My grandfather and my uncle were there as people call them here “Liquidation participants” back in 86. Both died from cancer in 30 years after accident (lucky case, as i understood later). They inspired my old brother to study radioecology and biophysics, he got his phd last year. I was inspired too and study nuclear physics (on last year of bachelor). I am proud to be a grandson of one of the liquidators. Missing them a lot
Do you happen to know whether or not they wore any type of protective clothing? We were issued suits to wear just in case, and of course they told us they would protect us, but we never tried them in actual conditions.
You have every right to be proud of them. They sacrificed their lives ultimately that others could live. Respect to them from America and God bless them both.
I've seen the ISU-152's in several photos from Chernobyl, and always wondered what they were doing there, but couldn't find an explanation for it, until now. Fascinating story, as always.
Yeah this wasn't hidden or anything. I have seen the pictures of them too. It just didn't work out the way they first thought of using them and how they were used isn't that exciting to the story. It is interesting details to know if you are really interested in the history though. I just think some are running away with the idea it was some nefarious state secret when it is pretty obvious it wasn't due to the photos.
I was 12 years old and living in Galway, Ireland at the time of Chernobyl's meltdown. The radioactive cloud stretched over much of Europe, carried by the Easterly winds. I remember visiting my grandmothers farm (just outside of Galway city) this one day and there was this row of trees lying almost due north-south, and the leaves on the eastern side of the trees had turned brown almost overnight. The western side tree foliage was still green. To this day we think there must have been some fallout that dropped on the farm and only hit that one face of the row of trees; or potentially acid rain might be another possibility, but the cooincidence of it happening at that very time is very striking to us.
My dad kept horses south of Glasgow, Scotland and one of my annual jobs was to spread the midden over the fields in spring time. The midden was always home to thousands of worms but in the spring of 1987, less than a year after Chernobyl, there wasn't a single worm in the midden. It was a few years before they returned. Decades later I was talking to the then retired school janitor about Chernobyl and told him my worm story. He told me that a few days after it happened he was walking across parkland at dawn to open the school and saw dozens of dead worms lying on the wet grass. A van and a police car were parked on the road and two men in overalls and wearing masks were putting worms and soil samples in bags. He approached them to see what they were doing but two policemen promptly shouted at him to move on. The janitor was friendly with the local police and his son was also in the police so he asked them when was going on but they knew nothing about it. A few days later the local police said the rumour was that the MOD (Ministry of Defence) Police were escorting government scientists. Shortly after that a ban on all sheep movement and sales from local farms was put in place. That ban lasted for decades.
8:30 - The circles that look like thin gears are plates for multidisk steering clutches. Caterpillar tractors from the same era have the same type of steering clutches. The clutches are a stack of alternating driving and driven plates. One has external splines, the other has internal splines. Presumably steering clutch failure is why it was abandoned.
Two weeks after Chernobyl blew, my wife and I returned to her family home which was in a part of Sweden that suffered the highest level of fallout anywhere outside of Chernobyl, as highly radioactive clouds originating from Chernobyl drifted up and away from the site, only to finally let go their toxic payload as rain upon certain concentrated areas in Sweden. What I found most alarming was how the local health authorities kept upping and upping the safe & acceptable levels of radiation in Swedish milk and other food products: the higher the radiation levels in foods became over time, the higher the officially “safe & acceptable” radiation levels in foods became. Propaganda became part of the national diet, along with the nucleotides.
why worry about one thing that could kill you in 20 years when there are literally hundreds of things that can kill you today , and what do you propose they do about the "unsafe radiation levels" the damage is done so you might as well just learn to live with it , or move away , but one thing I can assure you is that commenting about anything on youtube won't change a damn thing , it's mostly about trolling stupid people like those commenting below me
That’s incredibly revealing in a disturbing way. Do you think authorities consider that approach works pretty well and continue to do the same sort of thing today?
@@travelsouthafrica5048 Tell me you don't know anything about either radiation or microwaves without telling me you don't know anything about radiation or microwaves.
Tanks from WW2 had no transistors or semiconductors which would be defeated by electromagnetics / EMP produced by radioactivity. Vehicles which used the old distributor system for engines were used.
The thing I like about your productions, Dr. F, is the lack of anger inducing politics or agendas. You simply present the facts and in a very professional and well thought out manner. Top drawer.
One of my close friends father, helped with the evacuation (he was drivning those busses we see), and entered Pripyat one to many times, the result was a completely ruined kidney, so he spent the rest of his life needing dialysis, sadly he died 8 days ago because they couldn't get him the correct medical help, because of the war. Now my friend Vova is defending Kiev, I personally know his bravery and that makes me extra concerned for him. I wish to God I'll see him again someday😪
Maybe you will see him sooner than you thought if you live near any of the reactors in Ukraine. The US has plans to make it glow with radiation again in Ukraine and then blame Putin. I would be hoping the Russian efforts, like cutting off power to stabilize the reactors power system, and other things they are doing is successful or you will see if your creator approves of propagandists telling tall tales.
Dr Felton proves once again that his outstanding historical knowledge isnt limited to just the second world war. I feel very lucky to have access to content from such a world class historian in this day and age. Thank you Mark.
Oh quite, indeed hos historiography is rather polished however his current affairs are appallingly tragic and its merely echoing our BBC news! Best wishes with it all Sir 🙏
I don't know how you do it Herr Doktor Felton, but you consistently consistently bring the goods, and you do it without waggling your fingers about or bending spoons. Much respect.
Hopefully his content gets better and more objective now that the facts are emerging from western censorship....facts such as the hostages murdered by the Nazis in Mariupol and the UK 's secret naval base.....
@@daviddoran3673 The western nations do not censor any news. We certainly have biased news outlets, but western governments do not censor any news. You're thinking of the Putin kleptocracy. The Putin regime is arresting Russian citizens for protesting the war in Ukraine.
@@kbanghart if you open your eyes further than the western media propaganda you notice there are too many war crimes done by Ukraine, I mean just look at BBC right before the war starts, between 2014-2019 they made atleast 5 documentaries about rise of Nazies in Ukraine, but when Putin says there are Nazis in Ukraine they call him mad...
Dr. Felton is the best History teacher I've ever had. My High School US History teacher in a close second. He made me fall in love with learning about the past, and sometimes how it ties into the future. Thank you Sir.
What a wonderful piece you have provided on the storied past of the Chernobyl area. One can’t help but feel bad for all the poor souls forced to work at the site. How grateful we, as inhabitants of the this plant, should be to all of them. Please keep up the great work Mr. Felton!
I remember one of the helicopter pilots got leukemia shortly afterwards. He was invited to the US for treatment but sadly his condition was beyond medical help. His body systems had been overwhelmed by radiation. Don't recall how much time he spent in the radioactive cloud. His helo was dumping water directly into the reactor building, so he was soaked in radiation as well as breathing it.
Exactly, they were heroes and made their willing self sacrifice for humanity and their people despite the known risk. They should be celebrated like the 9/11 firefighters and emt's are and how they are in Russia and Ukraine. The liquidators should be too because they had a dangerous but necessary job to do and they never waivered or gave up until it was done.
There was a nuclear fallout through Eastern Europe as well. And a heavy one too. During the 1st of May manifestation in Sofia, there was a light rain on top of it all, and of course nobody knew how deadly was it. And in the matter of fact, my mother got leukemia as a direct consequence...
Commie officials lied about radiation levels and had a May Day parade in Kiev anyway. Swedish nuclear plant workers reported the radiation when their scanners went off at the entrance.
The toll is so hard to calculate! And therefore easy to lie about for the Kremlin. So sorry to hear that your mother became a victim of that evil regime.
40 years later I am breathing a sigh of relief as I hear Dr. Felton describing how they came to their senses and didn't try to blow holes in a wall that was containing a melted down reactor with an anti-tank gun. Whoever suggested testing the idea on a mockup wall first probably saved thousands.
Thank you for another excellent video, Dr Felton! This story of tanks firing at the wall of the reactor building far exceeds the mad details I already knew about this disaster. I clearly remember where I was when this disaster was made public in Dutch news bulletins. A while later, the Dutch government made it known that the entire harvest of spinach would have to be destroyed due to its ability to absorb radioactivity. That was quite the wake-up call for us. Thanks for consistently providing new insights into our history.
One correction - the ISU-152 does not boast especially thick armor. It's still respectable at around 60-90mm on the frontal sector, but still far far less than the T-62's frontal armor of 200mm+ on turret and 100mm highly angled on the front plate. The ISU's were most likely used because they had no more practical use cases left so they could be very cheaply expended on this mission.
IDK if you are right or not, but I think we would need to compare ISU-152's armor at the weakest point to the weakest point on T-62. It wouldn't matter if the frontal armor is thick if the radiation can get in through the rear.
