Top 5 Useless Megaprojects

It's all very meta.
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Decoding the Unknown: / @decodingtheunknown2373

[@priitmolder6475]

Projects that can be titled with "10% cost, 90% administrative fees"

[@mikeyoung9810]

There is always that element of greed that we humans suffer from that can doom even the best laid plans of mankind/womankind. Just toss some "free stuff" in a crowd and announce it publically.

[@theFLCLguy]

That and they usually give contracts to idiots who underbid the actual costs. Then everyone freaks out that it went over budget. You get what you pay for, and this includes labor. If you pay minimum wage expect minimum work.

[@ajstevens1652]

Same level of corruption destroyed empires like the Romans', and yet we did not learn.

[@kweenalize5455]

Dont knock admin fees. I am the administrator and we are far underpaid for the overcharged fee. The administrator never sees it. Guaranteed.

[@johnvanlindingham9490]

Sounds like normal communist planning example the new Chinese aircraftcarrier with no aircraft

[@raymondsmith7506]

Government: We spent $13 billion to build this srorage site for nuclear waste. People: No thats dangerous! Gov: OK what do we do with it? People: Just put it outside. Gov: OK 🤦‍♂️

[@skiinggator]

1 foot thick concrete and steel casks. Whenever we get to building a reactor that can reprocess the waste into fuel, we can remove the casks.

[@cucuawe465]

@@skiinggator it safer to put the casks underground than in above ground facility

[@TheBooban]

@@cucuawe465 for long term yes. Its not safer moving them around on roads. Accidents on highways all the time. But thats not the point. Point is to not to just hide the mess. Build reactors that can recycle the nuclear waste.

[@JosephKeenanisme]

@@skiinggator we already can build reactors that use spent fuel rods as fuel. The problem is the scientifically illiterate general public don't know the difference between an X-Ray machine, Atomic bomb, and a power plant. They are the same people who think you can cast spells from a D&D book and Pokemon cards and games summons demons.

[@satan.is.my.copilot]

@Raymond Smith Gov: Wait a second, this looks like a floodplain. People: Oh, it is. Gov: You want to store nuclear waste, long term, sitting on a floodplain in the middle of the largest river in North America? People: Sure, why not? What could possibly happen? Gov: Can't we just bury it in the desert? Where almost nobody lives? In a place where we've already done a bunch of nuclear testing? People: Nah. Just leave it outside, below what we know to be the high-water line. Gov: But that river supplies millions of people with drinking water, and irrigates the farms that feed hundreds of millions! People: But, roads! And earthquakes! And ground water! And what if we somehow forget it's there? Gov: You people really aren't that bright, are you. People: 40% of us believe that the universe was created 6,000 years ago by a wizard who lives in the sky. Gov: Never mind. @@TheBooban How do you propose we transport the waste to be recycled? By wormhole? Also, transport by road or rail isn't that dangerous. It's not like they send it via FEDEX. Agree we should have better reactors. But what we should have, and what we do have, are often not the same thing.

[@ninjanoodle2674]

I would have included some of the following: 1) China's Ghost Cities 2) The Ryugyong Hotel in North Korea 3) Dubai Islands of the World 4) The Cincinnati Subway 5) The New South China Mall 6) Viaduct Petrobas in Brazil 7) Soviet Space Center

[@anarchyantz1564]

Oh there are loads more videos in this type of things. Simon could do a whole channel on just the failed American ones and he would have enough material for the next 20 years.

[@FortuneZer0]

At least he got his hurr orange man bad in.

[@M167A1]

@@FortuneZer0 he has to demonstrate his undying loyalty to his religion I guess.

[@bennyb6694]

They have to get their jabs in at the States and Trump, like good little servants.

[@johncox2865]

Add to those the Alaskan ‘Bridge To Nowhere’. Perhaps not as expensive, but useless to begin with.

[@M167A1]

The greatest disservice done by the environmental movement has been its rejection of nuclear and hydroelectric power. While not without some thought, it seems to be based more on ideology than on an understanding of the advantages and disadvantages.

[@jonc-1989]

Like my geography teacher told us at school 20 odd years ago "Climate change due to fossil fuels is an immediate threat, nuclear waste can be managed long term"

[@mellowyellow6572]

At the time of the project in this video it wasn’t understood how badly coal and oil affected our environment, and nuclear waste was a clear and present danger.

[@TJDious]

I'm convinced thst rejection of nuclear power is mostly due to people's belief that it's accurately portrayed on The Simpsons.

[@M167A1]

@@TJDious I'm old enough to have belonged to the was Sierra club before they went totally bananas. Essentially it's ideological now and part of that is rejecting anything that produces long-term waste products. Yes there is an argument to be made for that point of view, but they won't even acknowledge that the topic is a bit more complicated. For them it's about gaining the power to club of the people they disagree with into submission. Many of them feel it's for the best reasons but in my opinion the worst in justices are committed supposedly for the good of the victim.

[@56qwertyuiop]

I'm from somewhere where oil and gas is extracted. It has made a mess of our economy. The oil boom is over and we're left with a significant hole in the budget. Add to that the people keep voting in the Conservatives that are BFFs with the oil companies giving them billions in tax cuts. Guess who got elected just before the pandemic and subsequent economic freefall?

[@RAS_Squints]

Would think America's most epic failed mega project was Afghanistan

[@michaelgallagher3640]

Lots of people made billions of Afghanistan.

[@DownwithEA1]

People might of but without any doubt the American government didn't.

