The Vinča Nuclear Reactor Excursion Event 1958 | Plainly Difficult Short Documentary

[@mattblom3990]

I really enjoy Plainly Difficult shedding light on the "minor" nuclear disasters. These are some of the most interesting!

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@naughtiusmaximus830]

Some are not so minor. Great series. There are certainly more too. I have a receipt from 1947 showing the US Forestry Service buying geiger counters for use in Western Washington state. Big hmmmmm.... This is where Hanford is but I suspect there is more to the story.

[@acacia7268]

@@naughtiusmaximus830 there is a military shipyard in Western Washington that is the only one to decommission nuclear subs and was a major shipyard for WWII, as well as just several other military bases. So more likely either a precaution in general or possibly related to that.

[@naughtiusmaximus830]

@Zenkat How big is the red zone around Chernobyl and Fukushima? I’m all for clever research but current water pressure reactors are not worth it. I’m glad San Onofre is shutting down.

[@naughtiusmaximus830]

@@acacia7268 Probably because it is already highly contaminated. The equipment for the survey was purchased in 1947 so our contamination was initially war related. A small price to pay for nuking Japanese civilians I guess.

[@garthenar]

I just sat down to work but I can procrastinate for a good 15min.

[@chickenlittle5095]

The right way to start the work day 😉

[@twoshirts1842]

Same.

[@buckokid5930]

I see we are cut from the same cloth

[@Samstrainss]

I have 30 minutes before clocking on for work. Perfect upload timing from John as always 😅

[@fed0t38]

Education doesn't considered procrastination.

[@TheGelasiaBlythe]

GvHd (graft vs host disease) happens because of T cells in the donor bone marrow (graft) reacting with the recipient's cells (host). It's interesting to think that there may have been an uptick in the number of antibodies in the host, but the high levels of radiation would have killed off the very cells likely to make antibodies. This is the catch 22 of this hypothesis. I wonder if the particular people in this scenario had previously made these antibodies for another reason - I have no idea what their day-to-day lives were like, so I can't speculate - and that the hosts themselves were mildly radioactive when the bone marrow was administered. These things combined might have killed off the T cells in the marrow - and a few other cells in the marrow - but might have been a low enough level of radiation to still allow enough of the marrow to live and thrive. Source: I'm a blood banker. I irradiate units of platelets and red blood cells all the time in order to prevent GvHd in recipients.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

That’s really interesting thanks for the comment

[@aubriehatfield6842]

That made me feel smart reading this thank you lol. This is actually very interesting

[@TheGelasiaBlythe]

@@aubriehatfield6842 thank you. I have lots of esoteric knowledge about blood. I am a specialist in blood banking, so it comes with the territory.

[@TheGelasiaBlythe]

@@PlainlyDifficult just so you know, I no longer have the old caesuim irradiator that we used to use for irradiation. I have a newer "bulb" style irradiator. It uses x-rays at greater than 25.1gy to kill off any remaining living white blood cells in cellular blood products. With the old irradiator, we had to have training on what to do if someone tried to steal the source out of it. It was encased in more than 15 cm of lead, which was encased in a steel outer housing. The door to the irradiator could not be opened when the caesium was exposed (the "override" let you manually, with an iron bar, lever the lead shielding back over the source before the door could then unlock, and it took a good ten minutes of struggling with this tonne of lead to get it to move fractions of milimetres whilst sitting on the floor. Science is for the strong, as it would seem. By the way, the geiger counter went crazy on people, but was eerily quiet when aimed at the irradiator, and the irradiator had its own dosimetre badges that were replaced monthly). But we had to go through drills about what to do. I told the others in my lab that if the circus strongman thought he was going to somehow gain access to my locked lab, then gain access through the iris scanner and locked door of the irradiator room, and then, miraculously have the right number of plasma torches to cut the steel and the lead - or just leave with the whole irradiator - well, I was going to just hop in my car and keep on driving until I was but a speck on the horizon. I'd call the police, for all the good it would do anyone, but I wasn't sticking around to see the exciting ending.

[@fabiosemino2214]

@@TheGelasiaBlythe thanks for the history, make sense about the Geiger with cesium

[@billsmith5166]

Brilliant diagnosis and follow up testing. I'm amazed this could have been done between nations, resulting in so much useful information in the late fifties! Well done world!

