A Brief History of: The SNAPTRAN Reactor destruction Experiments (Short Documentary)

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  • čas přidán 25. 06. 2024
  • #nuclear #atomic #disaster
    Learn while you're at home with Plainly Difficult!
    Imagine spending loads of time and money building a nuclear reactor only to intentionally destroy it?
    Although a strange thing to do you might think, the experiments were a vital piece of the puzzle of nuclear space travel.
    NASA wanted to be the first to have a nuclear reactor in space as part of its SNAPSHOT program, and this required the SNAPTRAN destructive tests.
    The destructive tests resulted in radioactive contamination of the test lab and the desert!
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    Sources:
    Set up for snaptran 2 test www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/43... SNAPTRAN 2
    www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/43...
    www.loc.gov/resource/hhh.id04...
    digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/... 3 test results
    babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?i...
    apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltex... ---
    www.osti.gov/opennet/servlets... ----
    www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/43... SNAPTRAN 2
    digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/... SNAPTRAN 3 Description

Komentáře • 752

  • @PlainlyDifficult
    @PlainlyDifficult  Před 3 lety +202

    Happy new year everyone! Thanks for the support! As always any subject suggestions are always welcome below!

    • @coopbrown7866
      @coopbrown7866 Před 3 lety +3

      Nedelin?

    • @sniperdustify
      @sniperdustify Před 3 lety +5

      Happy new year
      I know it's not nuclear but it's a good one I remember when it happened because it woke me up and I lived in Milton Keynes at the time which is about 30 miles away
      The Buncefield fire was a major fire at an oil storage facility on 11 December 2005 at the Hertfordshire Oil Storage Terminal, located near the M1 motorway, Hemel Hempstead, in Hertfordshire, England

    • @kristinepfs
      @kristinepfs Před 3 lety

      Happy New Year!!!!

    • @cpt.rogers1396
      @cpt.rogers1396 Před 3 lety +2

      I'd like to mention the SNAP-10-A or 'SNAPSHOT' satellite experienced shedding whilst still in orbit in 1979 losing more than 50 pieces of debris. (Hopefully none of that came down here!)
      It also was equipped if I'm not mistake with a Cesium Ion Thruster making it the first electrical propulsion systems ever used in space on top of the first nuclear power plant.
      Might be worth adding this to the video at a later date I found this data on wiki however so it may need some source checking.

    • @Volodimar
      @Volodimar Před 3 lety +3

      Happy New Year! Please consider making an episode about Anatoli Petrovich Bugorski, who stuck his head in particle accelerator.

  • @heintmeyer2296
    @heintmeyer2296 Před 3 lety +510

    the 60's were a special time: "we're going to blow up some reactors, should we do it inside a containment building?" "Nah, Idaho will be just fine"

    • @mrillis9259
      @mrillis9259 Před 3 lety +43

      Someone made a timeline of all the nuclear explosion tests on earth an ran the years up as explosions happened all over the world.
      Once China got involved it really became a fireworks show 60+ crazy how we react so fiercely to a little melt down when half the world has had large unregulated "tests"

    • @evelynh6223
      @evelynh6223 Před 3 lety +30

      @@mrillis9259 You are aware that the United States has done more nuclear tests than almost all of the rest of the world combined, in addition to being the only nation to use nuclear weapons on civilians (twice), right? The United States did 1030 tests, USSR did 715, France did 217, the UK did 88, and China did 47 (note that some of the UK's tests were done with America on American territory. If you count those as American tests, the UK did 45).

    • @mrillis9259
      @mrillis9259 Před 3 lety +11

      @@evelynh6223 an we are all fine right?

    • @WindTurbineSyndrome
      @WindTurbineSyndrome Před 3 lety +10

      This is why Hanford is one giant superfund site

    • @WindTurbineSyndrome
      @WindTurbineSyndrome Před 3 lety +8

      Tsar bombs size was so insane (my bomb is bigger than your bomb) it started below ground testing treaty talks. When you think of how many of the countries own people were injured or killed in USSR kazakhstan and Nevada... lunacy

  • @wickedgrinaz
    @wickedgrinaz Před 3 lety +428

    "#2 on the Plainly Difficult scale"
    Points to '1'
    Which is the second digit on the scale
    *Mind Blown*

    • @PlainlyDifficult
      @PlainlyDifficult  Před 3 lety +142

      Boom

    • @d.cypher2920
      @d.cypher2920 Před 3 lety +16

      @@PlainlyDifficult 😂👍

    • @z_polarcat
      @z_polarcat Před 3 lety +10

      Damn, now he have to update the older videos to follow the correct values on the scale.

    • @ShroudedWolf51
      @ShroudedWolf51 Před 2 lety +4

      Yep. Computers and programmers count from 0, not 1. Mainly because it makes all sorts of calculations and formulas just significantly easier.

    • @Arctiblaine
      @Arctiblaine Před 2 lety

      indexing

  • @TonyEmond
    @TonyEmond Před 3 lety +217

    "the radiation was measured at 2.7 ro/hr" I immediately thought "it's not great but it's not terrible".

    • @PlainlyDifficult
      @PlainlyDifficult  Před 3 lety +40

      😂

    • @OAleathaO
      @OAleathaO Před 2 lety +30

      Just remember, you didn't see any graphite on the roof after the test. ;)

    • @spvillano
      @spvillano Před 2 lety +6

      @@OAleathaO compared to the SL-1, which had a worker pinned to the concrete ceiling with a control rod bushing.
      Same flaw in that reactor as was in the Chernobyl unit, a moderator at the tip of the control rods and a positive void coefficient.