[@cleverusername9369]

Afghanistan is Afghanistan's own most epic failed Megaproject. They could've been like the Ukrainians and actually, you know, _fought_ _for_ _their_ _own_ _country_ , but no, the president fled the country, their military the US spent 20 years training and billions of dollars equipping surrendered immediately, and the Afghanistani people did nothing to help themselves.

[@ToaArcan]

@@cleverusername9369 The thing is that Afghanistan never particularly wanted to be a country. It's a bit of land with multiple different peoples living in it who generally wanted nothing to do with each other. Then in the early 20th century some Europeans with too much power came in and drew lines all over the middle east without asking any of the people actually living there for their input, and they said "Hey, you're all a country now" while all the people sat there wondering who the fuck asked for this.

[@rockets4kids]

@@cleverusername9369 You seem to be forgetting the people who took over are also Afghanistani people.

[@eliharper6616]

FINALLY! Someone covered the failed supercollider in Texas. It would be a dream if you were to cover it in better detail at some point. I grew up and live near there in Ellis Co. I drive past some of the old access points all the time and wonder what could have been...

[@TwigTheThird]

Check out BobbyBrocolli’s newest video. It’s literally an hour long first part about it.

[@Makabert.Abylon]

”Failed” sounds like a engineering problem... brainpower was the problem

[@billyantis9843]

@@TwigTheThird vv

[@billyantis9843]

@@TwigTheThird Uyghurs

[@josephjones4293]

I wanna play in the tunnels

[@Sergiblacklist]

the nuclear storage one is quite sad to me because all these protests stopped the push forward of nuclear power which could have been very useful in the current fight for climate change

[@anarchyantz1564]

What do you think all the "lobbying" was for from the oil and gas companies? When I say "lobbying" just picture me really saying bribery, corruption and buying Senators and politicians. Allegedly. In my opinion.

[@mellowyellow6572]

The problem is we knew at the time that nuclear waste is permanent, but we had no idea the effects all the other major options had on the environment at the time. Solar and Wind are still better than nuclear but aren’t as developed as nuclear power.

[@owenshebbeare2999]

Trouble is that people in the US often don't want their nation's nuclear waste stored anywhere in the US. Add in local demands whereby Yucca people don't want crap from, say, the east coast, and the only ones who profit are lawyers and anyone who can make a name for themselves campaigning about it. Glad you Americans no longer resort to considering shipping it overseas (central Australia was one of several places suggested), but that bad idea isn't entirely dead either.

[@budwilliams6590]

Nuclear energy costs the oil and gas industry too much money.

[@mickieg1994]

It is a shame, despite the reputation its one of the most cost effective, cleanest and efficient means of generating huge amounts of power, others simply don't compare until we can figure out cold fusion tech

[@StoneInMySandal]

I was still with ORNL when they were doing destructive testing for roadway transport casks for the Yucca Mountain material relocation process. We were doing failure modeling for the casks. It was fun and it resulted in a trip to the Yucca Mountain site. Far in the future people will find that place and it’ll be the subject of countless videos and podcasts. It’s truly surreal there.

[@bowez9]

Yeah it's funny people get upset about Yucca mount transport, but have no comment about all the commissioning and decommissioning goes on at Y-12. Meaning all the truck driving up and down I75 and I40....

[@boduke9428]

I was load testing an overhead crane that pulled the top off reactors to change fuel at Plant Hatch in Baxley, GA many years ago. They were somehow involved in testing those transport containers. My contact told me one of the requirements was being able to take a collision with a locomotive without failure. If everyone went to such extremes just to boil water as a nuke plant, nobody would ever drink tea or coffee again. It took me 2 weeks of testing, checks, and instruction just to get unescorted access. Going to pee from the reactor room was an hour long affair involving 2 wardrobe changes. I sat in an air conditioned storage building playing cards for 2 weeks getting hazard pay while they hurried up to wait. 5 days work took 2 months. I made a killing those 2 months for the least amount of work I ever did.

[@jimtalbott9535]

Ever been to the Hanford site? “The hills have eyes” sums it up pretty well.

[@CrisMind]

I've actually done some work at the chemical plant that was going to be a super collider. It's pretty cool to see even if it was never completed

[@kevinkirk2672]

@@CrisMind what? You crazy my friend what are you talking about?

[@johncox2865]

This one should have been completed.

[@johncox2865]

@@CrisMind what on Earth are you talking about? Your comment has nothing to do with the original post.

[@jamesriggs6210]

Where's it at?

[@garryjones1847]

@@CrisMind a

[@John-ch8go]

Cancelled projects and a disaster are another category than “useless”.

[@steveschritz1823]

To keep things balanced, let’s also talk about the “war on poverty” and “war on drugs.” Billions of dollars spent and things only got worse.

[@braddl9442]

Yeah if hes going to go full partisan with THE WALL and lie by omission heavily about it. he should have covered those first.

[@ophidahlia1464]

The best thing to ever happen to drug cartels was the war on drugs

[@libertarian1637]

You would think politicians would learn something from prohibition, namely when things people want become illegal they will find a way to get it and “organized” crime or just criminals will fill the capitalist gap. Wars in general, whether actual or figurative, as in poverty, education, crime, tend to waste money and just grow government. Nearly everything government touches turns to sh!t as they’re a monopoly and have no competition to keep them in check, they have the power of taxation, and can use force to compel action; regardless of their failures politicians just keep pushing their arguments in the sheer definition of insanity.