@@factsdontcareaboutyourfeel7204 lol you got the old part right but as far as being proper..... I didn't deserve any of my medals, least of all my good conduct medal. Lol 😆
@@caledonhockley883 nothing worth writing home about a couple of AAM's and an Arcom I ain't no hero but I was a decent squad leader and did take it seriously we worked hard and played hard.
I would dearly love to hear more about the first assault at Chernobyl, the amphibious one during WWII. One of the main streets in Prip'yat is named after Sgt. Lazarov, an engineer who earned the Red Star by leading a company in the first wave and then holding the beachhead until reinforcements could get across. That is literally all I've been able to find out about him or the battle, other than mentions of it happening.
The cooling is not really needed for the 1986 fuel but rather the extensive amount of more recent spent fuel stored on site. The loss of power for managing the humidity inside the new safe confinement is another big issue. Great video aside from that one issue and one overlooked issue.
The most important sound, this time, does not come from Mark Felton's voice but from the radioactive blips from that tank. A stark reminder of how dangerous nuclear materials can be even in peacetime. Thank you for sharing.
Hmmm, almost like a clever use of psychology to raise the fears of the viewer and leave a stark and horrifying impression. I suspect we are going to see more trouble at Chernobyl if the US has it's way. This video is to prime the pump and prep the audience for the coming cyber attack on the reactors just like the ones in Iran recently that almost resulted in another Chernobyl type disaster.
@@theprinceofcrows8691 The trouble with " a clever use of psychology..." is that it works both ways. In the spectrum of likeliness which is most probable..... that you are a mistaken propagandist for Vlad Putin or Mark Felton is setting the scene for Joe Biden inspired armageddon ?
@@jackieking1522 Or Mark Felton is just a western propaganda cut out used to lead true believers to drink the holy water of the new religion. This whole channel has been setting the viewer up mentally with stories about Ukrainian Nazi units and Soviet attrocity stories and Russian invasion stories, to prime the audience mentally. It is a shame that more cannot see it for what it obviously is. Of course there are those who do know and are just there to act as an enabler and to defend the mind games that are being played against the people willingly. I quit this channel in disgust because I am not going along with some Cambridge Analytica like scheme to using actor based reality, history, and culture to change politics and reality. You are being mind fuct.
Dr Felton, Thank you for making this episode for us. you have a unique gift for presenting historical information, and it turns out you also have a gift for connecting the past to the present. I had seen these old WWII tank killers around Chernobyl in pictures , but had assumed they were old relics of WWII, either abandoned on WWII battlefields or part of some display of Soviet armor from the war. you have solved another mystery for us. The sad part about the current war in Ukraine and the massive disruption caused to th Chernobyl exclusion zone is that the Russian conscripts, for the most part young boys, were , in all likelihood, never briefed, never warned and kept totally ignorant of the hazards that would come from simply just being there, let alone stirring the proverbial nuclear waste pot. Those boys, just obeying orders, will all end up sick and dying from horrible cancers, their contaminated tanks and vehicles will leave the zone and contaminate other areas of Ukraine and the dust they stir up will kill or make terribly sick countless innocent civilians in the region. It is a monstrous crime, made worse because there would have been sections of Russias army that knew what would happen. knew it should be left alone, and knew it would end up killing people. Yet they either remained silent to save their own skins, or their warnings were completely disregarded. Either way, Ukraine and Europe will be paying a deadly price just for this one crime.
Thank you Mr. Felton since this accident happened I read and looked at everything related to it but I never came across this information that they used ISU-152 in an attempt to drill a hole in the wall under the destroyed reactor it sounds crazy to me even when it is about the Russians
Yet another rare nugget of info from today that has ties to WWII! Thank you Dr Felton another well done video! Appreciate all the history lessons about the current situation, it is not as simple as one would think
Absolutely fantastic episode! Only Mark Felton has provided viewers with this amazing level of detail. Amazing improvisation to use antique tanks in such a way!
Yes, I agree about the improvisation.....I mean why send new assault guns if you still had old ones lying around.....and also because the Soviets manned those tanks with troops from a reserve unit so that first rank regular soldiers did not have to be assigned to what the authorities realized was a suicide mission...sooner or later. The Soviet way....the least sacrifice the most for "the common good". Yea, Russian peasants lives are cheap...as witnessed in the current Russian war against Ukraine.
Wow!!!. Once more. Dr. Felton. You have brought to my attention another fascinating learning experience. I spent 10 years working in the Nuclear industry, an i didn't know this. Thank you.. I really enjoy your videos. No matter the topic.!!!
More than a few vehicles were picked clean. The ENTIRE vehicle graveyard which contained helicopters, and military and civilian emergency & construction vehicles is now barren. They're gone. All of them. Scavengers have removed the hundreds of irradiated vehicles that were left there after the operation.
As a global foundry auditor, one of the things I do is observe that foundries reliably check scrap metal for radiation before receiving at their front gate, before charging into the furnace and before shipping cast metal parts from the recycled metal, to America and around the world. This is an opportunity to explain why my job is necessary as a metallurgical engineer. I've made everything from ship propellers to water fittings in my career; but mostly automobile parts. You don't want your brakes to fail, or engine block, or water pipes and fittings to fail, do you? Or, irradiate you and your water? Wouldn't you rather allow FOUNDRIES using coal creating jobs and safe castings here at home than buying from China and Eastern Europe? This is why I support TRUMP so much. Enjoy the video. #Chernobyl #Ukraine #Foundry
@@cryptochurch3310 So you want a dictatorship under Trump and Putin. Support of Trump means you support abuse of women as he admitted on tape, corruption in that he lies about tax audits to avoid showing any tax returns "routine tax audit" not for six years plus covering all taxes he ever paid and can't even provide the cover letter showing he's being audited. Taking huge sums from Russian and all sorts of bad acting countries including many Muslim states by not removing himself from his business where they use his overpriced properties and rent or buy from him in great amount. Bigot who ran on falsehood about immigrants being criminals when they commit crime less than American citizens. Bigot who ran on falsehood about Muslims yet was fine with Saudi Arabia they were never part of his Muslim ban, coming to US even though all most all 911 bombers were from Saudi Arabia. And incompetent to appoint judges, and dozens of important people who steal from him. . And your a coal industry shill you don't need coal to run a foundry anymore. With Antartica melting even faster than before and here in Florida changes to deal with rising seas already underway it about time to give up on Coal which also kills though cancer in air and water in all parts of it's use. And as a Nuclear supporter I'm not one of the crazed fear of nuclear on the left I'm a radical moderate. Nuclear is not safe but it's massively safer than coal. Dozens of Nuclear plants would have to melt down to get anywhere close to deaths from coal.
@@milferdjones2573 keep taking your medication for 'Orange Man Bad' syndrome...and I hope you feel proud to have contributed to our world getting more and more dangerous by the day. It only took your hero Brandon 13 months to create the utter shambles we now have to fix to rebuild the dreams we had for our children and grandchildren.
small correction: The reactor did not turn into a bomb, the two mayor explosions which happened at Chernobyl were the steam boiler going up and a hydrogen tank blowing up.
Its been theorized by some experts that the zirconium housings of the fuel elements got so hot that they reacted with cooling water, exploding like a piece of sodium metal would explode when throwen into water.
@@milferdjones2573 I do not think it is possible for a nuclear reactor to explode like a nuclear weapon. The fuel is not concentrated enough. Initiating a nuclear detonation is not something that just happens. It's actually a fairly complicated matter. The fissile material has to be compressed enough to sustain the chain reaction.
I was a little kid in Bucharest when this happened. Way closer than Britain. We weren’t allowed to use the hot water for over a year. My mom had to boil water for us every time we had to take a bath
That would still not inspire too much confidence even if it worked effectively. Must have weighed strongly on the mind everytime! Hope your family and yourself are getting clean bills of health to this day!
@@extragoogleaccount6061 Oh thank you! I’m almost 42 and very healthy. Dad defected in 1984 and mom and I joined him in 1988 a year and a half before communism fell. We’ve all been together in the US for the last 34 years and all our friends and Relatives back in Romania are safe as well. Thank you.
@@LMSI998 perhaps it was as to not use the hot tap water coming from the local heating plants? some scare about their machinery being irradiated? just my guess
It's amazing how Mark Felton gets this information and immediately (relatively speaking, of course) gets it out to all his growing numbers of fans. And now (if the world survives to see it), he'll have a new war to discuss, revealing in time the hidden gems that even the dozens of reporters in Ukraine now won't ever have found.
This is honestly the only channel I'm subscribed to that I automatically watch a new video of whenever I see one. Actually, Mr. Ballen is the other channel. Mark Felton and Mr. Ballen, two legendary content creators haha.
