Nuclear Fallout Accidentally Discovered at a Montana Trail 

That radiation that you are detecting is most likely from Arco Idaho. The nuclear lab in Arco had an accident back some time in the 50's or 60's. The test reactor had a meltdown and breached containment. The map you showed for the fall out starts at and around arco. Just an fyi. I live in Idaho as well.

In the late '80's early '90's I did a lot of outcrop logging with a gamma-ray scintillometer to produce synthetic GR logs to accompany lithologic descriptions. Our instrument of choice was about the size of shoe box, weighed ~12lbs and ate batteries like crazy. Now I see you with a pocket tool. I'm so jealous.

Im still waiting for your channel to blow up. You will get there some day, keep up the hard work! This content is worthy of a lot more subscribers!

I lived in Montana in the early 60s. I remember being warned about radioactive snow.

The more thumbs up the more the system recommends the channel. This guy needs more exposure so click the up thumb on as many comments as you can.

For those who don't know, The "Baby tooth study" is a super interesting study into the fallout, and where it settled after the first rounds of nuclear testing

I've lived all over that country and never knew this. Thanks for the video.

I did a paper in the 90's about the continental contamination from above ground nuclear testing. People would be surprised what we did to ourselves!

There's quite a bit of mines, tailings and old possibly government sites back on the "Navajo reservation" Arizona from 1920' - 1970's ish. Where abandoned equipment, waste, and uranium deposits can still be found. If that's interest you.

To your point, lots of thyroid cancer in folks from Central Montana that grew up in the 70s. My mom and dad lost friends to it.

Hi, I don’t know if you have heard this, I grew up in St. Louis, MO. I was in 3rd grade in 1959. The school collected our ‘baby teeth’. It turned out they were doing an ‘autopsy’ on us to determine our Cesium 137 exposure. Chemically it looks like calcium, so it ended up in teeth and bones. Kennedy signed a treaty that stopped open air testing in the early’60s. I’m sure that fallout 1,500-2,000 miles down win changed a lot of minds. They didn’t have anything near as nice as your gamma wave detector back then. Back then they didn’t even know that they needed it. (So the story goes)

I love that a lot of the narration was done outdoors at the trail. Not many youtubers do that, instead favoring a studio setup. While studio setups sound great, they feel more sterile.

I live in a small region in Australia which is known to have been specifically impacted by fallout from a British nuclear test conducted quite distantly (in the late ‘50s) and brought down by heavy rain. It’s not _widely_ known due to secrecy, and the local dairy industry was particularly affected with limited and insufficient quarantining of milk (also very hushed). If spectrographic tools like this are affordable now, I’d be fascinated to do some surveying myself. Some evidence of residual contamination would be helpful in revealing the truth of this awful event to those who were never aware or have forgotten. Thanks for this short but enlightening presentation.

Can you please consider doing an episode on gamma spectroscopy, using your RadiaCode 101 using some of the items that you have in your collection, such as the radium and uranium sources to see how well it works in identifying these known isotopes?

Almost all of the nuclear weapons tests conducted in the contentental US were in southern Nevada. If you look at your fallout map you can see a path that starts in eastern Idaho. You're probably detecting fallout from the Idaho National Labratory between Arco, Idaho and Idaho Falls. Lots of blown up, melded down reactors out there. Thank you, for your channel. I've always said these are criminally underrated videos.

RU-vid suggested your channel today, and I’m glad that it did. Fascinating video that captured my attention. Keep it up!!!

My coffee mug once sent a geiger counter nutter. It was earthenware, made by my great grandmother from West Virginia mountain clay. We suspect one of the glazes used was the culprit, as that same clay made all the old moonshine jugs. More radioactive than my 17 jewel Gruen gold watch radium hands and dial markers.

Just stumbled across this video, have been greatly intetested in anything and everything radiation related, so ofcourse i was very happy indeed to find your channel!

78yr old American veteran, living at White Bird, Idaho. Thanks for the information.

So glad I found your channel yesterday. Great video!

Really nice and interesting video. Amazing quality as always. Wouldn't have thought that fallout from such a distance and long time ago.

Your channel contains awesome content! Love this! Keep it coming!

These videos are helping me out a great deal. You have a gift. You communicate with your audience in a way the average person can understand, follow and find interesting. This may seem somewhat simplistic to you, and you may not even realize you are doing this. But, you are. A lot of people cannot do this.