[@Darth-Claw-Killflex]

That's some mighty fine virtue signaling there...

[@ajstevens1652]

@@ophidahlia1464 Probably brought the CIA some nice undeclared profits.

[@sketchesofpayne]

With the title "Top 5 Useless Megaprojects" I was expecting a list of projects that were finished and met their design goals, but ended up not being used or were obsolete by the time they were finished. This is a list of canceled projects plus a burst dam.

[@robertoaguiar6230]

There's some hundreds of disney castle homes in turkey that were never bought so noone lives in them

[@KurtRichterCISSP]

@@robertoaguiar6230 Peter Noone?

[@dantheman3931]

Haha me too! Maybe that should be top 5 useless mega projects ‘2’ that are actually useless… seems that these would be pretty useful had they been completed 😂

[@JimKJeffries]

The saddest part is how a great amount of nuclear waste is being incorrectly stored in individual states, rather than making use of a great facility.

[@goldenhate6649]

Welcome to Obama. He ran on renewables and was heavily invested in them. Therefore nuclear was a threat to his finances. To be fair, they really should have selected another site, but that would require actually thinking.

[@covodex516]

@@goldenhate6649 uuuhm no bro this is not Obama's workings. Its the state this storage facility is in and its citizens uttering unreasonable concerns which prevent the facility from being used. They simply don't want nuclear waste to be stored in their state so they argue it should be stored in an unsafe way, who cares, as long as its not near them. the average citizens logic and intelligence, everyone.

[@CainXVII]

​@@goldenhate6649I would say its more welcome to group pressure and a public that doesn't always know best. We had the same problem on a smaller scale in Stockholm - they wanted to build a huge bus terminal in a mountain in the middle of the city. People were worried about the pollution from the buses and there are a whole lot of very old houses above that would be affected by the blasting. There were a lot of protests. I didn't like it either but in hindsight it was probably necessary. The politicians still forced it through. It took years of traffic chaos, but now it's done and everything went fine.

[@williamdefries4460]

The great wall of China had a much greater price tag on it than you spoke of, an average of 10 bodies per mile are buried in that wall.

[@bigrob966]

You act like mideaval Chinese dynasties put any value on life at all lmao. You can't go back and impose your values on ancient acts.

[@seth7745]

Also, the southern border wall wasn't cancelled for economic or logistical reasons, but political reasons.

[@All_Hail_Chael]

@@seth7745 And now they have started rebuilding it...LOOOOOL

[@mauryhan]

From The New World Encyclopedia: "The government ordered people to work on the wall, and workers were under perpetual danger of being attacked by brigands. Because many people died while building the wall, it has obtained the gruesome title, "longest cemetery on Earth" or "the long graveyard." Possibly as many as one million workers died building the wall, though the true numbers cannot be determined. Contrary to some legends, the people that died were not buried in the wall, since decomposing bodies would have weakened the structure."

[@janhansen554]

There is no body buried in China wall at all. Cost of building this in human life was very high.

[@robertojofre15]

should had included the first attempt at building the panama canal, by the french at the end of the 1800´s

[@jliller]

With a dishonorable mention to the Cross-Florida Barge Canal.

[@paddle-bros]

Growing up my Dad use to prep the semis that would travel with the nuclear waste. His instruments had to be meticulously maintained because if there was anything out of range it could take a whole week to recaste a single delivery of spent waste.

[@pbandj37]

Simon....check on the HART on O'ahu. Oroginal cost of $3bn and a rail running from the west side of the island to downtown (Ala Moana). Now, almost 20 years later we are looking at $12bn, the train is still not running and will not go to Ala Moana. - Train wheels turned out to be the incorrect size - No one accounted for birds pooping on the rails which will now cost an extra $1m/year - It seems that because it has taken so long to get the project moving the trains are technologically outdated and the rails are starting to rust. Oh and the massive graft and corruption that has come a long with it. And $12bn is the estimate as of TODAY. Every six months or so, it goes up another billion or so.

[@415s30]

Seems like the road work to Ewa beach took a million years too, but that's Hawaii brah. HART is a mess though. Or the Super Ferry?

[@pbandj37]

At least Super Ferry was something I would use. Most everyone I talk to wants Super Ferry back. No one I talk to wants the train. Just turn it into a giant bike and walking path.

[@Thebighanzi808]

Yeah killing the super ferry was a mistake. Nobody complains about the barges and there’s choke barges going all over.

[@johngalt6929]

How about the California high speed rail boondoggle?

[@ignitionfrn2223]

0:25 - Top 5 - The yucca mountain repository 2:25 - Top 4 - Superconductive supercollider 4:25 - Top 3 - The darien scheme 6:25 - Top 2 - The saint francis dam 8:35 - Top 1 - Donald Trump's proposed wall

[@stevewindsor3858]

I live about 15-20 minutes from the Saint Francis dam (or the place where it was rather) The most impressive part of the collapse is you can easily see where the water was held do to silt build up and a difference of tree growth.

[@macgibbon]

Imagine being an innocent passerby taking a casual stroll down the side of the border wall and suddenly getting hit by a large bag of drugs...

[@BadYossa]

One can live in hope... 😵

[@krashd]

"All of these here? Oh, they're not mine officer. I was just walking along the wall minding my own business when I started getting pelted with them, so I put them in the trunk and was driving to the nearest police station. Yes, all 25 bags."

