deep from their heaviness, and unless the Earth's gravitational field reverses itself, they're not going anywhere. Problem solved.

[@XxMrLimeyxX]

That message would make me want to look for the nuclear waste even more... It makes it sound way more interesting.

[@KhavinKk]

exactly..If i am reading that message, i will open that thing for sure.

[@x--.]

And after your death you will serve as a much more powerful warning to others ;) Can't save everyone.

[@rea8585]

The thing is that however you put it and the more you are trying to hide it, if the future inhabitants are anything like us, no warning signs will help. We have cognitive bias and when we are told to stay away, we want to get closer even more. It is like an invitation... :) So maybe we could just present the place as dull and boring so future inhabitants have no interest looking at this waste.

[@JamesBrown059]

What warning signs. Just like the video, your comment completely misses the fact of mass communication and information availability of the internet, and whatever will come after it.

[@hedgehog3180]

It'll be impossible to erase the site from history though. Like people thousand of years in the future might discover ancient newspapers or something talking about the site.

[@hedgehog3180]

And if you don't believe that's possible, remember that we've discovered texts which only a few examples of were made that are thousands of years old. Imagine if a big publication talked about it like The New York Times or The Sun. There'd be thousands of copies of the article that's talking about it floating around, if we could find the Dead Sea scrolls it would be easy for people in the future to find one of the thousands of articles about the nuclear waste site.

[@D3ntNL]

What they are basically trying to say is "Evil lives here". Trouble is, how do you make sure that translates well to anyone in future? And is that nuclear waste evil to them? Furthermore, if you make a shrine out of as depicted in the video, does that means that in the future they will understand its meaning? Take for example Stonehenge, We assume it has something to do with the sun and the solstice. What if that is misinterpretation and it is actually trying to tell that"evil lives there"? Well Evil to whomever built Stonehenge in the first place that is.

[@justinokraski3796]

I say we tell them what they need to wear if they insist on going further into the complex

[@sergarlantyrell7847]

That message would be a lot more effective if it simply said: "Danger, radioactive waste from generating electrical power buried 500 meters below. This waste consists of: (insert elements here) Danger of death from strongly ionizing radiation with increasing proximity to waste. Please do not dig here till year 500,000 AD, unless you are equipped to deal with the waste down there. Just be careful. Sorry for any inconvenience. All the best, From the people of the 20th and 21st century P.S. If some guy called 'The Doctor' shows up, tell him we say 'hello'."

[@Delgen1951]

and If a bunch of Aliens beam in ask to speak to the Vulcan, first then the Doctor, oh yes distract the Captain with any nearby babe and Stay a very long way from anyone in a red shirt.

[@danieltroger]

Dude this one‘s seriously better than the ones thought of those high paid government agencies. Props to you!

[@Explicitghost]

That message isn't a good one unfortunately due to a few things. Languages change over time, and also the concept of time is arbitrary to humans. So something like a pictograph is truly the only possible way to convey a message to any future human - like civilization.

[@tygonmaster]

@@Explicitghost That assumes many, many things. What if they do not "see" in the same sense we do? Plenty of species here, on Earth, don't rely on interpretation of a section of the light spectrum. Also, the light part we see with the eyes is fairly arbitrary. What if they do not believe pictures / art has value? What if they misinterpret the meaning? Your view, too, is very human-centric, is ignorant, and lacks foresight of the greater world and universe around us. In fact, given we KNOW of beings that already would have an issue with it, it is just straight up wrong in every way. There is no way to fully express danger to all other species. That is why, at best, all we can do is try and communicate the message in the most ways possible.

[@PakkaponPhongtawee]

Some word is gone and make it don't make sense when the time pass. just next 10,000 years. people will forget about "radioactive" and "electrical power" if they already move to a new source of energy.

[@rarelife1]

It's kind of a moral issue. We can't just bury radioactive waste that will be dangerous for thousands of years and forget about it. Future generations would be inheriting our problems without their knowledge. Very interesting topic.

[@mimikal7548]

Surely if the "spent" rods are still radiating enough to heat up water to 100 Celsius then you just use them in a Stirling engine and there you go - free power.

