Britain's most radioactive place
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- Опубліковано 25 жов 2023
- We take a detour from our trip through England's Cumbria and The Lake District, to visit one of the most dangerous and radioactive places on Earth: Sellafield. 65 years after the Windscale nuclear disaster, just how dangerous is it today? Can it ever be truly safe?
This is the story of Britain's very own Chernobyl accident... Windscale.
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Britain's Nuclear Power Secrets, Inside Sellafield, Our Reactor Is On Fire, Windscale: The British Chernobyl, The Story of Britain's Chernobyl, Britain's Biggest Nuclear Disaster, The Nuclear Laundry, Dark Tourism, Cumbria, Lake District, Three Mile Island, Fukishima, Cover Up, Exclusion Zone, Exploring, The Most Radioactive Places On Earth, Worst Nuclear Accidents In History, What's It Like Today, auditing, audit, Windscale Disaster, Fukushima Nuclear Disaster, Nuclear Disaster, Nuclear Meltdown
This one was genuinely quite unnerving at times, nicely done team.
Still not as terrifying as Beanus with a knife though.
Nothing's as scary as that.
@@Digitiser
Why did you delete that comment,?
@@Digitiser
Thank You for doing in the ground research 💯
It is crazy most people in the UK now do not even know what 'this place' is man . Let alone others 😩😭
One of the darker Digitiser videos but a necessary and sobering reminder of the reality that Government really doesn't care about peoples safety over profits or not being embarrassed. Great work.
Thanks, Ben.
I agree, but actually spilling nuclear waste into the ocean makes nuclear energy more expensive, and even more questionable. It's due to long list of serious illnesses that require long-term treatment. And also bribery cost a lot. It's not a joke to pay millions in bribes. It's all included in our energy bills. I think would be lot cheaper to treat nuclear waste properly to avoid all the harmful side effects, that affect entire population. I liked the video and the funny bits too. Next to such a serious and dark problems, the sense of humor is something I appreciate.
@@robertmayfield8746 The funniest moments are often the bits that are meant to be the least comedy orientated...
Cos the G is full pyschopaths
@@robertmayfield8746 they are definitely the most serious times when you experience them personally. and i always used to have to leave queues to go to the toilet. nightmare
I wouldn't normally watch a whole documentary about Sellafield, but this was absolutely fascinating and I learned a lot.
This makes us happy!
Tom Tuohy (RIP) was the deputy manager who took a leading role in putting out the fire at the windscale pile. All that direct exposure looking down at the charge face must have done something for him - he lived for 91 years!
We should all get a dose!
Hi, I'm a UK physics graduate currently working on a masters. I don't specialise in nuclear work but I guess I've probably studied more on the topic than most. On a first watch I'm very impressed on how well-researched this is and how nothing that is stated is scientifically incorrect or misleading as far as I can tell. Taking the highest peak recorded here of 0.40 (assuming its microsievers per hour), it would give a radiation dose around 1.3 times the UK's background dose assuming that peak was sustained. Gov.uk says our background dose is actually slightly above the global average, citing the presence of radon in our building materials. The iodine and polonium isotopes released have a half-life of 8 and 138 days respectively which is probably why Biffo and Sanja didn't see any massive radiation spikes however, the plant was probably using uranium-235 as the fission material which has a half-life of about 700 million years. So any uranium-235 released would be just as dangerous today as it was in 1957. Would like to stress I haven't researched this in massive depth (it's 3am lol) and these are very quick estimates. Either way, Biffo is correct that this could have rendered most of northern England uninhabitable if the workers hadn't risked themselves in the way they did. Big up to Digi
That’s sobering. Thanks for expanding on the info! 😊
Thanks for fact-checking us, Elbrikc.
This was a genuinely unnerving and very sobering look at Windscale. I knew about it, but not all the scandals and coverups related. I think this is one of my favourite Digi videos.
Also, love the music you capped it of with over the credits. Perfect tonal whiplash.
That's us! Glad you liked it, Psy.
I don’t know what’s more unsettling - the events themselves, that I’m pushing 43 and this video is literally the first I’d heard of any of these events, or that I’m fully accepting information I acquired in a Digi video as fact.
Seriously, great video guys.
I think they'd like us all to forget about it, so we're happy to have informed you, Gideon.
I remember discussion about Sellafield as a child in the 80s...
There was a drama based on the Windscale nightmare on TV, it was a long time until I knew the two were the same place.
I have very vague memories of a school trip to sellafiield in the mid to late 80s. Alton Towers or the seaside kids? Well tough, you're going to a nuclear zone.