[@christinedeshano2872]

That was fantastic! I lived in Texas when the super collider was being built. I was in high school and people were freaking out that it was going to cause a black hole to be created that would kill us all.

[@stephenramos2824]

Thats dumb. Clearly it would of given everyone superpowers.

[@xoxoDonkey]

#1 People will such little understanding of nuclear physics screaming so loud in opposition to something that is so much better, and safer, for them.

[@davidcopplestone6266]

Re: The Darien Scheme. The Act of Union was in 1707 not 1777. That's such an obvious error.

[@TomSedgman]

I guess the nuclear waste facility never got built in Texas because they didn’t want truckers carrying the waste to be stopping all the time to ask “is this the way to Amarillo?”

[@shorttimer874]

Just a day or two ago I watched a video about Finland finishing off a new nuclear power plant with it's revolutionary underground tunnel system for storing nuclear waste. I got the impression that Finland had developed this idea on their own. There was a map in the video about other areas of the world stable enough for similar projects, the US wasn't marked on it but Eastern Canada was.

[@planetdisco4821]

I’ll bet Australia was on it…

[@Saufs0ldat]

People for some reason think that we need to store nuclear waste for thousands of years but chemical waste that will literally never decay on its own can just be placed wherever close to cities and nobody bats an eye. I don't think there is any form of waste that needs to be stored for more than 100 years as by that time we easily have the technology to toss it into the sun (though that would be stupid compared to reusing it).

[@mwhitelaw8569]

The casks they haul nuclear components ( waste or otherwise) can literally take a collision from a loaded train at full speed. How the hell are they considered unsafe!?!?

[@JonMartinYXD]

Because NUCLEAR is SCARY.

[@alistairmackintosh9412]

Because some nuclear power executive will ask why are we paying $250,000 per waste container when we can buy oil drums for $10?

[@fredericrike5974]

OK, can I park a few dozen of them in your back yard? FR

[@fredericrike5974]

@@alistairmackintosh9412 And another one will just pour it into a local ditch when nobody is looking. FR

[@Averagecanadian1984]

Thank you sir Simon, I’ve purposely had to go on a bald man fast for awhile to let some of your videos build up so I can binge watch again lol..looking forward to many hours of useful and useless information lol, fed to me by yourself and your team of writers chained up in your basement.

[@mathias6814]

I don’t understand the people who complain about nuclear waste like if you don’t want us to put it buried deep below a mountain where do u want us to put it lol

[@TypoKnig]

Thank you for covering the Supercollider as a budgeting failure. Too many physicists talk about “loss of will”. If the SSC had a plan to control the budget, it would have been built.

[@shawnr771]

@@-XtraCredit- The state had nothing to do with that one. That was a FEDERAL f*** up.

[@christophero1969]

You are incorrect, sir.

[@TypoKnig]

Budget was mentioned in the video. I was in graduate school at the time, earning my doctorate in physics. I followed the SSC news closely. CBO reported that the magnets would be much more expensive than anticipated. SSC leadership denied it. A few weeks later they had to admit the magnets were indeed going to be least as expensive as CBO estimated, likely more. The SSC’s budget had other problems, and was viewed as out of control. Worse, SSC leadership had no credible plan to get it under control. That was the final blow. Going from locations potentially in 50 states down to one real location in one state didn’t help. But if had a solid $10 billion budget it would have been built. It was killed at $12 billion with no limit in sight.

[@TypoKnig]

@@christophero1969 What's your rationale for saying that? See my next comment - I was following the issue closely at the time.

[@LupinLovebites]

My father worked quality assurance on the YMP in NV, and the WIPP site here in NM, much in the transport pod testing. The QA program was very strong and the projects both are necessary. I am so angry it got NIMBY'ed into disuse.

[@fredericrike5974]

I can get that. So where do you think we can put it and why do you think one group should have their realty disadvantaged over anothers? I'm totally serious- the Yucca Mtn deal was premised on shoving the project up somebody's patoot from the beginning. FR

[@LupinLovebites]

@@fredericrike5974 I don't have a better solution. The location was chosen for other hydrologic and geologic stability. There's literally no other place like it. The big problem is that currently waste is stored on site at hundreds of nuclear power sites around the country. So it's EVERYONE'S problem. The chance for leakage or other storage disaster is multiplied by every existing storage site, versus having it all in one well chosen, well prepared site where there is no chance of breach after storage.

[@fredericrike5974]

@@LupinLovebites I get that too. I haven't failed to get that the US gov abandoned sound ongoing research into other nuclear fuel systems like thorium salts based systems, looking for a system that could power a bomber. Uranium fission plants oh so conveniently- all produce some weapons grade fissile material, thorium doesn't, and showed promise to reduce some of our existing waste into much more manageable and less "millennial" forms. And worst of all, the industry and many of the "brains" behind it, weren't exactly forthcoming about the "jam tomorrow" part- that was put off as "tomorrow's problem" till it couldn't be. Then you have the problem of just where Yucca Flats is- something about Indian treaty land, something, something about how poorly the tribes have done in the past surrounded by "gummint projects". Not sure how hopeful I am of a solution soon- the same people have been seeing the handwriting on the wall for global warming and should have reached consensus twenty years ago. That didn't happen- a dozen and a half men flew three high jacked planes into tall buildings. Now lots of hard work is just beginning- much harder for having been so much delayed. Much the same as for the YFP. FR

[@ronblack7870]

@@fredericrike5974 they can bury it 1000 ft below my backyard .

