"They churned up the soil with a tractor" - Sounds like they plowed the plutonium into the ground so it would be near impossible to do a real cleanup. I might not be the smartest person to ever grace the planet, but even I can tell that's the opposite of securing the site. Something smells ಠ_ಠ
What do you think a 'real cleanup' is? Generally it is removing large, physical, radioactive pieces of rock and other debris. Removing (and burying somewhere) any highly radioactive patches of contaminated topsoil. And then mixing remaining, slightly contaminated top few mm of soil with the underlying soil to reduce level of radiation (which is what the plowing would have done). Plutonium (and other radioactive material, such as soil made radioactive by exposure to a nuclear blast) does just sit around in macroscopic chunks waiting to be picked up and removed. How did you think microscopic pieces of plutonium that might be spread over hundreds of sq km of land area be 'cleaned up'. I totally agree with you assessment that you 'might not be the smartest person to ever grace the planet' though ;) ps. How do you think they are doing the 'cleanup' of the contaminated water stored at Fukishima? They are basically removing the majority of the radioisotopes (that can be easily removed) from the water, then pumping the remaining water (still contaminated by deuterium -- which is chemically identical to the normal hydrogen in water) into the ocean to dilute it a few hundred thousand times. Yes, that will increase the radiation level in the world's oceans by a tiny fraction -- but a lot less than you would increase your bodies natural radioactivity by eating a banana.
Such a sweet gentle voice, delivering a chilling deadly story. Thanks Tibees, you have reminded me of faint memories of Maralinga and Montebello, I will find out more.
@@SpecialSalads Thanks for the reply. We are lucky to have her here in Australia. Her voice is not just softer, it is whisper quiet, and very charming because of this. I hope she is successful in her endeavours. Cheers.
A friend’s father was a naval officer in the 1950s and witnessed the Montebello tests. He died at an unusually early age. They really didn’t consider the potential effects these trials may have had on military personnel and the public at large in those days. Much of the human cost was overlooked or concealed in the time-honoured fashion.
It was intentional. They wanted to study the effects of the radiation on people. My dad was a USAF member during the 60s and 70s. He told me stories of the USAF helping to test the effects of nuclear fallout by dropping nuclear bombs a few miles away from where US Army soldiers were told to camp to expose them to it. He also knew of pilots who were ordered to fly through and around the nuclear detonations to test their effects on the planes and crew. The US govt also found ways to expose its own citizens to radiation to study its health effects without their knowledge or consent too. All nuclear power governments are guilty of these kinds of experiments. When certain harmless public campaigns arise from seemingly nowhere, follow their connections. Many of them will have ties to various government agencies, some that may seem to have nothing to do with what’s being promoted, like when the Quaker Oats company partnered with the Dept of Energy for an oatmeal nutrition experiment. Never trust what the government says about anything. If they say they didn’t do it, they probably did. If they say things are fine, they’re probably not fine.
Evidence in America shows that the local population who witnessed nuclear testing were allowed to do so so that the effects on the population could be observed. Britain often follows American ethics.
"They really didn’t consider the potential effects these trials may have had on military personnel and the public at large in those days. " The Norfolk Southern Train derailment disaster in Ohio shows that's still unchanged these days too.
Thanks for covering this. I knew that they did tests, but I had no idea of the scale of them, or their disastrous impact on the environment and people. It really shows how little the people in charge of this cared about the risks involved, let alone mitigating any possible negative affects.
Mark Oliphant led a very interesting life, and, while, on paper, may have been a British subject (as all Australians were until 1949), he was born and raised in Adelaide, Australia. He was the co-discoverer of Tritium, and Helium 3, plus he did a lot of work on microwave RADAR. Another one of those relatively anonymous but valuable players in the scientific world.
Anonymous in the sense that he's not famous these days, and I don't think that he was ever famous except in academic circles. He caught my notice as an alumnus of my college at Cambridge when he got his PhD under Rutherford. Then I discovered that he was a mentor to my father at Birmingham university. That cemented him in my mind.