[@American-Motors-Corporation]

Well the j e w s didn't interfere so much back then!

[@nerdygoth6905]

We need more of this kind of co-operation. And John's videos, but at his own pace and not pushing himself too hard!

[@adeveo9067]

Tito was an opportunist and would play any side in order to gain prestige for himself. I'm sure he saw this as just a opportunity to get recognised as a nuclear state.

[@TheJaymon1962]

Especially in the time frame.

[@spvillano]

@@adeveo9067 and it backfired, rather than being recognized as a nuclear state, they were recognized as an incompetent nuclear state, but instead got points for working and playing well with others. Not exactly the goal he likely had in mind, but it worked out well enough in the end for the nation.

[@Wustenfuchs109]

A few notes to complement your video for those who want to know more. Vinča's founding was the idea of two great physicists of the time, Stevan Dedijer (Yugoslav physicist, graduated at Princeton, was the part of US OSS and the 101st Airborne division "Screaming Eagles" and dropped into Normandy in 1944. Eisenhower personally signed his transfer to Yugoslav army.) and Pavle Savić (an assistant to Irène Joliot-Curie in Paris, their team was the first to actually discover nuclear fission, not the German ones - Otto actually wrote to Curie to withdraw the claims or he will be "forced to prove her wrong and embarrass her"... which he tried and actually proved them right; and he was the main communications and coding officer for Yugoslav Partisans during the war). They both wanted to have a modern nuclear institute in Yugoslavia, where at the time even running water was a luxury. As the Cold War heated up, they went to the political elites and it was Edvard Kardelj (one of the most prominent political figures in Yugoslavia) who, after the meeting with those two, said: "We shall build a bomb, even if our people has to eat nothing but rice for 5 years!". Reactors in Vinča were not built in Yugoslavia though, as video implied. They were of soviet design, yes, but they were also imported from Soviet Union. At the time, Yugoslavia did not have industrial capacity and technical know-how to build them. And, as a side note, my physics professor was a student of Pavle Savić (co-creator of Vinča Nuclear Institute) and also worked in Vinča as a spectro-chemist. He actually slept on top of the reactor once. So, I had a good basis when I went into theoretical and experimental physics. Vinča is now a dying institution. It has been neglected for far too long and the corrupt pro-western governments are trying to shut it down, forcing more and more scientists out of the institute and trying to sell the entire building complex to a private medical clinic. As for the Yugoslav nuclear bomb project, it was a serious one and it was going on in three periods. The first and the most serious one was just as the Cold War started, and up until early 1960's. Major institutes were opened in Belgrade (Vinča), Zagreb and Ljubljana, each one dealing with one part of the nuclear bomb design, and two uranium mines opened (one in Slovenia, Žirovski Vrh, and one in Eastern Serbia, Gabrovnica). The first period ended when Yugoslavia co-founded The Unaligned Movement with Egypt and India - one of the main goals was the end of nuclear weapons, so Yugoslavia shut down the project. In decades later, they tried restarting it two more times but there was never enough drive or apparent need for it, so it never happened. Gabrovnica mine was closed in late 1960's (I used to play around it as a kid in the 1990's) and Vinča reactors were also shut down in the early 2000's. When they closed down, Russia "graciously offered" to take enriched uranium from the facility off of our hands, and Serbia accepted. Apparently, there was enough highly enriched uranium for 4 decently sized nuclear warheads. One of my uncles was a part of special anti-terrorist forces protecting the convoy from the facility to the Russian taking over point. And about Vinča disaster? Actually, there were several of them, and I listened to audio recordings from some of them. The apathy you can hear in the voices is harrowing. One moment you can hear the scientist screaming to an operator to watch out, but when shit happens (you actually don't hear a thing) and they get exposed, scientist just curses and continues the job, saying "Well, it's over now." "Quick, tell me what to do?!" the operator is scared. "Forget it, you can't do anything now." Imagine that, you just did something, nothing around you changed (radiation is silent and invisible) yet you are just being told that you practically killed everyone in the room. Heavy stuff. And I just want to thank the creator for paying attention to a small part of our scientific history. Thanks man!

[@HappyBeezerStudios]

We should totally continue to support nuclear research for peaceful goals.

