Thank you, no. I won't be checking out your "bits."... Unless they're mentioned in The Guinness Book of World Records.😂 Thanks for posting your videos. I do look forward to them.
I literally facepalmed when I saw that hackjob... They got very lucky it was a small source of not so horrible emission lines, Cobalt 60 is quite a bit worse at the same intensity even, and on top of that the bus' structure probably helping a bit.
When I saw it I gave such a horrified gasp my cat was concerned for my well being. I can’t imagine how anyone can look at that and say to themselves, “Job well done!”
When I saw it I gave such a horrified gasp my cat was concerned for my well being. I can’t imagine how anyone can look at that and say to themselves, “Job well done!”
"lack of proper toilet facilities" That drug up a nightmare memory... 4 days stuck on an overloaded Greyhound where a family of 6 had food poisoning... We didn't care that it was under 30F and snowing, EVERY window was open as wide as the frame would allow. Edit: In hindsight... I think I would have rather been irradiated...
I got stuck at an airport once for weather. A family found a smoking deal on a rental car as the rental company wanted it relocated to the airport we were all flying to. They were offering to go halves on paying for the rental. We considered going but decided not to. Thankfully lol as we later watched the wife going in an out of the bathroom about 5 times an hour
Still not as bad as that Greyhound bus between Edmonton and Winnipeg where that passenger got katana'd and eaten in front of a horrified bus full of passengers. And now that guy walks among us...
When I was a bus driver down in Devon a bloke wanted to get on my bus with a Goat on a lead. I said no livestock allowed. He then made a complaint to the Company. I still laugh about that all these years later. Thanks John....
I'm still pissed you wouldn't let my uncle on with his goat. I had to pick them both up and transport the goat in my car, where it crapped on the seat.
@jakobrebeki In the late 1970s, I joined my parents in London. After a week, my parents went to Amsterdam and I went to Marseille. My father advised me to go second class to "meet the people." One of the people had a wicker box of chickens. In Paris, I changed to First Class on a different train and took First Class back to London from Marseille. The difference in cost for round trip at the time was less than £3.
I work at a university where some of the research groups us Geiger counters. I have GOT to tell them about these new models with the "shitballs" reading. Thanks John!
I spent my career at a U.S. National Laboratory. Many years previous, radioactive waste (high and low level) was dumped into 55 gal drums, and then had concrete poured into it. The problem, was that no one kept an inventory of what went into them. Before shipping them to long-term storage, we needed to know the exact contents. We had to bring in an X-Ray machine, that could take X-Rays through concrete and steel. It was actually a 3D X-Ray, as the barrels spun around on a platform, while being continuously X-Rayed. It was one of the few times, that I ever saw a 'GRAVE WARNING' sign. I don't remember the indicated dose rate, but it was enough to make me sweat when I saw it. 😮 If I ever see SHITBALLS, I'm running away! 😂
5:00 your description about gamma source weld radiography and how the equipment works and the source is stored was absolutely bang on! 100% 👌 well impressed 👍
to be fair, we've been using radioactive materials for awhile now, and incidents like this get meticulously documented and investigated so that the same mistakes don't happen again. the number of incidents resulting in harm to humans is, i'd imagine, drastically less than, say, workplace accidents resulting in harm/death. we just pay extra attention to radiation accidents.
Statistically far more people get crushed to death or electrocuted or drowned etc. etc. in more common industries. Radioactivity is just mystifying and terrifying at the same time, being completely invisible.
Unless youre into this stuff of course you wouldnt hear about stuff. You dont hear about all the near accidents with planes like when the people telling planes where to go arent paying attention and accidentally have 2 planes almost collide (which would result in 300+ gone).
My husband watched this with me and we both sat there thinking, 'Oh dear, this is not going to end well'. My husband has been trained in non-destructive testing and has used an x-ray machine to inspect castings. The sheer negligence here in terms of not checking that the machine with the dosimeter, packing it so badly so it was completely exposed and putting it on a bus. What a load of shit balls! They dodged a bullet there. Could have been far worse.
As an NDE tech watching this video with my girlfriend, we both felt the same way! Have seen a lot of people from the industry in these comment sections.
*radiographic film not photographic film. I was a CGSB certified class 2 industrial radiographer for twenty years and used this very 660 series camera. Great show. This is a nightmare scenario, 100%... I've done source retrievals in the field... but this is part of the radiographer certification in Canada... and these guys were clearly incompetent...!! First time commenting, but longggtime watcher...!! ✌️🇨🇦🙂☢️
I'd add "Easily preventable," some people just had to use their dosimeters as per SOP and it would have never gotten to the bus. *Edit:* For the "people" referred to here having a dosimeter is actually SOP and part of their job since they directly work with a radiological source.
@@davidlium9338 cause the bus passengers had nothing to do with the whole story. It's like asking any random on the streets why he's not wearing PPE right now. It wasn't a bus specially chartered to transport the source and the workers.
Good to see PD getting back to its radiological roots. Seems like you've run short on these types of incidents, and that's a good thing for the general public I'd say. Also, I want a device that reads out "shitballs" when it goes off-scale high.
This is the kinda stuff you would expect at the "power tools rental" counter in your next door hardware store. "Here you go mate, couldn't put it back as it came but you figure it out"
From what I’ve heard listening to these types of stories, it seems like radioactive material is safe when it’s used properly. Problems mostly occur when people can’t be bothered and just throw the uranium tube in a cardboard box, or just let workers climb into a sterilizer to unjam with the radioactive pencils with their bare hands, or just leaving a piece of radioactive cord on a job site because “aww oopsie guess it fell out of the truck during lunch. Don’t touch it or you’ll die!”