Got there before Ross Kemp
The power plant itself would have been safe.
The problems are to do with the reprocessing and what they did, or rather didn't do with the waste.
It did have a very poor safety and environmental record, but the tour route would have been well away from the problem areas.
@@pauln6803 With what i remember of my class in those day, the tour route would have definitely been a problem area !
What a coincidence, “freezer full of dead radioactive seagulls” was my nickname in high school. #nicecoat
This was very interesting. I am surprised Sanja didn’t have a list of Cellar and Field facts though!
She was forbidden!
I knew a guy, he was builder/plumber who claimed he worked there once doing some work. He siad while he was there the alarms for a leak went off and that there is supposed to be a reactor with a cracked core that has been kept quiet. The guy was known to embelish so grain of salt and all that.
Jeez. I read a lot of stories like that on Reddit too.
Excellent and important documentary work there, Biffo and Sanja. Entertaining and educational.
Thank you.
“What should we do to address this environmental crisis?”
“Change the name and pretend it never happened?”
“Bob, you’re a genius!”
Consistently consistent conspiratorial community containing content.
Cheers, ears.
@@Digitiser Keep up the good work you two and, as always, stay safe!
Thanks you for this informative information i uad no idea about Sellafield.
Happy to have informed you!
Would have never expected a serious sort-of documentary from Digitiser :D
Yeah. We've sort of being doing it for three years on our podcast - mixing funny and serious - and loving the format, so it's less of a shift for us. It's a more truthful version of who we are really, and I just want to make authentic stuff going forwards. Digi always balanced fact and funnies when it started 30 years ago, so this is just us going back to our roots.
This was incredible and weirdly existential I certainly never expected to learn this much from digitiser lmao I was in Cumbria last year dragging my ex to castles and jumping in ponds - maybe I'll grow a beak.
We can but hope!
This is one of your best yet
Thanks, Johnny.
Really professional and proper, quality documentary feel - yet still some funny moments! Well done, really enjoying the new style of videos! :)
Thanks, Jezzer. We're enjoying doing them!
The accident in 1957 would have been even worse had Sir John Cockcroft not insisted on the filters he designed being fitted at the top of those chimneys. They didn't want to fit them because of the extra cost.
Shout-out to the Patron Saint of Wasps
I live in Carlisle, Cumbria. It’s not the best place to live if that explodes.
It’s insane that I’ve never heard of this. Granted I’m not from the UK but the Netherlands, but it’s bizarre how this got swept under the rug enough for it to not be common knowledge. I can totally imagine how scary it can feel when you’re close to it. Once again knocking it out of the park with this video tho, amazing job!
It was quite well known in the 80s/90s, but they've either done a better job of hushing it all up, or it genuinely is safer.
I live about an hour from here an I've never heard if it
Sellafield was big news in the 80s and 90s but it has been so long since I've heard the name that I'd forgotten about all this.
Informative, engaging stuff - also sobering. Had heard about Sellafield, but never the extent of what happened. Great doc, people.
Thanks, NB!
I actually learned a thing from a Digitiser video. I am not familiar, nor comfortable, with the strange feeling. And as a bonus, Biffo's coat might be slightly more radioactive!
Glows in the dark now.
Please keep the Cumbria content coming, Biffo! Glad you enjoyed your visit and hope to see you about sometime!
We'll be back to Cumbria eventually. We've one more video to come from that particular trip though...
@@Digitiser awesome!
Another great video! Very interesting and informative!
Thank you!
I'm just gonna say it: This is the best video you've ever done. Well done.
Thank you. Really appreciate it.
All hail the Patron Saint of Wasps.
Brilliant vid! I am very interested in these sites, I was fortunate enough to go on a guided tour of Sizewell B when it was being constructed, I was only 10 but have been fascinated ever since. Cheers.
This was brilliant. Thank you both.
You're welcome, Simon.
Fascinating peek into our Governments shady side. I wasn't born until 1965, but grew up hearing about Windscale. However being a little boy, I was too interested in spaceships and synthesizers to actually take much notice. I learned much more from you today than I thought I would. You make a darned good serious documentary! I hope to see you do more. I did hear you mention the word series, so ill have to check and see what I missed.
On a side note, do you find it more work making comedy or stuff like this? You come across as someone with a natural comedic flair, and I know comedy is notoriously difficult to get right, but you seem equally at home with the serious stuff. Well done Paul and Sanj.
And the music at the end seemed fitting, with shades of The Goblins "Dawn Of The Dead" music👍
Cheers.
