Would you swim in power plant wastewater? 

One thing I couldn't fit into my script: the pipeline expands by around several metres along its length when it's in use, because of the hot water running through it. The big boxes along the way are expansion joints and supports to allow it to move! As ever, all my sources are in the description.

At this point I feel like like he's sponsored by Iceland's tourist department

Those ducks don't realize how lucky they are. A place to swim in winter and being in a Tom Scott video!

"It only loses a couple of degrees over dozens of kilometers" I'M SORRY WHAT?! You can't just gloss over that bit, Tom! That's a MASTERPIECE of engineering!

"Would You Swim In Power Plant Wastewater?" Tom: Well yes, but actually no

A Brit calling anywhere “a bit wet” is terrifying

When a British person says that somewhere is a bit wet, you should probably bring about seven umbrellas

From what I've heard, spent fuel waste pools for nuclear plants are actually fairly safe to swim in, and will be actually "cleaner" from radiation than the surrounding room.

3:00 That is the greatest subtle way of saying "I'm really cold" on camera I've ever heard.

British guy calling a country "A bit wet" probably means there are rains 23/7

If Tom is trying to convince us that Iceland is awesome, then he's doing a bloody good job of it.

I lived near a nuclear power plant growing up. There was a bay near the plant where they released the circulated cooling water back out into the ocean, and this bay was usually about 5-10°C warmer than the surrounding ocean. Biggest danger was getting swept out to sea though, since the current was very strong.

When I went to the Blue Lagoon, it was very calming - even though a very cold and snowy day. Careful - the restaurant attached was very expensive. A fantastic trip if you visit is to get a tour of the nearby geothermal plant. It is absolutely mind-boggling.

"It doesn't feel warm or else the Pipeline wouldn't do its Job" Glad to hear I am not the only one whose inital thought was "I wanna touch it to see if its warm"

"There's a hottub on the beach." - most Icelandic sentence ever said by anyone

RU-vid gotta have an algorithm that's like: "You've forgotten the contents of this video, watch it again" Me: "I've never watched thi-" "Never mind"

Icelandic ducks: "Migrate south for the Winter?! You must be joking!"

Tom has finally found a way to get that permanent red t-shirt look

The fact that I'm willing to voluntarily watch someone talk about waste for 5 minutes genuinely amuses me. This guy could make waiting rooms sound interesting.

There is something really wrong here at the beginning. I'd like to see the stories of coal ash contamination... Water used to spin turbines in steam powerplants (gas/coal/nuclear, whatever) is actually demineralized so it does not damage the turbine itself - turbines are actually expected to work for 20+ years and the blades would be rusted much sooner and torn apart if the water had been contaminated. I'd gladly take a bath in demi-water. In fact, I remember our professor telling us that the steam turbines in Iceland are very special - because they are powered by the impure steam that comes from the geothermal activity, they have much shorter lifespan than conventional turbines (only a few years) and not as much precision goes into their making so it can be economically sustainable.

youtbe recommending this video during japan releasing fukushima water is on point

there's a "waterfall" in Brazil where the water used by the nuclear generator is dumped and you can bathe there. The water is clear and warm (they use the heat from the nuclear energy to heat common water and turn a vapor turbine, so the water is from that turbine, not the heavy water used to cool down the plant itself, that one is heavily regulated)

Wow, I was in Iceland no longer than a month ago, driving all around the place. I can ABSOLUTELY recommend visiting iceland and renting a car to drive around in! it is the best vacation you can possibly have.

I dont know why people keep comparing this to radiation. It’s literally geothermal waste.

Wow. I love how you compact information in your videos and while presenting many details not mentioned elsewhere at the same time presenting them in the clearest organized form. Thanks Tom.

Ok, if a Brit consider a country "a bit wet", well the country is a bit wet

"Would you swim in a power plant waste water?" "No, because I can't swim."

I've been to the Blue Lagoon and it's absolutely brilliant. If you ever get the chance to go to Iceland, do it! Incredible place

Hey Tom! I have started to use your videos to study for school aswell as watching you in my free time. It's so cool to see that a RU-vidr I usually watch coincidentallly has a video about a topic we're learning in school! Cheers

Of course! I want 3 eyes like the simpsons fish. EDIT: Stop telling me it had 54 eyes. You're thinking of the squirrel from the movie. The fish had 3.

Reads title: "no" Looks at thumbnail: "yes?" Watches video: "yesn't"

Near Livorno, Italy is a village called „Rosignano Solvay“ where a factory pumps the cooling water back to the sea. Its nice to swim inside it and feel the temperature difference between the sea and the warm white water. The beach looks realy tropical from the lime inside the water. Really a journey worth!