[@p38ligtning]

Where could we find those audio recordings?

[@robertgift]

_"Well, it's over now."_ means thathey have been exposed to dangerous levels of radiation and too late to do anything about it? Or does it mean thathe higheradiation levehas dropped and the danger passed?

[@rizzochuenringe669]

This clearly shows the yugoslav (actually serbian) megalomania. We can all be happy that this corrupt state finally went down the drain.

[@igordrakulovic6857]

Thank you as well for cool new infos.

[@davidtraynor8075]

I love the term "excursion". Radiation went on a wee holiday. a day out.

[@SportyMabamba]

A trip to the seaside

[@grant6173]

Right? I can almost see the big particles putting sunscreen on the little particles before heading out. Wait...

[@kittyjayway]

This is crazy interesting to me! I received a Bone Marrow Transplant when I was nine years old after I faced off with Leukemia. To think the treatment that helped assure my cancer wouldn't come back was possibly aided, in the early stages of it's existence, by this Nuclear Meltdown and the treatment of the victims is fascinating.

[@TheGelasiaBlythe]

I hope you're doing well now! I encourage all of the students who come though my lab to go get tested (if they can) to donate for people like you. We never use bone marrow at my facility anymore - they do stem cell collections, which are far less invasive, and it males people less afraid of the donation process. Two drugs over a few days, an 8 hour collection process, and you will literally save a life. I've convinced a lot of people. I hope you remain safe and well.

[@kittyjayway]

@@TheGelasiaBlythe I am doing very well! It is past my ten year mark of being cancer free! I do have other medical issues to face that can be traced back to the effects of Chemotherapy but other than really going for an Oncology visit once a year I am okay! To hear what you are doing is amazing! It's people like you that seriously help the people like me, whether they are survivors or still fighting. Thank you!

[@TheGelasiaBlythe]

@@kittyjayway you are so welcome. Congratulations on your survivorship! Stay strong.

[@allangibson2408]

Not technically a meltdown or even a loss of containment but rather a reactor excursion due to poor design and instrumentation.

[@kittyjayway]

@@allangibson2408 I am not the smartest in the nuclear subject despite finding it interesting! Thanks for the further explanation, good to know it wasn't an actual meltdown!

[@animus_vox_a]

I live in Vinča, I've spent my entire life here, and I had almost no idea about this. It's not taught in our schools sadly, so it was a quite interesting video to me. I knew something happened in the Institute, but never knew details. I'll definitely need to look it up some more. Your pronunciation of Vinča is quite good, btw.

[@tanjahorvatserbiaoldslavsh4685]

I live in Vrčin since birth. I also didn't know about this - about medical experiments in Serbia.

[@themeantuber]

I had no idea there ever was a nuclear reactor and I was born in ex Yugoslavia.

[@kikiriki7437]

​@@themeantuberyou have krsko in slovenia, nuclear powerplant...

[@themeantuber]

@@kikiriki7437 You're right. I just googled it, it opened in 1983. I had no idea. Thanks for sharing.

[@gordoncordon9779]

To sam i ja mislio, Zapadnjaci obično loše izgovaraju Srpska imena i mesta. Moje saučešće što živiš u Vinči.

[@princeofcupspoc9073]

0:50 I worked at Argonne National Lab in the late 80s, early 90s, and Soviet/Eastern Block scientists were a not uncommon on site, as well as US scientists visiting the Eastern Block for conferences. That's right. For the most part, scientists completely ignored the cold war, and got on with doing science.

[@xCobraCommanderx]

Well they are Scientists. In the pursuit of truth and knowledge. Contrary to Popular American belief Communism is not “evil.” Communism is when you place Peasants, Workers, and Intellectuals in charge of Production and Government. Under Capitalism the guy who screws over the most Workers for the most Money is in charge.

[@katiekane5247]

Paperclip brought them here.

[@DariusFlynt_2012]

I call BS

[@Nelo390]

You have a wacky zany name, and an anime pfp. I call LIES

[@Blazo_Djurovic]

@@DariusFlynt_2012 Unsurprising given it's the French. They seemed to be able to cooperate with the Soviets quite a bit. I remember a lot of Soviet space probes carried French instruments and experiments.