[@sednabold859]

Yes but if the water to the rods fails for any reason your still going to have a nuclear meltdown. Its generally not economic or safe to distribute the rods for low intensity power generation.

[@jonbean6533]

Mimi Kal It would work, but it would take tons of effort since you’d have to keep refilling the water over and over and over again. And if that area had a drought, there’d be a nuclear meltdown

[@jordanjacobson6046]

Its a good idea, they already need to continually add water to the spent fuel pools so thats a moot point. A Stirling engine reduces its own internal entropy at the expense of increasing the surrounding entropy more than the entropy would have increased if the heat was just allowed to radiate from the pool. It basically takes all the disordered kinetic energy (heat) from the liquid and uses a large amount of that engery to re-order a smaller amount of it into usable kinetic energy. You would use less water to cool the spent fuel pools by doing this.

[@comedyeffect273]

Leedle1234 Bruh, just pump the steam though a cooling system and recycle the water. Sure, it would take power to cool the water, but you wouldn't have to constantly refill it.

[@jonbean6533]

DATA EXPUNGED that’s actually pretty smart, I hadn’t thought of that. It seems like all the nuclear waste that’s been created could’ve been solved by the Wendover Productions KZbin comment section😂

[@herbybraybrook622]

What if the nuclear warning in every language became the future's Rosetta stone?

[@zeroone8800]

That would actually be a problem. "The Emanation Stone. It tells use how to read 5 languages we forgot. What is it talking about? Lets dig!"

[@SansBalance]

Herby Braybrook Erm there are now millions of language textbooks printed. Plus all the tapes (audio and VCR!) and KZbin / Blu-Ray video with subtitles and different language tracks. And all the “more literal” fan translated (“fan sub”) anime from the 1990’s and 2000’s... The future would hardly be wanting for Rosetta Stones.

[@zeroone8800]

Mass-printed paper lasts about a few centuries, tapes about 50 years, Blu-Rays unknown (decades to centuries), youtube could last until the start of the dark age. The second dark age was about a millennium, the third could be longer. Only the statues could survive and that leads to a Ozymandias like issue.

[@jordannalepka9923]

its kinda like the plot to a video game if you think about it a baddie stumbles across this site seeking power to harm others and uncovers an ancient evil long forgotten and uses its power to for evil and world domination

[@larsmishima1399]

Reserved Judgment That partially sounds like the plot of the Dead Space series 😂

[@Jbmz03]

32 Death’s ? Comrade Dyatlov wants to know your location !

[@witheringgaming24]

yes he is great comrad

[@appleslover]

Not great not terrible

[@Nhatanh0475]

8:00 They can just say: This is a Nuclear waste dump piles.

[@cooperrush6474]

IMO the waste problem isn't a big deal because of new innovations for reactors that use waste as fuel and reactors that don't even produce waste in the first place. Besides, the waste problem is nothing compared to the problems associated with CO2.

[@ceebotf2]

Co2 isn't the real problem at all. Plants and trees grow bigger with more co2. The issue (assuming co2 is one) is that we, humans, are knocking out the mechanisms that absorb co2, such as deforestation for grazing animals. Not only does that reduce plants ability to take up co2, it also adds co2 by grazing animals, it's a complete negative return. The real truth here is a high population of misguided life style. Their are too many of us that eat too much meat. We must reduce one or the other. We also don't optimize the space we use very well either. With smater living we can give land back to nature where it will keep the balance. It isn't co2 once more.. it is the other harsh chemical side products of man that you should be concerned about.. they are responsible for millions of lung related deaths every year. And that is aside from the harsh chemicals that go into modified crops to keep up with demand/storage. Many mutations or illness (mental or physical) in humans are being documented now.

[@vitaly6312]

Ceebo Vid yet there are more trees now in North America than there were 100 years ago. Not the same in the Amazon for example where they are destroying forests for soy bean farming, but Europe, Asia, and North America have been working on the issue and have increased forestation.