Lots of stuff is like that. Like with medication, my grandma takes warfarin to prevent blood clots, which is basically rat poison, but it's a prescribed dose and her blood is regularly tested and monitored to make sure that her levels are safe. It's not that radioactive material is safe, it's that we know it's dangerous and that's why we have such strict regulations. The regulations are what keep you safe. As long as you respect the dangers of radiation enough to follow the rules, you are safe.
Lotta things are like that. The main difference is that with radioactive materials, it's mere presence when mishandled can cause severe issues for everyone around. Which kinda only reinforces the stupidity of those who mishandle it.
The classic: untrained personnel, very casual handling of the hazardous substance and a laissez-faire mentality. The passengers and operating personnel were extremely lucky.
In many years of tech support I've learned never to trust the user diagnostic of what is wrong. Always ask them what are you trying to do and what have you done so far. Asking a couple of questions may have led to a radiation scan being done at the right time.
If you find this scary, the Soviet Union produced around 2,500 portable nuclear reactors called "Beta-M" units and dotted them all over their occupied territories. Then in 1991 the Soviet Union collapsed, they couldn't afford to monitor or repair these units, and documentation about their locations was lost. We are only aware of THREE being found and accounted for. We don't know how many of the 2,500 were deployed, how many were used in military installations, how many were abandoned out in the open, how many have been found and led to deaths, or how many are still out there just waiting for someone to accidentally discover without knowing what it is. Russia is an ignorant country led by ignorant men who never want to take responsibility for anything. They have no plan to locate these objects or deal with the public safety aspect. They will forever just shove their heads up their backsides and pretend it's not a problem.
@saucelessbones5872 lol that's cute. Crackhead stole a very similar device a few years back and tried to pawn it here in the Southern United States. Why can't I ever be lucky enough to stumble across a situation like this. Would be the absolute peak of a "spicy" Source collection
@@Moon_x_sun the ... are for you to fill out, to make it more universally usable. have you ever seen someone going "im so mart" while doing something REALLY REALLY BAD? Like oh cutting out various safety related life saving steps because too much work? thats what that is for!
The Co-60 comment (at 12:58) sent me into a rabbit hole, because it didn't make sense to me. I learned more about these sealed source projector devices and in particular, that this series of them was only rated for a relatively much smaller amount of Co-60 (a few MBq's worth), and the modern counterpart isn't for a Co-60 source at all. All of the modern Co-60 source projectors are a lot bigger & heavier at hundreds of kilograms which I believe is because the gammas from Co-60 are much more energetic and therefore necessitate thicker shielding. Now, my conclusion from this is that if it was a Co-60 source then it likely wouldn't have been a one man operation nor would the equipment have been moved by bus or taxi, because that would have additionally required a forklift to accomplish.
At JPL, I performed space flight component radiation tolerance lot acceptance testing, using Cobalt60, Cesium137 to simulate the deep space flight environment for Magellan, Galileo space probes - they preferred to hire musicians, with a hint of Homer Simpson ;)
Radioactive material comes in handy if the heater on the bus isn't working , you may get radiation sickness or your hair may fall out; but hey at least you stay warm.
I am forever amazed at the lack of care or bother towards an understanding of procedures in most of South America. Whether it be in government arrogance or private ignorance, there is a startling sense of "meh" about everything in SA.
Right? How would a bus driver even allow this, given that the box was clearly labeled radioactive, that should have least raised some questions. I mean, thats so "international" and globally known, you can even be an analphabetic person and you probably still recognize the symbol have a fair idea of "this is dangerous".
In the United States, these type of sources are required to be under lock and key when no in use. But they are stolen more than you care to know from locked trucks (not public buses) or from secured areas on construction sites.
Hi, radiographer here. Iridium 192 is used for a few reasons, one being the image quality it produces (since its a physically smaller source with a different gamma profile), another being a lower half-life so the disaster an orphaned source would have been mitigated compared to, say Cobalt 60. Also compared to cobalt 60, Iridium 192 has much lower penetration which makes it much easier to handle in the transport cases. An iridium case like the one in the video will have about 40 pounds of uranium in it verses nearly 500 pounds for cobalt, the cobalt transporters are large 4 wheeled carts verses the small hand held cases for iridium. The way they identified its location using the gloryhole is pretty insane compared to the aperture test they could have done. Similar to a pinhole camera, a collimator (think a sheet of lead with a pinhole in it) a few inches in front of a piece of film would have been able to identify a source anywhere in front of it using simple geometry. It would have dramatically reduced the amount of time anyone would have to spend recovering it.
Having worked in the nuclear submarine industry we were constantly reminded that our biggest risk of radiation was during non destructive testing of welds.
I like to tell people that the most radioactive object that the average person will ever encounter is an elderly person on the bus. I've had a number of different reactions to that statement, most of them hilarious for me. I follow up by showing them my gamma spectrometer dosimeter and telling them how cool of a hobby it is to be a radiation hunter, talk about the radioactive rock I found under the dog walking path, and tell them that the radioactive person on the bus just had a type of radio imaging that required them to be injected with technetium 99 metastable, a synthetic element that produces matter/antimatter annihilations resulting in 511 kilo electron volt gamma photons used in positron emission tomography (PET Scan) Also, I stress that it's actually harmless and nothing to worry about. 😅
Eh... there _is_ an effect where late-comers are more likely to have the newest version of a technology, because they don't have the sunk cost of a pre-established infrastructure. Wouldn't make 'Bolivian nuclear bus' _likely,_ but humans do wacky things sometimes.