[@footnotedrummer]

That Texas supercollider is a horrific waste of our money. We spend 12 billion to build it (in 1993 dollars) and then sell it for 4 million???? Who the real estate agent? Oh... I know... someone in government who wants to check the box and get it off the books. What a joke.

[@steveclapper5424]

We have eleven massive aircraft carriers the costs of which are beyond human imagination and against a sophisticated opponent are nothing but targets.

[@nicolasblume1046]

You could add a LOT of Olympic games to that list! Surprised you did not mention them. They often cost billions and shortly after the games are over, most of the venues become ruins in many cities...

[@dustyblack1855]

I would be curious to know the amount of waste, money, and resources that are a result of countries preparing venues for Olympic Games. I remember the China games were almost like fake stadiums and they limited people driving just to cut the pollution so the world would not see it.

[@chrisstrebor]

Or the amount of waste and pollution Hollywood movies create from the filming at all the different sites, advertising, theaters. All do people can fly around playing pretend.

[@krashd]

The Olympic games are held for prestige and tend to shine a light on a nation for a long time, you can't really put a price on that because the dividends from them might not be seen for decades. If you show that you can organise a successful games you show global companies that you are a place to do business.

[@ShukenFlash]

2:43 Tevatron is at Fermilab in Illinois, not Hanford. It's a really neat site with an iconic main building (seen in the upper left). Might wanna tweak the label on that shot, haha

[@lauramitchell1924]

US Border wall and drug dealers: We find new tunnels used by said drug dealers at least once a month and these are pretty sophisticated.

[@DrRich-mw4hu]

Thank you Simon for finally getting around to covering the failed Super duper Texan collider 👍❤️

[@whispermason8052]

I'd like you to consider adding the State of Florida as a 6th wasted mega project.

[@sparkplug1018]

Yeah right after Texas.

[@randomobserver8168]

It really should not be this difficult to secure the Mexican border. Other countries can do such things. Is it just because everyone assumes the wall would have to work by itself, unassisted, or be judged a failure, or is the US just incompetent?

[@edgarpryor3233]

Critics of the wall push the idea that it's supposed to work on it's own, no one with any common sense believes that. One issue that other countries don't have to deal with is the sheer numbers of people attempting to cross their border, roughly 1 million a year are arrested for illegally crossing the border.

[@user-dg9pu4pe9d]

Number 1 has guaranteed Simon a lot of comments.

[@dave_h_8742]

HS2 London to Leeds. Bridge from Scotland to Northern Ireland.

[@InciniumVGC]

This is really more of a list of megaprojects that got cancelled because of government shenanigans or some other BS, not useless megaprojects

[@Zakster90]

Do you know what wasn’t a useless mega project? The 7 mile bridge and the Florida Keys, in fact, it was so nice they built it twice 😋

[@Samqdf]

Not only that but for quite some time there have been talks about building a third

[@matthewarmstrong7069]

Everything built in South Africa is like that. The best part is that the contractor is usually related to the government official that commissioned the project. We are soon to be proud owners of a 200 million Rand flag pole.

[@TheNightWatcher1385]

The fate of the super large collider hurts me.

[@dillonlopez6799]

I think it's hilarious that 4 of the 5 were in the United States. Just goes to show the amount of excess the country has and how high on the list of priorities the projects are compared to things like healthcare and homelessness

[@richardkaye5369]

Thats because prior to immingrates invading us, we understood those were the individuals responsibility, not the purview of government to steal money via taxation to provide their thieves with stolen cash. Thats why inflation is surging and the world is burning, well done. Fwiw, we have the greatest health care system on earth by ten miles, but this wont last thanks to entitled immingrates

[@ehzmia]

It is also a prominent supplier of successful Mega and Side projects. Do a lot of projects and there will bound to be a few failures.

[@gimpvet8051]

I'm going to build a wall around your comment, and you will pay for it. ;)

[@krashd]

@@ehzmia Former prominent supplier.

[@marksprinkle]

They should build a nuclear reprocessing plant at Yucca Mountain and pay Nevada for taking the solid fuel waste from around the country.

[@ehzmia]

@Gerald H Unless the facility crosses a fault line I don't see the problem. Everything is underground which moves with the ground during an earthquake, unlike buildings. What is the bad scenario, a tunnel collapses burying and sealing away the waste. That is practically the whole point of the project.

[@nofrackingzone7479]

Ah…you know when Simon gesticulates furiously he must be excited with the subject. Remember to wash your hands when finished!

[@Overworkedandunderpaid]

I’ve seen the pieces of that dam. Chunks of it are enormous.

[@maxwellquebec8675]

The wall isn't useless, the Mexican side hosts some pretty impressive street art.

[@mho...]

i hear its a great place to get some barbed wire to protect your own home!

[@ChIGuY-town22_]

A wall is like a lock on your door, it's only a deterrent... It won't stop anyone from kicking it in, or hinder someone who has the skill to bypass it's security. Now imagine you door is 1933 mi. long, that's reality...

[@jeffpasquale7363]

I’m confused by your statement, are you for the wall on the southern boarder or against it?

[@ChIGuY-town22_]

@@jeffpasquale7363 of course you are.

[@TechySeven]

False Analogy, a Nation isn't anything like, or comparable to, a house.

[@ChIGuY-town22_]

@TechySeven Duh...the analogy is of a wall, it's clearly stated in the first sentence. Reading compression isn't your strong suite...maybe try reading slowly.

[@jeffpasquale7363]

@@ChIGuY-town22_ learn how to communicate clearly, it’s not hard to do.