@@roadie3124 I went to the university of Adelaide,, and his name adorns some laboratories there. That's about as close as I can get. He founded the Australian Academy of Sciences, and was a state Governor for a while, so was definitely not unknown in Australia, at least.
My impression is that he's quite a famous scientist actually. Probably the most well- known of the three pictured together in this video. I've heard of Cockcroft too, if it's the same one who invented the Cockcroft-Walton voltage multiplier, which was used to accelerate ions in early (the first?) nuclear fusion research. Haven't heard of the other guy (sorry other guy).
@@RainBoxRed ah yeah, I know it, I also studied at Flinders uni, so wandered around there too. Actually, as part of one subject there in the 90s, we did some geophysical surveys in the vicinity of that building - gravity, seismic, and resistivity.
Actually, Earth doesn't care. All mammalians species are relatively short lived (1-3Mya vs ~15Mya for reptiles). I feel like technologically advanced species will be either even shorter lived or the same.
Nobody has ever been bomb with a nuclear bomb. Only 2 atom bombs in Japan and that killed less than conventional bombs in Japan by hundreds of thousands. Importantly Alias didn't die.
Awesome video! Thank you so much for covering this. I didn't know Britian tested nukes in Australia. In my school in the US, we had like a half semester to learn about WW2. We talked very little about the nuclear bombs, and not at all about the scientists or the tests. Certainly not about the innocent people that we killed. It sucks that history is written by the winners, and the winners suck too.
The governments of different countries have always abused their authority and resources upon innocent people. It's ashamed that after thousands of years of doing this, and the destruction it caused, these organizations still haven't ceased to behave this way.
I'm convinced my Nan, my Grandpa, my Aunty died of cancer probably related to the Maralinga testing. I don't know many people of their age group that died of anything but cancer. And I feel that the 2 cancers my mum has had were also probably related. She's just had CAR-T therapy for lymphoma and will probably survive but she was a toddler in Adelaide when the Maralinga testing was going on. Sure there were lots of toxins around in their lifetimes but I'd love to see some comparative statistics for cancer rates in people living in South Australia at the time.
This was a really good video... I would honestly binge watch historical videos such as these made by you... it was very well done and on a topic I knew very little about... great work!
My father was in the RAF and we were posted to Australia in 61-64. My dad was a radar engineer and I believe mostly worked on the Woomera test range. I understand he worked on missile and flight radar, so that would have been at the end/ after the times in this video. My memories are that we lived in newly built housing in Elizabeth Downs. Started at the new primary school. Fun to compare our photos with modern google street views.
As a Brit I'm absolutely horrified to learn about yet another atrocity our government has committed. We need to be learning about events like these at school so that future generations can work towards avoiding such things from happening in the first place and perhaps start to atone for past tragedies.
As someone from the UK I was aware of this many years ago. It makes me very sad. Toby please do not be afraid to do things that show the good and the bad.
@@johnclements6614 Yes we're very alike in that sense 😓 _Teach about the Stolen Generations? Unpatriotic to the infallible institutions of our country!_ But I am still very optimistic that Australia itself is going in the right direction, and is getting past each hurdle one at a time. Those unempathetic voices nowadays are getting fewer listeners here
@@johnclements6614 The problem is no one does it constructively and the criticism is very one sided focused on the negative usually with a political agenda attached (not taking away from some objectively bad events). For all the bad people talk about I think there’s been far more positive results over time than anyone ever acknowledges but instead the focus is always on the notion that with our morally superior hindsight alternative actions/inaction would have yielded better outcomes. As powerful as individual countries are there are worldwide tides that inevitably force nations to make certain choices to survive and stay ahead very much as similar dynamics play out in the natural world. In saying all that I do think there has been a lot of progress in the past 2 decades and it does get tiring living through so much negativity especially with how hard life is in recent years.