[@toefurrrr]

Dude your ability to explain the mechanics of reactors/dams/etc is astounding! I have learned so much about how these things work from your channel

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@G60syncro]

I'll say it again, you should do one on the Megantic train accident! It's a compelling story of mis-management, shoddy safety practices and bad post-incident PR that's still in the current news... Talks of a bypass route have been going on ever since but they still can't agree on where it should be.

[@nathangillmore5064]

Brilliant! I would actually suggest rating this a 9 on the Historical Scale. It was SO important, and you knocked it out of the park. Bravo, sir!

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@williamglynn9677]

Vinča is also the type site for the Vinča culture, an archaeological culture dating to ~5000 BCE. It featured the first evidence of copper smelting in Eurasia, along with a corpus of symbols that could have been an early attempt at writing (probably as property marks or number tallies).

[@ChicagoMel23]

We should still use BC

[@eupi9098]

@@ChicagoMel23 cringe, we should instead use BM, for before Muhammad and AM for after Muhammad

[@WouldntULikeToKnow.]

@@ChicagoMel23 as someone who studied art history, no we should not. The world revolves around more than a single backwards religion.

[@Thetarget1]

@@eupi9098 Muhammed was born in a totally different time, but muslims use a calender referring to him. In the west we use BC referring to Jesus.

[@astronomydemon6312]

I love the nuclear accidents, Plainly has gotten me into learning the science behind nuclear reactors and radiation in general. I owe him a great thanks.

[@everyhandletaken]

Even having no knowledge at all on nuclear reactors coming into your videos, I now have some basic knowledge & enjoy your videos immensely. Such great work, thank you kind sir 🙏🏻

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@DMasterplanL]

What surprises me more is how well you are pronouncing Vinča.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@Brainless_y2k]

Man, I'm so proud, never thought I'd see my country on this channel. And an excellent video too! I studied in Belgrade, Vinča is like 10 miles from there

[@3rdalbum]

Generally, you do not want to see your country on this channel!

[@yourmother9359]

It is not your country, this is about Yugoslavia, not serbia.

[@PibrochPonder]

@@yourmother9359 good point

[@PibrochPonder]

Why would you be proud of an accident happening in your country?

[@Brainless_y2k]

@@yourmother9359 well, you are kind of right, but also not bcs Vinča is present day Serbia, and institute still works to this day, and belongs to Serbian government. Don't get me wrong, I'm the small part of Serbs that regrets Yugoslavia falling apart :(

[@firstresponderren9546]

Wow! I'm impressed by how an incident can turn into a method to help patients. As an M3 student, I have been taught to use radiation therapy before bone marrow transplantation to avoid GvHD. However, I never knew how we learned to use it before.

[@nerdygoth6905]

I'm sure there must be other examples. John, have you/could you do a special about that, or a series?

[@YellowFox101]

Just wanna say thank you for all of these videos. Since I found your channel I've been hooked and I'm amazed at all these smaller yet still huge incidents that happened that I've never even heard about. Good work and keep it up.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@OrcinusLaryngologist]

Same.

[@kjamison5951]

Nuclear Engineers: “Our comrades in Yugoslavia have identified areas where safety can be improved to protect the workers.” Moscow: “No improvements needed, Soviet reactors are already best in whole world and require no changes. Gulag for you.”

[@ironhead2008]

It's more like: Nuclear Engineer: "Our Comrades in Yugo--" KGB: *BLAM* *BLAM* *BLAM* "Get rid of the Titoist spy's body and send his students to GULAG."

[@tcpratt1660]

General Pikalov: "Maybe you should have listened to our comrades in Yugoslavia, before you volunteered to liquidate the roof of Reactor No. 4, and got exposed to 15,000 roentgens each of alpha, beta, gamma, and HMGSOF radiation..." KGB Commissar: "HMSOF radiation?" Pikalov: "Da, Comrade Coffin, 'Haz Mat Guy Stepping On Foot"..."

[@Tindometari]

You may joke, but that is pretty much exactly what the USSR did in actual fact to any biologist that dared to contradict Comrade Lysenko's peculiar ideas on biology. Geneticists and crop scientists were particularly targeted.

[@Gisiebob]

so western nuclear agencies said "wow, Serbia you had a reactor without shielding? that's super dangerous! can...we operate it for a bit?"