I love that you never ask for subscribers or likes. Your videos are always fascinating, I very much enjoy them. Much respect from Australia!

Coke or Pepsi? Actually, I'll have a glass of power plant waste water, please!

Fun fact: The Blue lagoon offers a considerable discount to those with psoriasis and excema because of the benefits from the water.

That is the best sell I have ever heard for Iceland. Christ, I wouldn't mind living there right about now, sounds wonderful.

Near me in Germany, there is a waste burning facility, that doesn't directly put the wastewater in a swimming pool, but instead some of the heat is directly used to warm an outdoor swimming pool.

"the worlds not going to run out of heat" 2020: "ill see if i can fit that into my schedule"

0:38 I love that sign. Its so minimalist.

Tom can now add this video to the list of "times he was in Iceland at the wrong time to see a volcanic eruption".

I'd swim in the outlet of a nuclear power station. The water is perfectly safe. It's probably the most monitored and controlled water going into any body of water.

Did...a brit just call another land "a bit wet"?

Can’t complain about Iceland being wet it rains in the Uk at least 3 times a week

Love to always see this, Iceland learned to use what it has available without outside heating/cooling. Its great but sadly not most places can do this since natural sites are so few and abundant.

Iceland: The country where human creativity and engineering never go to waste.

When will Tom get his own BBC programme? Tom is such a real and amazing talent.

I've been to the Blue Lagoon. It was a great time, and definitely something you shouldn't miss out on if you ever visit Iceland.

That thumbnail is a thing of utter beauty make no mistake

This cheap power is why one of Icelands main exports is aluminium even when they dont mine any, refining it just requires so much power that its cheaper to ship it there instead.

What's it mean when a Brit says a country is "a bit wet?"

I went to the Blue Lagoon once 10 years ago on holiday and I still occasionally have massive nostalgia. Smelled like eggs though. And it was way too crowded.

This is easily one of my favorite Tom Scott video I’ve seen, I want to visit Iceland now

Spongebob narrator: _"Ah, Blue Lagoon.."_

I have gone swimming in this “waste water” and I would recommend it however there were some parts which were much warmer than others and as there was quite a lot of people in their as well as myself, the relaxation factor of it was overcome by a though of just swimming in other people’s piss.

I visited the blue lagoon a few years ago. One thing I remember is there being signs prohibiting cameras, them selling waterproof phone covers and everyone taking pictures.

Why do I keep getting this guy's channel recommended asking random rhetorical questions nobody would even think off asking

RU-vid is getting real comfortable with these 15 second double ads

Blue Lagoon is highly recommended, at least once if you're visiting Iceland anyway. On an unrelated note, 'waste' water from Nuclear power plants *should* be safe as well. They're also using heat exchangers, so the water they dump never actually gets in direct contact with anything radioactive. This isn't an endorsement to go swimming though, at least not without a Geiger counter.

You are not running out of ideas, Sir! Fantastic podcasts, Tom! Thanks for the educational and for the entertaining ingredients :)

“Just so the ducks have somewhere to swim” that’s awesome

My father worked at Perry nuclear power plant in Ohio for over 30 years. When we would go fishing on Lake Erie, before 9/11 and increased security concerns, we would often go out to what was called "the bubble". It was the cooling water outlet from the plant. It was a giant pipe emerging from the bottom of the lake, well below the surface, and the water around it was the clearest I've ever seen in that lake. It was warm and full of fish. You could see the rumble of expelled water on the surface, hence the name. We had no shame about diving in and touching bottom or just lounging around. I seem to remember my father cautioning us about staying in too long, but I think that had more to do with making the guard towers on land nervous than anything else.

Fantastic info, as ever. I have to note that after my swim in the blue lagoon, as in - directly after, I lost all my toenails . they just fell off. No idea why - and they grew back normally , but by "directly" I mean that I was still there and able to speak to management and was told "it sometimes happens". I was training for ultra marathons at the time, so toenail loss wasn't unexpected, but it was weird.

This guy does a great job of explaining things

There’s actually a lake near my city that used to have it’s water used to cool a power plant, and it was perfectly safe to swim in. But then environmentalists made a big fuss about it and now the lake water doesn’t go through the power plant and now it’s full of toxic algae, the power plant was filtering the water.

I've been in the Blue Lagoon and I can attest: It's nice and relaxing and the look is quite unique. As for the marketing the story I heard was that the workers of the powerplant went swimming in the water and found it to be really nice...and then some smart people decided to market it as a spa. And yes: The earth would most likely run out of heat eventually...but it will probably be swallowed by the sun before that.

My main memory of this was being lovely and warm whilst having a chilled drink, and looking up to see a lifeguard on a chair with a thick jacket on.

