A Brief History of: The Tammiku Radiation Event 1994 (Documentary) 

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97 tons of assorted material on site. Three goobers walk in and randomly pick up a few pounds of stuff so hot that the dose rate of the remaining stuff is significantly decreased. The sheer amount of anti-luck is incredible.

Imagine calling your scrap metal buyer like "I'm bringing you some cool yellow barrels with this logo on them, it's like a circle with 3 things around it. I bet that's valuable!"

Lol: "All done" "Why can I taste metal?" "All done"

I love how the recovery team showed up with no tongs and decided the logical thing to do was to just pick up the radioactive item with their hands. They couldn't be bothered to go find a shovel or anything.... just picked it up with their hands. Nice work boys.

Wow, I can't believe the family dog said "balls" when it got ars. Brilliant video as always plainly

As an Estonian, I especially appreciate one of the thieves saying "sitapea" to the barrel falling on his foot :D

"the operators didn't think to report the cut padlocks or the drop in radioactivity" Wellp, wonder how much that contributed to the mess

A school for the training of Soviet atomic submariners was situated in Estonia. By now it is completely dismantled except for the miniature nuclear reactor. I was in Estonia for a semester and had seem websites about lost places there. The guy who made the site seemed to have entered the submariners school a few years earlier. Back then it was just a particularly creepy abandoned Russian military site. So 2 friends and I decided to go there. We closed it and discovered that the site was no more, except for the sealed reactor building. We were also almost immediately approached by vehicles guarding the site. So I guess the Estonians have drastically upped their protection of places like that.

"carve out a living through scrap metal" and "radioactive waste" always go hand in hand so well

Just praise Atom! Embrace the glow!

I am strangely attracted to these videos because of an interesting (and terrifying) experience I had in grade school. During 4th grade I had an hour with the science teacher one-on-one in lieu of English class because I had basically tested out. One day I went in to the science room and he wasn't there and I was just kind of looking around and there was a display case with various rocks/elements in it. One of the rocks was a very vibrant yellow and I picked it up to check it out, which is when the science teacher walked in. The look of sheer terror and his reaction made me drop it immediately and that day we learned what radioactivity was and why it was dangerous... I wasn't the type to often get scolded/yelled at and he was a pretty chill guy in general so his reaction REALLY stuck with me. Needless to say it was a sample of Uranium and the whole experience made me have a terrible paranoia about radiation and invisible death for many many years after. Looking back as an adult I have no idea why a grade school would have a chunk of Uranium just laying around where an inquisitive student could handle it so as an adult I tried to cure my fear of "randomly dying from picking up an unknown radiation source" thinking this would be a totally irrational fear and a thing that couldn't really happen. Thanks Plainly Difficult, now I know my "irrational" fears as a child were actually justified!! As an aside this would have happened around the same time this event in Estonia was happening, early 90's. BALLS indeed.

If one of the cartoon characters doesn't say "Balls", then I'm disappointed. Not disappointed in the least with this episode!

A minor correction, the settlement of Kiisa is actually about 10-15km south from Tammiku, shown on the map is probably the street named "Kiisa" in Tallinn. I lived in Kiisa at that time, i was 5 years old so dont remember much about the incident, but many people decided to move away or were evacuated temporary (including my family) just in case, because at first it was not sure where and how large is the source of radioactivity. The house where the source was, is about 400m from where i used to live.

Guard to Manager: "Shouldn't we have 24 hour security here boss?" Manager: "Nah, the people wouldn't be that dumb to break in here!!" The people: .........

So, did Moe and Larry of the three Scrapmetal Stooges suffer any health and/or legal consequences or was Curley the only one paying the full price? 🤔

I'd read about this incident. It never ceases to amaze me how were people just unaware of radiation and its potential hazards, this soon after the whole Chernobyl fiasco.

The channel who single handedly made me never touch metal in the woods unless there was snow on the ground. Good rule of thumb: if you see melted snow randomly in the woods...don't go near it.

me who speaks finnish and not estonian looking at “tammiku” and being like “where’s the second u” until i saw estonia in the description. i’m having a slow morning

That was crazy hearing about the brother who received 2000-3000 grays per hour! As a comparison, my wife had cancer radiotherapy and she was given just 2 grays per treatment!

As an Estonian. I remember hearing about the incident. Unfortunately this was not the first and last of its kind. According to wikipedia Tammiku has been closed sice 2011 and all the waste was moved into a proper place where there is no risk of contamination ,leaks or theft. et.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tammiku_radioaktiivsete_j%C3%A4%C3%A4tmete_hoidla

Imagine you being that bloke who took home the piece of metal. You not only killed yourself, you killed your dog, injured your stepson and I’m sure the other family members were likely somewhat affected as well since there were living in the same house as it.

