Cobalt-60 Rods: Totally Silent. Totally Deadly.

Simon's Social Media:

This video is #sponsored by Ridge.

Love content? Check out Simon's other YouTube Channels:

[rossmcd]

I drove a dilapidated blue Chevy Cobalt in college. My friends called it "Cobalt-59" because that was it's apparent top speed due to tire imbalance.

[missanthropy]

"The Cobalt 60 was at this point 19 years old. The majority of it had already decayed" ...I feel you Cobalt 60, I feel you

[seymourpro]

There was an incident in Japan. Some Cobalt60 "went missing" and was determined to have been used to make high strength re-bar for some steel used to make a housing tower block. On the basis that the Co60 was "diluted" in the steel and encased in concrete the block was allowed to stand and be occupied, every resident had regular health checks. The residents had LONGER than normal lifespans! Which was put down to regular health checks catching every other disease before that killed people. This has it's own Wiki page but it's drowned out with nuclear power station pages.

[mtheoryx]

"Taking a piece of steel wool and scraping the enamel off your teeth" Sir, I did not need that string of words in that order today. Well done.

[TheAndroidNextDoor]

I've worked with Cobalt 60 and Cobalt 57 as well as a number of other radioactive isotopes and that shit is some of the scariest stuff on the planet. It was a pain to have to keep the tiny, microscopic samples we used inside of heavy lead pill boxes that were further stored inside lead boxes that weighed at least a few hundred pounds but honestly it's far better to be too safe than not safe enough.

[friendlyloon]

Earlier this year a Caesium 137 capsule was lost in Western Australia on a 1400km highway. From a mining company, not a medical device. It fell off a truck. Talk about trying to find a needle in a haystack. A small capsule along a 1400km highway. They actually managed to locate it within 3 or 4 days, bloody miracle.

[wirebrushofenlightenment]

When they were designing the radiation hazard symbol back in the '40s, one proposed was a skull emanating wavy lines. It was rejected as 'Too frightening'.

[MrTylerStricker]

"Drop & run"? More like "I'm terribly sorry if you can read this"

[willmcgo]

For anyone working as a scrap collector having a Geiger counter would be a good device to have around for detecting if items are radioactive.

[joebob]

Fun Fact: Cobalt 60 has so many calories that if you eat a pea sized bit of it you’ll never have to eat again for the rest of your life!

[ostrodmit]

I'm impressed by how neatly the response team dealt with the situation, given the limited tools they had.

[AGnricHuman]

"DANGER! RADIATION! DROP AND RUN!"
Thai guy: "ฉันสงสัยว่ามันหมายถึงอะไร"

[jeffystevens]

Wearing a lead apron while within meters of a rod of cobalt 60 is like jumping into a volcano while wearing an oven mitt

[denisthemenace]

Back in 2005, I used to work as a certified exposure device operator out in the oil patch using iridium 192 taking industrial xrays. It was amazing how many rig workers would ignore the half dozen giant radioactive signs and walk right into my zone. Sometimes they'd even move a sign out of their way so they could enter. Some people just have no clue as to how dangerous thier ignorance is.

[WindTurbineSyndrome]

There was a container came in to port from UAE to Italy a few years ago. The port guy went by with Geiger counter it went off so hot he thought it was malfunctioning. He got another radiation detector. The readings were red. He called authorities. The owner if container was never identified. The scrap in container had cobalt 60 in it from a medical equipment and it took a year for the authorities to find a robot to cut a hole in container and remove the radioactive piece and put in lead and ship to a German company that handled nuclear waste. At huge cost. So it happens.

[dannyd.]

I love the optimism of “drop and run” since if you can read the label it’s way too late

[TheRealWindlePoons]

I once saw a cobalt radiation source when visiting a commercial irradiation cell. It was immersed in the safety "pond", so there was 18 feet of water between me and the cobalt. The rods reminded me of an electric fire. An electric fire glows orange, though and the glow from the cobalt (or the water immediately surrounding it) was blue. A memorable experience and not one I am in any hurry to repeat...

[fencserx]

Moral of the story seems to actually be that radioactive material is ridiculously safe when properly handled. And like any toxic chemical, is ridiculously dangerous when it isn’t

[mikefm]

The mention that his hands began to itch upon handling the lead shell is terrifying because that itch is literally his hands cells being ripped apart.

[ecampbell]

My dad works for Nordion. Before the security increases after 9/11 I was able to go into the “active area” to the cobalt pools. They turned off all the overhead lights, so the only thing lighting the room was the Cherenkov effect coming off the rods at the bottom of the 30 foot pool. I’ll never forget asking my father what happened is someone fell in the pool. He laughed and said “don’t swim down more than 8 feet.”