Wonderful of you to do this video. And it reminds me of a film shoot in which a major USA star , John Wayne, who was a Mega-star in the US , and most of a film crew, we're exposed to radioactivity when they were filming a movie about Genghis Khan . I think a lot of them came down with cancer. Also , I'm not much for games, and I quit the first episode of that cross New Zealand game video series, but I enjoyed your trailer at the end of this video about that--- video miniseries , so I think I'll give that another try . The rest of it looks more interesting in terms of your trailer. well done
The producers and crew were assured by the U.S. Army that it was safe. It's also the reason that while the city of Las Vegas sits on a large natural underground aquifer, none of the water can be used. It's radioactive. Safe! [snort]
Thank you so much for getting this story out to a wider audience. I am acquainted with several tribal people of this region who were severely and adversely affected by these nuclear tests. There was a lot of deliberate misinformation saying that all of the tribal people were removed from this area prior to testing and that was absolutely not the case. The people responsible for poisoning the land, poisoning the people and displacing hundreds of the traditional owners of this land is a grave offence and nobody has ever had to stand in court and take responsibility for the terrible consequences of their actions.
1:59 "…require it to be safeguarded from bad actors trying to make a bomb." Now I have a mental image of the Hemsworth brothers sitting around a campfire trying to comprehend the Teller-Ulam design. (Excellent video, by the way)
This is the attitude the UK and British side of our government have always had, it's sad that often the people who dislike a more Australian Australia also seek to cover up the past and have the power to do so And then we make the same mistakes over and over because of it
One of the main reasons might be that our people basically trashed that good old book called the bible. One of the many lessons I took from it was that we should not put our trust in princes and mortal men. Today we still make gods of fallible people and it causes suffering.
That Geiger counter used in the video is a Ludlum model 2 paired with a 44-3 1.5 inch NaI scintillating probe. I used to fix these detectors up. Despite the scary sounding beeping, it isn't a lot of radiation with that detector. An old orange uranium glazed dish will make it beep far more. With that said, the bulk of what it's detecting is probably 137Cs and unreacted 238U from the bomb casing. Plutonium emits extremely weak x rays at 4, 8, and 14keV. To detect that you need a large and thin scintillating material with a beryllium foil window. The smoking gun detector for pu239 is a neutron energy detector, but these are fairly complicated and require a helium 3 proportional tube. The Native Americans feel the Aborigines pain, their reservations were used as nuke testing grounds as well. Terrible.and awful 😖
Congratulations for winning, Toby! I loved your plans, and even when bad things happened, you always had a plan. You even had enough to skip two, which I found very surprising. I never knew that someone whom I once watched the videos of to (initially, but unboxing exams became too fun) see what my dad experienced during Gaokao could participate as a guest (and win!) such an amazing game. Way to go!
Couple of important things you missed. They also tested nuclear radiation on Australian Troops, getting them to walk around the detonation sight without any protective gear shortly after the detonation. Survivors have been seeking compensation ever since, unsuccessfully, as far as I know, because Aus government at the time gave the UK some kind of legal immunity. The US cutting intelligence ties with the UK and AUS around this time because of spies in UK and aus was just a convenient excuse or the result of incompetence and miscommunication with the US: the US had a huge USSR leak from their own circles going on that they knew about that they allowed to continue throughout this time. This is all covered in the excellent book "Secret" by Australian journalist Brian Toohey. It's important to understand this history now that Au is entering into new secret agreements with a new great power via AUKUS.
As a Brit I wish I could say I'm surprised by this, but I'm not. I've never even heard of these tests - thank you for putting the information out there; great video!
When you see how badly the British military treated their own soldiers that were working on the sites, it's not surprising to hear they had little respect for anything else.
Spoke with a 90 yo man from Jamaica recently and he explained that when the British aluminum company (Rey..) ran the show things were bad and they were disliked but when the German Alcan took over, things "were much better".
1:35 That's some very weird selection of languages on that sign... below English it's Italian, Greek, Spanish and Czech (I think, at least). I kinda get Spanish as it surpasses English in terms of native speakers (hardly any of them in Aus though...) but the rest is so random. It's like whoever was responsible for properly marking the area was like "yeah, we need this to be multilingual, let's get that janitor from Czechoslovakia to translate it". Yet no one thought it appropriate to include the local aboriginal language(s).