A Plainly Difficult upload just in time for me to watch before work? Yes please!

Given that Chernobyl occurred in 1986, the brothers must have been living under a rock not to know the danger of radation!

The scrap metal dealer i use most has installed radiation detectors. Surprisingly others still haven't. It's also surprising where the stuff will turn up. I set it off one time with a wall oven. Some sort of sensor inside it used radioactive material.

Thanks for adding the historical context - it's easy to not realise the crazy reality after a country gains an independence especially if one was born after it happened.

I'm from Estonia and i didn't know about this. 🤔 This reminded me how I used to sneak into some industrial area with my friend as a child and we stole some random chemicals from some shed and did "experiments" .. good times. 😂

2:00 Estonia had actually some reactors, 2 in Paldiski: 1st was was started in 1968 and was rated to 70MW, 2nd was started 1983 and was rated to 90MW. Both were used mainly for training the atomic-submarine crew. By the time they were shut down in 1989 they had 20821 and 5333 working hours respectively. Estonia also had a uranium enrichment plant in Sillamäe. Uranium enriched there was used in the USSR´s first atomic bomb/nuclear test in 1949 code-named RDS-1.

How such quality content can be released so regularly is beyond me

I want to say thank you for the videos. They have legitimate helped me become a more personally responsible. I recently found out that my work uses some nuclear based industrial scanning systems and many of them are in non functional. I double checked with my manager about the last time they were leak tested. While everything ended up being totally fine. I genuinely never would have known the potential for danger when it comes to non functional or ignored nuclear technology without this channel.

Great video! It's really annoying how many different measurements there are of radiation.

Of all the bleak wonders in dystopian fiction, I don't recall haphazard scavenging of radioactive contaminated metals ever coming up. Just one of the sad ways the real world can be worse than we'd imagine.

2000-3000 Gy an hour, so basically dead in a minute, unless that's meant to be milligray but still insane

6:10 Funny how 'sure' means 'die' in Estonian and that's exactly what happened to this guy. Planned or accidental pun? 😅

Yep, being a thief can be dangerous ! Being a nuclear thief, can be deadly…. Great video, as always 😉👍

Hey plainly, just wanted to thank you for five years of interresting - albeit horrifying - stories straight. As a thank you, in case you'd be willing to take video ideas, i think we might got you covered with a case from austria, namely ignaz semmelweis. So as far as i know the story, a sickness called "Kindbettfieber" was quite prevalent in pregnant women in Vienna at the onset of the 20th century, which one man named Semmelweis eventually traced back to the habits of learning anatomy on corpses and not washing hands before examining pregnant women. And as a result, he was interned in what would later become a proper insane asylum in Vienna, the Narrenturm. If you need someone to take some snapshots or the like, feel free to hit me up.

Despite all the warning signs people on the edge will break into and steal anything or just be curious. Reminds me of thew magic sparkling dust story. So tragic that the authorities cant stop petty thieves and kids obtaining such materials

These orphan source videos always intrigue me. I have a basic understanding of radioactive materials, they are pretty terrifying, luckily we have access to detection equipment if there's even a slight suspicion of radiation.

You should start a gofundme for new boots to the hazmat guy - but buy them for him instead of giving him the money 🤣

12:50 I never thought I’d hear the words sunny to describe anywhere in the UK

I love how you give the characters in your diagrams little plot lines and stories that are unrelated to the story it's like watching two things at a time but you're reading one of them

Why can I taste metal? ALL DONE! 😂

Makes you think about how much radioactive material has gone missing without anyone finding out.

The fact that it is necessary to post guards on a radioactive waste dump to keep people out makes me question whether there is any hope for humanity.

The greatest threat to scrappers these days is asbestos and electricity. I think it would be far more exiting if radiation sources would be just laying around like that.

Best thing about Saturday morning: sleeping. Second best thing: Plainly difficult

Love your videos! Well done. Two ideas: - video explaining units - there are so many different units and measurements of radiation that it’s confusing - back in soviet days, army was doing underground tests in Kazakhstan exposing nearby villages to effects. Often locals went to the sites to dig out cables used to detonate bombs.

Yeah, you could say the government had things to worry about in the 1990s. 1994: the sinking of M/S Estonia in September. And then 426 murders in one year with 364 traffic deaths. Now it's around 50 and 60, respectively. 35 murders in 2019, but then came Covid. In 1991 there were 491 traffic deaths.

