Radioactive Welsh Lake - Legacy of Trawsfynydd 

I apologise for my poor pronunciation of some of the Welsh locations in this, I did not intent to cause any offence. I will endeavour to improve on this point in the future.

not sure how the lake can become contaminated, the MAGNOX reactors were core-cooled by pressurised Carbon Dioxide, which was cooled by the steam circuit, which in turn was cooled by the lake water. The lake water did not come into contact with the core of the reactors.

When I was doing A-level physics, I took some water samples from the lake. At school I placed a geiger tube over them and compared counts between the lake water, mineral water from a shop, local tap water, rain water (100 km from the lake) etc. There was no significant difference among them. I also dried out the dissolved solids and tested those. Again, no significant difference. The video notes that any contaminants are now in the lake sediments, and my testing and sampling was crude. At least, I was able to satisfy myself that the lake wasn't conspicuously radioactive compared with background.

The Carbon Dioxide is not normally vented into the atmosphere, except when depressurising for maintenance (2-yearly) although minor (repeat- minor) losses do occur during operation. This gas has negligible radioactivity, unless a fuel element leaks, But that is identified and removed from the reactor quite quickly. Routine monitoring of the environment is carried out by the Health Physics teams. The lake water is pumped through the turbine condensers and forms no part of the nuclear circuit. It would be used in the same quantities if the the power station had been coal fired for the same output. There are some discharges of liquid low-level radioactive waste into the water, but these are all closely monitored and have to conform to strict limits. Given a choice of living near a nuclear station or a coal/oil fired station, The healthiest option is nuclear- no acid rain or dust.

The types of reactors that have been used for electricity in the UK have never taken water straight from outside the station. The gas reactors had three circuits, the primary gas loop which cooled the reactor, the secondary which is a water circuit going to the steam turbines, and finally the condenser circuit which draws water from the lake and into the turbine condenser to cool the secondary loop's water which cools the reactor's gas / water. You are highly incorrect at 1:50, the Magnox reactors DID NOT VENT to atmosphere under normal operations, as mentioned above it stays in the primary circuit with insignificant particles of it being lost, same as any other boiler in many different industries. 6:36 Source? 7:16 Every sunny day you go outside you are exposed to radiation from the sun, every second of your life, radiation. You need to specify what sort of radiation. Reactors like the BWR and PWR every once in a while dump small amounts of treated triturated water to the environment, very small controlled releases that they would be diluted in a short time and pose very little to no risk. Also along with your statement of "liquid nuclear waste" what type of nuclear waste are you talking about? as in most countries there are three classes of nuclear waste, Low Level, which is things like potentially radioactive materials, such as broken tools that may have come into contact with radioactive materials at a nuclear site. Intermediate level wastes which are quite radioactive, in this case that would be the Graphite blocks. And finally high level wastes which include things like the reactor's fuel. Around 97% of nuclear waste is actually the low level waste, of which poses little risk when compared to the high level wastes. 7:40, the USSR was known for not giving a single hoot about nuclear safety, as long as it was safe enough not to have the majority complain about it, it was allowed. In the UK, vents and water dumping is done in a controlled manner, excluding the accidental leaks at the Swarf Silos and Dounreay. The deliberate releases in the UK have been done with heavy moderation and adherence to the regulations of of the time when the releases happened, of which means the risks have been analysed so little harm to the public is ensured. And even then, given that say Tritium has a half life of about twenty years, by now after the first release you claimed, after the first half life the majority of the radioactivity it gives off would have decayed and it will keep getting safer every twenty years until it becomes a stable isotope again. I would also like the mention that the UK has only had one major incident with nuclear that had a significant affect on the locals, and that was The Windscale Fire, and the whole conception of Windscale came about after the USA backstabbed the allies and kept the nuclear weapons to themselves, so UK nuclear scientists needed to rush to make nuclear weapons. If I have made a mistake please make sure to leave a correction in the reply.