[@xeddtech]

I think we should take a second to thank the Plainly Difficult crew for releasing their videos with CC licensing. These days it's rarer and rarer to see, but always appreciated. Thanks guys! :)

[@LilCatandFriends]

Love how your videos were recommended to me after searching “radiation burn” and other things about my cancer treatments. Glad it was at the end and I hadn’t gotten to the medical accident videos where the machine messes up!! So many questions to ask at my follow up this month, like my son wants to know “How many sieverts are in you?” but I’ll come back with the Gy instead…surely they know, right? Super cool videos and it doesn’t hurt that you learn a few things!

[@jeffjohnsisland5551]

Are you referring to the Therac incidents? I hope you are well after your treatments. Take care!

[@LilCatandFriends]

@@jeffjohnsisland5551 Yes, the Therac videos. It was wild watching the machine circle around me with all the moving parts and laser beams all over the room! I’m doing very well after everything, thank you for your kind words 😄

[@jeffjohnsisland5551]

@@LilCatandFriends Glad you are very well. I can only imagine how weird it was to watch the thing circling around you. In years gone by, the kids at Seattle Children's had a room with two pots that contained cobalt. Nothing spinning, but I suspect some noise and the cobalt was raised. The people who operated the room painted murals and such on the walls. I live in one of the cities where the Therac screwed up. Glad that thing isn't around any more... I wouldn't want to be the one who wrote the software for the Therac or the people who suffered because of the software. Take care!

[@aubriehatfield6842]

I love hearing about the quote unquote small or minor nuclear accidents. It’s way more interesting to me. Especially the things I’ve never heard of. Thank you for teaching me new things! I love this channel!!

[@Svorty]

I've never heard of this accident and I am amazed that folks managed to get together and help the victims so well, bar the one who passed away, may he rest in piece. Thank you very much for bringing this event to our attention in such well made manner.

[@pavleskipina4864]

Its actually super cool how this guy reads the coments abd replies to them

[@PlainlyDifficult]

😬

[@kruno7150]

Great video, I was wondering when YU will be mentioned here. If you want to pursue this Balkans rabbit hole, research "radioactive lighting protection device" (radioaktivni gromobran) and theft of radioactive materials in railroad station in Vinkovci, today Croatia somewhere around '89

[@TheGelasiaBlythe]

Well, this sounds frightening as all heck!

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thanks for the suggestion!!

[@Dutch3DMaster]

Not fully sure, but I can recall my brother learning about this in his training to become an electrician (in the chapter about installing lightning arrestors and the risk of coming across older types of installations that could be radioactive out of the idea that radio-active materials would attract or deter lightning from hitting). This was in The Netherlands by the way.

[@farklek]

Dude, you are some sort of research wizard! You dug through all of that info and gave us the full story, short and sweet! Great work, I love these videos!

[@TheMrsSaito]

I find historical accident/disaster documentaries fascinating and your channel is a fine example of why! I would love to see any accidents/incidents out of Canada, looking forward to more videos!

[@blitzmom2674]

Chalk river

[@ivaperic2021]

Omg so happy to see my country on your channel ! I was amazed when i saw your new video was about this event!

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@FreakxWannaxBe]

Huh, I live in Serbia, and while I knew about the nuclear institute, I never knew we had a meltdown like this and that the aftermath of it helped further medicine and international relations. Thank you for the video, it was a joy to watch!

[@martinwhitaker5096]

It wasn't a meltdown - it was just a reactor running as it was designed to do but with people too close and unshielded....

[@railgap]

Mad props for finding this one! I'd never heard of it, and I'm impressed how much of IAEA's innately dry documentation you've read. Keep up the fascinating work!

[@justherbirdy]

Is it strange that one of my favourite parts of these videos is the weather report in your sign-off? The narration and the graphics are absolutely brilliant, I never thought I'd be so interested in disasters. Thank you!