Some of Ballens videos are too disturbing so I don’t click on them without reading the description. The industrial accidents are ok but the weird serial killer stuff makes me not feel good.
@@Balthorium Fair enough, I’ve become really desensitised to that stuff over my life so I can watch any true crime content and not really be weirded out at all. It’s kind of messed up now that I think about it.
I know of another use of tanks at Chernobyl. In the 90s, I worked with a former Russian who had formal training in optics. He said his job during the cleanup work was to build and mount a video camera onto the end of a tank's main gun. I think he said the tank's controls were rigged up to be radio controlled. Then the tank was driven into various parts of the destroyed plant, sending the video signal out to the safer surrounding area so that no one was exposed to lethal radiation in order to see what damage occurred. He said that his exposure levels and times were carefully monitored. When he reached his limit, his job was done and he was sent home.
Yet another "Just when you think you've heard it all" story. Great job! I've read that several Russian soldiers have gotten sick from digging in close to the reactor, some of whom apparently had no idea there'd ever been a problem there!
For 100,000 years. There are 10s of thousands of tons of the stuff sitting around waiting for someone to do something with it. So lets build more reactors.
@@rogersmith7396 Let's not build RBMK reactors. See other type reactors are safe, terrorussians shelling them and no one really cares. That shows actually how safe nuclear reactors are.
My father was a postdoc/prof at the Košice technical university in Slovakia at the time of the Chernobyl disaster. There was nothing on the news for days, but his colleagues knew something happened because their radiation detectors were going off.
The "liquidators" were really officially called "liquidators"! What a joy to discover that there is really, actually, the word "liquidators" written on the medal !!! (shown at 7:15)
Very interesting. I've read and watched all I could get my hands on about Chernobyl and no one specifically mentioned the tanks. Especially that they're still highly irradiated. 👍
The Chernobyl Liquidators Medal is a very clever design, showing the three types of radiation, and how they are deflected in a magnetic field. Alpha particles, with a positive charge, go one way, beta particles, with a negative charge, go the opposite way, and gamma rays, the most penetrating and dangerous type, go straight through.
Mark Felton's knowledge seems limitless. A man that can create content in quality and quantity. When it comes to WWII vehicles, the ISU 152 is a favorite mine. Knew of the liquidators and their efforts, but not that they used ISU's, even Simple History made no mention of them. Cheers for shedding light on this! 😉
My father almost got sent to clean up CHernobyl because he was serving his 2 years in soviet army back then. Luckily I was born and he got to visit home instead of being sent there.
Wow thank you for the history lesson and for the information we never received from the government and educational institutions thank you for what you do
There was a fear that the nuclear core would burn to the water table and create an explosion much larger than the first blowing up the entire place including the other 3 reactors. The tunnel was dug by coal miners brought in.
Most history channels just restate other documentaries, like a bad college essay: change a few words here and there, add some graphics. You give us actual research, actual insight. Every time you present a topic there is always some aspect I had never considered or been aware of. Food for a starving mind in a sea of history junk food. Hey, Thanks, Mark. Keep them coming.
Another fine example of Dr. Felton keeping us informed on critical history that ties in with our current headlines thanks for all you do hope you and yours are well!!
Hm , very informative as always, thank you! Wasnt aware that the radioactive cloud ever reached the British Isles. At the time of the disaster I was studying in Vienna, Austria. When that happened, I packed my surfboards on the roof of my Golf, drove to Cherbourg and took the ferry back to Guernsey. Felt safe there.
I came across Dr. Felton a couple of years ago and his storytelling is excellent and that he is posing with a bunch of Star Wars stormtroopers on his you tube homepage shows his sense of humor.
I still remember this years ago...a reporter was asking US everyday people what they knew of Chernobyl...one woman replied that was Chers full name...I am not making this up.
The information contained within this video is truly frightening beyond belief. Good grief, just to imagine the consequences of possible battle taking place at this location is enough to keep me up all night with worry. Thank you for this rather alarming but fascinating upload DR Felton, it's just incredible.
That is why the Russian military secured the site and provided a safe and stable power source under their direct control. Now they have to watch for cyber attacks like the ones launched at Iran a few years back that almost created another Chernobyl event. We live in perilous times.
@@Warfoki I think it is the responsible thing to do when conflict becomes unavoidable. Otherwise your enemies use it as a dirty bomb and nuke the country. Of course there are many ways to achieve a goal. A cyber attack or other attack could still happen and of course it would be evil Putin who was responsible.
Actually a battle would not've been that dangerous. The building around a nuclear reactor can withstand almost any artillery and aerial strike, and even if it's penetrated, the impact on the reactor would still be limited.
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@@kajet666 The effects of radiotion are very much disputed. It can cause disastrous effects, of course, but it's overestimated. For exemple, all the images of the Reactor 4's core disponible in the internet, since 1987, were made by a single photographer, alive, who constantly enters the Reactor. There's a mini doc on UA-cam about him.
They virtually list everything back to junk T 34s in their current arsenal. We have an M 60 parked at the VFW down the road. Theres an M48 in the next town. Come on Ruskis, bring it on!
Physicist here starting a career in a nuclear medical field. Just want to give people some info on the fallout from Chernobyl to fight misconceptions about its after effects after reading through some comments on here. Firstly, the Chernobyl Disaster was a terrible event for many people, particularly in Belarus and Ukraine, but its effect in the wider area of Europe was always reported in news as a worst case scenario which never happened, and most of the worst fallout decayed in the upper atmosphere within hours or days of its ejection from the reactor and so posed negligible harm to human health. People with various health problems often want want ascribe a reason or meaning to their maladies, and Chernobyl can be a convenient answer, eg) I was out in the rain the same week as Chernobyl blew so I developed cancer/health problem etc later on. It's understandable but by no means accurate or scientific. Studies have shown that no detectable increase in cancers, even those most ascribable to radioisotope inhilation/ingestion/general exposure such as thyroid cancer can be detected in Europe excepting the region directly around Chernobyl in Belarus and Ukraine. I've put a reference to this study at the end of my comment. I'm currently working in an internship where I'm exposed to radiation regularly that is in excess of the increase in radiation detected in the week after Chernobyl in most of Europe, and all the research suggests that I will statistically suffer no health effects as a result. My radiation dose is furthermore lower than many healthcare workers such as radiographers and radiologists, for whom the same statistics apply. A single chest X-ray increases your risk of cancer by about the same chance of you being struck and killed by lightning, or so I've heard. Equivalent dose, which was recorded in microsieverts per hour from Chernobyl fallout was far lower across wider Europe than that given by a chest X-ray. I hope my comment was informative and you could take away something from this. Unfortunately the media, and even shows which I love like Chernobyl can overhyped the risks of radiation exposure. Nuclear power remains one of the safest power generating methods by recorded deaths per kW generated. Coal on the other hand kills over two million people per year in cancer increases etc. It also emits more radioactive fallout through radioisotopes in coal soot than all of nuclear, but we don't see the clamour for banning coal like we do with nuclear, which is truly unfortunate. Cardis E, Krewski D, Boniol M, Drozdovitch V, Darby SC, Gilbert ES, Akiba S, Benichou J, Ferlay J, Gandini S, Hill C, Howe G, Kesminiene A, Moser M, Sanchez M, Storm H, Voisin L, Boyle P. Estimates of the cancer burden in Europe from radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl accident. Int J Cancer. 2006 Sep 15;119(6):1224-35. doi: 10.1002/ijc.22037.
The problem with explaining nuclear reactions is that it is very unintuitive. It can be instantly deadly in high doses and also accumulative if small doses are consistent over time. Nothing else behaves like that in ways normal people experience.
@@ramanavell988 I agree completely. Nuclear power in its worst case scenarios lends itself easily to horror movie portrayals but unfortunately we are missing the sky for the trees. There are greater evils in the world than radiation, many of which we indulge on a daily basis without batting an eye. Smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, living in cities with low air quality, not wearing suncream: all these things are far worse for you than the exposure to alpha, beta, gamma and x-rays which you will experience across your entire lifetime, as a result of nuclear power or medically.
A sister of mine has been an X-ray tech over 40 years. She's repeatedly said when your teeth are x-rayed at the dentist, you get FAR more radiation than a chest x-ray. In her 40+ years at the same hospital only one x-ray tech developed a skin cancer on her lip. That easily could come from sun exposure. A much bigger hazard to radiology staff is lifting all those obese land whales on and off the x-ray tables.
