I don't understand how this channel hasn't it 1 million subscribers yet. Production value is absolutely exceptional, all around one of the most underrated channels for sure. Thank you for you dedication, it truly shines through 🎉
Well-paid people often enjoy what they do because of what they earn doing it. ;) It's not an altruistic passion, they'd be doing the same elsewhere if the price was right.
Thank you for your perseverance to obtain this visit Drew. Part one I have found most interesting. If you’re reading this Josh & Lucas - Hi there and thank you too. I liked your little joke Lucas: _“let me know if I’m going into too much detail”_
Everyone was really cool at the site. When we went into it with those stipulations, we had no idea how it was going to go. But everyone was very nice and super helpful.
My father got a job with Atomics International in 1955 right out of Engineering college. He moved my mom and sister from New Jersey to the San Fernando Valley. I was born in Northridge in 1957. Atomics International paid for his grad school at UCLA in nuclear engineering. He work there for 15 years. I remember a family day at Atomics International and we had to wear badges that would read radiation. I thought that was strange as a kid in the 60’s. Atomics International did have nuclear material at their Canoga Park building on DeSoto Ave. I remember they let us use the robot arms that handled the material. Kind of wild. I believe they had the first nuclear reactor that powered a city and that city was Simi Valley. I believe that was the one that had the accident. My father never got cancer. He passed due to a bad heart a few years ago. In the 60’s my father and I were part of the Atomics International slot car club and we used to race every Wednesday.
The SRE was the reactor that powered Simi Valley and that was on the SSFL site. Both the Canoga Park and De Soto location also had reactors but they were low power training reactors, nowhere near the size of the SRE.
I worked there for nearly 2 years. The people who work there are good people, with good hearts, and want to fix the issues. The land is absolutely beautiful and It was truly amazing to be able to explore throughout the nearly 2700 acre site. The wildlife is crazy! Tons of deer, tons of bobcats, coyotes, foxes and even mountain lions. I hope in the other videos when they get released you guys are able to see the insane views and scenery!
@@RadioactiveDrew I hope so too! Did they take you to see the old test towers (not sure if Coca is still up) and up to the main radio tower in the middle of the site overlooking everything?
@@ethanoconnor7367 we couldn't go to the test stands for this trip because its on the land that NASA controls. So hopefully in the future I can work something out with them to visit their property.
Boeing purchased Rocketdyne in 1996 then sold it in 2005 when the company was sold to United Technologies. Some of the property was split up and (unfortunately for Boeing) the site of the radioactive contamination ended up belonging to them. Boeing was NOT involved whatsoever with the issue when it actually happened. When Boeing and McDonnell Douglas merged, Boeing (an engineering company) was taken over from the top down by McDonnell Douglas management by, a company who's primary focus was "shareholder value", not quality engineering. The SSFL site interfered with the sale of Rocketdyne, so Boeing (then controlled by McDonnell Douglas management) was forced to keep it... Basically they got stuck with the garbage... The damage was caused by Rocketdyne in their rush to meet US military expectations...
Fascinating as always Drew! The fact that these guys are happy to discuss all this with you shows that you treat the subject in an appropriate way. Watching you discussing the topic with them was great and I’m certainly looking forward to seeing the next parts!
Thanks. I try and make the videos look good. Problem with making this video is that we only had 4 hours to be on site...stretched it to 5. Plus I was excited to be there. So sometimes the framing of the video suffers because I'm talking to one of the site people.
A neighbor stopped by to tell me he moved to ventura county. I ask where. He said Bell Canyon. I ask how far from the rocket dyne fence. 4 homes. I ask did your real estate agent or title insurance warn you. About what. About the 1959 reactor melt down. He turned and ran from my hose full speed down 88 stairs. I don't know what happened after that
His count room is a storage place! A real count room won’t allow that for fear of messing up background. We all use CPM in the nuclear industry. No SI units unless we ship or sources are involved but we convert it before tech use in field to cpm. We use those Gamma probes over dirt for a go no go in to dump trucks a lot, they’re pretty rugged. He’s got a bare bones count room here. It’s a field use count room. We’d set up in AM with about 4 of the table top counters, then the auto counter runs background overnight. We have lots of source blocks for about 3 different dose instruments and alpha beta sources for various contamination instruments. We sourced check about 20-100 instruments daily just depending on how many people on site working. That’s all sourced checked daily before morning meetings at 6 am. A real count room on a site like this would be closer to town. There engineers google eye on samples we send them with special tritium/alpha and gamma specs counters. In summary many different counters that can read across various energy fields. These old DOE field count rooms are all over the country.
Fantastic video and I can’t wait for part 2! I always love seeing what professionals use in their daily tasks and what are they working on. Great job with organising this video 😃
Loved this Drew, really interesting - more than anything I like to see when everyone in the room is interested in what they are doing and you see the passion they bring to their job and their field of expertise.
Its always fun to talk shop with people when they have an interest in what they do. Was a lot of fun talking with Lucas, the on site radiation guy. He seemed to be into radiation as much as I am.
Great video and thanks to the on-site contractors as well. Momitoring of the site reminds me of the UMTRA operation and field trips there for radiochemistry class students from the Univ. Utah.
As a life long local to the area, I was so excited to see you do this video. I am very impressed with the access you got and the explanations the workers provided. Really fantastic video. Thank you guys!!!
