techdif.co.uk - Dusk has fallen, and while we start off with science fiction farce and retro British TV, it all goes a bit dark when we starting talking about armageddon.
Anyone unaware of Gary's reference to Threads, a little insight for you. Threads is the British counterpart to The Day After, released the year after The Day After. Both films depict the initial outbreak of nuclear war and the immediate aftermath. Threads was set in Sheffield (hence Gary mentioning it) and is infinitely more horrifying, with a more brutal look at the effects of nuclear war.
From having paused these videos many a time, as one does, I have learned something interesting: it is astonishingly difficult to land on a still of Tom that doesn't look silly, and equally difficult to get a still of Chris that doesn't look like a professional photograph, despite the fact that they look comparably respectable when their faces are in motion. Now I want to scan through scientific literature on photogenic-ness, but I'm not sure whether that would fall under psychology, biomechanics, or something entirely different. Side note to Chris and people like him: Use your magical face powers wisely. The rest of us are very jealous.
Urinating into a reactor? Security would shoot you before you made it anywhere near the coolant system. They don't screw around. Otherwise, it depends on the type: A BWR (RBMK-1000, et al) wouldn't suffer much damage (Hot, acidic, salty urine might weaken something over time. Good thing most BWRs can filter and replace their coolant.) CANDU and other heavy-water moderated reactors, you might throw off the void coefficient calculations a bit (Likely not enough to cause concern) and cause a bit of damage over time. PWRs add pressure to the coolant loop. You might cause a pump failure at some point, leading to a loss of coolant accident. PWRs have backup pumps and SCRAM systems. They can also change and filter their coolant. LFRs, MSRs, (etc.) It depends on what the coolant is. Lead cooled reactors would boil the urine and irradiate it. MSRs could react in odd ways, causing a loss of coolant accident, GFRs are pressurized with a working gas instead of a liquid... (You'd boil and irradiate the urine.) Basically, don't. You'll cause people to die.
nhuKer New or used? Either way, LMFBR Fuel rods wouldn't be straight plutonium. Generally, ~60 kilos of Plutonium per tonne of depleted Uranium are used in fast neutron breeding reactors to decrease the amount of transuranic (waste) elements produced from reactor operation. The question has bearing on the radioactivity of the rod. Anyway, for a 'new' fuel rod, if you weren't shot by security before you unbuttoned your fly, (Breeder reactors tend to output more fissiles or enrich other fissiles: Y'know, creating "weapons grade" materials. Something any sane person doesn't want falling into the wrong hands, therefore, inside of a location that is very strictly guarded.) urinating on a fuel rod (7mm UO2/DU blended pellets in an 8.65mmx2.7m long stainless steel clad tube) would cause damage to the tube cladding. You'd create "very low level" radioactive waste. And you'd *definitely* be shot before you could re-button your fly. If you survived, you'd go to prison for a long time, be charged a lot of money to reconstruct the fuel rod, and make a number of preople (From security all the way down to the janitor) very cranky. A 'used' fuel rod is *worse*: You'd probably be irradiated and die from the short-lived transuranic isotope products' neutron output (An LMFBR reduces, not eliminates, transuranics) Those rods are hotter than Kiera Knightley making a lesbian porn film covered in honey. The cladding would be damaged, and your urine and corpse both (along with however many of security's bullets remained in your body) would become 'intermediate level' radioactive waste. You'd make, again, a lot of people (A few more this time, since the fuel rod would likely be just about to leave for reprocessing, (since I'm not sure about the materials compatibility and staffing for *each* of the world's reprocessing cells, I'm leaving an estimate out.) and thus under heightened security, very cranky.
Godzilla walks into Tokyo with a half-naked man on his head. A terrified salaryman manages to stow his fear long enough to scream out, "Hey, That's an unusual thing for you to wear into town!" Brannon calls back to reply... "Well, it started off as a lump on me balls...."
12:59 "you've won a piece of classical music played using old military ordnance, Pachelbel's Canon in D" dammit tom, you missed the perfect chance for Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture
I've been rewatching all these old episodes, and looking up the articles at the same time. By sheer coincidence the Neckarwestheim Nuclear Power Plant was taken out of service today
Incidentally Neckarwestheim is one of three nuclear power plants still active in Germany, all of which were due to be shut down by the end of 2022 but had their lifetime extended by a couple of months to help tide us over the winter (using what energy's left in the fuel rods, running at lower energy)
I found all the nuclear bunker talk really interesting and insightful. I for one like the switching camera angles / shots, you've all got very expressive faces, it's nice that this isn't just covered by a wide shot. Though it must take ages to edit together. I worry for your sanity.
As students we started rag week by stacking six foot piles of paving slabs in front of the main doors and a pile of cars in a quad only accessible by stairs. We weren't even protesting. One 'secret' bunker became a weed farm for a while.
Threads? My history teacher used to show that film (for the record, this was at a school in Canada, not Britain). He had to stop after one showing where a number of the students got upset to the point of crying, and this was in secondary school, mind you. I was in his class after he stopped showing it, but I would have at least had nightmares about it if the Wikipedia page's description is any indication.
Wikipedia's description doesn't even begin to describe how horrible it is. It was genuinely the most harrowing experience of my life, it's available free online it's worth a watch.