@ozmaniac49 That's my pint exactly (excuse the pun). Why are we so afraid of nuclear when all the science says there are plenty of things in this world we do without batting an eye
The reactor did not turn into a bomb: it experienced a condition known as prompt criticality and suffered a core meltdown which prompted a steam explosion. The meltdown caused by the prompt criticality also caused it to subside by eventually altering the geometry of the core, and rendering the fissile mass non-critical again. This disaster could have been a lot worse. The use of graphite moderator in this reactor's design indicates it was using fuel with a higher percentage of Uranium-238, as is present in most natural ores of Uranium without enrichment (most modern reactors use Uranium-235, which undergoes fission from lower energy so-called "thermal" neutrons). This fuel has different operating characteristics than enriched fuels, and design flaws in the placement of moderators in this design (the RBMK reactor) doubtless contributed to this occurrence. Seems the Soviets were basically using ISU-152s as engineering vehicles to expedite demolition and burial of the reactor site, but that plan didn't work out. Thanks for sharing that with us.
I feel like "bomb" is still a reasonable description - it did result in a large and extremely destructive explosion. It just wasn't an atomic bomb, the explosion was caused by steam rather than directly by nuclear reactions as in an atomic bomb. So perhaps it was a gigantic nuclear-heated BLEVE dirty bomb.
@@quillmaurer6563 you're right, and "bomb" might be a reasonable description, but given that a nuclear explosion would've been orders of magnitude more powerful, I think Mark should've been very precise there.
Exactly. Mark’s description is a little oversimplified and might lead some viewers to believe that the explosion was nuclear in nature while is reality it was steam pressure. I didn’t know about the use of ISU-152 use there though, super interesting!
You should definitely do your own video commentry on Feltons video to explain this error as it would be extremely useful and Im sure the Felt-on community would welcome it.
Mark I have enjoyed and learned a lot from your videos. My father was in military in WWII and he never talked about it. I've always had an interest in European theater.
There is an old saying where I come from that you learn something new everyday. When I feel like I know everything I come and watch Mark's videos and boom, I learn that I knew so little. Another gem by Mark.
While in the US Marines with 2nd Tanks ,back when Chernobyl happened, I had heard stories of the Soviets still having WW2 Armor in reserve/storage. No idea they used the tank destroyers there. Thanks.
There was a time in the 80s when the Soviets sent troops to put down demonstrations in Leningrad, including tanks. The Dallas Morning News had a photo showing one of the tanks -- a T34-85. The Soviets never threw anything away.
Many brave people fought the initial fire while others were quickly evacuated. The radiation blast from the explosion was so potent it killed all the trees hundreds of yards away. At that time, Ukrainians and Russians worked together to try prevent the disaster from worsening and potentially killing more civilians; many perished immediately, within hours or days, and some within a year or so. Some knew they were going to die, but went into the site anyway. Sadly, looters entered the area and removed radioactive televisions and other luxury items, selling them across the Soviet Union, and thus poisoning the buyers. Because of this, for a while, the area was under armed guard for safety reasons and to prevent further looting.
A radioactive cloud spread across the South East of the UK, most notably throughout Essex. Several members of my family ended up dying eventually of cancer and I always put it down to Chernobyl and this cloud.
this scrap yard of radioactive vehicles and machines is what you get when there's a nuclear disaster far in land. island nations like britain and japan just dump everything radioactive in the ocean. as what was done during britain's windscale and japan fukushima nuclear disasters.
5:04 I know that when miners are referenced, Mark is talking about tunneling professionals but... I couldn't help but smirk imagining he meant they used young people to dig these dangerous tunnels instead of those poor WW2 era tanks. 😂
I had no idea the stored waste required constant cooling! I do remember a recent report by the IAEA said that the ruins of the reactor are still pumping out just as much radiation as it did when it first exploded back in 1986. Always a pleasure seeing your videos Dr. Felton!
My grandmother was a news reporter from Iceland and she was attending Eurovision when all of this happened. There was a huge fear among the reporters as there was a sudden blackout in the entirety of the Eastern bloc in terms of communication. No one knew what was going on or why communications had suddenly be cut. Some feared it was a prelude to an invasion or even nuclear war. It was not until later that people learned of the disaster of Chernobyl. The Soviets had gone all-out in trying to hide what happened, even if it risked the fears of war~
My grandmother was woken up in the dead of night by soviet soldiers and they demanded that my Grandfather come with them. But at the time, he was in Riga.
I've watched several documentaries on Chernobyl and NOT ONE has mentioned the use of these tanks. Very interesting.
Indeed. I watch everything about Chernobyl that I can get my hands on and this was completely new information to me.
Tanks, yer welcome.
@JZ's Best Friend Not for soviets. They even used nukes for firefighting purposes. Idea was that nuke would burn all oxygen and thus stop the fire.
Hi Daniel,
have you considered reading a book?
I believe they are still available.
@@jonhelmer8591 Hi Jonathan,
have you considered writing a letter?
I believe people still write those.
My grandfather and my uncle were there as people call them here “Liquidation participants” back in 86. Both died from cancer in 30 years after accident (lucky case, as i understood later). They inspired my old brother to study radioecology and biophysics, he got his phd last year. I was inspired too and study nuclear physics (on last year of bachelor). I am proud to be a grandson of one of the liquidators. Missing them a lot
Do you happen to know whether or not they wore any type of protective clothing? We were issued suits to wear just in case, and of course they told us they would protect us, but we never tried them in actual conditions.
You have every right to be proud of them. They sacrificed their lives ultimately that others could live. Respect to them from America and God bless them both.
Brave people!
Anton you rock ..!
Thanks for sharing
Also now I know the word radioecology
Спасиба за твой дядо ! Поздрави от България 🇧🇬🇷🇺🇺🇦☦️
I've seen the ISU-152's in several photos from Chernobyl, and always wondered what they were doing there, but couldn't find an explanation for it, until now. Fascinating story, as always.
Right 👍🏻
Yeah this wasn't hidden or anything. I have seen the pictures of them too. It just didn't work out the way they first thought of using them and how they were used isn't that exciting to the story. It is interesting details to know if you are really interested in the history though. I just think some are running away with the idea it was some nefarious state secret when it is pretty obvious it wasn't due to the photos.
Check out the blog WWII After WWII. They have a detailed article on this very topic
"We only leave the cannon there for better sealing"
It was an attack on the Monolith base, interrupted by a huge emission. Everyone died or turned into a zombie, but the tanks were left there.
I was 12 years old and living in Galway, Ireland at the time of Chernobyl's meltdown. The radioactive cloud stretched over much of Europe, carried by the Easterly winds. I remember visiting my grandmothers farm (just outside of Galway city) this one day and there was this row of trees lying almost due north-south, and the leaves on the eastern side of the trees had turned brown almost overnight. The western side tree foliage was still green. To this day we think there must have been some fallout that dropped on the farm and only hit that one face of the row of trees; or potentially acid rain might be another possibility, but the cooincidence of it happening at that very time is very striking to us.
My dad kept horses south of Glasgow, Scotland and one of my annual jobs was to spread the midden over the fields in spring time. The midden was always home to thousands of worms but in the spring of 1987, less than a year after Chernobyl, there wasn't a single worm in the midden. It was a few years before they returned. Decades later I was talking to the then retired school janitor about Chernobyl and told him my worm story. He told me that a few days after it happened he was walking across parkland at dawn to open the school and saw dozens of dead worms lying on the wet grass. A van and a police car were parked on the road and two men in overalls and wearing masks were putting worms and soil samples in bags. He approached them to see what they were doing but two policemen promptly shouted at him to move on. The janitor was friendly with the local police and his son was also in the police so he asked them when was going on but they knew nothing about it. A few days later the local police said the rumour was that the MOD (Ministry of Defence) Police were escorting government scientists. Shortly after that a ban on all sheep movement and sales from local farms was put in place. That ban lasted for decades.
8:30 - The circles that look like thin gears are plates for multidisk steering clutches. Caterpillar tractors from the same era have the same type of steering clutches. The clutches are a stack of alternating driving and driven plates. One has external splines, the other has internal splines. Presumably steering clutch failure is why it was abandoned.
Two weeks after Chernobyl blew, my wife and I returned to her family home which was in a part of Sweden that suffered the highest level of fallout anywhere outside of Chernobyl, as highly radioactive clouds originating from Chernobyl drifted up and away from the site, only to finally let go their toxic payload as rain upon certain concentrated areas in Sweden. What I found most alarming was how the local health authorities kept upping and upping the safe & acceptable levels of radiation in Swedish milk and other food products: the higher the radiation levels in foods became over time, the higher the officially “safe & acceptable” radiation levels in foods became. Propaganda became part of the national diet, along with the nucleotides.
why worry about one thing that could kill you in 20 years when there are literally hundreds of things that can kill you today , and what do you propose they do about the "unsafe radiation levels" the damage is done so you might as well just learn to live with it , or move away , but one thing I can assure you is that commenting about anything on youtube won't change a damn thing , it's mostly about trolling stupid people like those commenting below me
That’s incredibly revealing in a disturbing way. Do you think authorities consider that approach works pretty well and continue to do the same sort of thing today?