    • @lettuce7378
      @lettuce7378 Před 2 lety +11

      @@spvillano the fault in that reactor was the fact that ONE CONTROL ROD could cause a criticality accident.

    • @tyttuut
      @tyttuut Před rokem +4

      ​@@loganmeline9233 "Oh, so NOW you don't want to see me juggle four screwdrivers. Yeah, run away."

  • @wallabra
    @wallabra Před 3 lety +146

    Compared to the usual nuclear video, this actually feels kind of wholesome for some reason I can't quite put my finger on. I mean, it's nuclear explosions, and probably contributed to thyroid cancer levels, but I can't help but imagine how fun it must've been for the operators to have the reactors go boom. It must've been like some nuclear episode of Mythbusters!

    • @jacobb7608
      @jacobb7608 Před rokem +5

      It's not a nuclear explosion jsyk.

    • @TimPerfetto
      @TimPerfetto Před 8 měsíci

      you are old and thinking, in terms of reactors and nuclear things. There is only one holistic system of neutrinos.

  • @tanall5959
    @tanall5959 Před 3 lety +526

    The rerecording of the roentgen lines makes me wonder.. you accidentally said 'rads' the first time, didn't you?

    • @yakacm
      @yakacm Před 3 lety +57

      I thought maybe someone had told him his was saying it wrong so he re-recorded it, I would say that this video marks the first time he has pronounced it what I would say is correctly in any of his videos.

    • @Krmpfpks
      @Krmpfpks Před 3 lety +78

      he was flamed pronouncing roentgen as "rotegen" in previous videos, I think this is his way of saying hello to the pedantics

    • @Daydreaminginmono
      @Daydreaminginmono Před 3 lety +7

      ONE. MILLION. ANTS. Kind of reminds me of that, if you get the reference :)

    • @BronsonTheCat
      @BronsonTheCat Před 3 lety +21

      This is like the overdubbing of Taco Bell for Pizza Hut in Demolition Man.

    • @not_nerp
      @not_nerp Před 3 lety +4

      @@yakacm "rontegen"

  • @Chainsaw-ASMR
    @Chainsaw-ASMR Před 3 lety +506

    "three dollars sixty cents above critical"
    Well it was about that time I noticed Plainly Difficult was a giant crustacean from the paleolithic era,
    I said "dammit monster you ain't getting my tree fiddy"

  • @carleckel2877
    @carleckel2877 Před 3 lety +375

    MONTY PYTHONS FLYING REACTOR!

    • @henkbarnard1553
      @henkbarnard1553 Před 3 lety +44

      All 14 tones of it.

    • @PlainlyDifficult
      @PlainlyDifficult  Před 3 lety +76

    • @jenniferbaldini3527
      @jenniferbaldini3527 Před 3 lety +29

      I thought Monty Python as soon as I saw the cartoon foot!!
      🦶 *raspberry*

    • @neuralmute
      @neuralmute Před 3 lety +13

      This whole series of tests has a very Monty Python feel...

    • @StruggleButtons
      @StruggleButtons Před 3 lety +12

      I was hoping I wasn’t the only one who got excited by the Monty Python reference!

  • @R56TurboCharged
    @R56TurboCharged Před 3 lety +121

    Spend millions testing the reactor to destruction, use cheap voltage regulators from radio shack.

    • @cmotdibbler4454
      @cmotdibbler4454 Před 3 lety +31

      Does it look like we have Radio Shack money? those were salvaged from the back of a wireless set.

    • @cumguzzler8537
      @cumguzzler8537 Před 3 lety +12

      @@cmotdibbler4454 you think we have wireless set money? Those were of an intern's custom make!

    • @piotrcurious1131
      @piotrcurious1131 Před 3 lety

      Well, you have to take all this data with grain of salt. You are dealing with highly classified military projects, whose real purpose will remain mystery.
      Read inbetween lines though.
      1) Tests of getting reactor critical up to point of destruction were made. But those were not real failure tests - in reality such item would be destroyed during re-entry, or in worst case - during impact.
      So ask Yourself - why they tested how to blow this thing up?
      2)Having device wchich could explode in orbit , polluting it with highly radioactive waste is one of elements of setting dominance over space. It is terrorism - play nice or orbit will be defunct for 50 or more years. Touch us and 40 such sattelites will just fall down on earth .
      3)Do you really believe it is defunct on graveyard orbit? Having 500W device, able to explode, without any panels (size) sets dominance there too. That is loads of power in a place where billion dollar devices are parked. We know next to nil on military program of graveyard "junk" recycling, but sooner or later something will need to be done - once things will start colliding there, it will become graveyard asteroid belt, useless for thousands of years.
      Right now it is not possible to put really powerfull devices, like 20MW transmitters to "graveyard", but in 60's they did not know humankind will collapse in endless cold war, culminating with series of pandemics, destruction of goobal ecosysyem and population boom up to 7billion. Look up what was the population on earth in 1960. It was bad, but still offered some hope. They had sci-fi about dyson spheres and colonies on mars. They had no internet, worldometers.info or thousands of nation-state crime copycats building nuclear warheads like there is no tommorow. Marylin-manson was not even born back then, this did happen 9 years later 😅

    • @ultimaIXultima
      @ultimaIXultima Před 3 lety +5

      @@piotrcurious1131 Uh, you realize nuclear anything (whether a bomb or a reactor) decays over time right? You can't just put stuff like that in space, and threaten people with it 60 years later. Half-life is a thing.
      NASA has always required those tests, not just for nuclear reactors, but for anything that goes up.
      Conspiracy theory nonsense