[@boabsta]

Act of union was 1707 not 1777. Also only 1 ship returned from Panama thanks to the English and Spanish Navy's blockading the Scots ships.

[@bourbonwarrior1618]

New channel idea, Mega Failures? Also, small request to be better at updating your related channels on all your channels. For instance, if i go to "channels" on Mega Projects, i should see all of your channels. Thank you for all your awesome content Simon and crew.

[@mrpink8951]

A failed mega project? Maybe try what was supposed to be the largest baggage handling system at Denver International Airport.

[@JJ-si4qh]

So the wall cost almost half as much as we gifted to Ukraine to defend their borders

[@ecmorgan69]

Let’s not forget the time and money wasted on Democrat-initiated lawsuits that stopped construction constantly. A TDS-fueled hostile Congress just wants open borders, like fools.

[@TrevorKeenAnimation]

So much stuff can go wrong with dams, it seems. My brother saw a dam in Spain which turned out to be useless because it's built on porous limestone, and all the water just leaches away.

[@jensonsamuel1865]

We're sending ppl to the moon, wasting money on space exploration, trying to find out how the universe was made etc while the world has real issues

[@GeoFry3]

Considering the amount we've pissed away for the last 10 years on stimulus, convid scams, etc, we could have paid for every single on of these schemes, as well as a moon and Mars base, and still had money left over.

[@W1LDTANG]

This☝🏽☝🏽☝🏽

[@mikeyoung9810]

The Darian Scheme I had never heard about but we should of. That word "scheme" tends to mean something less than above board here in the US but I guess it's a common usage in the UK.

[@matthewkent4313]

You're confusing scheme the noun and scheme the verb my friend.

[@ehzmia]

He has done a Darian video already somewhere. Maybe look through Geographics.

[@ChopBassMan]

Hey Simon, please, please, please do a Casual Criminalist video on James Mitchell "Mike" DeBardeleben. The other day you mentioned that the Secret Service in the US is responsible for investigating money counterfeiting crimes on the Casual Criminalist, which made me think of DeBardeleben. He was a prolific counterfeiter, so much so that the Secret Service gave him a nickname: "the mall passer". When they finally caught and arrested him, the Secret Service agents found a lot more than counterfeit money. Together with the FBI he was charged with a whole litany of crimes (he wasn't even prosecuted for most of them). He was sent to prison for life and the agents who investigated him said that he committed just about every felony on the books.

[@TheEarl777]

I heard the American super collider project also had a disastrous engineering faux pas to do with measurements read as feet, when in fact is was metres. Happened after the budget blowout and was the straw that broke the camels back.

[@ideitbawxproductions1880]

I can think of one that Canada contributed: the Avro Arrow. now don't get me wrong, I love the Arrow, and it was a plane well ahead of its time, but the project cost billions of dollars, and its cancellation tanked the Canadian aviation industry, with many Avro employees moving to the US (including some working for NASA). Considering the Arrow was the first Canadian plane to be built from the ground up and not based on any previous designs, many of the plane's flaws could have been refined in future designs & newer aircraft, and Canada could have been a force to be reckoned with in the aviation industry... but sadly, we don't live in that timeline. even after the cancellation, they could have kept the prototypes to do supersonic flight testing, like what America did with the similarly-designed F-106 & XB-70... but no, our paranoid government cut the planes into pieces & dumped them in a lake, like a goddamn mob hit

[@JonMartinYXD]

Our loss was America's gain: those engineers who went to NASA were a key part of winning the race to the Moon.

[@tavi9598]

The Arrow project was riddled with Russian spies, which was ultimately why everything related to it was destroyed. As advanced as the Arrow was at the time, it was designed as an interceptor. It was obsolete by the time it was ready to fly. But the technology could have been, and ultimately was, adapted to create a new generation of aircraft on both sides of the Cold War. Whether you consider it a true waste of money should depend on the reasonable outcome of the project. The plane itself was a waste as far as what it was designed to do, but the technological developments made by the project were undeniably not a waste at all. The design was ahead of its time, for a mission that was outdated the moment the ICBM was created. Could it have been adapted to another role? Perhaps. But the government investment required for that change would delay the already behind project for another few years, by which time the Soviets could well have developed sufficient countermeasures. A tragedy for Canadian aerospace, but arguably the Arrow served as the prototype for planes like the F-15. I wouldn't call that a complete waste.

[@achecase]

Always great videos, cc's would be nice, especially with the "music" back drop.

[@TifaTakeuchi]

There are CCs in the options.

[@rosevelvet4357]

I have the option for cc’s

[@bobbyf1626]

When the video first drops, it takes a bit for the automatic CCs to be added.

[@achecase]

@@bobbyf1626 Thank you for the info.

[@sandybarnes887]

Closed captions are done by utůbe, take some time to become active

[@CainXVII]

In reality, all of that wall was built. But they made it out of air to meet all of the criteria

[@freesk8]

Before watching, I predicted that each of the 5 projects were government programs.

[@Morbos1000]

Four out of five projects were in the USA! We're #1! We're #1.... at huge wastes of money.

[@apathyguy8338]

I can't help but notice that England has never had a failed project. How strange.

[@onlythatonetime]

hehehehe

[@SportyMabamba]

Lalala can’t hear you from behind all these failed PPP works lalala 🤣

[@apathyguy8338]

I guess you could say that America itself is Englands failed project. So all of our screw-ups actually belong to them.