[@m0314700308891515]

*Spent fuel rods are 80% recyclable, the only reason we don't donit is because it's illegal, France recycled their fuel and has almost no nuclear waste, protest this crime against the environment!!!! Legalize nuclear recycling!!!!*

[@jackbryan8496]

“Open for a surprise”

[@AjaySharma-le3df]

to be honest, extinction of our civilization scares me more than the radiation problem

[@EditzHunterz]

A message to keep people away and make it clear and uninteresting. ... Proceeds to create a quite unclear, poetic text that Literally Makes It Interesting to find out what is buried there and builds a lot of curiosity. The levels of ingenuity on that one ...

[@lass1234]

The future species of water bear will look at this and laugh at us.

[@swittlinger]

If I read that message engraved on an ancient structure, you can be sure I'd want to dig down there and find out what's so damn scary

[@usp211816]

This "waste" is actually unspent fuel. It can be reprocessed into usable fuel and used again. Alternatively can be burned in a fluid reactor resulting in a much smaller volume of waste that is only radioactive for 300 years. Contained waste is preferable to uncontained pollution. Dry cask is perfectly functional as long as its properly secured, but we should move it to a central location for each country. Sticking it in a hole in the ground makes it a pain to reprocess and reuse. We recycle plenty of other things why not recycle this too?

[@mr.microcuries2078]

usp211816 so true but radiophobia and the medias $$$ profits seem to be winning out.

[@graywolf182]

If you take out the plutonium through reprocessing, the waste loses all of its activity in 10000 years. kzbin.info/www/bejne/qKeQnnmJpL-Coac Certainly you do not have to prepare to store it for millions of years for some extreme case of humans going extinct and some other animal evolving to sapience. And considering that fast breeders will become commercial in a couple of decades, putting huge amounts of unburned U-238 five kilometers underground seems beyond foolish.

[@TheUselessStoner]

humans going extinct isn't such a low odds as you think. it seams like a fantasy thought experiment but its a real thing that can actually happen. the point of properly storing the waste isn't to save "animals evolving to sapience" but to clean up our own fucking mess. WE created the most toxic and deadly substances found on the planet. Since WE created it, it is OUR obligation to properly dispose of it instead of just dumping it into the planet and have it kill and alter the genetic makeup of anything that comes across it. We may not be around anymore but still wouldn't be right to pollute the only planet with life on it in the known universe.

[@jessvagnar4957]

+Sobaken, Didn't check your link, but I'll add credibility to your loose claim. The actinides can be burned up through breeding or a basic recycling step, this would cause the "dangerous radioactivity" phase to decrease from it's current thousands of years timeline to a few hundred years.

[@jessvagnar4957]

+TheUselessStoner. Normally I don't respond to edited comments, but plutonium, uranium, radon, mercury, etc. are all found naturally on earth. There have been natural long sustained nuclear reactions on earth as well. We are spinning around a large fusion reactor. With the exception of the Soviet Union and Russia we tend to treat our waste very responsibly. "instead of just dumping it into the planet and have it kill and alter the genetic makeup of anything that comes across it." This statement shows your naivity with regards to radiation and nuclear topics. Take for example Fukushima, in almost a decade it's dumped (highest estimates I've found) 15-18tBq of "radioactivity" into the ocean, yet if you gather all of that onto the head of a pin and swim 30 feet above it, you'd be getting more radiation from the sun than from the whole of Fukushima. If you're really worried about the environment, lives, impact, etc. you'd be much more concerned with coal and the amounts of carbon we're spewing into the atmosphere, a lot of industrial practices have improved in the Western world, not so much for 3rd world countries.

[@StorylinesOfIvan]

There is only one solution for this *"Call Dr Strange and ask him to cast a spell that everyone forgot this Location"* 😅🙌

[@FutureNow]

That future message does nothing but make me extremely curious about what the "danger" is ... so I'm not very sure it's doing its job. Unfortunately humans will likely always be curious, ESPECIALLY if they find a message of any kind warning of danger.

[@oofmcoofy6769]

As some people say, darwins theory of nature taking care of the weak will always be effective. Even if it's some dumbass digging up something the older humans clearly did not want to mess around with much, he'll learn from his mistakes the hard way.