@@dwayne7356 yes, that era when they also made documentaries about big buildings burning, big earthquakes, big airplanes crashing, big balloons bursting into flames,... 😂😂😂
Getting closer to a blackout bingo card every time. I've done some sketchy stuff, but what you document on this channel is something else. Thanks for all you do.
Grief.. i remember doing my SNC course in 1988.. the first 3 pages on NDT were very clear about personal dose badges and other safety equipment.. I guess Bolivian technical colleges didn't have enough paper to give handouts to everyone..
Uh, uh, uh a radioactive Story! Still my favourites, these were the ones that originally drew me to this channel. Thanks for keeping up the good work all these years, and also, thank you for the music!
I'm surprised that "company blames victims" wasn't marked. Surely, the company would blame the employees for not doing their job according to the manual and not wearing their company-issued protective gear when handling the equipment.
The fact that you'd never know what was happening to you if you were on the bus, and some of those people are walking around out there today still with no clue. A friend of mine bought a Geiger counter that she carries around to antique shops for this reason.
Been a industrial radiographer for 27 years. I've only seen one disconnect and retrieval. Great job on explaining the hole thing. You did confuse a dosemeter and Sergey meter. But it's all good? Great video.
As somebody who went to school for welding and actually had a class on radiographic weld testing. I would say that you did a pretty good job at explaining the process.
We used to use lower activity 192Ir sources (high kiloBq / microCi) for brachytherapy. The gamma spectrum is significant in terms of energy (i.e. penetrance), with significant emission peaks in the hard gamma spectrum (up to 612 keV). Source activity of 670 GBq (or 18 Ci) is a LOT, hence the depleted Uranium shielding (and even then there will be residual breakthrough).
Since cancer can never truly be tracked to it's cause, when one or more of those passengers dies of it, no one will ever know that it may have been caused by this incident.
Gov. Agency: “Are you sure it’s a good idea to transfer the responsibilities of transportation of radioactive cargo off to a private company?” Government: “Of course! What could go wrong?” …. Years later …. Plainly Difficult: *Clears throat*
For your bingo card. I'd say "easily preventable" given they could have had a company owned truck with a shielded locker in the bed for equipment. At least then you wouldn't be exposing the general public to an exposed gamma radiation source.
On top of everything else, I'd just like to note that based on the photo at 8:24, the "proper" carrying case for the apparatus appears, in itself, to be nothing more than the kind of can U.S. Army .30-caliber rifle ammunition comes in, but it _has_ been spray-painted black for extra radiation containment, so that should be fine. Oh, and the lid appears to be missing, but, you know. You can't be _too_ picky about this stuff.
That was perfect timing. At 3:08 He said, "The container worked like this:" and at that exact time my roommate was playing Assassins Creed Valhalla and there was a Horn Sound that blasted right as he started giving the explanation for the box I was about to be really impressed by this box
I work in non-destructive testing. I'd say you missed out on easily preventable. I know you called them dosimetry in the video. But here we call them survey meters, that should have told the technician the source was stuck in the tube. Also here we wear what are called alarming rate meters that sound an alarm when you exceed a certain rate of dosage from a source. That would have told the technician, too. All in all a great video, you described the way the camera works flawlessly, even down to the terminology. It's very fortunate the iridium was an old source, I knew a guy who grabbed a collimator with the source still stuck in it with a fresh source in it. His hand looked like it had been boiled and it broke out in blisters every year.
Radiographers typically carry what are called survey meters and they are to be monitored at all times during shooting. The dosimeter is a personally worn device that is worn typically in a breast pocket or on the belt for the duration of the day. That should include the time that the camera is removed from the facility vault until it is returned. Dosimeters are a measure of the total cumulative dose one is exposed to per day. In the US there is also a film badge that is also worn on the body at all times. Each employee has their own badge with their name to be worn at all times. There are also area film badges placed in control areas in the facility that houses the vault or other storage areas. These film badges are sent monthly to a regulatory agency that measure the exposer the badge received during that month period and all of the data is kept for each person, each badge, each month to track total exposure over long term. IR 192 in the form in this video is not harmless, but not insane. In the configuration for the 660 camera, the pill is enclosed. The enclosed pill blocks 100% of the Alpha and Beta particles allowing only the gamma rays to escape when the pill is cranked out for a shot.
This was an interesting video, but as someone who used to be trained in emergency responses to radioactive and other hazardous materials incidents, I was a bit annoyed by references to dosimeters. Dosimeters record the total amount of radiation they've been exposed to: RADIACs measure the actual dose _rates_. There's a _vast_ difference in how those instruments work and what they indicate. You use a RADIAC to detect radiation and how high the level at a given time, while dosimeters measure the total dose they're exposed to. It's like the difference between a speedometer (distance travelled per unit time) and an odometer (total distance travelled). Other than that, this was a pretty good piece. I'm glad to see that what could have been an immediately lethal incident was not.
I found an unmarked rental van (no radiation signs) with UK plates (this is in Ireland) parked near me that was radioactive, quite high, 4.35 microsieverts per hour outside the van. The highest reading at the back door of the van, far away from the driver seat. There was a pickup truck parked near the van, Googled the company name, they did weld inspection. I presume the van collected fresh radioisotope or a gamma camera from the UK.
12:58 I believe Co-60 would have likely been safer, because it requires thicker shielding, so either in a similar ~20kg carriable sealed source projector device there would have been far less of it (so less exposure for everyone involved) or it wouldn't have been moved by bus or taxi because it couldn't have been loaded into one without a forklift because it would have weighed more than 100kg. But this could have easily been much worse if the Ir-192 source had been fresh, assuming it wasn't.