So many people don't know about this location. But I feel like many of the people in Chatsworth and Simi Valley know it well...at least the people that have lived there for a while.
@@RadioactiveDrewyep! I actually drive on the Santa Susana Pass on the freeway with my Radiacode 103 and there is a very very slight increase in background radiation.
I remember reading an article years ago that said a full meltdown, as opposed to the partial one that happened, would have contaminated everything as far as downtown LA and forced its evacuation. I always thought that could make for a pretty interesting setting for fiction, something like STALKER but set in the decaying abandoned ruins of late-'50s LA.
So cool you got to meet up with these folks and spend do much time with them. I absolutely live video like this, where you are able to get into the weeds, and they aren’t just blowing you off with some chart on a wall. Or quarterly report. But getting into topics and discussions you might want to know further about.
It was a great experience. The people there were very forthcoming about topics. But they only spoke about stuff they knew about. The different sites controlled by Boeing and NASA they couldn't speak about because they didn't know the details.
Amazing work getting into this place, can only imagine the paper work and pain. Great job setting the foundation knowledge and understanding. As always great job on the cinematography. Can't wait to see the next one when it comes out.
So refreshing to see a frank and open discussion on a subject that garners so much emotional response. The best form of education, and a great antidote to conspiracy mongering.
Santa Susana accident is a great story in how it never reached main stream media lol! Also, GO NASA with the 'who to contact'. What a cool investigative video :) And the QC bit and the calibration of the instruments and that whole discussion was just so fun and interesting to watch, cheers Drew and can't wait to watch part2 !
This channel needs to go viral. The quality of your videos has just been top notch. Not only that but they are so interesting and informative. I love these behind the scenes videos. It’s nice to see that things aren’t like the movies. Real life is writing measurements down by hand and banging your head against the wall working with a windows XP desktop and proprietary software that hasn’t been updated in a decade.
@@RadioactiveDrew please keep putting out videos like this. Your channel is amazing. I’m a chemistry nerd. I’ve been around since the UA-cam chemistry community started (Explosions&Fire, Chemplayer, U235, DougsLab, the VERY early days of NileRed) but I’ve always been fascinated with radioactive stuff. I have a nice element collection and the radioactive ones are my favorites. Technetium, thorium, uranium, radium, etc. I would love to get my hands on some neptunium and plutonium but that will probably never happen.
Funny to see them using samples from Spectrum Techniques, I am researching if it is legal to have them imported to Germany as these would come in very handy as a reference for calibrating my scintillation detectors.
@@RadioactiveDrew Years ago I worked on the Yucca Mountain Project on the Nevada Test Site, just an underground miner, but every DOE employee. scientist, or engineer were great to work with. Some pretty smart folks that loved to help pass on their knowledge about what they do.
I found this totally fascinating! I have no background scientifically for this, but I did live in California for a major chunk of my life. A dear friend lived in Chatsworth, I was there many times. My father was in the military, and was actually at one bomb test in the Mojave, and at the Bikini bomb tests. I am amazed at all the different measuring devices you showed, and how each measured something a little differently. "Atomic" doesn't have to be scary once a person is informed. Care needs to be taken with everything in life, even a simple paring knife or a root across a path. Thank you.
Super interesting video, can't wait for part 2! You can tell Josh and Lucas love what they do and appreciate when someone takes interest in their work.
Drew, thank you so much for sharing these stories in such a well produced media that deserves so much more than you're currently receiving (albeit this community you've garnered is awesome). Please keep this up, I and I'm sure many others were infinity thrilled to see a notification from you especially with all the political drama...it's nice to find a place like this to appreciate the work you put it and help us scratch that weird "itch". Cheers!
The community here has been awesome and is a big reason for me to work hard on these videos. My last video was over a month ago and I felt bad not posting anything. But I feel like I have enough videos in the pipe right now to keep them pretty steady until the end of the year at the moment.
I'm really thankful for these videos, I believe this is very important subject to educate the world on not just people that find this subject interesting but everybody because this can provide humanity with vast amounts of energy with extremely low amount of pollution and the more people that feel safe with radioactivity and nuclear power the better off humanity will be. And that have been said I believe this channel will help pave the way for that eventuality
Ahhh, Section IV! 10/10 Video, stoked you’re doing this, where’s the next?... Your San Onofre video got me to subscribe a long time ago and I was hoping you might do one on SSFL, and this is the moon. This is where I grew up, live and currently work (not for the SSFL). I shared a house and got free math tutoring from a Rocketdyne engineer. I was too young, and they stopped by the time I was old enough, but my parents got to see open house engine test firings. So many people still don’t know about SSFL in great or small detail (maybe better or worse). I grew up hiking and camping at Sage Ranch in the 90s, literally a stones throw from the sodium reactor. Broke my first bone (foot) horsing around with friends on those rocks. The brakes and scrapes all healed, and I don’t glow in the dark. Something not talked about with the environment in that region is how long it’s been neglected there before testing rockets and nuclear reactors, those hills were stripped long ago of their oak forests to feed the Spaniards lime kilns in Dayton and Bell Canyon.
There is also an Aerojet Rocketdyne facility in Chino Hills, CA that was incredibly toxic and was a superfund site. So toxic there is 24 hour guards present
Oh, man! Your guide is so freakin' knowledgeable! And i recognize that 'tism! Inalmost feep called out... except... How COOL is that knowledge?! Especially in this context! So awesome!