Any ill effects ?
@@travelsouthafrica5048 Tell me you don't know anything about either radiation or microwaves without telling me you don't know anything about radiation or microwaves.
@@DAndyLord 😂
What a fascinating story. I had no idea Soviet armor from WWII were considered for use in Chernobyl. Thanks for another stellar video, Dr. Felton!
The role of Russian armor from WW1 at Chernobyl is still a closely guarded state secret.
Tanks from WW2 had no transistors or semiconductors which would be defeated by electromagnetics / EMP produced by radioactivity. Vehicles which used the old distributor system for engines were used.
Then what about the story the ussr tried using artillery cannons to try and put a fire? 😆 Think it was like a gasfire of kinds..
@@martijnt1353 ... ?
Most of Russia's tanks are antiques so why wouldn't you lol
Your shows on current events are just as impressive as your WWII content. Thanks Dr Felton, it’s much appreciated!
The thing I like about your productions, Dr. F, is the lack of anger inducing politics or agendas. You simply present the facts and in a very professional and well thought out manner. Top drawer.
The only people I notice getting upset about politics are those whose own politics lie at the fringes.
They don't on the history channel either! (Insert sarcasm)
One of my close friends father, helped with the evacuation (he was drivning those busses we see), and entered Pripyat one to many times, the result was a completely ruined kidney, so he spent the rest of his life needing dialysis, sadly he died 8 days ago because they couldn't get him the correct medical help, because of the war. Now my friend Vova is defending Kiev, I personally know his bravery and that makes me extra concerned for him. I wish to God I'll see him again someday😪
Maybe you will see him sooner than you thought if you live near any of the reactors in Ukraine. The US has plans to make it glow with radiation again in Ukraine and then blame Putin. I would be hoping the Russian efforts, like cutting off power to stabilize the reactors power system, and other things they are doing is successful or you will see if your creator approves of propagandists telling tall tales.
@@theprinceofcrows8691 That's Fox news, not Big Brother, filling your brain.
We were told to avoid the radioactive fallout else we could find that chernobyl drop off!
@kewsoner Heartbreaking story. You have my sincere sympathy.
Ukraine has my sincere admiration. ❤️
I just hope that karma will get Putin.
I’m not sure if 😪is fitting emoji lol
Dr Felton proves once again that his outstanding historical knowledge isnt limited to just the second world war. I feel very lucky to have access to content from such a world class historian in this day and age. Thank you Mark.
Oh quite, indeed hos historiography is rather polished however his current affairs are appallingly tragic and its merely echoing our BBC news! Best wishes with it all Sir 🙏
🟤👃
Dr Felton explanation of what went wrong on Chernobyl was very innacurate. Where did he read such a nonsense.
he also provides us with screenshots from stalker in the intro lol
I don't know how you do it Herr Doktor Felton, but you consistently consistently bring the goods, and you do it without waggling your fingers about or bending spoons. Much respect.
The recent content related to the ukranian conflict has been fantastic. Thank you, Mark!
Hopefully his content gets better and more objective now that the facts are emerging from western censorship....facts such as the hostages murdered by the Nazis in Mariupol and the UK 's secret naval base.....
@@daviddoran3673 Putin has been putting out all the propaganda and fake news
@@daviddoran3673 Go take your meds
@@daviddoran3673 The western nations do not censor any news. We certainly have biased news outlets, but western governments do not censor any news. You're thinking of the Putin kleptocracy. The Putin regime is arresting Russian citizens for protesting the war in Ukraine.
@@kbanghart if you open your eyes further than the western media propaganda you notice there are too many war crimes done by Ukraine, I mean just look at BBC right before the war starts, between 2014-2019 they made atleast 5 documentaries about rise of Nazies in Ukraine, but when Putin says there are Nazis in Ukraine they call him mad...
Thanks!
The more videos of yours that I watch, the more I learn of important events such as these. Thanks Again, Dr. Felton.
Dr. Felton is the best History teacher I've ever had. My High School US History teacher in a close second. He made me fall in love with learning about the past, and sometimes how it ties into the future. Thank you Sir.
Cringe profile picture...
Based profile picture
@@OGPatriot03 I don't recall asking for feedback. I'll make sure to file that away in the 'I don't care what you think' folder.
@@matthewmartin5763 u stay with ukraine?
@@OGPatriot03 Says the ignorant far right 🤡.
What a wonderful piece you have provided on the storied past of the Chernobyl area. One can’t help but feel bad for all the poor souls forced to work at the site. How grateful we, as inhabitants of the this plant, should be to all of them. Please keep up the great work Mr. Felton!
I remember one of the helicopter pilots got leukemia shortly afterwards. He was invited to the US for treatment but sadly his condition was beyond medical help. His body systems had been overwhelmed by radiation. Don't recall how much time he spent in the radioactive cloud. His helo was dumping water directly into the reactor building, so he was soaked in radiation as well as breathing it.
Exactly, they were heroes and made their willing self sacrifice for humanity and their people despite the known risk. They should be celebrated like the 9/11 firefighters and emt's are and how they are in Russia and Ukraine. The liquidators should be too because they had a dangerous but necessary job to do and they never waivered or gave up until it was done.
Indeed yes history is fine just leave the current affairs to journalists who are there and free to share exactly what they see. Thanks 🙏
There was a nuclear fallout through Eastern Europe as well. And a heavy one too. During the 1st of May manifestation in Sofia, there was a light rain on top of it all, and of course nobody knew how deadly was it. And in the matter of fact, my mother got leukemia as a direct consequence...
Commie officials lied about radiation levels and had a May Day parade in Kiev anyway. Swedish nuclear plant workers reported the radiation when their scanners went off at the entrance.
very sorry to hear that about your mother
@@Balthorium commie! commie... every natiom who passing trough a radioactive hazard would lie to their citizens
The toll is so hard to calculate! And therefore easy to lie about for the Kremlin. So sorry to hear that your mother became a victim of that evil regime.
It was quite the catastrophe, we still have traces of radiation in Northern Norway
40 years later I am breathing a sigh of relief as I hear Dr. Felton describing how they came to their senses and didn't try to blow holes in a wall that was containing a melted down reactor with an anti-tank gun. Whoever suggested testing the idea on a mockup wall first probably saved thousands.
Thank you for another excellent video, Dr Felton! This story of tanks firing at the wall of the reactor building far exceeds the mad details I already knew about this disaster. I clearly remember where I was when this disaster was made public in Dutch news bulletins. A while later, the Dutch government made it known that the entire harvest of spinach would have to be destroyed due to its ability to absorb radioactivity. That was quite the wake-up call for us. Thanks for consistently providing new insights into our history.
One correction - the ISU-152 does not boast especially thick armor. It's still respectable at around 60-90mm on the frontal sector, but still far far less than the T-62's frontal armor of 200mm+ on turret and 100mm highly angled on the front plate. The ISU's were most likely used because they had no more practical use cases left so they could be very cheaply expended on this mission.
Lets say highest armor of any expendable vehicle. 152 gun was probably the original reason to send them there then that idea dropped.
Your mom has thick armor lol
IDK if you are right or not, but I think we would need to compare ISU-152's armor at the weakest point to the weakest point on T-62. It wouldn't matter if the frontal armor is thick if the radiation can get in through the rear.
90mm and sloped compares favourably w a Tiger 1
I don't think angled armor matters to radiation. So maybe the true metal thickness was actually more.
Dr Felton please never change your intro song. You don’t realise how iconic it is to your work. *Marches around room*
I was in the US Navy stationed in Japan at the time. We did not know where that nuclear fallout was going to go at the time! Ah…Cold War memories!
Roger that I was TDY in Germany at the time with the 4th Infantry Division and watching which way the wind was blowing.
Damn, yous two must be proper old lol
@@factsdontcareaboutyourfeel7204 lol you got the old part right but as far as being proper..... I didn't deserve any of my medals, least of all my good conduct medal. Lol 😆
@@guydegregg6869 hey. What medals did you end up receiving if you don’t mind me asking.
@@caledonhockley883 nothing worth writing home about a couple of AAM's and an Arcom I ain't no hero but I was a decent squad leader and did take it seriously we worked hard and played hard.
I would dearly love to hear more about the first assault at Chernobyl, the amphibious one during WWII. One of the main streets in Prip'yat is named after Sgt. Lazarov, an engineer who earned the Red Star by leading a company in the first wave and then holding the beachhead until reinforcements could get across. That is literally all I've been able to find out about him or the battle, other than mentions of it happening.