Really liked this video, brings to light the shady government dealings I would have otherwise not known about. Also it's cool to see the variety in your videos, you keep them interesting no matter the topic!
@@Warwipfelll, whatever your calculation/experience may have been, @maxkuijper8621 is definitely correct in his statement. This is top shelf history doco work.
@@walteredstates Yeah, okay, that doesn't change anything. The guy commented on the video a minute after it was posted. Nothing he said holds any value. He only posted that to farm likes, at the time of posting it was impossible for him to know if the video was actually good or not.
@@Warwipf Perhaps, like i do sometimes, he commented and praised someone on the first item mentioned that is usually ignored by lamestream media. i am trying to read all the comments here because her work is so outstanding, i want to rejoice in all the praise being heaped on her!
Thank you for this video. I've read a great deal about nuclear weapons development and testing and was unaware of the extent of the testing in Australia. Growing up in the US in the 1950s, I later became aware, from my reading, that our bodies were soaking up radioactive fission products like Caesium 137, as building blocks for the growing bodies of kids in the 50s. The negligence in Australia was astounding and sad. But thanks for this video. The world needs this information.
A very unexpected video from you, however it was informative, as I was not aware that Australia was used as a nuclear testing ground. Thanks for this unexpected informative subject.
Very interesting information it appears as if there were lots,( Many) testing grounds in many countries and the people were treated just as abusive in all of them by their government maybe we were created to see how much abuse we could tolerate. Thanks for the information.
I've always been curious what those thin geometric cloud like lines are that seem to surround those explosions - it seems pretty common with these things. If anyone knows please comment below.
Tibees, it's very interesting you say that a lot of Australian's do not know about nuclear testing in Australia. I never gave this a thought because I was aware of nuclear testing in Australia. I'm 53 now, & I'm aware of the Australian nuclear program. At school all the other kids did too. Nuclear War, nuclear testing & everything nuclear was up to the end of the 80's as big an issue then as Global Warming is today. All the kids talked about it. we talked about it with each other, we talked with our parents, we talked to our teachers, & everyone in those days talked about nuclear testing & Nuclear War. Everyone was aware with it. Nearly everyone was worried about nuclear war & very concerned about nuclear testing that had been done in Australia up to 1964 & Mururoa Atol by the French right up to 1996. There was also the 1985 French Government's bombing of the Rainbow Warrior, which had everything to do with the French testing nuclear Bombs at Mururoa. Nuclear War & Nuclear testing as issues started to slow down in the 90's. There are a number of reasons for this such as the collapse of the USSR, the Betlin Wall coming down, & the French finishing testing at Mururoa Atol in 1996. I'm guessing that it is definitely an age thing. If you were born before 1980 you would definitely be aware of nuclear testing. Those born between 1980 & 1990 might know about nuclear testing in Australia & Mururoa. It all depends what these young kids remember from their parents. However those born after 1990 probably would not have a clue, unless of course they educated themselves. ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ Tibees, without nuclear testing being an issue during your life, when was it you found out about nuclear testing in Australia. I'm guessing it was when you were at Uni studying Physics. Am I correct that you were so gobsmacked & angry, that you then educated yourself on the matter? *I could be wrong...
The least you could do is point out that the "chunks" were about 100 millionths of a meter across. The more common term for this sort of stuff is "dust".
So as a Physicist, and someone who has self-proclaimed themselves as falling asleep to these videos (for therapeutic purposes), I think this theme is something that is particularly important to dig into, especially with the proposed changes to our society (post 2023). It's not that any particular change is good or bad, but rather we need to have a conversation as to what 'normal' people understand and accept - rather than what their attention-span can adsorb. This is the sort of discourse that is really important for our society - not just you, but for all of us (to ensure we understand what/how we're transitioning to... and why... ) and what the trade-offs are. Well done on this post btw.