The second I hear “scrap metal”… I know shit is about to hit the fan. Nice videos.

After watching a bunch of these radiation exposure incident videos, it seems to me that the biggest threat when dealing with radioactive material is not the radiation, but other people's carelessness and complacency in handling them.

Last time I was this early, the ARS symptoms haven't started. Pretty crazy that the recovery team didn't even bother with a pair of tongs, especially with being in a kitchen. BRB, think I have a great new way to cook my Saturday morning bacon! Another great video Plainly_D

please can channel 4 or Vice somebody give this guy a series + camera crew and send him round the world!! would be so awesome this guy visiting places like this (or as near to them as possible I suppose) talking to involved persons etc. have really appreciated this channel, clear comprehensive explanations of sometimes really significant/world-changing events. BIG UP P.D.,TOP MARKS MY MAN.

You know it is bad when the dog says double balls!

I've always had this weird curiosity about radiation and radioactivity. Now I'm studying in Radiotherapy for many reasons, but I can finally understand the amount of damage caused by these exposure. Now, in a standard Radiotherapy treatment for a lung tumor, we would think about 6600 cGy (66 Gy) / 33 fractions, which means 200 cGy (2 Gy) / fraction, each fractions are separated by one day so Monday : 2 Gy Tuesday : 2 Gy Wednesday : 2 Gy … until 66 Gy The goal being the destruction of the cancerous cells. Extensive mesures are taken, positioning being milimiters precise, in order to save as much as possible the healthy tissues and important organs (Liver, Spinal Cord, Heart...) following the ALARA (As low as Reasonably Achievable) principle. Now bear with me... The guy was exposed to 2000/3000 Gy/ hour, which means 1000x more than a patient would get in a Radiotherapy session. Yet 2 Gy/day is enough to cause from red rashes to necrosis if not controlled. Impotency, infertility, heart problems.... 3000 Gy/hour is also around 40 times more than the total dose of a FULL Radiotherapy treatment. A dose of 46 Gy on the spinal cord can provoke paralysis. I don't know how long he stood next to the radioactive source, but for one minute he would've received around 50 Gy.

It’s kinda crazy how excited I get for your videos but kudos to you sir for your amazing content on the regular!

I went and read the report after watching this vid. The dog had it right “double balls.” Another great vid. Love the radiation/nuclear stuff!

11:50 Hazmat guy: Living the dream 🤣🤣🤣 Excellent video, as usual!

haha, as a native .. the "sitapea" was a nice touch ^^

This reminds me of the one West Wing Episode where this Georgian emissary is wanting to give weapons grade plutonium to the US as a gift. The Chief of Staff says "It's kept behind what they describe as a very nice padlock. Don't the Russians secure this stuff?" To which the NSA Advisor responds, "They do, they gave them the padlock."

Always my most awaited video of the week... Plainly Difficult, the most informative and entertaining nuclear incident and general engineering F-ups on the net. Thank you again ⚛️👍🏻

Another excellent episode, as usual. Is it common for Europeans (or Estonians) to break into a nuclear waste dump dressed like they’re going out to the club on a Sat night? Balls!

Same thing happened here in the U.S.. Came from a x ray machine sent to Mexico. Ended up in a scrap yard. Sent back to us as McDonald's tables, and chairs. If you sat at one of these tables you got about 300 xrays in a hour. Metal was detected on a interstate travelling semi going by a nuclear power plant that had radiation monitoring, and took pictures of vehicles going by that triggered radiation alarms.

More isotopes please! I was unaware of alot of incidents before your channel! You present them in a fulfilling & informative channel.

Thank you for the well made videos!

I live in Estonia and I’ve driven alongside of tammiku so many times, never have I’ve heard of something nuclear about it 😬. What else the goverment keeps as a secret ?! 😳

*12:48* I'm happy the weather's nice for you this weekend 😁

I've been watching your videos for almost a year now, and I wanted you to know we've been using your videos in our accident-and-safety class! Haha, keep up the good work!

Great video as always! Thank you for equalizing the volume of the title card to be more in line with your voice, my ear drums appreciate it! Maybe turn up the entirety of the producing though, you're noticeably quieter than the RU-vid ads. Cheers!