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www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Publications/PDF/Pub1199_web.pdf
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inis.iaea.org/collection/NCLCollectionStore/_Public/53/066/53066731.pdf
ionactive.co.uk/resource-hub/blog/potential-occupational-non-occupational-and-accidental-radiation-exposures-in-industrial-radiography-using-radioactive-sources
www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1028/ML102871150.pdf
You are now responsible for the term "Radiation Glory Hole".
I'd have never known that there's been so, so many nuclear accidents. It's blowing my brain to bits
@@megarural3000 that's a bad responsibility to have brought up on one's self. Oof
I see you used the same sample as Boards of Canada in the outro. Been years since I've listened to them. I'll give your album a listen :)
Thank you, no.
I won't be checking out your "bits."... Unless they're mentioned in The Guinness Book of World Records.😂
Thanks for posting your videos. I do look forward to them.
🎵 The wheels on the bus glow round and round 🎶
HAHAHAHA!!!
I'm dyin laughing.
You win the internet today. Lol
LMFAO 😂😂
The gieger counter on the bus goes click click click!
"But instead, he did this!" The disbelief in John's voice says it all 😂
I paused it to show my wife lol
I literally facepalmed when I saw that hackjob...
They got very lucky it was a small source of not so horrible emission lines, Cobalt 60 is quite a bit worse at the same intensity even, and on top of that the bus' structure probably helping a bit.
When I saw it I gave such a horrified gasp my cat was concerned for my well being.
I can’t imagine how anyone can look at that and say to themselves, “Job well done!”
When I saw it I gave such a horrified gasp my cat was concerned for my well being.
I can’t imagine how anyone can look at that and say to themselves, “Job well done!”
Also, can he not see the box on the right literally had the “wide eyes” emoji on it?!?
"lack of proper toilet facilities"
That drug up a nightmare memory... 4 days stuck on an overloaded Greyhound where a family of 6 had food poisoning... We didn't care that it was under 30F and snowing, EVERY window was open as wide as the frame would allow.
Edit: In hindsight... I think I would have rather been irradiated...
Now that is a shitty trip 😳
4 DAYS?! Jesus, I thought our 4 hour UK megabus journeys were bad.
I got stuck at an airport once for weather. A family found a smoking deal on a rental car as the rental company wanted it relocated to the airport we were all flying to. They were offering to go halves on paying for the rental. We considered going but decided not to. Thankfully lol as we later watched the wife going in an out of the bathroom about 5 times an hour
@@TheSummersilk Milton-Freewater, OR to Ft Jackson, SC. Across the US, save about 10 hours it was a literal coast to coast ride.
Unfortunately, irradiation would also have given everyone the squits.
Big-time.
You meet the worst people on buses. Then there's this guy
"That guy shoes smell so bad it must be radioactive and toxic!"
And then there's radioactive source right below them.
“Take the national express, if your life’s in a mess…”
With apologies to the Divine Comedy. 😂
Putting an active radiation source on a BUS.
Not great, not terrible.
...just when you thought the people who listen to music on speaker on the bus was bad.
Still not as bad as that Greyhound bus between Edmonton and Winnipeg where that passenger got katana'd and eaten in front of a horrified bus full of passengers. And now that guy walks among us...
When I was a bus driver down in Devon a bloke wanted to get on my bus with a Goat on a lead. I said no livestock allowed. He then made a complaint to the Company. I still laugh about that all these years later. Thanks John....
I'm still pissed you wouldn't let my uncle on with his goat.
I had to pick them both up and transport the goat in my car, where it crapped on the seat.
@@volvo09 And that's why livestock is not allowed on a bus. Not even Chickens....
I'd have complained, too. This aggression towards goats will not stand.
@jakobrebeki In the late 1970s, I joined my parents in London. After a week, my parents went to Amsterdam and I went to Marseille. My father advised me to go second class to "meet the people." One of the people had a wicker box of chickens.
In Paris, I changed to First Class on a different train and took First Class back to London from Marseille.
The difference in cost for round trip at the time was less than £3.
@@RobertJarecki The best £3 you ever spent....
I work at a university where some of the research groups us Geiger counters. I have GOT to tell them about these new models with the "shitballs" reading. Thanks John!
Reminds me of those loony toons moments where dials or switches have "11" or something like that added by the characters for comedic effect.
I spent my career at a U.S. National Laboratory. Many years previous, radioactive waste (high and low level) was dumped into 55 gal drums, and then had concrete poured into it. The problem, was that no one kept an inventory of what went into them. Before shipping them to long-term storage, we needed to know the exact contents. We had to bring in an X-Ray machine, that could take X-Rays through concrete and steel. It was actually a 3D X-Ray, as the barrels spun around on a platform, while being continuously X-Rayed. It was one of the few times, that I ever saw a 'GRAVE WARNING' sign. I don't remember the indicated dose rate, but it was enough to make me sweat when I saw it. 😮 If I ever see SHITBALLS, I'm running away! 😂
@@Willam_JGood One. Definitely Shitballs is the cue to leave ASAP. 🤣
Radiation Glory Hole was the name of my New Wave-Electronic fusion band.
I want to hear some now.
@@nekowolf583
Oh it's _fusion_ all right
Shouldn't it be a fission band?