    • @piotrcurious1131
      @piotrcurious1131 Před 3 lety

      @@ultimaIXultima Well, sure not after 60 years 😅 But You also need to get the diplomacy - much better to say "voltage regulator failed" than "WE HAVE EXPLOSiVeS!" . Oficially there is no proof sat is active. But Your enemy cannot be sure if it cannot go back online. seemingly win-win, but a lie is a lie. You lie to Yourself, and Your children. and note this is not only sat of this type on the orbit 😅
      Not much conspiracy theory there, note We are generations left with this trash up. Both diplomacy-wise and just junk on the orbits. Would You not want Tomsk being open city again? thousands of people being freed and being able to just talk about their jobs without fear some weirdo will use the knowledge to disrupt global communications?
      Just mass of the sattelite is disturbing.
      Also i am not going to whitewash NASA for wasting taxpayers money on useless tests, while leaving homeless on the streets, under-equipping soldiers and so on. People have right to feel screwed. Who is going to pay now for cleaning this s* out of the orbit? Who is going to pay for diplomatic relations wreckage? One needs to assume responsibility for own actions, otherwise it is another diplomacy fail. Noone trusts someone who lied once. And whole space and nuclear program is a chain of lies. There must be a point when this changes.

  • @JosephFuller
    @JosephFuller Před 3 lety +193

    "They Live!" A classic movie whose memorable lines are not often mentioned in the context of nuclear tests.

    • @PlainlyDifficult
      @PlainlyDifficult  Před 3 lety +51

      😂😂I’m glad someone got it!

    • @silmarian
      @silmarian Před 3 lety +32

      Yup!
      Also, "I'm here to chew bubblegum and blow up reactors, and I'm all out of bubblegum." ;)

    • @janhoudek4678
      @janhoudek4678 Před 3 lety +17

      @@PlainlyDifficult I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick Plainly Difficult's ass for chewing plain ordinary gum instead of bubblegum

    • @dillonhunt1720
      @dillonhunt1720 Před 3 lety +6

      Makes a lot more sense if you imagine Duke Nukem saying it

    • @korbenbutterworth3479
      @korbenbutterworth3479 Před 3 lety +1

      @@dillonhunt1720
      Piece of cake

  • @axeman3d
    @axeman3d Před 3 lety +129

    Seamless ADR work there, you'd never notice the drop ins.

    • @dannooo548
      @dannooo548 Před 3 lety +5

      I'm amazed ADR can ever work

    • @LoneTiger
      @LoneTiger Před 3 lety +2

      I would have used "Daniel" TTS voice for those voice-overs. 😁

    • @WhiteWolf-lm7gj
      @WhiteWolf-lm7gj Před rokem

      I was listening but not really paying attention, and it made me jump when I heard it

  • @AKAtheA
    @AKAtheA Před 3 lety +75

    Being able to go from 500W od design power to 74GW (*way* more then reactor 4 in Chernobyl when it tossed the lid through the roof) shows you just how much power there is in nuclear energy

    • @victr7487
      @victr7487 Před 3 lety +18

      Weeeell... The actual energy produced at the moment of the explosion is not known, 32-33000 Mw mark was just the last recorded output of the reactor, could have been more and i wouldn't be surprised if that was the case. 74000 is still pretty impressive for a tiny, spacecraft reactor (compared to the huge RBMK from Chernobyl)

    • @stephenverchinski409
      @stephenverchinski409 Před 3 lety +3

      Some kids never listened to mom when she said don't play with matches. Let's see how fast the curtains (reactors) burn! No wonder we have the Price-Anderson Act.

    • @Chainsaw-ASMR
      @Chainsaw-ASMR Před 3 lety +20

      @@victr7487 I was thinking something similar. If a cute little 500W reactor can reach 74 GW, then reactor 4 must have reached a truly scary number before disassembly.

    • @lettuce7378
      @lettuce7378 Před 2 lety +4

      @@Chainsaw-ASMR several petawatts maybe

  • @Snaily
    @Snaily Před 3 lety +8

    I just want to point out how much I appreciate that you put the black and white bar before adverts. One of the few UK based CZcamsrs to actually do that, and it gives me warning that I need to turn down the volume since adverts are always deafeningly loud.

    • @ramblingrob4693
      @ramblingrob4693 Před rokem

      I just adblock, i c no ads on YT, it skips them for me.

  • @ajfurnari2448
    @ajfurnari2448 Před 3 lety +54

    If some guy in a lab coat and tie, carrying a clip board shows up to my work..... I'm outta there!

  • @Unb3arablePain
    @Unb3arablePain Před 3 lety +148

    The wild west days of nuclear power were always interesting.
    Nuclear Physicist: "Let's blow up this reactor to see what happens."
    Nuclear Engineer: "Sounds good to me."

    • @PlainlyDifficult
      @PlainlyDifficult  Před 3 lety +38

      Oh the good old days before the thyroid cancer took hold!

    • @lewisdoherty7621
      @lewisdoherty7621 Před 3 lety +26

      @@PlainlyDifficult Take your iodine tablets and stop complaining.

    • @TBone-bz9mp
      @TBone-bz9mp Před 3 lety +5

      How the fuck has this species made it to seven billion.

    • @WindTurbineSyndrome
      @WindTurbineSyndrome Před 3 lety +13

      Answer breed like rabbits, invented penicillin.

    • @matiasfpm
      @matiasfpm Před 3 lety

      @@WindTurbineSyndrome HEHEEE BOI

  • @cpt_nordbart
    @cpt_nordbart Před 3 lety +194

    Roentgen is a hard word.