[@sookieb_88]

This has been my FAVOURITE of all your videos! I’ve been subscribed for over a year and watched all the videos on your channel, but this was phenomenal. I said ‘wow!’ Out loud about 7 times 😂 amazing the collaboration between nations, plus my mum had a bone marrow transplant as treatment for leukaemia in 1999 so THAT part of the treatment post-exposure was particularly fascinating for me considering it was over 40 years prior. LOVE your work always ❤️

[@heatherydew3361]

Hey John, just wanted to say how much I love your videos, the graphics you use and the humour you employ are most enjoyable!!! 👍 and the topics are always fascinating. Keep up the good work, it's nice to support a UK KZbinr (nothing against anyone else but as someone in the UK its nice to follow someone from my home country). Love the merch too!!!😁

[@DTD2212]

I didn't think I would see a Serbian disaster on this channel, let alone a nuclear reactor related one, as I didn't even know we ever had a nuclear reactor. Nice video as always, and your Vinča pronunciation was pretty much spot on. :D

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you I really appreciate it

[@benchapple1583]

Nuclear reactors are currently illegal in Serbia. I wonder if this was the reason.

[@Mas1337]

@@benchapple1583 Yugoslavia as whole built only single nuclear reactor power plant, but there was a plan to build a lot of them. Recently stumbled upon Croatian documentary series regarding the matter, "Jedna jedina (The One and Only)". After this accident there was a lot of research into nuclear technology, program was split into civil and military.. whole interesting things happened. I've only watched first episode, maybe rest is not so good. :)

[@benchapple1583]

@@Mas1337 Hvala puno za informaciju. Možete da vidite da pokušavam da učim srpski. Možda, mogu da pokušam da gledam seriju 'Jedna jedina'.

[@Mas1337]

@@benchapple1583 Hehe. I believe there's English subtitle version somewhere as well.

[@Akislav1990]

I would say the ''unusual cooperation'' between Yugoslavia, and other countries from the west isn't that unusual. Especially since Yugoslavia was a founding member of the non-aligned movement, and held the west in somewhat of a high esteem. Authorities there wouldn't have felt above asking for help from the west, which they did as seen here. Fun fact, the suburb of Vinca, was also the site where the remnants of an ancient european culture predating any we know have been discovered.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

That’s cool, do they know the name of the civilisation they found?

[@Akislav1990]

@@PlainlyDifficult civilizations this old tend to not leave that much to work with. Especially if they also predate writing. In turn they get very creative names like Vinča culture, Indus Valley culture, etc.

[@Dragosteaa]

Another lesser known & fascinating radiological incident, yes please :3

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@petarmilic9729]

Never expected to see something 15km away from me on this channel Vinca institute for nuclear research still exists and cooperates with nuclear institues around the world

[@stefantatalovic2901]

Thank you so much for covering this topic, when i wrote you on twitter i never expected it to be interesting enough for you to cover it

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@garrydavis3475]

Bloody amazing as per usual my favourite content cheers John you legend

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@FenianAn1mal]

God....I love your nuclear videos most of all! I learn new things (mostly) and you help scratch my glow in the dark itch. I'd love to see you cover Santa Susana Field Laboratory.....an abundant source of content.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@Auriorium]

You should do a rapid fire on the lowest rating of a nuclear disaster scale. Like the water leak from Nuclear Power Plant in Krško Slovenia. Where we forgot to tell Croatia that we had a minor water spill but we told the IAEA.

[@lofthouse23]

Misread that as IKEA. I really need to go to sleep.

[@jenny-jennybobenny]

I need to let you know that the chat bubbles and flags with faces in your videos bring me so much joy. Also really enjoy your radiological content.

[@charlesemery1560]

Whats crazy is you find quite a lot of information about these accidents. When theu are clearly hidden or I guess pushed to the back of available information sources. Keep up the great videos!

[@windshield11]

Indeed, a lot of our Yugoslav history is not easily accessable online or otherwise.

[@seanmarshall5463]

How anyone thought building a reactor core without shielding was an acceptable, let alone *good* idea is astounding really. The Soviets were absolutely reckless in their designs.

[@Micah-y3n]

We weren't, still aren't that much better though

[@maxhill7065]

I thought you said 5W at first and my mind was reeling from how they managed to get that little power output from it, then I heard kilowatts after and it made more sense

[@brucebaxter6923]

Sub critical decay?

[@lewisdoherty7621]

It is amazing that there was no consideration to having some type of at least movable shielding around this reactor which would allow equipment and maintenance access, but when the reactor was being powered would be swung or rolled into place. The best would just to set them on rails with railway wheels. There was the example of the Demon Core accidents as to what were they thinking in this area. This isn't just hind site, the scientists fully knew what they were doing and how it was possible for things to go wrong.