Weirdly, we've been balancing comedy stuff with more serious/documentary stuff on our podcast for the last three years, so this is less of a segue for us than it might seem. Plus, Digi - back in its heyday, 30 years ago - always balanced factual stuff with comedy, so this is getting back to what I feel I enjoy most. I don't know whether I find one more work than the other really. We just react to what's in front of us, and in this case it felt wrong to make a joke out of it. Thank you for the nice words, David.
I was in Ireland when the Chernobyl disaster happened, & I remember that the testing around the UK in the aftermath showed that the areas with high radiation were all around the nuclear power plants.
Scary time.
You could do a Corner Shop Corner style video where you eat some of the radioactive birds and see which one tastes the best.
I'm in.
@@DigitiserSurely that's one for Ashens?
What a good video! Thoughtful and contemplative, and a little haunting too, but with a nice bit of Digi silliness -- Diginess? -- too.
"What's in the bag?"
"No idea. Oh look, the radiation kennel is rising..."
🤔
Why didn’t we connect those dots?!😳
I suddenly understood why number on Geiger soared to 40+ in the river,because you guys have unconsciously made a documentary for the leak still happening since 2019,but not only for those nuclear wastes abandoned in the environment irresponsibly decades ago…
Just a normal, innocent Mr Biffo.
This whole run of videos over the last month or so have been great. They've been so funny and I've actually learnt things from some of them. This was the first almost serious one and a great reminder of the tragedy that could've been.
Thanks, Darren!
I had absolutely no idea about any of this. Probably the most informative one you guys have done! Fantastic job
I can't unsee Mr Biffo cosplaying as a sight-seeing Russian soldier with that striped top. Comrade Biffo.
Fair.
Thanks for the video. It's considerably more serious than others!
Yeah, we sort of went that direction a bit in the recent Wiltshire video. The original edit of this one was funnier, but it felt wrong when I watched it back. Going forwards, we're keen to mix the silly stuff with more serious things that interest us too.
@@Digitiser Sounds good. I can see that each new video you do feels a bit more accomplished. But that's to be expected I guess.
Excellent video, love the trippy background music too.
Cheers, Izzy.
Shortly after I moved to a remote Lincolnshire village, I noticed a guy, reminiscent of Benny Hill in a hat on my drive taking photos of my house in the dark
. As an amateur photographer myself I said "you wont get a good photo in this light " he replied "its a heat sensing camera to show where your roof insulation is leaking" . He then told me he was employed to photograph the reactors at Sellafield.!!! I watched as he dissaperaed into the darkness, glowing with an aura of the kid in the Ready-Brek advert. (Made the last bit up).
Blimey!
As someone who is very pro nuclear it’s odd seeing this from the other side. The management and funding were terrible, and the PR machine just couldn’t keep up with the money fed in from the other side by the coal and gas companies. Shame really - a few little power stations in beautiful but empty areas of the country could have really helped smooth over the transitional power periods. Now we can just jump straight to renewables but they themselves have waste disposal issues (and similarly make beautiful coastlines un visitable).
Oh, we're not anti-nuclear. It's just there are no real perfect options.
@@Digitiser Was more the genuine fear at times, echoing what I’ve seen from others. Being anti dumping radioactive crap into the sea is a good place to be!!
Do take the counter to anywhere with natural granite and see what it says there though. Be fun to find out.
I'm definitely anti nuclear. It's not the nuclear power part that's the problem. It's the people running it and the government's behind them. Just look at all of the nuclear disaster that have happened, not all are on the scale of this or Ukraine. But how do we trust the reports from them,
Phew, I thought you were talking about my bedroom for a moment...
Paul - this episode has been brilliant! Genuinely fascinating !
Thanks, Mr!
Third bird needs to get involved to help the plight of his sea gull brothers being snipered! perhaps this is third birds origin, he is a radioactive bird?
He's just an inoccent bird. He's just a normal bird.
Omg yes! We need Third Bird on the case!
Powerful stuff ❤❤❤
Thanks, Dave.
Excellent job with this video. Very well done.
Thank you!
Keep auditing them, keep them on their toes! Another beatiful yet haunting video!
Thanks, Auntie.
Just discovered your channel. Truly hilarious. Thankyou. 😂 x
Thanks, Kieran. Glad you're enjoying it!
Average global background radiation is above 0.17 μSv, so I wouldn't worry too much.
Yeah, we've learned this since!
U2's involvement relates to the discharges regularly reaching Dundalk and affecting lives there \m/
Indeed.
Isn't/wasn't the Irish Sea the most radioactive sea in the world?
Here in the states we have the Atomic Titties. One of the landmarks on the way to Disneyland.