I think that was essentially the point. Much like "The Day After" in the states, which was allegedly so harrowing it caused the incumbent president to completely rethink his attitude re: the US nuclear strategy.
omfg, I don't know how this doesn't have more views... Every Citations Needed video I've seen I've died of laughter, keep it up guys ;) These literally make my night :3
Hey! Don’t joke about emus turning into puppets at nuclear power plants, it is a serious issue. Emus are very hard to keep, they need a lot of mental stimulation (weekend trips to visit nuclear power plants have proved to be the best) and the safest way to transport them is for a strong keeper to carry the emu, with one hand up its arse for stability. Too many glorious emus have been sadly puppetefied by an enrichment trip to the local nuclear power plant. A tragic story of animal rearing, or maybe I’m just talking out of my own arse. Yes that one, just a load of obvious bollocks but I did have fun typing it.
Peeing in the reactor does ..... absolutely nothing. There is about 100t water in the primary circuit, thus the concentration of the non-water content of the piss is highly dilluted. Further, due to neutron capturing of oxygen one prodices lots of N16 in normal operation , thus there is already much nitrogen in the coolant loop. A little more nitrogen from the piss doesnt make a difference. And theee is not much left in the piss that is neither water nor nitrogen. But if you ate asparagus before.....
Rewatching the old stuff here and I thought I'd point out, the nameplate capacity is enough to power 1 Flux Capacitor, but not 2. Just to give a sense of scale.
@@squirlmy I'm guessing because "of course" is the phrase you're more likely to reach for in English for that meaning/function. There's a bit more to translation than just literal meaning.
I got to do lasertag in Drakelow Tunnels (a nuclear bunker in the midlands) as payment for doing voiceover work for the company putting on the events. It was great fun being down there having full access while helping to film the video portions of the advert.
Those of us who have listened to the podcasts are kind of annoyed that an entire discussion about the end of the world took place without Gary making one mention of "botty burp".
As a nuclear reactor's function is to boil water so that the resulting steam pushes a turbine to generate electricity, adding urine to the water would add material that would raise the boiling temperature of the water and (ever so slightly) reduce the capacity of the reactor.
Dinorwic? Nuclear is base load. We do get hydroelectricity from Norway and in the future possibly from Iceland. Both of those countries have previously 'exported electricity' in the form of smelted aluminium. Iceland has come up with a great way of 'exporting electricity', the internet! Built server farms at Keflavik. Previously a secure US military base, good, 'free' cooling, good and 'free' electricity that you can 'export'.
Went as a kid but I didn't really understand the gravity of it until I was much older. Would love to visit again one day. As I recall it was very claustrophobic and spooky, and the exit was a very, very long tunnel.
Gary's accent is killing me. Also, he comes with the most wicked ideas... He's has a Karl Pilkington humour sometimes. Apparently, I live just across the street from the bunker in Fulford that Chris was mentioning, heh!
To bad the English article doesn't contain the most interesting fact: a public way went through the power plant. you could/can ring a bell, a guard would come and guide you across the power plant.
I suppose the advantage of using breeze blocks to block a road in protest is that unlike people they can be smashed and overwise violently removed without anyone getting hurt.
I really enjoy listening to these conversations and picking up on bits of possibly useless trivia, but would someone please water the rose on the windowsill? I keep getting distracted because the poor plant is dying. :-P
It seems to me that 'Gerry Adams' Thunderbirds' is a title more suiting an article on some military history journal on the IRA guided missle programme.
The thing is...nuclear fallout from weapons is only dangerous for 2-3 weeks (that’s because the isotopes used in nuclear warheads are the ones which release energy quickly and have a short(er) half-life). So 30 days is more than enough! By the way, brilliant show!
"...20000 years or whatever before it's habitable" And few sentences later: "some people are still living there; wildlife's thriwing" Interesting logic there.
BTheHeretic Safely habitable and people living there are two different things. Also animals have simpler genomes than us and therefore are less likely to be affected by radiation induced mutation.
+Seraphim Eter Not necessarily. A lot of animals have more complex genomes. They receive the same amount of radiation and undergo the same amount of mutation as any human living there; it's just that they don't have the capacity to know or care about it. There's nothing to deter them, and it's one of the few places that (most) humans won't touch. Of course they're thriving.
Wildlife is thriving, because there is nobody to disturb it. Many of the captured specimens from the area had physiological mutations and tumours throughout their entire body. They were basically slowly dying of cancer, but since they were animals they didn't care.
The only reason they evacuated people was because the levels of radiation people could absorb were above what is considered "acceptable". All that means is statistically, a few more people will die if they live there than if they leave. (This is actually in question now: the people living in the zone currently have longer life-expectancy than those who left just because the stress of leaving their homes encouraged more smoking and alcoholism). Most of the people and animals don't/won't have a problem (at least after the initial cleanup was finished). In fact, human encroachment did more to harm the animal populations than the disaster did. The animals will have slightly elevated chances of getting cancers/tumors, but they've already survived a couple generations just fine there. They've been able to survive and reproduce just fine.
Nuclear power plants have filters and monitor the purity of the water they are using, so they'll have measures to prevent it and they would know immediately and turn off the reactor. (I am assuming you are urinating into the moderator and not the coolant, because urinating into the coolant won't do much at all besides leave a little salt residue). Water is a really good moderator for power plants, so any contamination would likely just cause the power level to drop. Even a tiny amount of boron will massively cut off moderation. So nuclear fission would just slow down and the reactor would basically turn off. They'd have to remove the water and replace it with new stuff. It would cost a little bit to clean it up, but certainly not a disaster.