@@nonna_sof5889 only when they split
Leaves in a sealed locked case. Returns in two separate boxes with balled up cables. "Looks fine to me!" 😮
Wow , he managed to make a bus journey even more unpleasant than normal , that's quite an achievement
Welp, I give it until the end of the day until 'radiation gloryhole' becomes a usable tag online
Hmmm. Sounds enticing...
Hello
@@RadioactiveGloryHole your not a cat. Why this username?
@gekkedirkie that's right, I am definitely not a cat that ate magic mushrooms and learned how to use the Internet. That could never happen.
“Dad, what’s a radiation Gloryhole?”
That’s where I met your mother.
(We both work as nuclear engineers)
5:00 your description about gamma source weld radiography and how the equipment works and the source is stored was absolutely bang on! 100% 👌 well impressed 👍
Not sure how I am supposed to feel that there are so many radiological stories for this channel to explore every now and then.
to be fair, we've been using radioactive materials for awhile now, and incidents like this get meticulously documented and investigated so that the same mistakes don't happen again. the number of incidents resulting in harm to humans is, i'd imagine, drastically less than, say, workplace accidents resulting in harm/death. we just pay extra attention to radiation accidents.
ב''ה, check out the history of US labor relations
Statistically far more people get crushed to death or electrocuted or drowned etc. etc. in more common industries. Radioactivity is just mystifying and terrifying at the same time, being completely invisible.
I see them as PSAs.
Unless youre into this stuff of course you wouldnt hear about stuff. You dont hear about all the near accidents with planes like when the people telling planes where to go arent paying attention and accidentally have 2 planes almost collide (which would result in 300+ gone).
My husband watched this with me and we both sat there thinking, 'Oh dear, this is not going to end well'. My husband has been trained in non-destructive testing and has used an x-ray machine to inspect castings. The sheer negligence here in terms of not checking that the machine with the dosimeter, packing it so badly so it was completely exposed and putting it on a bus. What a load of shit balls! They dodged a bullet there. Could have been far worse.
As an NDE tech watching this video with my girlfriend, we both felt the same way! Have seen a lot of people from the industry in these comment sections.
I worked in the nuclear submarine building industry, and NDE was always our biggest risk of irradiation.
*radiographic film not photographic film.
I was a CGSB certified class 2 industrial radiographer for twenty years and used this very 660 series camera.
Great show.
This is a nightmare scenario, 100%... I've done source retrievals in the field... but this is part of the radiographer certification in Canada... and these guys were clearly incompetent...!!
First time commenting, but longggtime watcher...!! ✌️🇨🇦🙂☢️
Good for you
I'd add "Easily preventable," some people just had to use their dosimeters as per SOP and it would have never gotten to the bus.
*Edit:* For the "people" referred to here having a dosimeter is actually SOP and part of their job since they directly work with a radiological source.
Safety interlock is active "it has to be broken"....
Rather than, it's doing it's job...
Everyone should have a dosimeter at all times!
Why didn’t the bus passengers have them?
@@davidlium9338 The people who regularly work with radioactive materials had dosimeters and didn't use them when they should have is the point here.
@@davidlium9338 cause the bus passengers had nothing to do with the whole story.
It's like asking any random on the streets why he's not wearing PPE right now.
It wasn't a bus specially chartered to transport the source and the workers.
@@volvo09 You'd think the procedure would be to check with dosimeter right?
Good to see PD getting back to its radiological roots. Seems like you've run short on these types of incidents, and that's a good thing for the general public I'd say. Also, I want a device that reads out "shitballs" when it goes off-scale high.
And a computer that displays "u f*cked up" on the screen when things really go sideways.
Arduino projects work for this
The words "radiation" and "glory hole" must never be used together. Ever. Again.
I so agree. Never
Idk. I try to be open minded.
Glowing reviews
I dont know what to say
This was a mulligan. But never, ever, ever again. Forbidden
This is the kinda stuff you would expect at the "power tools rental" counter in your next door hardware store. "Here you go mate, couldn't put it back as it came but you figure it out"
From what I’ve heard listening to these types of stories, it seems like radioactive material is safe when it’s used properly. Problems mostly occur when people can’t be bothered and just throw the uranium tube in a cardboard box, or just let workers climb into a sterilizer to unjam with the radioactive pencils with their bare hands, or just leaving a piece of radioactive cord on a job site because “aww oopsie guess it fell out of the truck during lunch. Don’t touch it or you’ll die!”
Lots of stuff is like that.
Like with medication, my grandma takes warfarin to prevent blood clots, which is basically rat poison, but it's a prescribed dose and her blood is regularly tested and monitored to make sure that her levels are safe.
It's not that radioactive material is safe, it's that we know it's dangerous and that's why we have such strict regulations. The regulations are what keep you safe. As long as you respect the dangers of radiation enough to follow the rules, you are safe.
Lotta things are like that. The main difference is that with radioactive materials, it's mere presence when mishandled can cause severe issues for everyone around.
Which kinda only reinforces the stupidity of those who mishandle it.
8:39 I love how even the eyes on the box are like "SHOOK" "WHAT YOU DOING TO US PLS GOD NOOOOO" lol
So once again something that sounds like it could have come out of a sitcom actually happened in real life.
Yes that cardboard box did the trick alright!!!
Next up, the man who fell over an ottoman and onto the "Nuke the planet" button.
... I did NOT have *Radiation Glory Hole* on my 2024 Bingo Card, yet here we are. 🤣
Really? It was right in the middle of mine!
...What?!?
@@thing_under_the_stairs ... wait, did I get the SFW version of the card by accident again??
@@manuel-manufs-sambs Either that, or they sent me the extra-spicy version for some reason... Definitely not by accident.