You should do a video on the Washburn flour mill explosion in Minneapolis. The largest flour mill in the world(at the time) was blown apart in an instant and cut the city's flour production by nearly 50% moreover the Minneapolis/St.Paul area produced the most flour in the world. The explosion occurred an hour after the 14 man nightshift crew had taken over the 200 man day crew. The explosion launched several ton granite blocks up to 8 blocks away and shattered windows for miles. This caused fires in several more mills that also caused the Diamond and Humboldt mills to explode as well. The explosion was fueled by flour dust in the air from the production process used in the mill and started by a spark from a grindstone being run dry. This sadly killed all 14 in the Washburn A Mill and 4 more in the Diamond Mill and Humboldt Mill. The remains of the building are a museum now.

How about a tutorial on the. Various nuclear units? Gtays, Becquels, Curies,etc.Their power,and how they relate to each other…..

Thanks for all the editing, research, and animation, much appreciated. - Surry Virginia

So they broke in to a site with radiation symbols everywhere and emptied drums presumably with radiation symbols on them for scrap metal. And oh btw let’s grab a souvenir from the place with radiation symbols everywhere. Your Darwin Award awaits you

The IAEA report states that the containers which housed the deadly part were found in a metal scrap yard during regular radiation inspection and were then transferred to Tammiku for storage. Where they came from originally is unknown, probably from somewhere in Russia with scrap metal. Tammiku storage was closed in 1995 and decommisioning started, it is scheduled to end in 2022. Today all the waste has been removed, the two containers, one of which is the main character in this story made up 90% of the site’s radioactivity.

Can you do a vid on what Greys vs Rads vs Seivs vs Narglebarfs are? Would love one in your easy to understand style, no matter how boring a topic. It would REALLY help me to enjoy your videos.

One of the reasons why many scrap metal dealers have radiation detectors at their gates here in Germany.

recovery team shows up and picks up the deadly item w/ their hands after already knowing one of the brothers has severe burns from picking up said item and the other brother died from being in close proximity to it for a short period of time. sounds like an intelligent group of people.

I think if I was on the recovery team, I'd have at least grabbed the salad tongs to pick it up!

The LoFi graphics are my favorite part. This is great stuff.

Such interesting content. I love these informative videos. I’m fascinated by radiological accidents (it’s horrendous for the sufferers), but so very interesting as well!😕

PD. Amazing unusual unexpected episode ; Thanks so much for this one !

who else watches these just for the weather report at the end? happy to hear it's sunny over there, bit rainy and cloudy today, more of the same expected for tomorrow.

I literally live 10 km away from that site and I had no idea that anything like that had ever happened. To be fair though, it did happen 4 years before I was even born

Great start to a Sunday morning. So enlightening. Greetings from Ireland 💚🇮🇪

What I needed this mornin!

Just in time, I was freaking out, I needed something to calm down to right about now

Tera becquerel? Milli sieverts? Roentgens? Curies? Rads? Rems? Grays? An explainer for the many different words you use to describe the same phenomenon would be helpful. How they relate to another, why you use that one and not the one you used last sentence etc. You use these technical terms in a way that seems to the casual observer as if they are interchangeable.

Great videos. I always enjoy the no hype delivery of facts and information.

Love this channel! Good work as always! It's always good seeing Larry and Moe... will he ever learn he is foot is being stepped on? Must be wearing steel toed boots! Hahaha

That was very gracious of the Estonian authorities to dump out the drawer with the slug in it. Most authorities I know would've just excised the corner of the house where the cabinet was with a lead-shielded bucket loader.

This truly is a strange, dark and mysterious subject matter. I feel as though I have heard this tale elsewhere.

Your channel should be much bigger friend, I love your content keep it up as always

Never heard of this incident and Estonia is right across the Gulf of Finland. Thanks for bringing this to light.

Love learning about the USSR and the aftermath- so many more issues that people would never realise.

Our country was more preoccupied with local and distant mafias blowing up bombs left and right during that time, but its still interesting to hear about local event of my childhood from a foreign channel. I suppose it was probably reported to some extent, but fell in the background noise of everything else.

Estonian here! and i didn't actually know about that event before i saw your video.

Awesome I was 'afraid' we had run out of nuclear incidents to cover on the channel.

You have to do the one from Grozny where some dudes took Cesium rods & one of the dudes died in like 10 mins.

Apparently, things were truly wild west in that part of the world at that time. In 2009, an older man moved into my building. He was probably in the early stages of dementia, but he had stories that might have been true. One was going to the former USSR with some other Americans to buy a submarine to take back to the west to sell for scrap.

It's scary to think of such dangerous materials being so poorly secured and being handled by uninformed people.

I mean the content is wonderful as always but can I just say that little special effect you had going with the 3 on the legacy scale was a particularly nice touch? lol. It's a tiiiiiny detail, but I thought it was cool looking!