Some beautiful photography, but oh dear, the narrative is typical anti-nuclear sensationalism full of ‘if’s, ‘concerns’, ‘possible’s, ‘risk’s etc etc. You’re happy to cite a study that claimed that cancer rates were 15x higher downwind of the site and then have to grudgingly admit that the study was flawed and based on anecdotal evidence. I lived the first 30 odd years of my life at Trawsfynydd, much of that time was spent on and around the shores of the lake, fishing for trout with my dad. The trout we caught would be taken home and eaten without any qualms. My father worked at the Health Physics lab situated about a mile from the station where they had a regular testing regime of samples of fish netted from the lake, lake and rain water, lake mud deposits, milk from local farms, moss and vegetation, and airborne dust. Their methods were sensitive enough to detect that an atmospheric nuclear bomb test had been conducted at a time when the nuclear superpowers had agreed not to conduct such testing - China later admitted that it had been one of theirs. You could also have usefully mentioned the massive positive impact that the station had on the local community. In an area desperately short of work since the demise of the slate industry, the station provided some 800 relatively well paid jobs, now sorely missed.

Hi Jay, Firstly kudos on your fabulous video. I am in Australia and had no idea that Wales had it's own Nuclear plants. Your stunning videography is unmatched. I've added your video to my curated list of all things "Atomic Nuclear" so others may enjoy it as much as I did. 5 STARS!

great documentary and very well made , Britain's nuclear history is fascinating and would love to see more - keep up the great work !

Extremely good video. I used to drive past Trawsfynydd very regularly on my way to Harlech. That area always had a mystique about it after Chernobyl disaster in the 90s.

Thanks for this, but it would be useful to know which radioisotopes are involved, what are their halflives and do they get bioaccumulated.?

You might want to check your pronunciation of place names to avoid insulting the Locals. It suggests a lazy Englishman who could not be bothered to do some basic checks and just undermines your video "message".

There are many errors in this piece. My apologies for pointing this out, but you could correct them if you feel it will be useful. Hinkley C is 1.6GW per reactor, not 3.2. The later AGR's have no containment either and certainly do not have a concrete one. Only Sizewell B does and this is an American PWR design. What is the does rate of all the radioactivity events you speak of? You cannot say much about it until you have these numbers. It will only be useful for propaganda. I have several geiger counters, one is a spectrum analyser. If you want to join me we can do a site survey and get some real numbers to tell people about. We can also compare these numbers relative to background radiation What do you say?

Wow. My sister and I swam in that lake regularly during the early 80's on camping trips. All good healthwise! It's a special place to me.

"Working head of water being around 630ft" - this had me a bit confused, with the lake having a depth of 4 meters on average. The 630ft refers to the height of the water relative to the Maentrog Hydro-Electric power station, which is down almost at sea level on the Dwyryd Esturary. This power station, opened in 1928, is still operating, the only power station now operated by Magnox! It produces 30MW, around 60 GWh of electricity annually, enough for 12,000 homes.

I thought it was a nice touch that Sir Basil Spence designed the buildings. Definately pro nuclear here. I do believe it was too important to be left to privatised electricity companies though. As a result we have an ageing reactor fleet and are having to use foreign technology now.

Love to see these industrial castles in detail

We have been working around the hydro station for many years. The hydro station was built in 1928. And is still operating. Some people seem to think the reservoir was built for the nuclear station🙄

I know the area well, half my family come from Harlech and surrounds. No babies with three heads, no mutants, no talking tumours, no horror stories at all. I'd wager more people, and definitely birds, are killed on wind farms around wales each year than have been killed by the Trawsfynydd plant, ever.

An informative video with good photography, thanks. I had never heard of this Magnox site.

Informative, I have been and taken photos but didn't realise some of the impact of the design. I live reasonably close to Hinkley in Somerset the site is immense the impact already on its surroundings but then we do all use power which has to come from renewables or nuclear. When will they realise the power of hydro in the Bristol Channel

Gave up after a minute. The overly dramatic music just says "no credibility."

Lovely video footage but the Trawsfynydd Magnox Station was not the UK's only inland nuclear reactor. I think it was the only one that used a lake as its environmental heat sink. Aside of all the research reactors around the UK, the BNFL Magnox Station at Chapelcross in Scotland was another example of an inland Magnox Station. But like its sister station at Calder Hall, it used cooling towers.

Very interesting, my father worked at the power plant in the late 60's, I have no real memory of the place as I was only 4 years old at the time. So thanks for some background and great footage.

A bit of work needed on the Welsh pronunciations methinks. Llyn Trawsfynydd or “Lin trawsfinid” should sound more like ‘Clin Trousefunuth’…this in itself is an abysmal example, but it’s much closer.