@@thing_under_the_stairs "Some reason" Mmmmmm-hmmmmmm
It's ok nobody did
Passengers be like “ooohh, heated seats”
And if you can get hold photographic film, DIY x-rays, if you hold one over your head. Who needs health insurance ... take that United Health Care !
If they got new shoes they could also check the fit on the ride home
I somehow doubt that is a much sought after feature on buses in South America...
More like "portable ondol"...good job it wasn't a Sampoong bus!
The classic: untrained personnel, very casual handling of the hazardous substance and a laissez-faire mentality. The passengers and operating personnel were extremely lucky.
Even the cardboard box is like "bruh... really?!" 8:31
This is a level of carelessness and ineptitude that makes you wonder how our species has made it this far.
In many years of tech support I've learned never to trust the user diagnostic of what is wrong. Always ask them what are you trying to do and what have you done so far. Asking a couple of questions may have led to a radiation scan being done at the right time.
It's scary how easily something so dangerous could be overlooked.
Not in developed countries
If you dont understand how things work it is difficult to understand a problem when things go wrong
If you find this scary, the Soviet Union produced around 2,500 portable nuclear reactors called "Beta-M" units and dotted them all over their occupied territories. Then in 1991 the Soviet Union collapsed, they couldn't afford to monitor or repair these units, and documentation about their locations was lost. We are only aware of THREE being found and accounted for. We don't know how many of the 2,500 were deployed, how many were used in military installations, how many were abandoned out in the open, how many have been found and led to deaths, or how many are still out there just waiting for someone to accidentally discover without knowing what it is.
Russia is an ignorant country led by ignorant men who never want to take responsibility for anything. They have no plan to locate these objects or deal with the public safety aspect. They will forever just shove their heads up their backsides and pretend it's not a problem.
@saucelessbones5872 lol that's cute. Crackhead stole a very similar device a few years back and tried to pawn it here in the Southern United States. Why can't I ever be lucky enough to stumble across a situation like this. Would be the absolute peak of a "spicy" Source collection
@saucelessbones5872 ironical since the self proclaimed "best country in the world 🦅 had plenty even more crazy accidents
“Radiation glory hole” is not a combination of words that I thought I would hear on a Saturday morning. Or ever, for that matter 😂
This is why, it's said that no knowledge is bad, but a little knowledge is dangerous.
Ah yes, the dreaded four riders of accident-a-lypse
- didn't know
- didn't understand
- didn't care
- did think its smarts to ...
I don’t understand the last one Wdym?
@@Moon_x_sun the ... are for you to fill out, to make it more universally usable.
have you ever seen someone going "im so mart" while doing something REALLY REALLY BAD? Like oh cutting out various safety related life saving steps because too much work?
thats what that is for!
Boiling water in the hot water bottle.
@@Moon_x_sunLemme give a hypothetical example.
Jimmy thought it was smart to pour water on a cooking oil fire.
Jimmy burnt his house down.
Yup Co-60 if it had been in the cargo hold would probably have been way worse, especially if it was a radiotherapy source.
The Co-60 comment (at 12:58) sent me into a rabbit hole, because it didn't make sense to me. I learned more about these sealed source projector devices and in particular, that this series of them was only rated for a relatively much smaller amount of Co-60 (a few MBq's worth), and the modern counterpart isn't for a Co-60 source at all. All of the modern Co-60 source projectors are a lot bigger & heavier at hundreds of kilograms which I believe is because the gammas from Co-60 are much more energetic and therefore necessitate thicker shielding. Now, my conclusion from this is that if it was a Co-60 source then it likely wouldn't have been a one man operation nor would the equipment have been moved by bus or taxi, because that would have additionally required a forklift to accomplish.
At JPL, I performed space flight component radiation tolerance lot acceptance testing, using Cobalt60, Cesium137 to simulate the deep space flight environment for Magellan, Galileo space probes - they preferred to hire musicians, with a hint of Homer Simpson ;)
Radioactive material comes in handy if the heater on the bus isn't working , you may get radiation sickness or your hair may fall out; but hey at least you stay warm.
The source on these is actually pretty warm but not hot enough to heat the bus. About the same as a French fry fresh from the deep fryer when new. 😮
“Radiation Glory Hole” would make a great name for a band.
I am forever amazed at the lack of care or bother towards an understanding of procedures in most of South America. Whether it be in government arrogance or private ignorance, there is a startling sense of "meh" about everything in SA.
Me when seeing the title:HOW DO YOU ACCIDENTALLY TRANSPORT EXPOSED RADIOACTIVE MATERIALS ON PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION?!
Right? How would a bus driver even allow this, given that the box was clearly labeled radioactive, that should have least raised some questions. I mean, thats so "international" and globally known, you can even be an analphabetic person and you probably still recognize the symbol have a fair idea of "this is dangerous".
According to the video, quite easily! 😮
@ in underdeveloped countries that does seem to be the case
In the United States, these type of sources are required to be under lock and key when no in use. But they are stolen more than you care to know from locked trucks (not public buses) or from secured areas on construction sites.
Do the people stealing them know what they are? Or are they just assuming that something that is locked up is valuable?
@@rogercroft3218Meth tweakers and crackheads operate on logic that is incomprehensible to us mere mortals. 😂
@@rogercroft3218 My guess is they have no clue, then when they try to fence it nobody wants to touch it and they dump it 😬
That was at least a 5 with the sheer negligence on the part of everyone involved.
You are the sound of my Saturday mornings, John.
thank you!!