There's so many mutant dogs, cats and slavs there now its 💯 a no go zone* ⚠
Sounds like it would make a great Yarnhub video.
The cooling is not really needed for the 1986 fuel but rather the extensive amount of more recent spent fuel stored on site.
The loss of power for managing the humidity inside the new safe confinement is another big issue.
Great video aside from that one issue and one overlooked issue.
Once again you present something fascinating I never knew before! Really enjoyed it, and it's relevant to the present day.
I’ve read several detailed books on this event and never came across the use of tanks being considered. Fascinating and, in a concerning way, timely.
The most important sound, this time, does not come from Mark Felton's voice but from the radioactive blips from that tank. A stark reminder of how dangerous nuclear materials can be even in peacetime. Thank you for sharing.
The whole idea of a "nuclear battlefield", as some envisioned in the early 1950's, is just ludicrous.
Hmmm, almost like a clever use of psychology to raise the fears of the viewer and leave a stark and horrifying impression. I suspect we are going to see more trouble at Chernobyl if the US has it's way. This video is to prime the pump and prep the audience for the coming cyber attack on the reactors just like the ones in Iran recently that almost resulted in another Chernobyl type disaster.
@@theprinceofcrows8691 shut up
@@theprinceofcrows8691 The trouble with " a clever use of psychology..." is that it works both ways. In the spectrum of likeliness which is most probable..... that you are a mistaken propagandist for Vlad Putin or Mark Felton is setting the scene for Joe Biden inspired armageddon ?
@@jackieking1522 Or Mark Felton is just a western propaganda cut out used to lead true believers to drink the holy water of the new religion. This whole channel has been setting the viewer up mentally with stories about Ukrainian Nazi units and Soviet attrocity stories and Russian invasion stories, to prime the audience mentally. It is a shame that more cannot see it for what it obviously is.
Of course there are those who do know and are just there to act as an enabler and to defend the mind games that are being played against the people willingly. I quit this channel in disgust because I am not going along with some Cambridge Analytica like scheme to using actor based reality, history, and culture to change politics and reality. You are being mind fuct.
Dr Felton, Thank you for making this episode for us. you have a unique gift for presenting historical information, and it turns out you also have a gift for connecting the past to the present.
I had seen these old WWII tank killers around Chernobyl in pictures , but had assumed they were old relics of WWII, either abandoned on WWII battlefields or part of some display of Soviet armor from the war. you have solved another mystery for us.
The sad part about the current war in Ukraine and the massive disruption caused to th Chernobyl exclusion zone is that the Russian conscripts, for the most part young boys, were , in all likelihood, never briefed, never warned and kept totally ignorant of the hazards that would come from simply just being there, let alone stirring the proverbial nuclear waste pot. Those boys, just obeying orders, will all end up sick and dying from horrible cancers, their contaminated tanks and vehicles will leave the zone and contaminate other areas of Ukraine and the dust they stir up will kill or make terribly sick countless innocent civilians in the region.
It is a monstrous crime, made worse because there would have been sections of Russias army that knew what would happen. knew it should be left alone, and knew it would end up killing people. Yet they either remained silent to save their own skins, or their warnings were completely disregarded.
Either way, Ukraine and Europe will be paying a deadly price just for this one crime.
Really appreciate your hard work on these documentaries Dr. Felton !!! Stay safe
Thank you for your efforts in all you give us Dr. Felton.
Thank you Mr. Felton since this accident happened I read and looked at everything related to it but I never came across this information that they used ISU-152 in an attempt to drill a hole in the wall under the destroyed reactor it sounds crazy to me even when it is about the Russians
@@TomorrowWeLive Or drugs
Yet another rare nugget of info from today that has ties to WWII! Thank you Dr Felton another well done video! Appreciate all the history lessons about the current situation, it is not as simple as one would think
Absolutely fantastic episode! Only Mark Felton has provided viewers with this amazing level of detail. Amazing improvisation to use antique tanks in such a way!
Yes, I agree about the improvisation.....I mean why send new assault guns if you still had old ones lying around.....and also because the Soviets manned those tanks with troops from a reserve unit so that first rank regular soldiers did not have to be assigned to what the authorities realized was a suicide mission...sooner or later. The Soviet way....the least sacrifice the most for "the common good". Yea, Russian peasants lives are cheap...as witnessed in the current Russian war against Ukraine.
These wonderful, obscure nuggets of history are both fascinating and priceless. Thank you, Dr. Felton!
Wow!!!. Once more. Dr. Felton. You have brought to my attention another fascinating learning experience.
I spent 10 years working in the Nuclear industry, an i didn't know this.
Thank you.. I really enjoy your videos. No matter the topic.!!!
Wow, it's so cool that you can find old pictures of the very tank that remains in the ruins today!
More than a few vehicles were picked clean. The ENTIRE vehicle graveyard which contained helicopters, and military and civilian emergency & construction vehicles is now barren. They're gone. All of them. Scavengers have removed the hundreds of irradiated vehicles that were left there after the operation.
As a global foundry auditor, one of the things I do is observe that foundries reliably check scrap metal for radiation before receiving at their front gate, before charging into the furnace and before shipping cast metal parts from the recycled metal, to America and around the world. This is an opportunity to explain why my job is necessary as a metallurgical engineer. I've made everything from ship propellers to water fittings in my career; but mostly automobile parts. You don't want your brakes to fail, or engine block, or water pipes and fittings to fail, do you? Or, irradiate you and your water? Wouldn't you rather allow FOUNDRIES using coal creating jobs and safe castings here at home than buying from China and Eastern Europe? This is why I support TRUMP so much. Enjoy the video. #Chernobyl #Ukraine #Foundry
@@cryptochurch3310 this was a wild ride
@@cryptochurch3310 So you want a dictatorship under Trump and Putin. Support of Trump means you support abuse of women as he admitted on tape, corruption in that he lies about tax audits to avoid showing any tax returns "routine tax audit" not for six years plus covering all taxes he ever paid and can't even provide the cover letter showing he's being audited. Taking huge sums from Russian and all sorts of bad acting countries including many Muslim states by not removing himself from his business where they use his overpriced properties and rent or buy from him in great amount. Bigot who ran on falsehood about immigrants being criminals when they commit crime less than American citizens. Bigot who ran on falsehood about Muslims yet was fine with Saudi Arabia they were never part of his Muslim ban, coming to US even though all most all 911 bombers were from Saudi Arabia. And incompetent to appoint judges, and dozens of important people who steal from him. .
And your a coal industry shill you don't need coal to run a foundry anymore. With Antartica melting even faster than before and here in Florida changes to deal with rising seas already underway it about time to give up on Coal which also kills though cancer in air and water in all parts of it's use.
And as a Nuclear supporter I'm not one of the crazed fear of nuclear on the left I'm a radical moderate. Nuclear is not safe but it's massively safer than coal.
Dozens of Nuclear plants would have to melt down to get anywhere close to deaths from coal.
Very bizarre how paragraphs start getting written when trump gets mentioned under random comments, people need to get over themselves
@@milferdjones2573 keep taking your medication for 'Orange Man Bad' syndrome...and I hope you feel proud to have contributed to our world getting more and more dangerous by the day. It only took your hero Brandon 13 months to create the utter shambles we now have to fix to rebuild the dreams we had for our children and grandchildren.
Dr. Felton's knowledge is seemingly limitless. He is a treasure of our time.
He deserves an OBE for education services
Mark digging up the most obscure historical anecdotes as always. ;D
Keep up the good work, sir!
small correction: The reactor did not turn into a bomb, the two mayor explosions which happened at Chernobyl were the steam boiler going up and a hydrogen tank blowing up.
While perhaps not a nuclear fission or fusion device they still blew up as you put it, so they were bombs.
Its been theorized by some experts that the zirconium housings of the fuel elements got so hot that they reacted with cooling water, exploding like a piece of sodium metal would explode when throwen into water.
He should have said non nuclear bomb to be clear.
Explosion does not equal bomb. Bomb does engender more of a dramatic reaction though.
@@milferdjones2573 I do not think it is possible for a nuclear reactor to explode like a nuclear weapon. The fuel is not concentrated enough. Initiating a nuclear detonation is not something that just happens. It's actually a fairly complicated matter. The fissile material has to be compressed enough to sustain the chain reaction.
I was a little kid in Bucharest when this happened. Way closer than Britain. We weren’t allowed to use the hot water for over a year. My mom had to boil water for us every time we had to take a bath
That would still not inspire too much confidence even if it worked effectively. Must have weighed strongly on the mind everytime! Hope your family and yourself are getting clean bills of health to this day!
@@extragoogleaccount6061 Oh thank you! I’m almost 42 and very healthy. Dad defected in 1984 and mom and I joined him in 1988 a year and a half before communism fell. We’ve all been together in the US for the last 34 years and all our friends and Relatives back in Romania are safe as well. Thank you.