I remember a University challenge question about the voiced dental fricative, known to English speakers as the as the th sound in father, it's pretty rare except in English and Welsh. The welsh alphabet has a 'd' and a 'dd' - 'd' is as you would expect (the 'd' in 'dad'), 'dd' is the 'th' in father

Not tryna throw stones, but that constant background soundtrack kinda cheapens what would be an otherwise interesting vid.... It 'americanises it'

One of the hill farmers said when they got paid out for the so called fallout from Chernobyl that the radiation was from Trawsfynydd not Chernobyl.

I went past it some years ago there were monitors up on the telegraph poles in the past monitoring the area. That got the attention of the locals I was told.

Those drone shots are spectacular. Wales has some truly magnificent natural beauty, seen even better from the air. I've seen these buildings they are imposing and kind of scary looking, sobering to think they will have to survive into the 2080s when they were designed to last maybe 1/3 of that... I have questions about the radiation - If the lake is indeed contaminated and this has been tested and confirmed, then why are there no warnings and people still swimming in the lake, fishing, eating the fish etc? Nuclear leaks do indeed happen (take the Sellafield incident for example) but one would expect a response to mitigate the risks to the population which appear to be totally lacking here. So either it's not radioactive or there's been a huge coverup.... Which is it?

It makes one wonder if any Nuclear or Thorium power plants are possible?

Excellent synopsis, thanks

I got a rhetorical question , do people still fish in the lake ? Yes they do ! There’s no health warning on eating trout from the lake

There were fields along the shores of lake Bala that have been too radioactive for grazing animals. This was found after the Chernobyl disaster and blamed on that. The locals know that it was from Trawsfynydd. These fields were only signed off a few years ago.

What a load of tripe. Rarely has a RU-vid video been produced with such a lack of research into such a wide range of subjects. I hereby sentence you to produce another video on a similar subject in Wales, this time the Wylfa NPS on Anglesey, but in Welsh.

Wow, great in depth video with excellent videography. I had no idea these works were so extensive. Greetings from Spain!

Coal power stations emit more radiation. Drought concern over dam… said man in rain coat in wales you utter weapon, but decent drone operator. Bring on the SMRs

Your video is factually incorrect, it is quite clear you have no technical knowledge of Trawsfynydd NPS and later Magnox sites, may I suggest less drama and more fact.

over a hundred years to take it away. So far its said to be cheap energy, the real cost are over the next years , the burden on the tax payer, the profits are in other pockets.

Been to Snowdonia countless times. Didn’t know bout the Magnos Power plant. Interesting stuff!

Been there fantastic place :-)

Interesting place

Traws vun i the

The lake was originally designed to supply tap water for Liverpool.

The lake “water” can’t be radioactive ☢️. Water itself can’t be radioactive, it’s the radioactive particles that might be lying about in the soils and silts in the lake but if you pointed a counter at the lake it won’t test higher than other lakes most likely unless you disturb the sediments.

Something wrong with the sound ....all sorts of weird noises in the background as if some idiot is trying to make it seem sinister?

Poor research, poor pronunciation, poor dramatic background music, not a reliable video.

very interesting short documentary jay, never knew was a man made lake. i do agree a bit about choice music, think it would be loads better a bit more up beat, less dramatic movie. years since i drove past this. have subscribed 👍 look foward to some more factual storys

Visited there in the 70s.

About forty years ago, on a very hot summers day, I swam in the lake, to one of it's islands. When I was 30 yards from shore, the water got icy cold, and I finally heated up whilst sunbathing for an hour on the island. I did not look forward to my return trip..!

magnox - literally no one else uses it. Its a terrible idea. BNF spent £100s of millions to try to make work. It was an obvious dead end. However thats not how UK gov contracts work. since the 1960s molten salt designs were the obvious way to go. the uk as ever is about 30-50 years late on everything.

Lake Karachay is something else!