Hi, radiographer here. Iridium 192 is used for a few reasons, one being the image quality it produces (since its a physically smaller source with a different gamma profile), another being a lower half-life so the disaster an orphaned source would have been mitigated compared to, say Cobalt 60. Also compared to cobalt 60, Iridium 192 has much lower penetration which makes it much easier to handle in the transport cases. An iridium case like the one in the video will have about 40 pounds of uranium in it verses nearly 500 pounds for cobalt, the cobalt transporters are large 4 wheeled carts verses the small hand held cases for iridium.
The way they identified its location using the gloryhole is pretty insane compared to the aperture test they could have done. Similar to a pinhole camera, a collimator (think a sheet of lead with a pinhole in it) a few inches in front of a piece of film would have been able to identify a source anywhere in front of it using simple geometry. It would have dramatically reduced the amount of time anyone would have to spend recovering it.
"A max fine of 10 minimum monthly salaries", 'so like 500 dollars.' Damn, that's rough.
I think "Easily Preventable" oughta be tacked on as well, considering how often everyone neglected to test the radiation levels.
Having worked in the nuclear submarine industry we were constantly reminded that our biggest risk of radiation was during non destructive testing of welds.
Is ultrasound good enough?
So the nuclear propelled bit is irrelevant. Any weld on any submarine or ship
"Easily Preventable" ought to be marked on the bingo card. That would only leave two open factors, which may be a record 😃
Such a low score, despite almost a full bingo card - outstanding! 😯
Love my Saturday morning Southern London, UK weather update.
Every time you do one of the radiation incidents I just find myself absolutely gobsmacked at the sheer level of incompetence.
As a NDT Inspector using IR192 you nailed it ;)
“The VENGA Bus is coming..”
lol nice reference 😂
The gamma rays are thumpin' ...
I like to tell people that the most radioactive object that the average person will ever encounter is an elderly person on the bus.
I've had a number of different reactions to that statement, most of them hilarious for me.
I follow up by showing them my gamma spectrometer dosimeter and telling them how cool of a hobby it is to be a radiation hunter, talk about the radioactive rock I found under the dog walking path, and tell them that the radioactive person on the bus just had a type of radio imaging that required them to be injected with technetium 99 metastable, a synthetic element that produces matter/antimatter annihilations resulting in 511 kilo electron volt gamma photons used in positron emission tomography (PET Scan)
Also, I stress that it's actually harmless and nothing to worry about. 😅
0:36 Oh yes that was my first thought exactly, a nuclear powered bolivian bus
You mean in the 1976 documentary film; The Big Bus?
Eh... there _is_ an effect where late-comers are more likely to have the newest version of a technology, because they don't have the sunk cost of a pre-established infrastructure. Wouldn't make 'Bolivian nuclear bus' _likely,_ but humans do wacky things sometimes.
@@dwayne7356 yes, that era when they also made documentaries about big buildings burning, big earthquakes, big airplanes crashing, big balloons bursting into flames,... 😂😂😂
Getting closer to a blackout bingo card every time. I've done some sketchy stuff, but what you document on this channel is something else. Thanks for all you do.
Grief.. i remember doing my SNC course in 1988.. the first 3 pages on NDT were very clear about personal dose badges and other safety equipment.. I guess Bolivian technical colleges didn't have enough paper to give handouts to everyone..
You know the Nuclear Boy Scout?
Now, get ready for the Nuclear Bus Coach!
Uh, uh, uh a radioactive Story! Still my favourites, these were the ones that originally drew me to this channel. Thanks for keeping up the good work all these years, and also, thank you for the music!
Radiation Gloryhole is my new punk band name
Opening for the heavy metal band Actinide Series.
My autobiography title.
.... What?
I'm surprised that "company blames victims" wasn't marked. Surely, the company would blame the employees for not doing their job according to the manual and not wearing their company-issued protective gear when handling the equipment.
Radiological events like this always frighten me.
The fact that you'd never know what was happening to you if you were on the bus, and some of those people are walking around out there today still with no clue. A friend of mine bought a Geiger counter that she carries around to antique shops for this reason.
Then stay away from glory holes!
Been a industrial radiographer for 27 years. I've only seen one disconnect and retrieval. Great job on explaining the hole thing. You did confuse a dosemeter and Sergey meter. But it's all good? Great video.
As somebody who went to school for welding and actually had a class on radiographic weld testing. I would say that you did a pretty good job at explaining the process.
Used densitometers in oil field and many of the safety people really had no respect for sources or safety
4:35 I think you mean if more radiation is detected the material is thinner, if less radiation is detected the material is thicker.
Yeah, he accidentally switched from 'more absorbed' to 'less detected' instead of 'less absorbed'.
We used to use lower activity 192Ir sources (high kiloBq / microCi) for brachytherapy. The gamma spectrum is significant in terms of energy (i.e. penetrance), with significant emission peaks in the hard gamma spectrum (up to 612 keV). Source activity of 670 GBq (or 18 Ci) is a LOT, hence the depleted Uranium shielding (and even then there will be residual breakthrough).
Since cancer can never truly be tracked to it's cause, when one or more of those passengers dies of it, no one will ever know that it may have been caused by this incident.
Literally was just binging your older videos! Perfect timing
THANK YOU for using the word "literally" correctly.
"A radiation 'gloryhole'" that phrasing is just wild 😅😅😅
Gov. Agency: “Are you sure it’s a good idea to transfer the responsibilities of transportation of radioactive cargo off to a private company?”
Government: “Of course! What could go wrong?”
…. Years later ….
Plainly Difficult: *Clears throat*
Well, there was also that disposal into an unlined quarry next to a river in an illegal garbage dump that caught fire.