During the Vietnam war, which Australia had to be involved in because of a security pact with the US, researchers wanted to see how effective a nuclear blast would be at clearing dense rainforest coverage. Australian scientists gathered together a huge amount of explosives, enough to be the equivalent of a nuclear blast, and blew up a huge area of rainforest in the far north of Queensland. Amazingly, the blast wasn't very effective at all. The forest was just too dense. This is one of the reasons why Agent Orange was used so intensively (it caused the trees to drop their leaves and die, meaning enemy soldiers couldn't hide as easily).
Fungi can kinda assimilate radioactive waste but what happens inside of a mycel won't be understood yet. So if some "badland" gets drilled holes filled with compost and specific fungi (like some specimen liking heavy metal), this can reduce the healing process by a factor of 5 or more, but that would still be many hundred years. Just for anybody reforestating there.
There was a centurion mark 3 tank 400m away from the Totem 1 test which was found after, still in ine piece and functional, it was later used in vietnam where my grandfather was the commander of the tank and served until it was hit by an rpg. Having grown up with this story, I have had a bit if knowledge on some of the atomic bomb blasts but this video put my knowledge if it to shame, very informative!
A small correction: A critical mass is one in which the population of successive neutron generations remains constant. A supercritical mass is one in which the number of free neutrons grows over time (i.e., the average free neutron will liberate more than one neutron).
Extremely interesting and an entirely obscure event. This is completely new to me however I will definitely do more research I’m a recent subscriber and had no interest in the math sciences. This is beginning to change as I do find the content interesting I might add I do live with two excellent cats 😊
What is amazing is that the British were allowed back after their first failured nuclear experiment. As am American, I always wondered how the Manhattan project got started so quickly. It is never mentioned that they started the project using British research. The British are well known for their secrets and lack of responsibility in such matters.
The last time I drove across the country in 2018 I wanted to stop at Maralinga but the people I was travelling with were firmly (and reasonably) against the detour.
Small addition: in order for fission to work the neutrons have to be slowed down (or moderated). Relatively speaking neutrons go from a good fraction of the speed of light to about the speed of sound before fission happens, so are at low speed.
Operation Hurricane involved a scrapped British warship, HMS Plym as a test to see how warships would 'survive' a direct hit. The explosion vaporised the main bulkheads of the ship instantly but a large section of the armoured bow weighing 60 tons landed on the island just over 1 mile away. The anchor, also a substantial weight rose a thousand ft into the air. Australian sailors from another warship conducting weather surveys for the operation arrived a day later on the islands shore to conduct further analysis. The sailors are on film seen swimming off the beach. Another early test in the Australian desert involved a British Centurion tank placed at a distance as a fallout survival test. That tank was later put into combat in Korea. I dread to think the long term effect it had on its crew.
great video! there is a tv series that portrays this. it's called Operation Buffalo and it was produced by ABC TV Australia. It's not perfect and it dramatizes some situations but I think it gives a good idea of what happened in these tests.
Australias still got huge swathes of almost useless land, contaminated naturally with asbestos and other carcinogenic minerals. In many ways the ideal land based test area on the planet (if there is such a thing). Plus Australia benefitted and still does from the UK protection agreements.
She left that out. We did benift from the tests one huge way was atomic science and the medical use of isotopes we even have a reactor in Sydney for this purpose
@@willam1992 Radioactive medical isotopes 'work' in their medical machines but it is a myth they are beneficial. Think about it - how could introducing *any* amount of radioactivity to living things be beneficial?
@ 0:04 the cross cross pattern behind the mushroom cloud is from rockets that are shot before the blast in order to create a form of graph paper in the sky in order that the magnitude of the blast can be measured.
My generation here in New Zealand was well aware of these tests. We were already protesting about these matters in the Sixties/Seventies. We were mocked and shamed and dismissed as radicals and dreamers. I am proud of the 1987 New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act.
Hmmm, "ruined Australia" might be called hyperbole by some . . . . Anyway, it is a reminder that maybe giving governments ever more power -- like regulating speech -- is a VERY bad idea.