Is that the power station right by a beach?
Yeah, San Onofre
Just looked those up. Blimey!
How did UA-cam know I’m reading Atomic Accidents by James Mahaffey and I’m on this chapter?!
We’re psychic? 😅
I knew you were going to say that. (a little psychic humour there).
Can't wait for Digitiser the Show to start again with the retro fun and antics.
I miss that show so much.
Well, it'll be back soon, but it may be on a new channel.
I’m not sure you’re the best investigator if you can’t tell a rock from a bag 😂
Can't tell our arse from our elbow either.
Did you ever hear about the sewage works that exploded at Smellafield?
Oh-hoh!
There's a very interesting documentary ("ONKALO the place you must always remember to forget") on here about the things we have to consider now in order to discourage people in the far future from going near radioactive waste. Because they won't speak any language around now, we probably need to use symbols and diagrams and some structure that will survive tens of thousands of years.
Proper spooky.
There's also an episode of the 99% Invisible podcast on that kind of subject called "Ten Thousand Years", for anyone who prefers an audio source
Oooh, good shouts, both.
Love this! While I'll always adore your humor, a more serious take on Britain's unknown dark past is something I'm very much here for!
Thanks, Mark!
Is there no end to this fact quest? I am confounded and confused 😵💫 😂 Carry on, loving the balance to silly!
The pendulum swings firmly back to silly next week...
We all went on a school trip north to Sellafield from our hometown of Barrow in 1989 iirc,after the Tour of the site ended, we all got a badge with "I've been to Sellafield" wrote on it.....Some clever wit among my friends wrote "and survived" in black biro on the bottom of the badge....so we all did the same to our own,lols....that caused much mirth among us and much rage amongst our teachers on the Coach?another notable memory of the trip is the tour guide calling the Chimneys "Chimleys"....That to caused a huge uproar of uncontrollable laughter as you could well imagine!🙉😉Great late 1980s days of yore!😁👌....btw thanks for the Memories/Flashbacks mate!🇬🇧☢️🤩😉😎👍
when i was a kid in about 1979 we were taken to Dungeness B in jkent for a school trip . spent the day waking around the reactor and power station , makes me wonder just how much radiation we were exsposed two .
Dungeness is VERY eerie.
😳
Almost nothing.
actually the first time I've heard about the Windscale incident. Scary stuff.
Indeed so.
Not Brit here. First time I heard of Windscale, I thought it was some way of measuring storm wind strengths or something.
I bet there are kids growing up now who haven't heard of it too.
I honestly don't know what to say
Brilliant video as per usual
Thank you.
Just needed your Marillion shirt from the Chernobyl trip for the perfect day out.
And a reversible sedgewick.
I'd never fit into it now!
Great thoughtful documentary, no flippancy.
Felt wrong to be flippant about it.
Being kind of close geographically I knew a little but it's really quite sobering and also terrifying to find out more
Scared the hell out of me, so can't imagine what living there feels like.
Open every day except Christmas Day! (If you know, you know)
Is this radioactivity the start of the Digitiser Cinematic Universe?
Had beer and watched! Do AWE in Aldermaston :P
Already on our list!
This was a really good documentary factual hopefully the pair continue these
Thank you. We'll be doing more like this!
Are we getting spooky Halloween vid come up great when Mr biffo takes the kids to the woods
You're getting something spooky-ish, but it'll be out just after Halloween, for reasons...
What dosimeter are you using? Looking to buy one
Oh! Can't remember. Though a lot of people have commented to tell me "a crap one".
At 4:25 , it is mentioned that the value on the detector went up when exposed to the microwave or when near a laptop. This is not ionizing radiation and therefore is relatively harmless. This makes me doubt the accuracy of the device as a typical Geiger counter/dosimeter would not detect microwave radiation as microwaves do not have enough energy to be detected by an ionizing radiation detector.
Noted.
Mazlo's law on a digi video 😮😮
Not the first time, weirdly!
In a sentence about wee, so it still fits 😅
Tom accessed the top of the pile not the top of the chimney (stack), It was 'cockrofts folley' that prevented a bigger disaster than what happened, during the construction he ordered a large filter house to be put on the stack and many at the time didnt think it was needed because of the cost/time hence the name they gave it, in the end he saved many lives having it installed. No one should be worried about Sellafield now though there is safety measures upon safety measures and they have their own working limits that are a fraction of the legal limits.
Oh and there is no snipers that kill birds not sure where you got that information 😅😂
Thanks, Charlie. We don't mind being corrected when it's done so politely!