That part about the ducks was very wholesome.

Hearing the story about the fact you just open a window rather than turn the heating off hits hard right now, especially given we put heating on for maybe 10 minutes to feel a single blast of heat for the day. Heaitng, water and electricity should be free or at LEAST subsidised heavily.

Omg we spend our entire trip in Iceland trying to figure out why the corner of this lake was not frozen and we thought how lucky those ducks were to have this corner of water to swim. Thank you, more than a year after i finally feel relieved hahah

If a Brit says somewhere is a “bit wet” it’s time to put up the flood barriers

used to worked at a power plant in Croatia, they replace the cooling water everyday into their pool on the side, one of the cleanest swimming pool I have ever seen

Tom Scott AKA the channel that makes me care about things I never thought I'd care

"Iceland is bit wet" says a Brit. I am concerned.

This channel has the most random stuff to show ever.

It feels sort of gratifying to finally have been to a place where Tom's been

The best sauna in Iceland is located on the crater rim of Grimsvotn. Only accessible by helicopter, multi-day hiking or a days drive in a monster jeep with glacier fissure map overlay on your GPS.

Imagine going near a nuclear power plant and you just see Tom Scott taking a bath in nuclear waters. That's the source of his power

Tom Scott is slowly moving over to Iceland... Already hooked by the equally cloudy weather and recruited by the tourism ministry I suppose XD

Imagine finding this video, about a week after swimming in that power-plant wastewater.

I have water skied. In the cooling water of the Haynes power plant in so. Cal. From 30 to 50 years ago. Over 80 now and no health problems. Mike

In Iceland, word "cheap" is relative.

This is where Nuka Cola gets it's benefits from. BETHESDA: "Write that down! WRITE THAT DOWN!!!"

My class had to do project on a country of our choice, and I chose Iceland. This was in my list of tourist attractions in the country.

Would be interesting for Tom to do an update, given what is happening at Blue Lagoon and the geo thermal power plant!

I used to go to the blue lagoon when I was a kid. It was free but also a little dangerous, as there were still sharp lava rocks all over the bottom

To summarize what Tom said, while yes this is power plant wastewater, it is pumped from the ground into a pipe, ran next to another pipe of water to heat that water up, then dumped out into the blue lagoon. Alternatively, it is pumped from the ground then the water pressure and heat are used to spin a turbine for power. So while it was used in a power plant, it is still pumped from the ground then directly into the lagoon while never leaving that pipe or having anything else put into the pipe.

It's your definition of 'wastewater' that matters. In most modern conventional power plants, the water used to create steam is reused - up to 80% of it - by condensing the steam. The rest evaporates or is drained, and that is made up from a raw water source. That water is demineralized and degassed, then added to the steam condensate. Steam condensate has chemicals added to it for anti-corrosion, pipe protection, and any residual mineral and oxygen removal. So no, you wouldn't want to swim in the water used to make steam; the chemicals would really mess you up. But the water used to cool plant process systems is often drawn from and returned to a natural source, a lake or river. That water is the same as the natural water source, only warmer. Depending on the size of the lake, swimming in it would be okay, although I wouldn't get too close to the plant site. A river would be fine as any contaminants will be quickly diluted.

Tom never ceases to amaze yet educate!

"the earth is not going to run out of heat" don't jinx it

Swimming in Power Plant wastewater: Three Arms Later:

3:17 thats so nice letting the ducks swim all winter

You can drink the waste water from a powerplant here in Alaska. The water is poured into the river so it's extremely clean. It's simply boiled to spin the turbine then condenses and is dumped in the river.

3:14 "... the ice was strong enough to safely walk on ..." Disclaimer: Tom is not an authority on whether it is safe to walk on a frozen lake.

Tom Scott, five years ago: Don't swim in the Blue Lagoon in Buxton! Tom Scott, today: I went for a dip in the Blue Lagoon in Grindavik.

The boiler water in coal fired plants is as close to pure as you can get it - no contamination by any ash or heavy metals. Because it is a closed loop, it is free from external contamination, and usually goes through an anion exchange resin to remove impurities from small condensor cooling water leaks, or the metals in the boiler leeching into the water or steam due to erosion or corrosion.

I have done this, it was kinda nice though a little warm. The sixth finger was actually helpful on piano.

3:14 "Just so the ducks have somewhere to swim" Can't believe the heat made it's way to my heart from there..

cant believe that this is the same guy as, two drums and a cymbal fall off a cliff

tom scott kinda brings me back to the good old vsause days

I was lucky enough to swim at the Blue Lagoon in 1998 when it was just a big pool right at the power plant. It’s very touristy now.