For your bingo card. I'd say "easily preventable" given they could have had a company owned truck with a shielded locker in the bed for equipment. At least then you wouldn't be exposing the general public to an exposed gamma radiation source.
A company from my country (US) being irresponsible with HazMat?! Never!
On top of everything else, I'd just like to note that based on the photo at 8:24, the "proper" carrying case for the apparatus appears, in itself, to be nothing more than the kind of can U.S. Army .30-caliber rifle ammunition comes in, but it _has_ been spray-painted black for extra radiation containment, so that should be fine. Oh, and the lid appears to be missing, but, you know. You can't be _too_ picky about this stuff.
"They basically made a radiation-glory-hole"
Didn't think I would hear *that* this year.... xD
Oh HELL YEAH. I absolutely love your radiation videos they're my favourite
10:02...I love the screen of the dosimeter reading " SHITE BALLS"
All radiation meters should have that message when it goes over a safe amount 👍
should probably have 'RUN!' & 'dont bother' levels
10:38 - Things you never thought you'd hear, EVER! HAHAHA
That bus was totally rad, dude.
How messed up is it that I'm excited to hear about a radiation accident I've never heard of before?
Radiation + Plainly Difficult = Good times.
I facepalmed more times than usual during this video! And I thought my past bus experiences were bad!
RADIATION GLORY HOLE I chocked on me dinnah, cheers champ
I love the dry sarcasm of this series. Also *WTF* ?
"Disconnected and was stuck somewhere"
That sounds like me most Saturday nights.
That was perfect timing.
At 3:08 He said, "The container worked like this:"
and at that exact time my roommate was playing Assassins Creed Valhalla and there was a Horn Sound that blasted right as he started giving the explanation for the box
I was about to be really impressed by this box
Lmao, im from Cochabamba, your pronunciation is perfect.
Sounds like an amazing 1970s tv show. Radioactive Bus. Like SuperTrain or Love Boat.
On the bright side, bus passangers got a most radical feet fungus treatment.
I work in non-destructive testing. I'd say you missed out on easily preventable. I know you called them dosimetry in the video. But here we call them survey meters, that should have told the technician the source was stuck in the tube. Also here we wear what are called alarming rate meters that sound an alarm when you exceed a certain rate of dosage from a source. That would have told the technician, too. All in all a great video, you described the way the camera works flawlessly, even down to the terminology. It's very fortunate the iridium was an old source, I knew a guy who grabbed a collimator with the source still stuck in it with a fresh source in it. His hand looked like it had been boiled and it broke out in blisters every year.
1.2 grays is 120 roentgens. That's an awful lot; I am surprised that no one was found to have radiation sickness.
Radiographers typically carry what are called survey meters and they are to be monitored at all times during shooting. The dosimeter is a personally worn device that is worn typically in a breast pocket or on the belt for the duration of the day. That should include the time that the camera is removed from the facility vault until it is returned. Dosimeters are a measure of the total cumulative dose one is exposed to per day. In the US there is also a film badge that is also worn on the body at all times. Each employee has their own badge with their name to be worn at all times. There are also area film badges placed in control areas in the facility that houses the vault or other storage areas. These film badges are sent monthly to a regulatory agency that measure the exposer the badge received during that month period and all of the data is kept for each person, each badge, each month to track total exposure over long term. IR 192 in the form in this video is not harmless, but not insane. In the configuration for the 660 camera, the pill is enclosed. The enclosed pill blocks 100% of the Alpha and Beta particles allowing only the gamma rays to escape when the pill is cranked out for a shot.
A pretty good explanation of how to x-ray a weld. I was a Radiation Safety Officer with the largest NDE operator in the US.
10:02 „It was telling him the source was not in the right Position.“ Yeah well everyone with seeing eyes should have been able to tell them that 😬
This was an interesting video, but as someone who used to be trained in emergency responses to radioactive and other hazardous materials incidents, I was a bit annoyed by references to dosimeters. Dosimeters record the total amount of radiation they've been exposed to: RADIACs measure the actual dose _rates_. There's a _vast_ difference in how those instruments work and what they indicate. You use a RADIAC to detect radiation and how high the level at a given time, while dosimeters measure the total dose they're exposed to. It's like the difference between a speedometer (distance travelled per unit time) and an odometer (total distance travelled).
Other than that, this was a pretty good piece. I'm glad to see that what could have been an immediately lethal incident was not.
I love Bolivia but damn, this doesn't surprise me as much as it should knowing where it happened.
This is why I always carry a gamma ray scintillation detector with me.
I found an unmarked rental van (no radiation signs) with UK plates (this is in Ireland) parked near me that was radioactive, quite high, 4.35 microsieverts per hour outside the van. The highest reading at the back door of the van, far away from the driver seat. There was a pickup truck parked near the van, Googled the company name, they did weld inspection. I presume the van collected fresh radioisotope or a gamma camera from the UK.
2.5 Gray. Not great. Not terrible.
Not gonna lie, a nuclear powered Bus does sound like a fun ride.
Good morning John and thank you as always ❤
12:58 I believe Co-60 would have likely been safer, because it requires thicker shielding, so either in a similar ~20kg carriable sealed source projector device there would have been far less of it (so less exposure for everyone involved) or it wouldn't have been moved by bus or taxi because it couldn't have been loaded into one without a forklift because it would have weighed more than 100kg. But this could have easily been much worse if the Ir-192 source had been fresh, assuming it wasn't.
Ok but the idea of a nuclear powered bus is amazing
They made a plane, which is absolutely mental