Drew, first... THANK YOU. Seriously. You are a great educator. I find this topic interesting and have learned a ton from your efforts. Well done! The value of it all is probably best said as having basic nuclear literacy. That is high value in that most people do not have any idea beyond "radiation is bad." Well, as we all know, so is sugar. Your work will end up moving the needle. Those of us, and I include myself here, get more literate, which is great. We can help others in our circle improve and over some time the level of basic understanding comes up resulting in less fear, better decisions and all that general good we know comes with basic public works like you have done here. I will also simply resonate with others who say your numbers should be higher. Again, nice work, well produced, easily understood, entertaining and high value.
@@RadioactiveDrew Of Course! I spent many of my Computer Aided Design career doing adult education. In my case, it was moving people from analog drafting table to digital 3D modeling and all that comes along with that, simulation, assembly, manufacturing... Seeing progress, people doing new things, advancing careers, better engineering were all very rewarding. The best for me? Simply being seen, recognized for efforts maybe nobody asked for, or perhaps seen as extras, whatever, however we want to say exemplary works for goodness sake... When I was doing my best, doing those extra things and word about that from others came to me, I always valued those moments highly. Frankly, those exchanges always lifted my mood and gave me energy and motivation to continue on with pleasure. That is my intent here. I am sure glad you care and happen to also have a resonant disposition lined right up with the target material. It is nice when that happens.
10:48 I'd maybe drill two wells along the groundwater's flow. Suck water from the downstream well, add the Magic Stuff, and inject it back down the upstream well. 14:33 Cool. Tritium at that level is a feature, not a bug. Kind of like the radioactive tracers patients can get before scans (still a thing?). Let's you know what's going on and fades away fast, geologically speaking.
New sub … I’m impressed at how focused and serious these guys are about this cleanup. Very commendable , and a great goal for young people heading off to college . This would be a great career as opposed to social science’s .
This RCT is very good! He had a passion for his job and I’m sure was hand selected to work with Drew and his crew. He is very knowledgeable of his craft! I work at the Hanford site as a manager for RCTs. This gent knows his job!
Glad to see other professionals use CPM. It validates everything you have said in the past. I worked in medical research and used many different kinds of isotopes. We also used CPM. Way to many so called "standards" out there. Never new which one people wanted. I always would give information to researchers in CPM and let them do their own conversions to what ever radiation standard. Doing our wipe tests once a week in the lab were always reported in CPM to the radiation safety folks at the university I worked at. Thanks for a very professional video. Looking forward to your video on your field work.
I think a lot of people like using CPM or DPM...at least ones dealing with radiation survey or some other task where you need to how many particles are hitting the detector and not dose.
my family moved to Simi Valley in 1964. as a child growing up, i have very vivid memories of the engine testing. i also have very vivid memories of all my friends' fathers who worked on the hill, dying very young, like late fortys early fifties my dad was a Qualiry control engineer at the rocket division. i remember playing with his pocket Rem-meter that they all carried around back then. in the early 60s, this was a very different place. it was an agraculteral cowboy kinda town. with lots of families moving in during the early 60s. i remember when there was about 34,000 with only 8000 living here in 1960, that's about 34,000 people moving here in 4 years. and the worst part about what they did is no one knew about the accident till the late 70s, and even then, it was just rumors. They figured that our friends and family members who died of all kinds of weird cancers were the cost of doing buisness. and what's really amazing is in the 1960. Simi Valley was all orange orchards producing fruit for the whole country on land that rocketdyne poisened. Who knows how many people they really killed.
@RadioactiveDrew I made a mistake when i was typing in 1960. There were approx 8000 people living in simi Valley in 1964. There was more than 34,000, and that's huge growth in a little 3 years.
Fantastic stuff, Drew. Hopefully opens a few doors to other sites. If you establish you're not a threat, just genuinely curious, it'll get you to way more places than some 'scoop' that really isn't. Seeing people nerd out about what they are doing and how it all works is very cool.
I totally agree. I think that’s what a majority of that back and forth was about over those months of trying to get access to the site. Seeing if I was going to do some “gotcha” video or something like that.
Drew, genuine question. How necessary is it that they continue to test every month? I mean, eventually wouldn’t it just become unnecessary? Awesome video btw! I love the videos in which you are able to gain access to areas most people don’t get to see.
Woooo keep up the good work mannn I told you about three weeks ago about the elephant rocks State Park in Missouri. Just curious if you looked into it a little bit. I also found an abnormally high and radiation for a granite rock location.
This is a great video and I'm looking forward to the next part. Just a little constructive feedback: Interviewing can be very difficult if you are very interested in the subject you are interviewing about, but remember that your role is to appear as ignorant about the subject as possible and ask all the "stupid" questions. Don't get me wrong, this was a very good video and I understand that you get excited when you talk to your peers. Nor am I under the delusion that I would have done a better job. On the contrary, I am quite sure that I would have been so eager that I would have forgotten to film and interrupted the whole time.
What's great now, is that nuclear is so safe (don't build them near coastlines, faults, or volcanoes, lol) we should be relying on it to give us the clean energy we need. Oil is gonna run out eventually, and nuclear is our future. Wind, solar.....too expensive, not reliable, not sustainable long term, uses too much land.
When are you going to get permission to come and check out the Army Corps of Engineers L.O.O.W. FUSRAP site, here in sunny Lewiston, NY? It's a good one. Very early A-Bomb history. Top Secret Place that didn't last long, but got re-purposed as a nasty dumping ground for Rad waste from all over the East.