What does water boiling have to do with water? If there are radioactive nuclides in it boiling has no effect.
@@LMSI998 perhaps it was as to not use the hot tap water coming from the local heating plants? some scare about their machinery being irradiated? just my guess
@@thewiktor2 people would do a lot of senseless, ill-advised things after Chernobyl. That's how fear works.
It's amazing how Mark Felton gets this information and immediately (relatively speaking, of course) gets it out to all his growing numbers of fans. And now (if the world survives to see it), he'll have a new war to discuss, revealing in time the hidden gems that even the dozens of reporters in Ukraine now won't ever have found.
This is honestly the only channel I'm subscribed to that I automatically watch a new video of whenever I see one. Actually, Mr. Ballen is the other channel. Mark Felton and Mr. Ballen, two legendary content creators haha.
Some of Ballens videos are too disturbing so I don’t click on them without reading the description. The industrial accidents are ok but the weird serial killer stuff makes me not feel good.
@@Balthorium Fair enough, I’ve become really desensitised to that stuff over my life so I can watch any true crime content and not really be weirded out at all. It’s kind of messed up now that I think about it.
I know of another use of tanks at Chernobyl. In the 90s, I worked with a former Russian who had formal training in optics. He said his job during the cleanup work was to build and mount a video camera onto the end of a tank's main gun. I think he said the tank's controls were rigged up to be radio controlled. Then the tank was driven into various parts of the destroyed plant, sending the video signal out to the safer surrounding area so that no one was exposed to lethal radiation in order to see what damage occurred.
He said that his exposure levels and times were carefully monitored. When he reached his limit, his job was done and he was sent home.
Mark Felton is a national treasure! Keep up the great work. I saw you in Norwich once out for a walk.
I am let out occasionally for exercise!
@@MarkFeltonProductions With the nature of your videos we only seldom get a glimpse of your sense of humor, Dr. Felton.
Great video so far. I’m still watching it though, love how frequently you’ve been posting Mr Felton!
Yet another "Just when you think you've heard it all" story. Great job! I've read that several Russian soldiers have gotten sick from digging in close to the reactor, some of whom apparently had no idea there'd ever been a problem there!
Tanks for the vid Mark
Great story Mark... Scary how that situation was handled...
Radiation is the gift that keeps on giving.
For 100,000 years. There are 10s of thousands of tons of the stuff sitting around waiting for someone to do something with it. So lets build more reactors.
@@rogersmith7396 Let's not build RBMK reactors. See other type reactors are safe, terrorussians shelling them and no one really cares. That shows actually how safe nuclear reactors are.
My father was a postdoc/prof at the Košice technical university in Slovakia at the time of the Chernobyl disaster. There was nothing on the news for days, but his colleagues knew something happened because their radiation detectors were going off.
It's hard to believe we are living some events almost the same as people from the cold war
Thank you Joe Biden.
@@daveh322 the shitty part is that it’s all preventable
@@daveh322 Ah yes, Biden's Invasion of Ukraine, truly unforggettable *Sarcasm*.
Some of us are from the cold war too...
It's hard to believe we are living some events almost the same as people from WW2 as well....
Excellent work Mr. Felton, as always!
Everyone Take care and be safe, John
The "liquidators" were really officially called "liquidators"! What a joy to discover that there is really, actually, the word "liquidators" written on the medal !!! (shown at 7:15)
Very interesting. I've read and watched all I could get my hands on about Chernobyl and no one specifically mentioned the tanks. Especially that they're still highly irradiated. 👍
The Chernobyl Liquidators Medal is a very clever design, showing the three types of radiation, and how they are deflected in a magnetic field. Alpha particles, with a positive charge, go one way, beta particles, with a negative charge, go the opposite way, and gamma rays, the most penetrating and dangerous type, go straight through.
Mark Felton's knowledge seems limitless. A man that can create content in quality and quantity. When it comes to WWII vehicles, the ISU 152 is a favorite mine. Knew of the liquidators and their efforts, but not that they used ISU's, even Simple History made no mention of them. Cheers for shedding light on this! 😉
Thanks again for bringing us new historical information Mark.
My father almost got sent to clean up CHernobyl because he was serving his 2 years in soviet army back then. Luckily I was born and he got to visit home instead of being sent there.
Wow thank you for the history lesson and for the information we never received from the government and educational institutions thank you for what you do
Thank you Dr. Felton for giving us more information than the news could ever could .
Soviets using heavy guns to blast open the wall of a nuclear reactor that exploded? completely normal phenomenon
There was a fear that the nuclear core would burn to the water table and create an explosion much larger than the first blowing up the entire place including the other 3 reactors. The tunnel was dug by coal miners brought in.
And then shell the hospitals full of the injured. The ultimate blame the victim.
Most history channels just restate other documentaries, like a bad college essay: change a few words here and there, add some graphics. You give us actual research, actual insight. Every time you present a topic there is always some aspect I had never considered or been aware of. Food for a starving mind in a sea of history junk food. Hey, Thanks, Mark. Keep them coming.
Fantastic! So many unheard of stories! Great job again mr Felton 🤗
Wow this is incredible thank you Dr Felton I wasn’t even aware this happened during the clean up thank you for sharing this with us
Damn straight, you can always rely on a man with a doctorate in physical education to come up with the goods.
Another fine example of Dr. Felton keeping us informed on critical history that ties in with our current headlines thanks for all you do hope you and yours are well!!
Hm , very informative as always, thank you! Wasnt aware that the radioactive cloud ever reached the British Isles. At the time of the disaster I was studying in Vienna, Austria. When that happened, I packed my surfboards on the roof of my Golf, drove to Cherbourg and took the ferry back to Guernsey. Felt safe there.
These videos are just keep getting better and better. Cheers dr Felton.
I came across Dr. Felton a couple of years ago and his storytelling is excellent and that he is posing with a bunch of Star Wars stormtroopers on his you tube homepage shows his sense of humor.
Mark Felton …. Radiating his knowledge again.
badum tish!
That "Gei" at the end was beginning to "tick" me off🙊🙊
I still remember this years ago...a reporter was asking US everyday people what they knew of Chernobyl...one woman replied that was Chers full name...I am not making this up.
The information contained within this video is truly frightening beyond belief. Good grief, just to imagine the consequences of possible battle taking place at this location is enough to keep me up all night with worry. Thank you for this rather alarming but fascinating upload DR Felton, it's just incredible.
That is why the Russian military secured the site and provided a safe and stable power source under their direct control. Now they have to watch for cyber attacks like the ones launched at Iran a few years back that almost created another Chernobyl event. We live in perilous times.
@@theprinceofcrows8691 I mean, how nice of them to protect the site... from the war they created.
@@Warfoki I think it is the responsible thing to do when conflict becomes unavoidable. Otherwise your enemies use it as a dirty bomb and nuke the country. Of course there are many ways to achieve a goal. A cyber attack or other attack could still happen and of course it would be evil Putin who was responsible.
Actually a battle would not've been that dangerous. The building around a nuclear reactor can withstand almost any artillery and aerial strike, and even if it's penetrated, the impact on the reactor would still be limited.
@@kajet666 The effects of radiotion are very much disputed. It can cause disastrous effects, of course, but it's overestimated. For exemple, all the images of the Reactor 4's core disponible in the internet, since 1987, were made by a single photographer, alive, who constantly enters the Reactor. There's a mini doc on UA-cam about him.
Amazing. Thank you for your continued topical coverages!
I'm loving these ❤ news stories Mark!
What is interesting is that the Soviets still had operational 152’s in a reserve capacity in 1986….
They virtually list everything back to junk T 34s in their current arsenal. We have an M 60 parked at the VFW down the road. Theres an M48 in the next town. Come on Ruskis, bring it on!
In the 80's T-34-85 were still in use in Eastern Bloc, so were the tank destroyers whose next and last task will become mechanized artillery gun.
Soviet heavy tank of WW2 : IS3
The Stalin tank IIIs were still in service in far east Kurile islands in defending position until 1991!
@@mattbite so, their tank strength advantage in numbers was on paper only…
Physicist here starting a career in a nuclear medical field. Just want to give people some info on the fallout from Chernobyl to fight misconceptions about its after effects after reading through some comments on here.
Firstly, the Chernobyl Disaster was a terrible event for many people, particularly in Belarus and Ukraine, but its effect in the wider area of Europe was always reported in news as a worst case scenario which never happened, and most of the worst fallout decayed in the upper atmosphere within hours or days of its ejection from the reactor and so posed negligible harm to human health. People with various health problems often want want ascribe a reason or meaning to their maladies, and Chernobyl can be a convenient answer, eg) I was out in the rain the same week as Chernobyl blew so I developed cancer/health problem etc later on. It's understandable but by no means accurate or scientific. Studies have shown that no detectable increase in cancers, even those most ascribable to radioisotope inhilation/ingestion/general exposure such as thyroid cancer can be detected in Europe excepting the region directly around Chernobyl in Belarus and Ukraine. I've put a reference to this study at the end of my comment.