    • @PlainlyDifficult
      @PlainlyDifficult  Před 3 lety +79

      I never get it right

    • @lairdcummings9092
      @lairdcummings9092 Před 3 lety +37

      I prefer the older "REM" - Roentgen Equivalent Man, or the equivalent dose a man would receive from one Roentgen of Cobalt-60 gamma rays; it's easier to say, and calibrated for equivalent biological damage, no matter the radiosource, be it neutrons, gamma, beta, or alpha rays.
      These days it's all about Seiverts and Grays. Gimme the old-school measures, thank you.

    • @colchronic
      @colchronic Před 3 lety +26

      @@PlainlyDifficult it wasn't great but not terrible either

    • @cpt_nordbart
      @cpt_nordbart Před 3 lety +8

      I liked Rotegen. I know that German is a weird language since I am.

    • @andie_pants
      @andie_pants Před 3 lety +7

      Yeah, once they start smooshing vowels together, all bets are off in the obvious pronunciation department.

  • @nobodynoone2500
    @nobodynoone2500 Před 2 lety +68

    Please do a quick, or long, video on what all the different radiation measurments mean.
    Thank you!

    • @janb.3600
      @janb.3600 Před rokem +23

      I agree, this is a constant flaw of the series which drives me mad: Using a dozen different units to measure radioactivity and explaining none of them.

  • @antoineroquentin2297
    @antoineroquentin2297 Před 3 lety +29

    i rate this a 10 on the plainly difficult viewer scale

    • @PlainlyDifficult
      @PlainlyDifficult  Před 3 lety +4

      Thank you!

    • @jss7668
      @jss7668 Před 3 lety +5

      Considering 4 kg uranium in orbit for thousands of years , yeah.

  • @JAMESWUERTELE
    @JAMESWUERTELE Před rokem +6

    I seriously love your sense of humor. I’m watching old episodes and the whole stepping stone has me cracking up in the middle of the night.

    • @MTG69
      @MTG69 Před měsícem +1

      This channel makes me laugh my ass off. The Ford Pinto video demonstration, with a Coke can, piece of paper, and John's size 12 boot, made me cry.

  • @lairdcummings9092
    @lairdcummings9092 Před 3 lety +52

    Destructive testing can be very informative. When dealing with nuclear power, more knowledge is *always* better.

    • @kumaahito3927
      @kumaahito3927 Před 2 lety +3

      Yeah, better blow it up intentionally in advance than guess the outcome of falling in the middle of a city (extremely slim chance I know, but imagine if one did fall in the middle of eg. NY or Washington)

  • @Akideoni
    @Akideoni Před 3 lety +3

    Love the last line "it will be up there for 4000 years".

    • @WouldntULikeToKnow.
      @WouldntULikeToKnow. Před 3 lety +1

      Hopefully

    • @Akideoni
      @Akideoni Před 3 lety

      Yup, technically it means hopefully not in any then human lifetime. And those 80 generations that follows.

  • @bjarkeistruppedersen8213
    @bjarkeistruppedersen8213 Před 3 lety +39

    Noo, our foot-stepping hero didn't appear 🤣

    • @PlainlyDifficult
      @PlainlyDifficult  Před 3 lety +27

      They needed a rest to go to a Podiatry health care professional

  • @mcblaggart8565
    @mcblaggart8565 Před 3 lety +33

    I remember a similar destructive test of a nuclear reactor.
    The US government stuck a reactor in an artificial cave and simulated various incidents and emergency shut-downs. When they were finished, they ramped the reactor up, then ejected all the control rods. The reactor violently "disassembled itself."
    I tried to look it up to refresh my memory, but can't find anything. Does anyone know the incident I'm talking about?

    • @MrMontanaNights
      @MrMontanaNights Před 3 lety +12

      BORAX-I and BORAX-II were both tested to destruction as well, though neither was in a cave or underground.

    • @derekp2674
      @derekp2674 Před 3 lety +4

      The SPERT tests came later than the BORAX ones (see www.osti.gov/opennet/servlets/purl/907610.pdf ) but also may not have been in a cave underground.

    • @mcblaggart8565
      @mcblaggart8565 Před 3 lety +14

      @@derekp2674 The SPERT tests sound similar to what I remember. They mention earth-shielded bunkers, and ejecting control rods.
      If it's not exactly the same, that might be my faulty memory. Or it could be a different test program.

  • @morongovalley940
    @morongovalley940 Před 3 lety +64

    I just looked this up on wiki, and there's actually 30 nuclear reactors in orbit.

    • @j.f.fisher5318
      @j.f.fisher5318 Před 3 lety +5

      wow, I had no idea.