Great documentary on this incident. My parents grew up in Simi Valley in the 50’s and 60’s when this occurred. My father attributes his various cancers and tooth loss due to jaw decay to this incident.
I'm assuming he's had blood work done. Did they find chemical markers in his body for exposure to TCE or something like that. Nothing radiological from the lab would have done that to him.
I don't understand how this channel hasn't it 1 million subscribers yet. Production value is absolutely exceptional, all around one of the most underrated channels for sure. Thank you for you dedication, it truly shines through 🎉
Thanks for your support. I’m sure one of these days I’ll get to a million. I’ll be happy hitting 100k, which is getting closer.
agreed
Because good content by actual creators is drowned out with low effort AI content from China and India content farms to an order of 1M to 1.
well said.. Drew is doing great stuff
@@bashkillszombies I'm sure that's part of it.
This was excellent. I'm glad that the crew ended up being so friendly, welcoming, and chill. 😎 I'm super excited for part 2!
This is great! These employees clearly love what they do. not many people have this passion about their jobs
Very true. We were in good company.
Well-paid people often enjoy what they do because of what they earn doing it. ;) It's not an altruistic passion, they'd be doing the same elsewhere if the price was right.
Lots of government officials love what they do and are truly experts in there field.
@@Desert-edDave bingo, artists are the only people who don't do it for money. Take Banksy for example.
You can tell that guy absolutely loves what he does and loves explaining how he does his job.
I'm fascinated more by his passion than the actual subject 😅😅
Thank you for your perseverance to obtain this visit Drew. Part one I have found most interesting. If you’re reading this Josh & Lucas - Hi there and thank you too. I liked your little joke Lucas: _“let me know if I’m going into too much detail”_
Everyone was really cool at the site. When we went into it with those stipulations, we had no idea how it was going to go. But everyone was very nice and super helpful.
Can't wait for Part 2! I've want to know more about SSFL for years!
Part 2 will be out by next week.
@@RadioactiveDrew HUZZAH!
@RadioactiveDrew thanks for the clarification.
@@RadioactiveDrew cant wait
My father got a job with Atomics International in 1955 right out of Engineering college. He moved my mom and sister from New Jersey to the San Fernando Valley. I was born in Northridge in 1957. Atomics International paid for his grad school at UCLA in nuclear engineering. He work there for 15 years. I remember a family day at Atomics International and we had to wear badges that would read radiation. I thought that was strange as a kid in the 60’s. Atomics International did have nuclear material at their Canoga Park building on DeSoto Ave. I remember they let us use the robot arms that handled the material. Kind of wild. I believe they had the first nuclear reactor that powered a city and that city was Simi Valley. I believe that was the one that had the accident. My father never got cancer. He passed due to a bad heart a few years ago. In the 60’s my father and I were part of the Atomics International slot car club and we used to race every Wednesday.
The SRE was the reactor that powered Simi Valley and that was on the SSFL site. Both the Canoga Park and De Soto location also had reactors but they were low power training reactors, nowhere near the size of the SRE.
That was interesting as hell. I can't tell which one of you guys was geeking out more. Can't wait for part 2!
That "Our hydrologists love it." on the tritium is classic scientist. :)
I worked there for nearly 2 years. The people who work there are good people, with good hearts, and want to fix the issues. The land is absolutely beautiful and It was truly amazing to be able to explore throughout the nearly 2700 acre site. The wildlife is crazy! Tons of deer, tons of bobcats, coyotes, foxes and even mountain lions. I hope in the other videos when they get released you guys are able to see the insane views and scenery!
That land is pretty amazing. I hope they can get it all cleaned up enough so other people can explore it. Its a place with a ton of important history.
@@RadioactiveDrew I hope so too! Did they take you to see the old test towers (not sure if Coca is still up) and up to the main radio tower in the middle of the site overlooking everything?
@@ethanoconnor7367 we couldn't go to the test stands for this trip because its on the land that NASA controls. So hopefully in the future I can work something out with them to visit their property.
I worked there for 2 years also. Same observations... a bobcat used to follow me to my tin-roofed office.
Boeing purchased Rocketdyne in 1996 then sold it in 2005 when the company was sold to United Technologies. Some of the property was split up and (unfortunately for Boeing) the site of the radioactive contamination ended up belonging to them. Boeing was NOT involved whatsoever with the issue when it actually happened. When Boeing and McDonnell Douglas merged, Boeing (an engineering company) was taken over from the top down by McDonnell Douglas management by, a company who's primary focus was "shareholder value", not quality engineering. The SSFL site interfered with the sale of Rocketdyne, so Boeing (then controlled by McDonnell Douglas management) was forced to keep it... Basically they got stuck with the garbage... The damage was caused by Rocketdyne in their rush to meet US military expectations...
Ah, maybe this is why they don't want any recordings of stormwater related and other potential issues.
Your right. ....If I'm not wrong.
Absolutely correct.
Fascinating as always Drew! The fact that these guys are happy to discuss all this with you shows that you treat the subject in an appropriate way. Watching you discussing the topic with them was great and I’m certainly looking forward to seeing the next parts!
Well done. This is one of the very few SSFL documentaries that follows science and data instead of fearmongering and hysterics. Keep up the good work!
Thanks. I try and approach it from an even perspective.