[@apathyguy8338]

This is what happens when you send all your religious Loons to one colony. Nice job.

[@davidcopplestone6266]

The UK definitely has had failures; here's one. The Millennium Dome could be considered a failure. It vastly overestimated the number of visitors. It expected 12 million visitors, but just 6 million went.

[@tyrport]

100 million dollars was spent on planning a bridge across the Columbia River when the authorities were told it was an illegal plan VERY early in the planning stages by the Coast Guard. Many friends of authorities were given contracts to plan the bridge.

[@mxbshr4276]

Simon I rate ur videos so much u work so hard on all ur channels

[@Koolboom123]

Love how its “the wall” thats number one yet now they need the wall 😂

[@edgarpryor3233]

And it's back under construction, at least in part.

[@brennangum6236]

This isn't the 10th century. Long walls in the middle of nowhere don't do much. Easy to dig under or go over. The money would be better spent on human resources and drones to apprehend illegal immigrants and send them back.

[@waynewayne9693]

We Americans (the politicians) do need to take border security more seriously and put up barriers.

[@brendonbackus1297]

The wall doesn't matter if enforcement is undermined by traitors

[@dingusdingus2152]

What we need to do is make Mexico, the u.s., and Canada into one giant country with the Capitol in a central location like Omaha Nebraska. Then all borders can cease to exist and no one would be able to bitch about immigration ever again

[@flashgordon3715]

Build a nuclear power plant, and I'll buy an electric car.

[@patrickspringer6534]

People are so ignorant about nuclear waste. They believe in the hype that just doesn't exist. It's the greenest energy available. Such a shame people don't embrace it more.

[@sonicninja3434]

Wow, the description of the wall here in the U.S is astonishingly so far off the mark it's breath taking. Poor form.

[@zimtak6418]

Yes, Trump's wall was *NOT* a waste of my tax dollars. Even the Biden administration has accepted that they need to continue construction on it.

[@sonicninja3434]

@@zimtak6418 absolutely agree. Also, the y have even shown the Obama Barrier that cartels just pulled up to in pickups that had ramps in the back, deployed them over the barriers, and then kept going.

[@taitano12]

I feel real bad for Mulholland. He was 100% at fault, but he remains blameless because there was no way he could've done better. As Simon mentioned, the tech and knowledge just wasn't there. I'm actually mildly surprised he never tried to kill himself, considering he never did forgive himself. The whole thing was a tragic story from all perspectives.

[@hyperion112]

How could he be 100% at fault if there was no way he could have known with current technology?

[@taitano12]

@@hyperion112 Because he was solely responsible for the project. He's the one who pushed it through despite resistance and misgivings of others in his field, he chose the site, and he's the one in charge of ground testing and preparation. Throughout the project, he viewed himself as nearly infallible. If you do something and it fails, it remains your failure, even if you didn't have the knowledge to prevent the failure. He remains blameless and forgivable because he lacked the knowledge to prevent the failure, but it's still his fault and failure. If you ask me, he was too hard on himself, a result of his tremendous ego.

[@hyperion112]

@@taitano12 I guess that's one way to look at it.

[@taitano12]

@@hyperion112 Honestly, if he wasn't such an egotistical jerk about it, he not only would be less at fault, but the failure may have been prevented altogether. There were two other sites where the bedrock was closer to the surface and several engineers expressed distrust of the ground where it was eventually built. There were many who said none of the sites were suitable; but they were Geologists and politicians, not Engineers, so he figured they didn't count. In the end, none of the sites proved suitable, and the one he chose was the worst of the three main options.

[@jaidenbrink]

I’d say he’s 100% at fault, regardless of the landslide the dam was built on. He literally looked at the problem, and then said “nah, that’s not a problem” then went on with his day. He didn’t believe the engineers who said the leak was coming from the foundations. If he had, he might have been able to safely drain the reservoir, whether it would have been in time or not idk. But it would have released at least some of the pressure on the dam, perhaps delaying the collapse. Then he could have had people go over the dam and figure out what was wrong.

[@gapratt4955]

Anyone who wants to see the "Piles of rusting wall pieces". Need only come to Columbus NM and take NM 9 to Santa Teresa. About 20 minutes out of Columbus is the staging area where millions of dollars of material sits abandoned in the desert.

[@LukeL007]

Even today the Darien region still plagues engineers and any investor who thinks they can build a road through the region.

[@shotforshot5983]

A large portion of this list is due to bureaucratic red tape, political games and the pendulum of regime changes. Let any proposal or started project stagnate and its cost will rise simply due to inflation and deterioration of the partially complete, broken contracts and increasedpotential for graft. What if we tried to pass, fund and COMPLETE eminent domain (etc) projects today such as America's interstate system, the Panama canal, the grand Coolee dam. Modern America couldn't stomach the loss of life or even the disruption. You simply can't please everyone. Even a person in imminent danger may fight those trying to save them.

[@Bubbaist]

Those of us who live in the southwest know who builds walls here. Anyone see the problem?

[@timothyhouse1622]

I'm sure you are trying to make a racist point. But just for giggles.... wHo aRe bUiLdInG tHe WaLlS??

[@JetsBauer]

@@timothyhouse1622BuT mUh RaCIsM

[@timothyhouse1622]

@@JetsBauer so, who are building the walls? Since you want to defend Robert.

