The Widespread Nuclear Disaster Everyone Promptly Forgot About?

In the video today, we're looking at the widespread nuclear disaster that was the result of a rather bizarre sequence of events, and ultimately was only discovered because of another odd event, and which everybody promptly forgot about pretty much right after it was over.

This video is #sponsored by DollarShaveClub

[OutlawMaxV]

"Prognosis of being diagnosed with death is not good"
True wisdom only Simon can conjure up

[JasonB]

What caused your Nuclear incident?

Russia: Shotty design and inattentiveness.

Japan. 9.0 earthquake and 40 foot high Tsunami

Mexico: A maintenance guy with a Hammer.

[janet]

I know that this is a serious event and many people got hurt, but it still sounds like a slap-stick routine in a movie. Right before the radioactive giant bugs attack

[charlestaylor]

You have to wonder how many times things like this have been missed.

[barneymiller]

Medical manufacturer: "We've placed the Cobalt 60 in an extremely safe sealed container, impossible to open by accident. And, obviously, no one is going to try to do anything crazy like smash it so it should be safe."
Maintenance guy with a hammer: "Hold my cervezas."

[alexiswelsh]

"An acute case of being dead."

[prodprod]

Apparently, the radiation detector was installed at a toll booth near Los Alamos -- quite simply they figured that anybody who might manage to smuggle radioactive material out of the facility would inevitably have to drive it away -- and thus the toll plaza would be a good place to snag them -- boy, were they surprised.

Also, from what I read about this, when they took the canister containing the radiactive material and dumped it into the back of their truck it broke open, spilling out a bunch of those little radioactive grains -- and then as they drove down the highway, they spilled out onto the road. Then, as they drove back, more of them spilled out.

But that wasn't the end of of it, because now you had literally hundred of these little, deadly grains of poison scattered on the highways with countless cars driving over them. Some of them got embedded in the asphalt -- and workers had to go down the roads with radiation detectors, find them and dig them out -- but they'll never know how many of them ended up stuck in people's tires and driven off.

[nolan]

On the bright side, all those pellets should now have decayed to almost normal background radiation levels, having already gone through 7 half-lives.

[miguelvalenzuela]

I am from Ciudad Juarez, born in 1983 when this happened. It's sad that this is not a well-known incident, and everything seems to be swept under the rug. I just found out about this a few years back. The mall built with this material still stands to this day, with thousands of people shopping on a regular basis. I'm not sure what the actual long-term effects are but I remember a few kids at school with harelip. Thanks for sharing this story, it is important to know so it doesn't happen again.

[leytonpatterson]

“Using Jeremy Clarkson’s favorite tool... a hammer” that made my day

[xaenon]

The only connection I can see between 'bionic' and 'nuclear' was Col. Steve Austin, the 'Six Million Dollar Man', was nuclear-fueled.

[chicoarraes]

A similar incident happened in Brazil, in the city of Goiania...

[skizzik]

Clarification : it's not Clarksons favorite tool by CHOICE, it's just the only tool he knows how to use.
Source: my head
EDIT FOR SOURCE.

[steveharris]

This event was used as training when I was going through Nuclear Power School.

[sips_ipa]

I remember that happening when I was around 12-13 years old. My dad had added a second story to the house (in Chihuahua city, some 200 miles south of Juarez) and some people actually came to test it. The Geiger counter never stopped making noise but they claimed everything was fine. I have three daughters now so there is that, I guess.

[CadaverousCanine]

Everybody has to watch out for mysterious Mexican superhero’s now.

[Ben-cnhm]

A deadly search for radioactive pellets sounds like a devil's Easter egg hunt! 😬

[eggshellgoesgaming]

I've been watching Plainly Difficult's videos for a while. He covers so many of these facepalm nuclear incidents. It's amazing we still exist as a species.

[doncarlton]

In my younger days I was involved in the search for some radioactive bar stools in the USA. It was discovered after hospital radiology technician's film badges and dosimetry recorded higher than expected doses. At first state Dept. Of Health Radiation Safety staff thought it was sloppy proceedures or a leaking source at the hospital radiology department. After that was eliminated the affected staff were questioned. It turned out they all went to lunch together at a nearby bar and grill nearly every day. As soon as we walked in the door of the bar our Geiger counters started clicking much faster. It didn't take long to find as the barstool legs were hotter than stove lids! 😂😂😂

[draheim]

TIL that radioactive winds are “less than ideal”.