    • @morongovalley940
      @morongovalley940 Před 3 lety +20

      Only 1 American, 29 Russian

    • @tramplamps
      @tramplamps Před 3 lety +5

      I was just about to go off site, but here you are in the comments doing that good work, you sage.
      Also, well, Actually
      Question should we all be terrified?
      Or would the atomic energy coop of the post- WWII era have had the “get under your desk”- atomic school-age kids see videos of all these those 30 or so realtors as more of little satellites? Such as a psa school video to lull them into a feeling of safety. Something with a narrator dub over basic kids looking through a clip art telescope, with an upbeat innovation jingle playing underneath , and him saying:
      “Hey look little Johnny! See way up there Sally? That’s no transatlantic PanAm flight, no, but you’re close.
      Just imagine all around you , in outer space, as you sleep, Nuclear power is circling the Earth!
      Isn’t it just the cats pajamas?
      Yes, just look up on any clear night sky from the safety of your American homes, and who knows?
      With the help of a high to medium powered telescope, you might see your friend- Little SNAP, ah yes, what a fella!
      Would wouldn’t believe the like he has had , and he is only the same age as you boys and girls! But don’t worry, wait to you find out how long he is projected to live!
      Is he lonely? Poppycock! Would you believe that he is just One of 30 our many brave orbiters, making their nightly trips, check ups I call them, around our world, and especially around the USofA?
      Little SNAP loves baseball and as he passes his orbit each day, he does so is a an adorable baseball uniform and a small Louisville slugger NASA designed just for him in space, and each night you could see him in the sky, as he rounds third base for what will be another home run on the scoreboard, you can see him sliding into home plate for the all American team!
      Now get out there and play ball with Nuclear power kids, because if you don’t, the communist will pick up this very bat, and who knows? They might just stay to get good at our game, and the next thing you and I know... they will win! (In this psa vid it shows a baseball/physicist guy swinging a bat and knocking the small test Nuclear Snap device clear into the stratosphere and the 2 kids are at his side looking up in amazement) -
      I don’t make the rules, I just make this stuff up..

    • @tramplamps
      @tramplamps Před 3 lety +7

      that there is only one American one and the rest are Russian, makes for better spin and disinformation. I’m going to go with it. Put a small ©️at bottom that says something to effect of “Brought to You by free and total Capitalism and in no way Commissioned by Soviet Outreach of Children’s assessment to very good better Party”

    • @RCAvhstape
      @RCAvhstape Před 3 lety +17

      One of the Soviet reactors is scattered across northern Canada. If you're hiking in the Great White North and run across grizzly bears with tentacles you'll know why.

  • @DKTAz00
    @DKTAz00 Před 3 lety +13

    The voice overlay made me smile :D

  • @tahustvedt
    @tahustvedt Před 3 lety +17

    Future earthlings will wonder where that radioactive meteorite came from.

  • @williamdunnamjr972
    @williamdunnamjr972 Před 3 lety +80

    Another wonderful Plainly Diffi-Cult production.

  • @reubensandwich9249
    @reubensandwich9249 Před 3 lety +23

    Being the first to send something nuclear into space is... Maybe Dr. Strangelove wasn't as much of a satire as its made out to be.

    • @PlainlyDifficult
      @PlainlyDifficult  Před 3 lety +16

      It was a documentary!

    • @Mr_T_Badger
      @Mr_T_Badger Před 3 lety +6

      Funny story about that. George C. Scott wanted to play the character of General Turgidson more seriously than Kubrick wanted. Kubrick convinced him to go over the top with his actions, claiming that these were demo reels and wouldn’t be used in the actual movie. Of course they were and Scott, very annoyed at this, swore never to work with Kubrick again.

    • @tyrannosaurusimperator
      @tyrannosaurusimperator Před 2 lety

      It was satire? I thought it was a cold war era torture device. Worst movie I've ever seen.

  • @FlyingSavannahs
    @FlyingSavannahs Před 3 lety +13

    "Ok, gentlemen, we have determined that we need to test crashes into the ocean, in the desert, and in a large city, but the contracts office says we only have the budget for two test scenarios. So, let's decide which scenario is the least important and can be cancelled."

  • @AcornElectron
    @AcornElectron Před 3 lety +29

    Happy New Year PD! Here’s to a better year!

  • @tncorgi92
    @tncorgi92 Před 3 lety +33

    Forget the reactor, I just wanna see what happens when a few kg of hot NAK hit a tank of water.

    • @neuralmute
      @neuralmute Před 3 lety +2

      Hell, who *doesn't?*

    • @StefanoBorini
      @StefanoBorini Před 3 lety +4

      As a first degree approximation, I'd say... boom?

    • @paulhawkins6415
      @paulhawkins6415 Před 3 lety +3

      @@StefanoBorini you are an order of magnitude out. It was kaboom
      czcams.com/video/t9wmWZbr_wQ/video.html

  • @ZonicMirage
    @ZonicMirage Před 3 lety +11

    Thus, the reactor goes YEET.

  • @binkycatfish
    @binkycatfish Před 3 lety +17

    very fresh, fresher than the manhattan project in nuclear history.

  • @Ratzfourtyfour
    @Ratzfourtyfour Před 3 lety +10

    0:34 and now for something completely different
    Or as nowadays kids would put it: I see you're a man of culture as well.

  • @gearsngunz6260
    @gearsngunz6260 Před 3 lety +1

    Always looking forward to an upload! Great vid as usual!

  • @darraghchapman
    @darraghchapman Před 3 lety +8

    I just discovered your channel! Great stuff, well researched, scripted and presented. Keep it up, I'll look forward to your videos to come as I gorge myself on your back catalogue :)

    • @PlainlyDifficult
      @PlainlyDifficult  Před 3 lety +1

      Thank you gorge away! Just like how I'm eating my weight in chocolate!

  • @50_foot_punch99
    @50_foot_punch99 Před 3 lety +2

    50-80s probably the best time to be an American, just living you had a good chance to be part of major history.

  • @rodypony
    @rodypony Před 3 lety +3

    If humanity manages to survive 4000 years, the people of that time will be in for quite a surprise.

  • @ICYTR
    @ICYTR Před rokem +2

    Just wanted to say that the Monty Python foot tribute was awesome and made me LOL. I love your videos and watch/listen to them often. CHEERS!

  • @adamantium1983
    @adamantium1983 Před 3 lety +4

    Thank You for the wonderful videos! I enjoy when you release them.

  • @comradedyatlov4143
    @comradedyatlov4143 Před 3 lety +1

    Happy New Year, man! I absolutely adore your videos and they are REALLY motivating me to finally get out there and reach my dreams of becoming a nuclear engineer. I LOVE YOU! ❤

  • @pinkmouse4863
    @pinkmouse4863 Před 3 lety +1

    Good start to the year, keep it up!