It's crazy that A-Bomb tours used to be a thing back in the day. People would pay to sit in a spot designated safe and upwind from fallout and watch the bomb go off.

In the early 60's I took a course in survival in a nuclear incident, and while in the service I actually witnessed a detonation. Your right it's not as risky out there just don't eat off the ground, lol.

Great location and very informative thankyou drew and regards from Scotland to you all on here....fallout is scary but I'm amazed that there's still signs of atomic tests wow bro...wow

Really interesting find. And nicely shot video. Keep it up!

Wouldn’t have expected this high after more than 6 decades. That map explains some things I experienced in Idaho. The wildlife would set off detectors when they came close to the facility. Then they’d have to be collected (with a 30-06).

I love your videos they are so inspiring and i did a school presentation with stuff you teached me. Keep going man!😄

Been enjoying your outdoor exploring episodes for radioactive materials. Place might be interesting is Colorado near Rulison. Back in the late 60's they did tests with nuclear devices for gas extraction.

Have been really enjoying your content. I have been interested in radioactive things since my dad gave me a radium dial aircraft timer when I was about 4 years old. He had borrowed a Geiger counter from his physics lab to demonstrate. Looks like I will be upgrading my old Vic Tic pretty soon now that there are cool new data acquisition units like the Radeye

Amazing stuff glad i found this channel 👍💯

Born and raised in Bozeman. Never heard of anything up there being affected. Thank you for sharing this.

fascinating, Montana.. like all the western states are great places to to hike and explore.. I would love to explore some of the locations in your videos when I retire in 2024 though climbing and hiking is my main interest.. this only adds another interesting detail to think about.

That cancer map you showed looks pretty similar to the fallout map that I saw on another channel, where it was said that the USA copped a huge amount of fallout from it’s own weapons testing. Think it was Veritasium talking about FFT’s or Tom Scott’s channel.

Come to Mississippi and inspect the Tatum Salt Dome. The only nuclear underground test East of the Mississippi River. This was a test conducted in a salt formation at roughly 1000' at depth. Some rich history with the test that also include a second test in the underground excavated salt dome.

Another fascinating find….I enjoy these.

Thank you for the information.

Atmospheric ground testing of nuclear weapons in Nevada produced particulate clouds. These clouds of particulates seeded water clouds and produced localized precipitation events that contained high levels of radioactive materials. Particulates became the nuclei of water droplets, which fell as rain, and then sometimes the water portion evaporated before it hit the ground. These events produced particles that were collected and mixed by the water condensation, then as the water evaporated they were gathered together into dust sized particles which eventually settled to the ground.

Nicely done. That Radiacode is a lot cheaper than my home setup, and it travels, very cool.

I just discovered your channel. I'm hooked.

As far as a gamma spectrometer goes, the radiacode 101 has pretty poor resolution. It will pick up the spectrum of a smoke detector pretty easily but it's really bad at picking out stuff from uranium ore. It's great as a general purpose meter you can take on trips and keep in your pocket for long term data collection to identify geographic hotspots.

Good stuff you deserve way more views than what the algorithm is giving you

Great channel!! Solid find!!

New subscriber to your channel, .... and REALLY ENJOYING it's content ....

This channel really radiates 😀

I love my B20-ER, but that Radiascan looks awesome!

I live in the state of New Mexico. And from what I was told that the average background radiation is a lot higher here than most places I guess that’s because we went boom first with the atomic bomb and we continue to do it here for years on end

I worked in software development for nuclear detectors early in my career. It's stronger some places then others but you can pick it up anywhere in the world. It just takes a tiny trace amount to produce a signal.

Go to Marysvale, Utah where Pratt Seegmiller hit the mother lode in uranium in 1951. 300 East Center Street was the uranium annex. I used to live in that building way back when.

The Kodak company new the first nuclear test was done half way across the country when there x ray film got spots on at the factory . Scary shit that they polluted the planet 🌏 back then .

The detectors I trained with started reading at 1/rad per hour. We were trained to walk in find that reading and mark the line. Then walking the edge to mark a relatively safe path for following units. Seems your unit is much more sensitive.