A follow up with a Geiger counter would be interesting. Readings taking along the routes people use hiking and visiting etc. Reading of the water in the main lake, lake bed sampling, plus water and silt samples downstream to see how much nuclear material is getting past the dam. Samples taken safely. P.S. It's nice and convenient to say the decommissioning company has to clean up the mess. The government commissioned the site, so should bear the bulk of the responsibility. Magnox is government owned in a way, but it can plead poverty. It only has limited resources. The government as a whole has far more. Clean up will take generations. BTW. I see folk saying breeder reactors and the like are safe. Safer perhaps, but whenever a fission reaction occurs on a scale great enough to produce megawatts of energy, there will be fission byproducts. Many of them emit ionizing radiation and some have very long half lives. All of that waste needs to be stored. Maybe okay on 1000 mile wide deserted plains or steppe, but maybe not so safe on earthquake prone islands like Japan or NZ (hydroelectric is the way to go here in nuclear free NZ -- so much potential because it rains so bloody much -- about 55-60% of our total energy mix is hydro and geothermal -- that mix includes energy we use for cars like petrol, so it's not bad going). P.S. My grandma was Welsh. She would not be amused to hear those damn Saxons messed up Snowdonia.

Chernobyl is abundant with wildlife too but I wouldn't go there.

I know that Jay means well; however, harping about "nuclear contamination" just generates fear out of ignorance. Similar to people saying carcinogens. (You folks do know when you burn sugar to make caramel, there's carcinogens in it!) By telling people the radioactive isotopes causing the problem will also tell them how they were created or if it's material that has become radioactive from exposure. In addition, it lets people know the types of radiation (alpha, beta, or gamma) and the half life.

Personally, I love this propaganda and I thought your Welsh pronunciation was lovely!

Strangely, the small hydro power stations built in the area have produced more electricity than the Nuclear power station. The turbines are still spinning while decommissioning continues.

Over dramatic, highly biased, hysterical Radiophobia

Audio-Level is all over the place

2:25 "Each reactor produced around 250 Megawatt electric." What? If your understanding of basic science is so poor, you shouldn't be making this sort of video,.

I once worked with a guy in the early 70s . He said he would go fishing near the plants out fall and would take the fish home to eat . I hope he is still ok to this date . He did say the fish at the out fall were very large . I have holidayed a lot with North Wales and I did hear talk the fuel was only half spent and taken out of the reactor . To supply the USA with bomb making material which was in short supply at the time . Making the plant uneconomic .

I think more information about how far potential radiation is spread through the area would be more useful

Was the reactor a plutonium manufacturing plant for Cold War nuclear weapons as wher the magnox reactors on the seven estuary, electricity being a by-product, 24.5 per cent of the plutonium produced hinckley point ended up in nuclear warheads.

Sorry, but this is not a helpful contribution, well, start at least. I'm writing this at time point 2.10. Having not researched enough to know some basic pronunciation, namely the 'Ll' and 'dd' sound, it worries me. Also, the 'not actually correct facts from the start' setting the scene does not a favour 'context'. Context is everything in the debate and reasoning as to why choices where made, where we are today, and choices we make for the future. I'm neither critic of, nor advocate for. But a lot of cherry picking of sound bite facts is not good reportage.

excellent

[Rusty] carbon steel invented in britain

My mates farm is opposite this ! Davies at goppa!

Got about 30s into this - clicked away. Sorry - that music sets the tone as a 'propaganda piece'. Good luck.

Won’t be fully decommissioned till 2083, only ran for 24 years.

In notice the English don't mind polluting wales .

Oh dear, please try to pronounce the name of the station. Have you tried asking a local? And as for the stained music? What's the point of that? I wonder how many of tonnes of CO2 this station has avoided emitting into the environment? Twenty six years, isn't that a year beyond the design life? Why would cooling water become radio active?

You should have asked a local how that's pronounced 😂

As a teenager I spent many a time fishing in the lake!! A sample of the fish to be caught could be seen in the hot pool! ALL dead of course!! These were retrieved swiftly, to stop the spread of bad news!!😮

1:12 "SAFETY HELMETS MUST BE WORN BEYOND THIS POINT" - nobody wears a helmet ;D

Went to visit in 1997 on a school trip - never found any 3 eyed fish sadly 😳

I sponsored the low level Radiation Campaign(Chris Busby et al)for 10 years.His theory that microparticles(of radioactive waste) are carcinogenic at cellular level seems credible to me.Those who dismiss his work never address this factor.

When I caught that three eyed fish that glowed in the dark. I did wonder about radioactive contamination.. 🐠 ⚛️

Please don't talk about the 'legacy' of places you can't say properly, or you're gonna look silly. It' not hard - Welsh has perhaps the most consistent phonology of any language, If you're not sure how it's pronounced: look up Welsh phonology and that's pretty much it (until you get to mutations). Which is [why it's 'Trawsfynydd' and not 'Trawsmynydd'] is a harder question. If you spent 50 hours making this video, an hour or diving into welsh pronunciation wouldn't hurt and could be fun and informative.