Thank you for bringing this to the world’s attention Toby. As a Brit I feel ashamed that we took advantage of Australia like that. We should have known better.
You've transitioned from being a student of science to a student of the science of teaching science. I'm really happy you're doing this work. Thanks.
"They churned up the soil with a tractor" - Sounds like they plowed the plutonium into the ground so it would be near impossible to do a real cleanup. I might not be the smartest person to ever grace the planet, but even I can tell that's the opposite of securing the site. Something smells ಠ_ಠ
What do you think a 'real cleanup' is? Generally it is removing large, physical, radioactive pieces of rock and other debris. Removing (and burying somewhere) any highly radioactive patches of contaminated topsoil. And then mixing remaining, slightly contaminated top few mm of soil with the underlying soil to reduce level of radiation (which is what the plowing would have done). Plutonium (and other radioactive material, such as soil made radioactive by exposure to a nuclear blast) does just sit around in macroscopic chunks waiting to be picked up and removed. How did you think microscopic pieces of plutonium that might be spread over hundreds of sq km of land area be 'cleaned up'.
I totally agree with you assessment that you 'might not be the smartest person to ever grace the planet' though ;)
ps. How do you think they are doing the 'cleanup' of the contaminated water stored at Fukishima? They are basically removing the majority of the radioisotopes (that can be easily removed) from the water, then pumping the remaining water (still contaminated by deuterium -- which is chemically identical to the normal hydrogen in water) into the ocean to dilute it a few hundred thousand times. Yes, that will increase the radiation level in the world's oceans by a tiny fraction -- but a lot less than you would increase your bodies natural radioactivity by eating a banana.
Talk about sweeping a problem under the rug.
but .. it saved so much money compared to actually cleaning it up!
Well no, we are safe from uranium in the soil because the soil insulates us from the radiation.
If that was done you can bet the personnel doing it were not adequately protected.
Such a sweet gentle voice, delivering a chilling deadly story. Thanks Tibees, you have reminded me of faint memories of Maralinga and Montebello, I will find out more.
I was thinking the exact same thing.
Definitely the most nucular ASMR wisper voice video i watched so far.
@@Oktokolo I never expected to hear those words in the same sentence.
She's a New Zealander living in Australia. Aussie accents are quite strong - NZ accents are softer.
@@SpecialSalads Thanks for the reply. We are lucky to have her here in Australia. Her voice is not just softer, it is whisper quiet, and very charming because of this. I hope she is successful in her endeavours. Cheers.
A friend’s father was a naval officer in the 1950s and witnessed the Montebello tests. He died at an unusually early age. They really didn’t consider the potential effects these trials may have had on military personnel and the public at large in those days. Much of the human cost was overlooked or concealed in the time-honoured fashion.
They did it on purpose to find out the effects.
That's why I no longer identify as a human. Today, I am a 1950s toaster.
It was intentional. They wanted to study the effects of the radiation on people. My dad was a USAF member during the 60s and 70s. He told me stories of the USAF helping to test the effects of nuclear fallout by dropping nuclear bombs a few miles away from where US Army soldiers were told to camp to expose them to it. He also knew of pilots who were ordered to fly through and around the nuclear detonations to test their effects on the planes and crew. The US govt also found ways to expose its own citizens to radiation to study its health effects without their knowledge or consent too. All nuclear power governments are guilty of these kinds of experiments. When certain harmless public campaigns arise from seemingly nowhere, follow their connections. Many of them will have ties to various government agencies, some that may seem to have nothing to do with what’s being promoted, like when the Quaker Oats company partnered with the Dept of Energy for an oatmeal nutrition experiment. Never trust what the government says about anything. If they say they didn’t do it, they probably did. If they say things are fine, they’re probably not fine.
Evidence in America shows that the local population who witnessed nuclear testing were allowed to do so so that the effects on the population could be observed. Britain often follows American ethics.
"They really didn’t consider the potential effects these trials may have had on military personnel and the public at large in those days. " The Norfolk Southern Train derailment disaster in Ohio shows that's still unchanged these days too.