Tell that to Casey Goyer
@@paulmobleyscience who is Casey Goyer? Did a search and nothing other than FB profiles came up.
@@RadioactiveDrew She was injured due to the Woolsey fire, brain tumor
@paulmobleyscience how would the Woolsey fire give you a brain tumor?
Drew, it is a treat to see you amongst others, that can talk, “shop,” with you.
It was a lot of fun to be there on site and talk shop.
Let me know if I'm going in too many detail, I'm here like DUDE go as inside as you want, IM LIVING!!!
Although you can find various scientific channels, and some really good ones too, UA-cam really isn’t the forum for nerd intense subjects.
Very informative Drew. You always spark my interest into researching these type stories further. Your productions are second to none.
Thanks. I try and make the videos look good. Problem with making this video is that we only had 4 hours to be on site...stretched it to 5. Plus I was excited to be there. So sometimes the framing of the video suffers because I'm talking to one of the site people.
Great episode! Hopefully this will open up more doors for you and more in-depth content. Congrats!
There is a possibility of doing more videos at this site along with some other DOE controlled sites.
Wow. These guys are awesome! Smart use of bacteria to fix a bad TCE contamination problem! FWIW, I'm a physicist.
Well I be dog
Mann this is SO freaking awesome. Thankyou for all the work you put into these videos.
Thanks for watching. The community here on YT is pretty awesome. One of the many things that keeps me making videos.
@@RadioactiveDrew we live for the next bleep from our detectors, and you provide !
Glad to see this video finally finish. You absolutely nailed it! One of your best videos to date.
Thanks…really appreciate that.
I can not wait for Drew to post these!
Thanks for being a fan.
so nice to see other people relaxed about a natural thing that we know and love...
A neighbor stopped by to tell me he moved to ventura county. I ask where. He said Bell Canyon. I ask how far from the rocket dyne fence. 4 homes. I ask did your real estate agent or title insurance warn you. About what. About the 1959 reactor melt down. He turned and ran from my hose full speed down 88 stairs. I don't know what happened after that
I could see that freaking someone out that just bought a home there.
His count room is a storage place! A real count room won’t allow that for fear of messing up background. We all use CPM in the nuclear industry. No SI units unless we ship or sources are involved but we convert it before tech use in field to cpm. We use those Gamma probes over dirt for a go no go in to dump trucks a lot, they’re pretty rugged. He’s got a bare bones count room here. It’s a field use count room. We’d set up in AM with about 4 of the table top counters, then the auto counter runs background overnight. We have lots of source blocks for about 3 different dose instruments and alpha beta sources for various contamination instruments. We sourced check about 20-100 instruments daily just depending on how many people on site working. That’s all sourced checked daily before morning meetings at 6 am. A real count room on a site like this would be closer to town. There engineers google eye on samples we send them with special tritium/alpha and gamma specs counters. In summary many different counters that can read across various energy fields. These old DOE field count rooms are all over the country.
Drew just made a new best friend!
Definitely going to watch this one later! Keep cranking out the AWESOME content Drew and be safe out there!
Thanks…I’m as safe as I can be.
@@RadioactiveDrew Have you looked at the difference in health impacts and risks through "internal" and "external" exposure to radiation?
Fantastic video and I can’t wait for part 2!
I always love seeing what professionals use in their daily tasks and what are they working on.
Great job with organising this video 😃
Thanks, glad that work shows.
Loved this Drew, really interesting - more than anything I like to see when everyone in the room is interested in what they are doing and you see the passion they bring to their job and their field of expertise.
Its always fun to talk shop with people when they have an interest in what they do. Was a lot of fun talking with Lucas, the on site radiation guy. He seemed to be into radiation as much as I am.
Great video and thanks to the on-site contractors as well. Momitoring of the site reminds me of the UMTRA operation and field trips there for radiochemistry class students from the Univ. Utah.
What's funny is that UMTRA came up in conversation while we were out there. Might be able to make a video about the site with the help of DOE...maybe.
As a life long local to the area, I was so excited to see you do this video. I am very impressed with the access you got and the explanations the workers provided. Really fantastic video. Thank you guys!!!
I've been wanting to do this video for a while and I'm glad DOE worked with me on making it happen.
Awesome, I have known about Susana for many years but not many people know about it!
So many people don't know about this location. But I feel like many of the people in Chatsworth and Simi Valley know it well...at least the people that have lived there for a while.
@@RadioactiveDrewyep! I actually drive on the Santa Susana Pass on the freeway with my Radiacode 103 and there is a very very slight increase in background radiation.
This was a very interesting video. I enjoyed seeing and hearing the explanation for the different measurement devices and procedures being used.
This is absolutely terrific. I had no idea about any of this. Fascinating. Your videos are so fun to watch! I'm looking forward to seeing part 2!
Glad you liked it...Part 2 will be out this coming week.
The overview with the people on site was very informative
For both of us. It was really great to see how things are being cleaned up and how things are tested.
I remember reading an article years ago that said a full meltdown, as opposed to the partial one that happened, would have contaminated everything as far as downtown LA and forced its evacuation. I always thought that could make for a pretty interesting setting for fiction, something like STALKER but set in the decaying abandoned ruins of late-'50s LA.
That would be a fun game. A blend of STALKER and Fallout...given the time period of the accident.