  • @kotori87gaming89
    @kotori87gaming89 Před 3 lety +5

    Any chance we could see a video about the SPERT experiments? the Special Power Excursion Reactor Test program had a very similar idea to SNAPTRAN, with the plan of testing the effects of prompt criticality on power reactors. Unlike SNAPTRAN, however, SPERT was intended for land-based reactors.
    And here's another plug for the USS Thresher and USS Scorpion incidents. Thresher's story has never been properly explained in detail before, and the Scorpion's true cause of loss was only discovered in the past few years.

    • @j.f.fisher5318
      @j.f.fisher5318 Před 3 lety +2

      These all sound interesting. Hope we get them someday. :) And the U.S. subs are discussed far less, at least in the U.S. than the Soviet subs that sank.

  • @staticbob2001
    @staticbob2001 Před 3 lety +6

    I've been a fan of your channel for quit some time, and find all of your content quite interesting. I found this one uniquely interesting as I live in the city of Idaho Falls, which isn't all that far from the test bed (currently Idaho National laboratory) these experiments took place. It's kind of a giggle to myself as the house I currently own was originally government housing constructed in the mid 50's, for naval personnel working out at the INL at the time.

  • @aalborgsoundwboi
    @aalborgsoundwboi Před 3 lety +1

    Foot steps on thing, fart sounds. Nice Python reference! :D
    Also, subscribed a while back, but never got around to telling just how much i enjoy your content! Thanks a lot, please keep 'em coming! :)
    Cheers!

  • @TycoonTitian01
    @TycoonTitian01 Před 3 lety +1

    First episode of 2021! Nice vid, by the way!!

  • @etjason1
    @etjason1 Před 3 lety +15

    When I think about nuclear-powered testing I think oil company.

    • @wifelikecow
      @wifelikecow Před 3 lety +1

      Well, if you play fallout, then yeah you really would. Poseidon Energy.

    • @RCAvhstape
      @RCAvhstape Před 3 lety

      Energy company.

    • @wifelikecow
      @wifelikecow Před 3 lety

      @@RCAvhstape yeah, but you get my point.

  • @vejet
    @vejet Před 3 lety

    9:37 I like that change in voice tone, adds just the perfect touch of sinisterness to the video.

  • @abrahamlincoln9758
    @abrahamlincoln9758 Před 3 lety +5

    Graphite at Chernobyl: So, anyway, I started blastin'. Bah! Bah!

  • @henriknilsson7851
    @henriknilsson7851 Před 3 lety +1

    Thanks for sharing this bit of nuclear-powered 1960s madness!
    Happy New Year to PD

  • @seanmckinnon4612
    @seanmckinnon4612 Před 3 lety +13

    You should do the Borax test reactors too!

    • @PlainlyDifficult
      @PlainlyDifficult  Před 3 lety +4

      Thanks for the suggestion

    • @matiasfpm
      @matiasfpm Před 3 lety

      The Borat test Reactors...
      My mind betrayed me fastttt

    • @Mr_T_Badger
      @Mr_T_Badger Před 3 lety +1

      Something tells me this does NOT involve Borax laundry powder. 🤣

  • @kai990
    @kai990 Před 3 lety +1

    Woah. Your best one so far. Keep up the great work.

  • @Gav_Rez
    @Gav_Rez Před 3 měsíci

    Loving the way yourself as a voice over is so different haha. Love all your stuff too by the way.

  • @rapidthrash1964
    @rapidthrash1964 Před 3 lety

    Now this is a great start to a new year; excellent documentary and I wish I could work for you

  • @colonelgraff9198
    @colonelgraff9198 Před 3 lety +2

    0:36 Boomers Remember Monty Python

  • @cliffburridge
    @cliffburridge Před 3 lety +1

    Cool vids, geezer! Keep ‘em coming... 😎😎

  • @dez1989
    @dez1989 Před 3 lety +7

    I love your videos and especially your humor! Well along with all of the information! You are a credit to criticality! Thanks for all of your hard work! Keep glowing like a Radioactive beacon in the darkness of night!

    • @PlainlyDifficult
      @PlainlyDifficult  Před 3 lety

      Thanks so much!

    • @dez1989
      @dez1989 Před 3 lety

      @@PlainlyDifficult Honestly, thank you. I also look forward to your Brief History videos. You put a lot of time into making these both funny yet informative. That's not easy. Well plus editing the videos and pictures! Lots of work. Just know that there are a lot of us out here who appreciate your work.

  • @markfrench8892
    @markfrench8892 Před 3 lety

    I find all your videos more then plainly interesting.

  • @danielstrobel3832
    @danielstrobel3832 Před 3 lety +1

    Great stuff! Working at a nuclear researc facility, I always learn something to anoy my bosses over here!

  • @ladislavmalak444
    @ladislavmalak444 Před 2 lety

    You have my respect for all the research you are doing in your videos. And I like your good ol´ British sense of sarcasm... :)

  • @trevormurphy7041
    @trevormurphy7041 Před 3 lety

    Been waiting for you to do a video like this also had another idea for a video how much nuclear waste is in space I watched a few of your videos that’s what I’m thinking right now

  • @randomuser5443
    @randomuser5443 Před 3 lety +5

    “3.60$ above critical”
    If you don’t mind, I will be laughing

  • @thejudgmentalcat
    @thejudgmentalcat Před 3 lety

    That Roddy Piper reference was gold! ❤❤

  • @jeffbriem
    @jeffbriem Před 3 lety +1

    I did not get the notification for this video and I appreciate the posts to remind me. I look forward to my usual Saturday morning dose of nuclear chaos.