[@AROBASPARK]

Watches opening image and sees the word Nuclear Reactor Meltdown. 1rst thought "Night of the Living Radioactive Killer Mannequins!" 2nd thought "how we went through an era where Ed Wood was around and never had a crazy idea like that in a movie?".

[@jwalster9412]

reactor melt downs are always a hot topic, they just radiate something inside me when I look into them.

[@optimisticoutnumberedoverw9930]

Love that your videos come out first thing in the morning for me!!

[@markrice41]

I had never heard of this accident before. I am equally amazed that any government would work across political boundariesmnk mlm in those days. A very interesting article. Thank you, John.

[@unvein1863]

I really do appreciate the content you post! I'm always wanting to learn something new about historic events and that makes you the one stop shop. Been watching for about a year now, never realized I could tip till now. Big thanks!

[@G60syncro]

Yay! Saturday morning cartoons are back with a nuclear disaster episode!!

[@PlainlyDifficult]

😬

[@Cecily-Pimprenelle]

Chuckling at your pronunciation of French names. Thank you for another fascinating video! It’s great to see that Lessons were learned and safety made better as a result.

[@dustinharris8057]

We totally enjoy your videos ! They are always awesome quality interesting content !

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@Rosendrache]

Fantastic video! Many thanks from Belgrade, Serbia 🙂

[@chaoticdusk1316]

I love hearing about times where humanity is able to put its differences aside like this and just work together. It really feels like a reminder that we aren't actually that different and we can do some rather amazing things when we set our differences aside to work together for the benefit of our fellow man. The knowledge gained from a tragedy no matter how small the scale has offered knowledge that may have taken us longer to figure out otherwise.

[@erikziak1249]

If you ever do a video about the A-1 accidents with one meltdown (which was without causalities, unlike the previous non-meltdown accident which killed two people - but not by radiation exposure) in what was then Czechoslovakia, let me know. I have good sources of information.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you, that sounds good

[@evanmcc1877]

Ah good to be back to Nuclear accidents. Love all your Content but the nuclear videos are how I found your channel so they are always welcome

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@CrazyMagicHomelesGuy]

I'm from Serbia and I never had a shred of an idea that in Yugoslavia in 1958 where most people had no running water there was a nuclear reactor that almost went super critical

[@RobSchofield]

That was a very interesting one - never heard of this accident, or its consequences - great!

[@markrobinson9956]

Nice to see you getting back to your roots: nuclear accidents. Keep up the good work!

[@gabrielnilsson5398]

I love your videos. Plainly love them 👌

[@fhdkdlbdhdk]

my favourite dinner, a new plainly difficult video, truly a perfect saturday night

[@TheJuggtron]

Wow - I never knew of this meltdown, thanks for the video

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@princeofcupspoc9073]

It wasn't a meltdown, per se.

[@K1borg6773]

I work in Vinča. On both reactor RB and RA. Amazing research, everything is spot on.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

I really appreciate that thank you!

[@fasdr]

I'm a medical physicist that works in radiation oncology and we do whole body/whole bone marrow irradiation exactly for transplanting marrow for leukemia patients (type of blood cancer) and the procedure is almost the same as in this accident (but a lot more controlled and calculated and safe), the idea is to almost destroy the immune response of the host so he/she wont have a severe immune response after the transplantation. A whole body/marrow irradiation is done with specific amounts of dose 2 times a day for 2-3 days ultimately reaching a dose that if taken at once there would be a 50% chance of death but because it's 2 times a day for a few days in a lower amount it's totally safe what immune response is observed after the transplantation is managed with medication for a short adaptation time and the treatment is vary safe and effective but the patient needs to stay in a sterile environment after the irradiation and some time after with visitors only through a glass if the facility has those kinds of sterile rooms (with big glass windows) and it's kinda depressing to stay alone in a room for weeks on end (no personal belongings too cause they are not sterile)

[@iViking90]

Been a while since I checked on you about the weather. Good to see it's sunny, John.

[@nitt3rz]

I really like your interesting & informative videos, & the lovely legacy scale you use.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@michaeljames4904]

Scheherazade’s back! 🎉

[@heinzvoll7798]

Great video ... and a cool new outro track!