So cool you got to meet up with these folks and spend do much time with them. I absolutely live video like this, where you are able to get into the weeds, and they aren’t just blowing you off with some chart on a wall. Or quarterly report. But getting into topics and discussions you might want to know further about.
It was a great experience. The people there were very forthcoming about topics. But they only spoke about stuff they knew about. The different sites controlled by Boeing and NASA they couldn't speak about because they didn't know the details.
Awesome! Glad you finally got out there. I grew up near there and remember hearing rocket engine testing for years.
That's what my second camera / producer was telling me about.
Amazing work getting into this place, can only imagine the paper work and pain. Great job setting the foundation knowledge and understanding. As always great job on the cinematography. Can't wait to see the next one when it comes out.
Wasn't really any paperwork for my side of things...just a bunch of emails.
Super interesting, Drew. And I was so happy when you said there is a part 2 coming. 😊
Part 2 should be out by next week.
I was hoping that you would visit this place. Can't wait for part 2!
Part 2 should be out by next week.
So refreshing to see a frank and open discussion on a subject that garners so much emotional response. The best form of education, and a great antidote to conspiracy mongering.
Forget radiological or chemical hazards, I'm more concerned about the spider in the photo at 16:00 (and I'm from Australia!)
Tons of information and so much transparency. What a gold mine (err, uranium mine) of knowledge you tapped into.
It was really cool being on site and seeing how they collect their data. Lots of things I haven't seen firsthand before.
Santa Susana accident is a great story in how it never reached main stream media lol! Also, GO NASA with the 'who to contact'. What a cool investigative video :) And the QC bit and the calibration of the instruments and that whole discussion was just so fun and interesting to watch, cheers Drew and can't wait to watch part2 !
Thanks for the awesome video Drew!
No problem. Thanks for the comment.
I’m glad you’re investigating this …. A real rabbit hole!
Certainly is…I keep finding new interesting documents on the area.
Thanks so much for another great video. Can't wait for Part II
Glad you enjoyed it.
This channel needs to go viral. The quality of your videos has just been top notch.
Not only that but they are so interesting and informative.
I love these behind the scenes videos.
It’s nice to see that things aren’t like the movies.
Real life is writing measurements down by hand and banging your head against the wall working with a windows XP desktop and proprietary software that hasn’t been updated in a decade.
I think people like to see a real life experience and not have everything so polished.
@@RadioactiveDrew please keep putting out videos like this.
Your channel is amazing.
I’m a chemistry nerd. I’ve been around since the UA-cam chemistry community started (Explosions&Fire, Chemplayer, U235, DougsLab, the VERY early days of NileRed) but I’ve always been fascinated with radioactive stuff.
I have a nice element collection and the radioactive ones are my favorites.
Technetium, thorium, uranium, radium, etc.
I would love to get my hands on some neptunium and plutonium but that will probably never happen.
Funny to see them using samples from Spectrum Techniques, I am researching if it is legal to have them imported to Germany as these would come in very handy as a reference for calibrating my scintillation detectors.
They might be able to send test disks overseas. I think there are strict limits on amounts.
Great video. Thanks Drew and great thanks to the team helping you on what they do every day.
Thanks. DOE was pretty amazing in making this video happen. Hopefully I’ll get to do some other sites they help out with.
@@RadioactiveDrew Years ago I worked on the Yucca Mountain Project on the Nevada Test Site, just an underground miner, but every DOE employee. scientist, or engineer were great to work with. Some pretty smart folks that loved to help pass on their knowledge about what they do.
That’s great to hear they were good to work with at other locations.
I found this totally fascinating! I have no background scientifically for this, but I did live in California for a major chunk of my life. A dear friend lived in Chatsworth, I was there many times. My father was in the military, and was actually at one bomb test in the Mojave, and at the Bikini bomb tests. I am amazed at all the different measuring devices you showed, and how each measured something a little differently. "Atomic" doesn't have to be scary once a person is informed. Care needs to be taken with everything in life, even a simple paring knife or a root across a path. Thank you.
Super interesting video, can't wait for part 2! You can tell Josh and Lucas love what they do and appreciate when someone takes interest in their work.
This is one of your best videos to date keep up the great work
Thanks, I'm always trying to up the game a bit.
That guy is so cool!! Another great video. Can’t wait for Part II
It’s coming. Will be out next week.
I was an EMT there between 2000-2004 and pretty much knew nothing about this.
Which side were you working as an EMT for? NASA, Boeing or DOE?
@@RadioactiveDrewFor Boeing
Very fascinating and educational. Thanks for doing these videos.
No problem, I enjoy doing videos like this.
Drew, thank you so much for sharing these stories in such a well produced media that deserves so much more than you're currently receiving (albeit this community you've garnered is awesome).
Please keep this up, I and I'm sure many others were infinity thrilled to see a notification from you especially with all the political drama...it's nice to find a place like this to appreciate the work you put it and help us scratch that weird "itch". Cheers!
The community here has been awesome and is a big reason for me to work hard on these videos. My last video was over a month ago and I felt bad not posting anything. But I feel like I have enough videos in the pipe right now to keep them pretty steady until the end of the year at the moment.
Very informative and interesting. Thanks, Drew.
No problem, glad you enjoyed it.
Love these big video you do.
Can’t wait for Marshall Islands series.
TIL Drew is covering the Marshall Islands! I will be there for it. Awesome.