  • @lsrengines
    @lsrengines Před 3 lety +2

    BORAX TEST NEXT? GREAT JOB

  • @darran311
    @darran311 Před 3 lety +8

    enjoying binging your videos ,not sure how hard they were to make but based on the quality i can say for sure it was plainly difficult

  • @TheoriginalIlleven11
    @TheoriginalIlleven11 Před 3 lety +1

    This is such a good channel thanks

  • @bensurgeoner7755
    @bensurgeoner7755 Před 3 lety

    Thank you so much for reading out the PD rating scale number, I finally know what the rating is while I'm driving and can't see the screen

  • @ZieSpiralOut
    @ZieSpiralOut Před 3 lety +1

    On my way to work, last thing I get to do, watch a new plainly difficult video! Whoop whoop!

  • @neilwilson5871
    @neilwilson5871 Před 3 lety

    Just thought I would diverge from the usual n say....love the danger fanfare intro and the continuing lack of annoying soundtrack throughout your videos 👍
    Love the content also.....bring on the wider catchment areas of disaster

  • @filpaul
    @filpaul Před 3 lety +15

    Looks like he’s entering into a Zone of Danger 10:15

    • @waharadome
      @waharadome Před 3 lety +4

      No no, but how would you phrase that?

    • @interstellarsurfer
      @interstellarsurfer Před 3 lety +4

      @@waharadome Danger Zone! 😂

    • @neuralmute
      @neuralmute Před 3 lety +1

      @@interstellarsurfer Damn you, I'll never get that song out of my head now!

    • @RCAvhstape
      @RCAvhstape Před 3 lety +1

      Hey Lana. Lana. LANA!

    • @waharadome
      @waharadome Před 3 lety +1

      @@RCAvhstape WHAT!?

  • @AirMax_real
    @AirMax_real Před 3 lety +1

    Je, finally a new video 🤌

  • @Darkness-tk1hx
    @Darkness-tk1hx Před měsícem

    Idk why I'm addicted to these vids

  • @SotonSam
    @SotonSam Před 3 lety

    Love the lines in the top right to show ads are about to start like on tv

  • @godlessblessings7020
    @godlessblessings7020 Před 11 měsíci +1

    Thanks!

  • @drunkimunki4286
    @drunkimunki4286 Před rokem

    those jump cuts with the read oout levels omg

  • @MegaPoxie
    @MegaPoxie Před 3 lety +6

    What does "power increase to $3.60 cents above critical" mean, keeping in mund my hearing isn't too flash?

    • @derekp2674
      @derekp2674 Před 3 lety +3

      Strictly speaking $3.60 is a reactivity measurement not a power one.
      It means that the reactor was made substantially super prompt critical ($1 is the USA term for prompt critical - the Russians use an alternative symbol). This means that the neutron chain reaction can self sustain and increase on the basis of prompt neutrons alone, i.e. using the neutrons directly produced by the fission of U-235 and without having to wait around for any neutrons produced later by the radioactive decay of fission products.
      Such conditions would cause the reactor power to surge very rapidly, liberating enough energy to explosively dismantle the reactor in a very short time. I'm going to say less than 10 milliseconds as a rough guess, in which case the reactor would explode much as if it were being blown apart by a chemical explosive.

  • @mindtouchone
    @mindtouchone Před 3 lety

    The creativity of this man is Hollywood level,

  • @mrmelty53
    @mrmelty53 Před 3 lety

    That was awesome

  • @itisjustacomment
    @itisjustacomment Před 3 lety +3

    Number 2 but points at 1. I was thinking about that bit so much I missed the few minutes before that also the giant foot from flying circus through me. I'm easily confused :)
    Then the old fashioned 3 bars in the top right corner to show an advert was coming up sent me back to my childhood watching tv in the '80 and '90. See I'm easily distracted also :)

  • @DarkFire515
    @DarkFire515 Před 3 lety +1

    Great video! If your destructive test doesn't form corium though, are you really trying hard enough?

  • @hedgeearthridge6807
    @hedgeearthridge6807 Před 2 měsíci +1

    A big thing here is NaK explodes when it contacts water, just like Sodium metal and Potassium metal. Because that's what it is! If you mix together Sodium and Potassium metal, they merge and become a liquid for some reason. Thunderf00t on CZcams experiments with it a lot, I believe he put it in a car fuel injector to make a highly controllable and accurately dosed explosion-sprayer for experiments 😂

  • @jiggermole
    @jiggermole Před 3 měsíci

    Intentional destructive testing is always a win.

  • @Hey_MikeZeroEcho22P
    @Hey_MikeZeroEcho22P Před 3 lety +4

    So Stand-By........2020P was hell........6020, "HOLD My Beer!!!!" Sh**!!!!

  • @fluxthelycanroc9603
    @fluxthelycanroc9603 Před 3 lety

    First vid of the new year neato

  • @wade-potato6200
    @wade-potato6200 Před 3 lety +1

    0:36 Nice Monty Python-esque foot of cupid :)

  • @Soundbrigade
    @Soundbrigade Před 3 lety

    The guy who always stepped on his colleges feet has obviously been replaced. Great to see nasty stuff being tested thoroughly.
    The Swedish warship Wasa (on display in Stockholm) was also tested and considered definitely not seaworthy. In came the captain: “Hoist ALL sails!!!” .... Absolutely a 10 on the richter scale.