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@HeathenHammer80]

Always love a good Plainly Difficult vid!

[@jamesmcpherson1590]

I've watched a few of these. I love the exclamation used when people people figure out there is a big problem: "Balls!" Haha.

[@Polarbearr]

I've been watching your videos for over a year now and I must say, I always wait to hear how the weather is in the UK at the end.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@nerko2121]

Thanks for posting this!!

[@SWISS-1337]

Was just thinking about your videos, glad to see the video :) (sad subject but awesomely interesting)

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@SteamCheese1]

No joke. I have Birthday today and then this Video came in my Inbox. I am a very happy Birthday Boy right now! Love your Videos😄

[@lukavekic6610]

Damn didnt expect something from my country to be on your channel. Nice :D

[@bodhika7913]

You are a godsend when I’m doing Chat IT work. Love the content brother ❤️

[@asteverino8569]

Thanks for this report on this "learning experience " From this sunny, warm day on the north coast of California.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@thejudgmentalcat]

7:02 surprised you didn't go for "double balls" 🤣

[@beagleissleeping5359]

Hears that the reactor relies on the water level to control the reaction and the shut down system is "fail safe." Immediately recalls what happened in April 1986. 😬

[@qaphqa]

Hands up if you think of 14.00 on Saturday as Plainly Difficult O'clock. ♡♡♡

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Disaster o’clock we call it at home

[@zarathustra498]

Today the Vinca Institute is a mixed physical-chemistry research center, the reactor is I believe not in use since decades. I worked there for a while few years back as a PhD researcher in chemistry. It is interesting that the scientist who set up the whole Center and later ran it was Pavle Savic who between the World Wars collaborated with Curie at their institute. He had connections at the Curie Institute and that is why the patients were treated there. During the 2nd World War he was actively participating in the resistance movement and was severely wounded. He kept a journal of the construction of the Center and the difficulties faced in obtaining the proper instruments, with many constructed in-house. In the first few years while the Center was being built the scientists (and even Savic) would sleep on a straw in semi-finished building or lab since they were saving money for the instruments and did not have proper housing.

[@Somebody2687]

Excellent video as always 👌

[@user-cs1ne8gx9u]

Great work as usual.

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@JamesWilliams-gv7zd]

All I heard was nobody got super powers and im not ok with this

[@weerobot]

Excellent Channel..

[@PlainlyDifficult]

Thank you

[@MrTruehoustonian]

Yes yes yes dear God yes back to the basics this is the content I love watching from this channel, no offense to your recent content it's great as well but you know

[@FailingArtist]

Best. Science channel. Ever.

[@barneyrubble4293]

These guys being sent to Paris instead of Moscow dodged a bullet. I'll give it a silent 5 for the research and scientific data we got from it, and also for the fact that only one guy died. RIP 433 rem

[@cursedcliff7562]

Wow, never knew there was a nuclear program, or reactor, on this land, everyone knows about the nuclear powerplant in Ljubljana, but i didn't know about this in vinca.

[@onenerdarmy]

This is one of those episodes where a couple minutes in any seasoned viewer can see *absolutely* see which direction this is headed in before the ugliness begins...

[@MontegaB]

Great episode, I wasn't aware of this incident

[@coldwaterjimmy7044]

Interesting & educational... Thank you Well done

[@anhedonianepiphany5588]

I wonder if this had any bearing on the now ubiquitous use of gamma-rays and x-rays upon donated blood products in preventing graft versus host disease. I’ll definitely look into this further. Thanks for another fascinating foray into the world of radiological incidents, PD.

[@katiekane5247]

See comment from blood bank specialist above.

[@anhedonianepiphany5588]

@@katiekane5247 Thanks for that. Yes, I’d already viewed that post, but I’m specifically interested in the history of irradiating donated blood and how this event may have potentially played a role in the adoption of that process. I intend to follow up my curiosity at the first opportunity.

[@VernonMahoney]

I love the iconic character graphics and trembling animation consistently used.

[@mbryson2899]

Definitely with you on the legacy scale. Have you ever looked into air travel failures, international efforts to avoud them, and how they affected the modern air era?

[@kangmviwgurumindalatrang]

i love stories of radiation dissaster. Balls!!