[@JetsBauer]

@@timothyhouse1622 lmao, as Mexican i find you funny 😃

[@JetsBauer]

wAlLs ArE rAcIsT 😂

[@uhadme]

Not 'crazy waste' if you understand the Freemason way. First 'government' supposes you need a train station, and Freemasons build it. Then it never meets the project revenue and is torn down after 20 years, to build something better. Rinse and repeat, got government contracts?

[@davidva8694]

I laughed out loud when Trump said that he’d make Mexico pay for wall

[@phillbosque2183]

Forgot California’s “high speed” rail boondoggle

[@zeninabox9818]

#1: The Democratic Party

[@josephcope7637]

Zen InABox You are SO right! Even FDR's New Deal was a failed mega project. The Great Depression dragged on and on until military spending motivated by fear of the rise of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan revived the U.S. economy.

[@jray5363]

If my 401K is any indication, the money they are costing Americans will be astronomical. Certainly deserving to be on this list.

[@tyr0n313]

I had wondered what the heck happened to that wall. It was the hot topic during the 2016 election. And completely vanished from all speeches in Trump’s 2020 run.

[@Carmoflage]

im missing Hitlers 1000year reich (or atleast his plans of it´s capital city), the "BER"-Airport of Berlin, "Stuttgart 21"-Metro project, "Nord Stream 2"... the list could go on and onn and on...

[@raykewin3608]

It was so bad, it made Scotland join England. 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@evanulven8249]

Yucca Mountain protests are as annoying as they are absurd. "Not in MY desolate wasteland!"

[@hebrewhooligan5462]

So I mean I'm in my 40s now so it's been awhile since I have had to mess with drug dealers, but are drug dealers in the habit of chucking there drugs over a wall without being sure they know who's on the other side to recive them? I mean that's like taking your cash and throwing it over a wall and just hoping your credit card gets paid..... right?

[@blackwolfnews1722]

The pillions are so we can see and identify them later or catch them in the act.

[@blakhorizon915]

Love this kind of content

[@donaldkelly3983]

My second favorite kind of Mega Projects episode is when a massive plan is accomplished and humanity benefits. My first favorite episode is when hubris drives planners to crashing failure. And I don't know how anyone believed Trump's wall would be completed!

[@Kadeo-ms6qw]

If the funding was provided it would have been completed. It’s not that difficult to build a wall. It’s not like it was to be the Great Wall of China.

[@midknight]

But yet morons continue to believe he was a good president and should be one again

[@jonhall2274]

I don't know how anyone believed a known pathological lying, ego-maniac, that is Trump. It's insane, and overwhelmingly the uneducated, that seems to fall for his dubious conman lies.

[@jerf5970]

Trump aint done yet

[@anarchyantz1564]

The rest of us non Americans said the same disbelieve that America would not only vote in this failed business con man but also the fact he could organise a coup and get away with it and still be loved by his cult.

[@3SIXTYPROD]

It’s kinda hard for trump to build the wall we need when Congress wouldn’t co-sign and Texas had to pay for it

[@spoonietheory]

Multi Function Polis in Adelaide - absolute disaster.

[@krashd]

The Act of Union was 1707, not 1777, and yes it was primarily the result of the failed Darien Scheme. We handed England the keys to Scotland and they bailed out our banks.

[@tim-tim-timmy6571]

NB: a particle accelerator does not create new matter. It smashes it in it most simple elements. The harder the smash, the more you break it. This is how the Higgs boson has been discovered

[@Lowmanification]

Should have just titled it failed/cancelled megaprojects. To me, useless would be something like a massive statue built somewhere no one will ever go to see it. Also with how US centric KZbin is, it would have been nice if you included more overly ambitious projects from around the world which flopped. Every country has them, but we rarely hear about it.

[@jhill4874]

Many projects in the US have died an early death with a waste of money because Congress "changed its mind". Mulholland was a supreme egotist. "Sir, the dam is failing!" "No it's not. I'm a genius." "Sir, the dam broke." "Oops"

[@kurtisbraun2347]

The wall just got restarted lol. And California, the biggest opponents already had one across thier southern border lol

[@rynolascavio3381]

Trumps wall will be finished

[@brandonwenzel2844]

It's adorable you think so.

[@beast36001]

which century? please get back on your meds

[@airgunningyup]

I live in Midlothian TX, Ive probably drove over the collider tunnels hundreds of times. Although Im not exactly sure where they are.

[@CAMacKenzie]

The St. Francis Dam was built on rock that was entirely inadequate. On one side, Sespe Formation conglomerate that, when a chunk was dropped in water, quickly collapsed into mud. Mulholland was apparently aware of this, but didn't excavate deep;ly enough to begin to accomodate it. On the other side, the Pelona schist, a metamorphic rock. Ther schistosity of this rock, and thus its lines of weakness, runs approximately parallel to the hillside. Again, he was aware of this, but again didn't put the dam deeply enough into the rock to get anywhere near enough support. Between these two, under the dam, a thrust fault filled with fault gouge, rock crushed by fault movement. The huge weight of water is believed to have caused movement on this fault, cracking the dam, as might have been expected, had he taken the time to find out about it. He seems not to have been aware of this, though a geology student looking at aerial photos had seen it and asked his prof about it. "Gee whiz, the Great Man MUST be aware of this. Anybody can see it in these pictures. He MUST have taken it into account." But he wasn't, and he didn't. He liked the topography, and lacked the training to recognize the problems or the solutions. Really, the best solution would have been to pick another site. By the way, although the dam was arcuate, it was NOT an arch dam, but a curved gravity dam.