Thanks for covering this. I knew that they did tests, but I had no idea of the scale of them, or their disastrous impact on the environment and people. It really shows how little the people in charge of this cared about the risks involved, let alone mitigating any possible negative affects.
Rather than mitigating the effects, the objective was probably more aimed at mapping it out.
Mark Oliphant led a very interesting life, and, while, on paper, may have been a British subject (as all Australians were until 1949), he was born and raised in Adelaide, Australia. He was the co-discoverer of Tritium, and Helium 3, plus he did a lot of work on microwave RADAR. Another one of those relatively anonymous but valuable players in the scientific world.
Anonymous in the sense that he's not famous these days, and I don't think that he was ever famous except in academic circles. He caught my notice as an alumnus of my college at Cambridge when he got his PhD under Rutherford. Then I discovered that he was a mentor to my father at Birmingham university. That cemented him in my mind.
@@roadie3124 I went to the university of Adelaide,, and his name adorns some laboratories there. That's about as close as I can get. He founded the Australian Academy of Sciences, and was a state Governor for a while, so was definitely not unknown in Australia, at least.
My impression is that he's quite a famous scientist actually. Probably the most well- known of the three pictured together in this video. I've heard of Cockcroft too, if it's the same one who invented the Cockcroft-Walton voltage multiplier, which was used to accelerate ions in early (the first?) nuclear fusion research. Haven't heard of the other guy (sorry other guy).
There is a building named after him on South Rd, part of the Flinders University.
@@RainBoxRed ah yeah, I know it, I also studied at Flinders uni, so wandered around there too. Actually, as part of one subject there in the 90s, we did some geophysical surveys in the vicinity of that building - gravity, seismic, and resistivity.
Good on you for mentioning the Monte Bello Islands tests, because most reports made in the Eastern States ignore them completely.
fall out went across Australia not only as far south as Brisbane but as far north as cairns.
I have lived here all my life and never heard of them.
@@Dilshad-gu7je That is the eastern states media for you
@@neilgerace355 yep you are spot on.
@@Dilshad-gu7je I think that as a Kiwi, Toby lacks the bias of the ES media :)
Another excellent show. Did not know of these nuclear tests in Australia.
They better be protecting this site for the foreseeable future. They might find north koreans or iranians out there with shovels soon!
The earth: "Here is a source of relatively clean energy to last you until you master fusion!"
Humans: "Let's blow each other up with it!"
Actually, Earth doesn't care. All mammalians species are relatively short lived (1-3Mya vs ~15Mya for reptiles). I feel like technologically advanced species will be either even shorter lived or the same.
@@aniksamiurrahman6365 akshyuwally 🤓
It's just humanity. We invent bronze and use it to make better weapons than stone.
Iron, better than bronze.
Steel better than iron...
and so it goes.
Nobody has ever been bomb with a nuclear bomb. Only 2 atom bombs in Japan and that killed less than conventional bombs in Japan by hundreds of thousands. Importantly Alias didn't die.
@@genebohannon8820 A-bomb and N-bombs are the same thing.
Awesome video! Thank you so much for covering this. I didn't know Britian tested nukes in Australia. In my school in the US, we had like a half semester to learn about WW2. We talked very little about the nuclear bombs, and not at all about the scientists or the tests. Certainly not about the innocent people that we killed. It sucks that history is written by the winners, and the winners suck too.
Thank you for covering this topic!! Something every Australian knows happened but few know the full extent of. Very enlightening
Yes, very important
The governments of different countries have always abused their authority and resources upon innocent people. It's ashamed that after thousands of years of doing this, and the destruction it caused, these organizations still haven't ceased to behave this way.
Seems like they taking it to the next level
Australia being reluctant to ask doesn’t sound particularly Aussie.
They don’t abuse power without us allowing it.
They use our ignorance and complaisance against us
@@StoutProper Well, even nowadays government officials aren't known for transparency
Real blight on the Australian people, the lot of them
@@RadikAlice yeah ours aren’t any better. Time for a change worldwide I think.