Are you sure Hinckley Point is not 2 x 1.5 GW?

The radiation level could be 1,000x what it is presently, and it'd still be negligible. You getting paid by Shell or BP?

Thank you Jay for informing us of the situation and in my view, what is still there to come I used to drive from Abertysswg in the South Wales Rhymney valley all over Wales spectating on the Motoring News, Welsh and the RAC rallies in the 60's and the 70's. I remember being in the Penmachno forest many times and seeing Transfynydd Nuclear Power Station far away in the distance. As the nuclear power stations were being built the BBC news said that the nuclear industry would now generate cheap electricity for the public. You are correct about the decommissioning, it is scheduled to be 2071 but that is guesswork by well researched academics (!!!!), and who is going to pays for this ??? US - WE PAY FOR EVERYTHING - AND I AM EXPECTING NUMEROUS CRITICS SAYING I AM WRONG. JUST ASK THEM TO LOOK AT WHO PAYS FOR THE DECOMMISSIONING OF THE OLD NORTH SEA OIL RIGS ??? THEY WILL SAY THE OIL INDUSTRY - BUT THE OIL INDUSTRY GET TAX REBATES FROM OUR GOVERNMENT TO HELP THE OIL INDUSTRY PAY MORE TO THEMSELVES AND THEIR SHARE OWNERS AND HELP WITH PARTY DONATIONS ALSO - AND I BET THE NUCLEAR DECOMMISSIONING COMPANIES WILL USE EXACTLY THE SAME TAX LOOPHOLES AND INCENTIVES.

Such a beautiful place to be destroyed by radiation??? Its already in everything around this plant. I would be curious to take a Geiger counter and see what the levels really are.

Not hard to find the proper pronunciation mate, or even a close approximation. EDIT - Sorry to sound negative, I see you're a small channel and so I've subbed as the content is well made - except for the pronunciation!

Three Eyed Fish.

Something about radiation that’s on another level of fear. I don’t think people are meant to play with it

Do try to do some research on correct pronunciation of Welsh place-names please. They're not difficult to learn! Imagine what you'd think of me if I pronounced English place-names using my native Welsh phonetics!

I grew up in Portmadoc (Porthmadog) in the 1960's. Your pronunciation of placenames is awful. A quick chat with the locals would have put you right. I did enjoy the historical overview. But you built the video around a nothing. Radioctive lake? Get real. And "Welsh rain forest"? Dhhhh.

Mrs Richards: "I paid for a room with a view !" Basil: (pointing to the lovely view) "That is Torquay, Madam ." Mrs Richards: "It's not good enough!" Basil: "May I ask what you were expecting to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window ? Sydney Opera House, perhaps? the Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically across the plains?..." Mrs Richards: "Don't be silly! I expect to be able to see the sea!" Basil: "You can see the sea, it's over there between the land and the sky." Mrs Richards: "I'm not satisfied. But I shall stay. But I expect a reduction." Basil: "Why?! Because Krakatoa's not erupting at the moment ?"

WHO IS SHAGGING ALL THE SHEEP ?

Just cover Wales in solar panels and pray that the sun comes out.

And they tell us that nuclear power is clean and cheap😂 nothing could be further from the truth.

No doubt in my mind that nuclear pollution in the enviroment is the real reason why so many people get cancer in the present day. They try to blame smoking. Well, thanks to the ongoing persecution of smokers, far fewer people smoke now than at the time of the first world war when cancer was comparatively rare. I have no defence whatsoever against the carcenogenic pollution in our enviroment - might as well enjoy a good cigar.

A necessary evil sorry to say.

Bygones but anagram of nuclear is unclear

26 pathetic years and an unfixable mess. typical nuclear

You could've ironed your shirt knowing that you were going to appear on camera. Dressing like you're in Antifa doesn't aid credibility and is far more offensive than dodgy pronunciation.

the symbol for Wales is a Dragon 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 I had no idea there were also this monster in Wales 😳 a Brilliant exposure of this hidden hazard hiding in plain sight 🤔

I really like this video. But I really, really don't like this place. It's a place of stunning beauty completely messed up by our need for energy.

It's in Wales; Who cares?