I'm currently working in an internship where I'm exposed to radiation regularly that is in excess of the increase in radiation detected in the week after Chernobyl in most of Europe, and all the research suggests that I will statistically suffer no health effects as a result. My radiation dose is furthermore lower than many healthcare workers such as radiographers and radiologists, for whom the same statistics apply. A single chest X-ray increases your risk of cancer by about the same chance of you being struck and killed by lightning, or so I've heard. Equivalent dose, which was recorded in microsieverts per hour from Chernobyl fallout was far lower across wider Europe than that given by a chest X-ray.
I hope my comment was informative and you could take away something from this. Unfortunately the media, and even shows which I love like Chernobyl can overhyped the risks of radiation exposure. Nuclear power remains one of the safest power generating methods by recorded deaths per kW generated. Coal on the other hand kills over two million people per year in cancer increases etc. It also emits more radioactive fallout through radioisotopes in coal soot than all of nuclear, but we don't see the clamour for banning coal like we do with nuclear, which is truly unfortunate.
Cardis E, Krewski D, Boniol M, Drozdovitch V, Darby SC, Gilbert ES, Akiba S, Benichou J, Ferlay J, Gandini S, Hill C, Howe G, Kesminiene A, Moser M, Sanchez M, Storm H, Voisin L, Boyle P. Estimates of the cancer burden in Europe from radioactive fallout from the Chernobyl accident. Int J Cancer. 2006 Sep 15;119(6):1224-35. doi: 10.1002/ijc.22037.
The problem with explaining nuclear reactions is that it is very unintuitive. It can be instantly deadly in high doses and also accumulative if small doses are consistent over time. Nothing else behaves like that in ways normal people experience.
Very good but pearls before swine I fear.
@@ramanavell988 I agree completely. Nuclear power in its worst case scenarios lends itself easily to horror movie portrayals but unfortunately we are missing the sky for the trees. There are greater evils in the world than radiation, many of which we indulge on a daily basis without batting an eye. Smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, living in cities with low air quality, not wearing suncream: all these things are far worse for you than the exposure to alpha, beta, gamma and x-rays which you will experience across your entire lifetime, as a result of nuclear power or medically.
A sister of mine has been an X-ray tech over 40 years. She's repeatedly said when your teeth are x-rayed at the dentist, you get FAR more radiation than a chest x-ray. In her 40+ years at the same hospital only one x-ray tech developed a skin cancer on her lip. That easily could come from sun exposure. A much bigger hazard to radiology staff is lifting all those obese land whales on and off the x-ray tables.
@ozmaniac49 That's my pint exactly (excuse the pun). Why are we so afraid of nuclear when all the science says there are plenty of things in this world we do without batting an eye
The reactor did not turn into a bomb: it experienced a condition known as prompt criticality and suffered a core meltdown which prompted a steam explosion. The meltdown caused by the prompt criticality also caused it to subside by eventually altering the geometry of the core, and rendering the fissile mass non-critical again. This disaster could have been a lot worse.
The use of graphite moderator in this reactor's design indicates it was using fuel with a higher percentage of Uranium-238, as is present in most natural ores of Uranium without enrichment (most modern reactors use Uranium-235, which undergoes fission from lower energy so-called "thermal" neutrons). This fuel has different operating characteristics than enriched fuels, and design flaws in the placement of moderators in this design (the RBMK reactor) doubtless contributed to this occurrence.
Seems the Soviets were basically using ISU-152s as engineering vehicles to expedite demolition and burial of the reactor site, but that plan didn't work out. Thanks for sharing that with us.
I feel like "bomb" is still a reasonable description - it did result in a large and extremely destructive explosion. It just wasn't an atomic bomb, the explosion was caused by steam rather than directly by nuclear reactions as in an atomic bomb. So perhaps it was a gigantic nuclear-heated BLEVE dirty bomb.
@@quillmaurer6563 you're right, and "bomb" might be a reasonable description, but given that a nuclear explosion would've been orders of magnitude more powerful, I think Mark should've been very precise there.
Exactly. Mark’s description is a little oversimplified and might lead some viewers to believe that the explosion was nuclear in nature while is reality it was steam pressure. I didn’t know about the use of ISU-152 use there though, super interesting!
So it turned into a bomb... Interesting
You should definitely do your own video commentry on Feltons video to explain this error as it would be extremely useful and Im sure the Felt-on community would welcome it.
I love your content Mark!!! Always a joy watching the less known history. You always make very interesting videos, thank you
An absolutely incredible story that I've never even heard about before. Thank you Dr. Felton for bringing these stories to our attention.
Dr Felton does it again - this time linking three disasters together - WW2, Chernobyl meltdown and a despot’s “special military operation”.
very interesting to see how the welds on this machine are so shiny compared to the rest of the steel. This would not happen in usual circumstances.
I think it depends on what kind of welding wire they used. The tank could have been repaired, so who knows if it is even an original factory weld.
Mark I have enjoyed and learned a lot from your videos. My father was in military in WWII and he never talked about it. I've always had an interest in European theater.
Always appreciate your content Mark. Thank you!
The used fuel radioactivity has now decayed to where the fuel can go into dry cask storage. Water cooling is no longer needed.
Dr Felton never fails to impress with information I have never heard of before.
It’s very interesting to here you talk about current events in the same way you talk about WWII
Loving the Ukraine content. Gives additional perspectives on current events.
I’m not sure if loving it sound right in this context but I know what you mean
There is an old saying where I come from that you learn something new everyday. When I feel like I know everything I come and watch Mark's videos and boom, I learn that I knew so little. Another gem by Mark.
So very impressed with the waty you guys keep producig new angles and depth of coverage. Image quality superb too.
While in the US Marines with 2nd Tanks ,back when Chernobyl happened, I had heard stories of the Soviets still having WW2 Armor in reserve/storage.
No idea they used the tank destroyers there.
Thanks.
There was a time in the 80s when the Soviets sent troops to put down demonstrations in Leningrad, including tanks. The Dallas Morning News had a photo showing one of the tanks -- a T34-85. The Soviets never threw anything away.
Many brave people fought the initial fire while others were quickly evacuated. The radiation blast from the explosion was so potent it killed all the trees hundreds of yards away. At that time, Ukrainians and Russians worked together to try prevent the disaster from worsening and potentially killing more civilians; many perished immediately, within hours or days, and some within a year or so. Some knew they were going to die, but went into the site anyway. Sadly, looters entered the area and removed radioactive televisions and other luxury items, selling them across the Soviet Union, and thus poisoning the buyers. Because of this, for a while, the area was under armed guard for safety reasons and to prevent further looting.
God bless and keep those brave ones who fought the Chernobyl fire in the midst of all that fatal radiation! Those men were/are heroes.
A radioactive cloud spread across the South East of the UK, most notably throughout Essex. Several members of my family ended up dying eventually of cancer and I always put it down to Chernobyl and this cloud.
As always a great production , thanks Mark
this scrap yard of radioactive vehicles and machines is what you get when there's a nuclear disaster far in land. island nations like britain and japan just dump everything radioactive in the ocean. as what was done during britain's windscale and japan fukushima nuclear disasters.
Hello from Detroit Michigan USA Great video Brother thank you for sharing your knowledge and expertise and taking us on your adventure through time
5:04 I know that when miners are referenced, Mark is talking about tunneling professionals but...
I couldn't help but smirk imagining he meant they used young people to dig these dangerous tunnels instead of those poor WW2 era tanks. 😂
lol, i had noot thought 'minors' thanks for that laugh.
They were specifically coal miners.
Nerf miner
I had no idea the stored waste required constant cooling! I do remember a recent report by the IAEA said that the ruins of the reactor are still pumping out just as much radiation as it did when it first exploded back in 1986. Always a pleasure seeing your videos Dr. Felton!
My grandmother was a news reporter from Iceland and she was attending Eurovision when all of this happened. There was a huge fear among the reporters as there was a sudden blackout in the entirety of the Eastern bloc in terms of communication. No one knew what was going on or why communications had suddenly be cut. Some feared it was a prelude to an invasion or even nuclear war. It was not until later that people learned of the disaster of Chernobyl. The Soviets had gone all-out in trying to hide what happened, even if it risked the fears of war~
My grandmother was woken up in the dead of night by soviet soldiers and they demanded that my Grandfather come with them. But at the time, he was in Riga.