I'm really thankful for these videos, I believe this is very important subject to educate the world on not just people that find this subject interesting but everybody because this can provide humanity with vast amounts of energy with extremely low amount of pollution and the more people that feel safe with radioactivity and nuclear power the better off humanity will be. And that have been said I believe this channel will help pave the way for that eventuality
I really try and educate people as much as I can on this subject. I’m learning more all the time as well.
Ahhh, Section IV! 10/10 Video, stoked you’re doing this, where’s the next?... Your San Onofre video got me to subscribe a long time ago and I was hoping you might do one on SSFL, and this is the moon.
This is where I grew up, live and currently work (not for the SSFL). I shared a house and got free math tutoring from a Rocketdyne engineer. I was too young, and they stopped by the time I was old enough, but my parents got to see open house engine test firings. So many people still don’t know about SSFL in great or small detail (maybe better or worse).
I grew up hiking and camping at Sage Ranch in the 90s, literally a stones throw from the sodium reactor. Broke my first bone (foot) horsing around with friends on those rocks. The brakes and scrapes all healed, and I don’t glow in the dark.
Something not talked about with the environment in that region is how long it’s been neglected there before testing rockets and nuclear reactors, those hills were stripped long ago of their oak forests to feed the Spaniards lime kilns in Dayton and Bell Canyon.
What a conversation with the Department of Energy guy! Just a bunch of nerds!!
wow!! thank you, and thx to all those who shared their knowledge in this video.
No problem. Glad you liked the video.
This was absolutely fascinating, thanks to everyone involved.
Glad you enjoyed it.
Great video! Can’t wait for part two!
Working on it right now.
There is also an Aerojet Rocketdyne facility in Chino Hills, CA that was incredibly toxic and was a superfund site. So toxic there is 24 hour guards present
This is excellent. Thank you. Most people don't understand and don't want to know enough about radiation.
Its easier to be afraid than to learn something new. I try and show radiation in a way where its a little easier to understand.
absolutely interesting material. Thanks!
Thanks for watching and the comment.
Born and raised in LA and I’ve never heard of Santa Susana. Guess now I know why. Cool video.
Thanks. LA has a bunch of interesting places.
Oh, man! Your guide is so freakin' knowledgeable! And i recognize that 'tism! Inalmost feep called out... except... How COOL is that knowledge?! Especially in this context!
So awesome!
Everyone there knew their stuff.
Aye he’s back with quality content as always.
Drew, first... THANK YOU.
Seriously. You are a great educator. I find this topic interesting and have learned a ton from your efforts. Well done!
The value of it all is probably best said as having basic nuclear literacy. That is high value in that most people do not have any idea beyond "radiation is bad." Well, as we all know, so is sugar.
Your work will end up moving the needle. Those of us, and I include myself here, get more literate, which is great. We can help others in our circle improve and over some time the level of basic understanding comes up resulting in less fear, better decisions and all that general good we know comes with basic public works like you have done here.
I will also simply resonate with others who say your numbers should be higher. Again, nice work, well produced, easily understood, entertaining and high value.
Thanks for the kind words. I really like making these videos trying my best to educate people on this subject.
@@RadioactiveDrew Of Course! I spent many of my Computer Aided Design career doing adult education. In my case, it was moving people from analog drafting table to digital 3D modeling and all that comes along with that, simulation, assembly, manufacturing...
Seeing progress, people doing new things, advancing careers, better engineering were all very rewarding.
The best for me? Simply being seen, recognized for efforts maybe nobody asked for, or perhaps seen as extras, whatever, however we want to say exemplary works for goodness sake... When I was doing my best, doing those extra things and word about that from others came to me, I always valued those moments highly.
Frankly, those exchanges always lifted my mood and gave me energy and motivation to continue on with pleasure.
That is my intent here. I am sure glad you care and happen to also have a resonant disposition lined right up with the target material. It is nice when that happens.
10:48 I'd maybe drill two wells along the groundwater's flow. Suck water from the downstream well, add the Magic Stuff, and inject it back down the upstream well.
14:33 Cool. Tritium at that level is a feature, not a bug. Kind of like the radioactive tracers patients can get before scans (still a thing?). Let's you know what's going on and fades away fast, geologically speaking.
I think you can still get those tracer injections, idk why you wouldn't.
They still use contrast
This was super interesting, thanks!
Glad you liked it and thanks for the comment.
I blame UA-cam for only having just found this channel. Awesome information. Looking forward to more videos.
Glad you found the channel. I’m okay for steady growth in this channel. The hard work has paid off, that’s for sure.
New sub …
I’m impressed at how focused and serious these guys are about this cleanup. Very commendable , and a great goal for young people heading off to college . This would be a great career as opposed to social science’s .
loved prospecting and rock hunting for 30 years. never had a geiger counter until watching this show, now got 2 of them!
Its extremely helpful having some kind of radiation detector out with you. I run into all kinds of areas with unexpected levels of radiation.
Might be interesting to check out Rocky Flats contamination in Colorado, or Hanford Works in Washington State.
An incredibly good video. Well done. I look forward to part 2.
Thanks for doing this! I live within eye shot of the lab.
No problem.
nice work mate - very interesting
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it.
This RCT is very good! He had a passion for his job and I’m sure was hand selected to work with Drew and his crew. He is very knowledgeable of his craft! I work at the Hanford site as a manager for RCTs. This gent knows his job!
Lucas was very cool to talk with. Seems like a guy that has the spark of curiosity that makes him the perfect fit for a job like that.