I'm from Billings, Montana! I like your videos

I just got interested in your channel and I love your videos. They’re super interesting and shed light on a lot of things. I’m just curious, what’s the highest amount of radiation you’ve ever detected in person?

back in the 1960's, my dad, a chemical engineer with Union Carbide, spent lots of time around Bozeman, MT working with uranium mines and other stuff I didn't know about..I wonder if you are looking as some of the stuff he was playing with.

Interesting to see how far detectors have come. Back in the day a group from Sandia and Lawrence Livermore visited my work site. They were part of DOEs NEST team. We provided different sources and completed items for them to train on detecting hidden items. Their equipment was in a small motor home which they would drive by the test area and get their readings. They actually detected each source and where they were manufactured. I visited the NTS too. That was a fascinating place. For me, the vacuum testing was the most interesting.

Dana Durnford (YT) has been reporting on the world's radioactivity for years. He "live" streams several times a week, with 24/7 phone-in, too... and, every show is packed with nuclear updates and knowledge - and, will defintely add to Radoactive Drew's investigations. Cheers

Thanks another great video ‼️✌🏽

You have to wonder if the source might be more specific than mere fallout. Satellite Iridium-33 debris from 09 onward could have landed in Montana, I personally saw one fireball as far south as Oregon.

Cyclotron Engineer here. Love the videos

THERE'S THIS PLACE.....up near Dawsonville GA. Back in the 60's they would expose missile components and other electronic gear to giant doses of gamma radiation - presumably to see how the devices would perform in a nuclear environment, being bombed, etc. They used a source on an elevator that rose up and blasted the test articles for a specified time, then was lowered back into it's shielded enclosure. I'm not sure where it is, but it's sort-of off limits, but people have clambered all over the place..... might be worth a look if you ever get into north Georgia. Pretty good barbecue here, too. I'm a radioman and a junk collector and your video of the aircraft instruments inspired me to find and collect all my radium-bearing meters in my parts room and ....take them out of the house. They say they're "SEALED - DO NOT OPEN".... but they're in ammo cans on the porch now. (What does one do with such stuff anyhow without getting on some evil watch list?) Love your stuff. You may have raised my chances of living to old age, Drew. Thanks. Jeff

Ever hear of the story behind the shooting of the John Wayne movie 'The Conqueror' and how the crew and cast all had very high cancer rates. They shot the movie in a fallout zone. Maybe visit the shooting location and see what pops up.

Great videos!

I love my radiacode! Great to see more content with it, you did a great job explaining the risk levels 👍

Did you collect some soil and take it with you to record a clearer spectrum at home? The Cs peak protrudes only very weakly from the spectrum. Try the difference between linear and logarithmic representation. You can save the spectrum in the library and export it from there as an XML file. Would you please provide this online? Maybe you are interested in tips etc. for the RadiaCode, then take a look at the geigerzaehlerforum (mostly in german). We have been supporting the device since it was launched in early 2021.

I live near Dawson Forest in Georgia. Lockheed left some nasty stuff there. The firehouse closest has a map outlining the hot spots.

Great video, Drew (as usual). Would love to see your take on the sources of fallout in the US. I see mentioned in the comments about accidents at various nuclear facilities and that tests were performed in southern Nevada. Are there other locations of interest/concern? And can you fingerprint the fallout down to the facility level (do they even have unique fingerprints?)? Thx!

That would be a intresting thing to do in Australia we had a few atmospheric tests

very curious to know about the Nuke Testing done in Mississippi in the Salt domes, i've read accounts of "green radioactive foam" as a result of bomb testing there back in the 40s/50s

This is awesome man

Wow cool just glad we lived so far East. Wonder why they kept testing after initial detection of fall out....and it's effects.

If you make it back there, take a pry bar and open up some of those fractures in the rock beneath large, flat, exposed spots and look for concentrations of the isotopes from erosion

Could the radiation be from Eastern Washington's production of plutonium in the 40's, 50's and 60's. There was a huge downwind exposure to the population of Wasington and Idaho. My father died from cancer related to being a "downwinder".

Your videos are amazing!! I enjoy watching them!! Keep it up and hopefully your channel will blow! I really got into radiation testing during the COVID lockdown and since then I’ve been doing all sorts of testing and collecting. I actually bought the radiacode 101 a year ago and found out that the tiles in my house are slightly radioactive with thorium peaks, which is really interesting!!!

Fascinating - thank you.