  • @intechio9013
    @intechio9013 Před 3 lety

    12:01 i thought i had water in my ear but it was just you correcting your sentances lmao

  • @Herowebcomics
    @Herowebcomics Před 8 měsíci

    Woah!
    This is both awesome and scary at the same time!
    I would like to see nuclear powered space travel to be a thing!
    Heck,I miss that nuclear boat that someone made!
    That thing sounded amazing too!😅

  • @Daydreaminginmono
    @Daydreaminginmono Před 3 lety +5

    Destructive testing is always fun, even with nuclear reactors!

    • @neuralmute
      @neuralmute Před 3 lety +3

      I'm glad not to be the only sick bastard here thinking this! You know those guys enjoyed their work.

    • @Damien.D
      @Damien.D Před 3 lety +3

      When it's controlled or at lest in a controlled and remote place (ahem, SL1), it provides good data for safety.
      US voluntarily destroyed reactors -> Three Miles Island is their worst nuclear incident.
      USSR never recorded anything on their multiple mishaps for secrecy reason -> Tchernobyl, Kyshtym, Andreev Bay...

  • @sethtothemax
    @sethtothemax Před 3 lety +1

    Any chance you can make a video explaining what the diffrent nuclear measurements mean?as I enjoy the videos I just wish to better understand how bad something is and what it means

  • @rtrThanos
    @rtrThanos Před 3 lety +1

    7:55 “Due to not having the reflector drums installed, a different form of power control was needed.”
    9:08 “All 37 fuel elements and 6 beryllium reflectors were destroyed.”
    Must be one heck of an explosion to destroy reflectors that aren’t even installed.

    • @spicywolf6718
      @spicywolf6718 Před 3 lety +1

      Reflector =/= drum
      The reflectors in question were permanently affixed to the reactor unlike the drums
      Hence why all 6 were destroyed when there were only 4 drums

  • @MrRedsjack
    @MrRedsjack Před 3 lety +2

    Can you do a video explaining all the types of unit of measurement used in these videos and their effects on the human body?
    Curie
    Rad
    Rem
    Rondgens
    Sieverts
    Bequerel
    Culomb
    Grays
    Because I don't understand them well and you often switch units between videos for no explained reason. 😐

  • @busterbeagle2167
    @busterbeagle2167 Před 3 lety

    You saved me from loosing it. Thanks

  • @darrellid
    @darrellid Před 3 lety

    LoL @ those overdubs.

  • @caitlinriley2035
    @caitlinriley2035 Před 3 lety +6

    This is how you get through a snowy day in England

    • @wilting_alocasia
      @wilting_alocasia Před 3 lety +1

      I wish it was snowing over here in east anglia! 😭

    • @PlainlyDifficult
      @PlainlyDifficult  Před 3 lety +2

      No snow in my sunny southeastern corner of London

    • @caitlinriley2035
      @caitlinriley2035 Před 3 lety

      I'm in south Yorkshire id love to be able to post a picture its -2

    • @neuralmute
      @neuralmute Před 3 lety +1

      *Laughs in Canadian*

    • @dmhendricks
      @dmhendricks Před 3 lety +1

      *Cries in upper-Midwestern USA accent*

  • @imouse3246
    @imouse3246 Před 3 lety

    This project must have had a massive 'lid' on it!

  • @uzaiyaro
    @uzaiyaro Před 3 lety +11

    Could someone kindly explain what the dollars and cents thing is about? I'm kinda fascinated by this.

    • @matthewkriebel7342
      @matthewkriebel7342 Před 3 lety +4

      I think he’s just expressing 360% in a funny way.

    • @interstellarsurfer
      @interstellarsurfer Před 3 lety +5

      @@matthewkriebel7342 The funny people who originally engineered this stuff 'coined' that term. 😋

    • @eaglevision993
      @eaglevision993 Před 3 lety +8

      Well it is just a unit to measure reactivity in a critical mass. A dollar defines the rate of a steady criticality with no increase in it. Like a self sustaining chain reaction. So 2 dollars would be a runaway excursion for example. The more dollars greater than one means more and faster trouble....

    • @neuralmute
      @neuralmute Před 3 lety +5

      @@eaglevision993 I never knew that! Thanks for the good, clear explanation.
      So $3.60 meant that it was completely f*cked, I suppose?

    • @dmhendricks
      @dmhendricks Před 3 lety +4

      Someone in another thread linked to this: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_(reactivity)

  • @TeemarkConvair
    @TeemarkConvair Před 3 lety +2

    one wonders what Cornelius will think when that satellite comes crashing to the surface...

  • @DrKlausTrophobie
    @DrKlausTrophobie Před 3 lety +3

    13:15 Wait! Does it mean in ~4000 years 4.7kg of Uranium will be falling down on earth?

    • @jamestheotherone742
      @jamestheotherone742 Před 3 lety +2

      Yes. But probably sooner when it gets hit by another piece of space debris and gets scattered into a large cloud of radioactive junk.

    • @JohnDoe-ce2wl
      @JohnDoe-ce2wl Před 3 lety

      @@jamestheotherone742 I'd rather see it get picked up by a starship ;)

    • @guim222
      @guim222 Před 3 lety

      Holy
      Sh... humanity already did THAT mess too?!! I am suprized no more people find this odd!!

    • @MrMontanaNights
      @MrMontanaNights Před 3 lety

      4000 years from now humans will either be long gone, or have progressed to the point that all that space junk will have be taken care of. They’ve already started to design (or conceptualize at least) space junk collecting spacecraft. Unless we, as a modern civilization, self destruct. In which case, all bets are off and good luck future humans.

    • @jamestheotherone742
      @jamestheotherone742 Před 3 lety

      @@MrMontanaNights Yeah I agree, its that in between part that is tricky.