@ If you can work a building tour with DOE for the Hanford Site, I’d happily host you at T Plant.
That would be so cool. I'll try and work with DOE about the Hanford Reservation. That would be such a cool place to make a bunch of videos about.
@ It’s just as historic as B Reactor. Without T Plant there is no Pu to create the Nagasaki bomb. Or “Demon Core”!
Interesting video.i too live in thousanf oaks and enjoy hearing about our local stuff
I have a friend that lives in Thousand Oaks...very beautiful place to visit.
As usual, great content. Can't wait for the second video
Glad to see other professionals use CPM. It validates everything you have said in the past. I worked in medical research and used many different kinds of isotopes. We also used CPM. Way to many so called "standards" out there. Never new which one people wanted. I always would give information to researchers in CPM and let them do their own conversions to what ever radiation standard. Doing our wipe tests once a week in the lab were always reported in CPM to the radiation safety folks at the university I worked at. Thanks for a very professional video. Looking forward to your video on your field work.
I think a lot of people like using CPM or DPM...at least ones dealing with radiation survey or some other task where you need to how many particles are hitting the detector and not dose.
I real like your videos they always have informative information in them,of stuff I know nothing about.
Glad to hear. I try and make them so everyone can follow along and learn something new about our radioactive world.
my family moved to Simi Valley in 1964. as a child growing up, i have very vivid memories of the engine testing. i also have very vivid memories of all my friends' fathers who worked on the hill, dying very young, like late fortys early fifties my dad was a Qualiry control engineer at the rocket division. i remember playing with his pocket Rem-meter that they all carried around back then. in the early 60s, this was a very different place. it was an agraculteral cowboy kinda town. with lots of families moving in during the early 60s. i remember when there was about 34,000 with only 8000 living here in 1960, that's about 34,000 people moving here in 4 years. and the worst part about what they did is no one knew about the accident till the late 70s, and even then, it was just rumors. They figured that our friends and family members who died of all kinds of weird cancers were the cost of doing buisness. and what's really amazing is in the 1960. Simi Valley was all orange orchards producing fruit for the whole country on land that rocketdyne poisened. Who knows how many people they really killed.
Would have been very interesting to be there during that time period.
@RadioactiveDrew I made a mistake when i was typing in 1960. There were approx 8000 people living in simi Valley in 1964. There was more than 34,000, and that's huge growth in a little 3 years.
Thank you Drew. Very interesting to learn about this site.
Fantastic stuff, Drew. Hopefully opens a few doors to other sites. If you establish you're not a threat, just genuinely curious, it'll get you to way more places than some 'scoop' that really isn't. Seeing people nerd out about what they are doing and how it all works is very cool.
I totally agree. I think that’s what a majority of that back and forth was about over those months of trying to get access to the site. Seeing if I was going to do some “gotcha” video or something like that.
Drew, genuine question. How necessary is it that they continue to test every month? I mean, eventually wouldn’t it just become unnecessary? Awesome video btw! I love the videos in which you are able to gain access to areas most people don’t get to see.
Woooo keep up the good work mannn I told you about three weeks ago about the elephant rocks State Park in Missouri. Just curious if you looked into it a little bit. I also found an abnormally high and radiation for a granite rock location.
I did look into it and its on my list of places to visit and explore.
This is a great video and I'm looking forward to the next part.
Just a little constructive feedback: Interviewing can be very difficult if you are very interested in the subject you are interviewing about, but remember that your role is to appear as ignorant about the subject as possible and ask all the "stupid" questions.
Don't get me wrong, this was a very good video and I understand that you get excited when you talk to your peers. Nor am I under the delusion that I would have done a better job. On the contrary, I am quite sure that I would have been so eager that I would have forgotten to film and interrupted the whole time.
I agree as a new subscriber- interrupt less-- as hard as it is when enthusiastic
Great video. Thank you for the information.
No problem, glad you enjoyed it.
Yessssss been waiting on this one
Hope you enjoy it.
@@RadioactiveDrew of course thank you once again Drew.
Fantastic! You are working hard!
In depth and informed. The whole reason why I followed. Bet you'll still get people complaining about cpm lol.
Every so often I get some complaints.
What's great now, is that nuclear is so safe (don't build them near coastlines, faults, or volcanoes, lol) we should be relying on it to give us the clean energy we need. Oil is gonna run out eventually, and nuclear is our future. Wind, solar.....too expensive, not reliable, not sustainable long term, uses too much land.
When are you going to get permission to come and check out the Army Corps of Engineers L.O.O.W. FUSRAP site, here in sunny Lewiston, NY?
It's a good one. Very early A-Bomb history. Top Secret Place that didn't last long, but got re-purposed as a nasty dumping ground for Rad waste from all over the East.
I'll have to look into that. The people at DOE were talking about a site out in NY, not sure if it was this one.
I love the chemistry stuff too. Feel free to go deep into any of that was well. It’s all fascinating!
Glad you found it interesting.
Fascinating video. Thanks!
No problem. Thanks for the comment.
Great documentary on this incident. My parents grew up in Simi Valley in the 50’s and 60’s when this occurred. My father attributes his various cancers and tooth loss due to jaw decay to this incident.
I'm assuming he's had blood work done. Did they find chemical markers in his body for exposure to TCE or something like that. Nothing radiological from the lab would have done that to him.
Well I found a new place to hang out with other nerds. Always cool to find a new place.