I would love to see you come to Colorado and see if you can detect any plutonium downwind and downstream from the Rocky flats munitions plant where they have plutonium go into the river and also have plutonium fires... I heard in the news a few years ago that they decided not to finish building the 470 freeway because of contamination in the Arvada and golden area.

I'm Canadian, years ago we'd come down to that area to the Radiation mines for healing. Would that be the same?

Just stumbled upon this channel. How do you connect your radiation readings to GPS coordinates? Are you just overlaying GPS track time stamps over the detector timestamps in a spreadsheet?

There is also a controversy about exotic,man made radio-isotopes found on mars...... Fallout on land would be also be worse without rainfall and the movement of material down the watershed and transported out by water movement, basically leaching process. Its how the oceans became salty.

I picked up a cheap Chinese GM tube counter as a first detector/dosimitier. Loved the fallout map you displayed. I'll try to see if I can find a good copy online. I live in Washington state, My background is detected at 0.12 usv/h which is lower than I expected as the map suggests the area is between 1 and 2. I was surprised to find my smoke detectors at contact, were only about double background. They are insignificant. On the other hand, do have some lantern mantles. Didn't have the Coleman brand, but do have the Aladdin brand for an Aladdin kerosene lamp. The mantle package in contact was about 12 usv/hr, so considerable, but not detectable at any real distance more than a foot away. Because I didn't know how strong the radiation was, I keep those in the cupboard over the fridge, so rarely get closer than 2 feet from them in the kitchen. Nice show. It will be unlikely for me to buy the detector you showed, even though a spectrum for isotope detection is quite cool.

Just to say that I really love *All* of the video's I have seen so far, since subscribing last week! Your use of the Radiacode 101 on the Montana Trail was exactly what I hoped it would be, as I am really looking forward to getting my own Radiacode 101 to go alongside my Radiascan 701A, to add Blueteeth; GPS; and highly portable Gamma Spectroscopy to my kit! Dear Santa. Please, even!

After about 2000 nuke tests in Nevada it shouldn't be a surprise.

It is in Alaska as well they found it up there too

If you ever come to Colorado I'd love to see what you find at the site of the former Rocky Flatts nuclear site. They have opened up much of the site to a wildlife preserve, although I think some small parts of the site are off limits.

another great video

A simple solution for the screen shutting off is enable developer options (tap build number in "about phone" till it turns them on) then set "do not sleep while charging" and connect a power bank

I like your method of reporting without finger wagging. Were you able to locate the isotopes, isolate and remove it? Or was it over a widespread area?

Your videos amazes me every time, it also amazes me that America has een big area of elevated readings of radioactivity and probably caused people back in the days to have elevated risks of cancer, "but we are not sure so let us speculate ;)" Thank you for your amazing content videos i really learn a lot about radioactivity and elements its really interesting

Heck, at the $50 price point, you can get a 7" tablet! As for having fallout, you might be looking at radiation released from SL-1 down in Idaho Falls...

I’m glad u mentioned the other animals besides us that might have had an increase in cancer but if other species did, do u think whoever came to that conclusion would tell u?

I am a rockhound, and I would love to know what type of detector would be good for me to stay safe? We have lots of cinnabar and uranium mines not far from where I live.

I did this in a small German town where they had granite pawing stones.2-3 times background and I just walked back and forth it showed up as a nice plot

This is all well and good, but the important question is, which of these radioactive isotopes will be most likely to _infuse_ a person with superpowers? Oh, and which superpower(s) can one expect to acquire? Seriously though, in your travels, have you come across any areas where radiation is so severe that it would be potentially dangerous to spend a few hours(or maybe a few days) there?

Any suggestions on places to purchase radiation detectors and working survey meters at a good price

You need to check out Santa Susana Field Laboratory just outside of Los Angeles CA. Famed nuclear reactor meltdown back in the 50/60’s…

Yeah I pass by this at least 3 times a week. I live in The Big Lie and have a few old timers talk about radiation warnings from back in the day. Now I'm gonna freak out all the tourists😂😂

I wonder how Treasure Island is looking these days? We lived there back in the late 80s when everyone was at a slow cook while living over a radioactive landfill. I think the 89 earthquake fluffed the sheets.

Of St. George, Utah, Lewis Strauss, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission said: "East, they (the atomic clouds) go over St. George, which always gets plastered."

Interesting stuff. New sub 👍

Cool! RU-vidr BioNerd had a similar device, that would tell you what isotope is giving off the radiation.