Kept waiting for the punchline which never came. Whilst being vaguely aware of Sellafield I knew nothing of it’s sordid past and present. Great film.
A bit of a check on your numbers there - 0.09 microsieverts per hour for background levels sounds a bit low. In fact, thinking about it, that would mean 0.8 millisieverts per year. Normal background in the UK is about 3 mSv/y, so 0.34 microsieverts/hour.
Really loving these videos. I thought what went on at Porton Down was bad, but this is even worse! I'm a child of the 80s and have vague memories of seeing things about this on the news a few times but had no idea that what went on there was to this extent! Oh and by the way - INNOCENT birds? Hell no. Most seagulls are nothing but common THIEVES! Ornithological criminals the lot of 'em!
Thanks, Mik.
Stop making me learn things and feel feelings
We can't help it!
Wow education from the digitiser team! Like proper without all the silly nonsense we love.
I have the Windscale nuclear reactor documentary the BBC did years ago.
The fact that we came that close to disaster and the workers who stopped it were then thrown under a bus makes my blood boil.
Tom Tuohy should be remembered as the hero he was, he should have statues and buildings named after him.
Sorry trying to catch up on last weeks video but had some true nonsense called life happening. I know you love making this and i love indulging in such exuberance
Sorry to hear about the life nonsense.
@@Digitiser you both have had enough of your own but I hope commenting helps this spread wider than I can on my own. This was a genuinely interesting video even though I knew about a lot about our nuclear past and while I agree we have been failed by those in power back then they were protected like now and kept behind a wall. The profumo affair brought the sleaze of politics into the general public and showed how corrupt they are but we are back in that state now hence the polluted waters and corruption but replace this with better leaders and we can do more just nothing is set up for that. It's meant for those with something to deny the rest by expanding a gap that doesn't need to but they just will it to because they benefit most from it
I think the lesson i have learned here is not to go to this area and then you will be ok...
That's a fair assessment.
I live in this area, and I'm Ok.
I assume The Coat (TM) is sturdy enough to protect from radioactive emissions.
Blimey that was a bit serious. Interesting though.
We didn't quite intend for it to get so serious, but once we started digging into it... sheeeeeesh.
The real fear...Will Biffo be swinging a knife about a sweet shop this Halloween?
He may put in an appearance. Might be a few days late though...
Giving me Quatermass vibes.
If it is public land, someone with a drone and radiation detector should map the area
Maybe they sell 'faulty' readers to civilians? I know you said it was expensive, though it does make one wonder.
Thanks for the great documentary, i frequently went to the lakes on holidays and had no idea,x
You are very welcome.
How did the Geiger counter go up by a microwave oven or any o the electrical device a Geiger counter only measures ionising radiation & electrical devices don’t give off ionising radiation
Yet another thing, I got my wrist cast off today after getting x-rays. I measured a dental x-ray multiple times, it was 10,000 usv/h (Or 10msv/h). The arm xpray I got today for my wrist was 75,000 (or 75msv/h). Those aren't dangerous levels. Traveling on an airplane would get you up to 5 usv/h, for hours and a full body dose. All of the things I've mentioned so far are nill levels of radiation.
at 4:14 you listed 4 major INES incidents but kyshtym didnt involve reactors melting down.
While the iodine isotopes eventually decayed into stable xenon, I'm a little more concerned about the polonium isotopes. Not only because they are *_polonium_* isotopes, but because polonium-210, once it decays, turns into LEAD-206. And as we all know, lead is a toxic heavy metal that poisons body and mind, and removing it from petrol (and paint) was a pretty big deal. Which is to say nothing of all the other remaining isotopes that we'll be cleaning up for centuries to come.
Even when Windscale has been fully decommissioned and "contained", it will not be a place of honour. No highly esteemed deed will be commemorated there. Nothing will be valued there. What is there will be repulsive and dangerous to all.
With that said, I hope that one day we develop a way to "accelerate" the decay of radioactive waste, so that materials that take lifetimes to naturally decay instead reach a safe state in a matter of years.
I think everyone is basically just waiting on that to happen.
It’s a real tragedy.
I don’t see why they don’t just install a cage or net above the pools… that would easily stop the birds 🤷🏼♂️
Same.
Maybe they just like shooting birds
It happened.. and is still happening guys .. but yes I suppose they kind of saved it in the early days.
Its just an unmitigated disaster site man .
you should go to Chapel cross power station in Scotland that's a funny old place as well loads of cover ups there too
I own things that go to 50 usv/h. Uranium glass, fiestaware, minerals, and other SAFELY radioactive things.
Yep!! To right