I'm convinced my Nan, my Grandpa, my Aunty died of cancer probably related to the Maralinga testing. I don't know many people of their age group that died of anything but cancer.
And I feel that the 2 cancers my mum has had were also probably related. She's just had CAR-T therapy for lymphoma and will probably survive but she was a toddler in Adelaide when the Maralinga testing was going on. Sure there were lots of toxins around in their lifetimes but I'd love to see some comparative statistics for cancer rates in people living in South Australia at the time.
This was a really good video... I would honestly binge watch historical videos such as these made by you... it was very well done and on a topic I knew very little about... great work!
My father was in the RAF and we were posted to Australia in 61-64. My dad was a radar engineer and I believe mostly worked on the Woomera test range. I understand he worked on missile and flight radar, so that would have been at the end/ after the times in this video. My memories are that we lived in newly built housing in Elizabeth Downs. Started at the new primary school. Fun to compare our photos with modern google street views.
I'm here from Jet Lag, it was fun to see you there, and I'm really enjoying your channel!
I love these short documentary videos covering topics that are less covered. Fantastic work!
As a Brit I'm absolutely horrified to learn about yet another atrocity our government has committed. We need to be learning about events like these at school so that future generations can work towards avoiding such things from happening in the first place and perhaps start to atone for past tragedies.
As someone from the UK I was aware of this many years ago. It makes me very sad.
Toby please do not be afraid to do things that show the good and the bad.
I mean not being afraid to show the good and bad in Australia didn’t turn out well for Jordan Shanks 😂
Hi from Australia
Hopefully the UK can acknowledge some of the not-great things it's done to other countries and peoples in modern history.
@@betula2137 Sadly the UK is becoming more insular. Many people regard any acknowledgement of past failures as an attack on the country.
@@johnclements6614 Yes we're very alike in that sense 😓
_Teach about the Stolen Generations? Unpatriotic to the infallible institutions of our country!_
But I am still very optimistic that Australia itself is going in the right direction, and is getting past each hurdle one at a time. Those unempathetic voices nowadays are getting fewer listeners here
@@johnclements6614 The problem is no one does it constructively and the criticism is very one sided focused on the negative usually with a political agenda attached (not taking away from some objectively bad events). For all the bad people talk about I think there’s been far more positive results over time than anyone ever acknowledges but instead the focus is always on the notion that with our morally superior hindsight alternative actions/inaction would have yielded better outcomes. As powerful as individual countries are there are worldwide tides that inevitably force nations to make certain choices to survive and stay ahead very much as similar dynamics play out in the natural world. In saying all that I do think there has been a lot of progress in the past 2 decades and it does get tiring living through so much negativity especially with how hard life is in recent years.
Thoughtful, in-depth, powerful and even heart-breaking at times! Well done on this dark chapter of our home.
Wonderful of you to do this video. And it reminds me of a film shoot in which a major USA star , John Wayne, who was a Mega-star in the US , and most of a film crew, we're exposed to radioactivity when they were filming a movie about Genghis Khan . I think a lot of them came down with cancer. Also , I'm not much for games, and I quit the first episode of that cross New Zealand game video series, but I enjoyed your trailer at the end of this video about that--- video miniseries , so I think I'll give that another try . The rest of it looks more interesting in terms of your trailer. well done
The producers and crew were assured by the U.S. Army that it was safe.
It's also the reason that while the city of Las Vegas sits on a large natural underground aquifer, none of the water can be used. It's radioactive.
Safe! [snort]
pretty much all died from the exposure related illnesses
@@veramae4098 i cannot give your comment a thumbs up. It's just doesn't feel right. Thank you.
Wow, I had no idea Australia was used as a nuclear testing ground, or that it had such a disastrous effect on the Aboriginal people living there
Hi cary
We were taught this in school in 1998 in Tasmania, very little now get taught this sort of thing.
Was taught in Sydney around then too.
Thank you so much for getting this story out to a wider audience.
I am acquainted with several tribal people of this region who were severely and adversely affected by these nuclear tests. There was a lot of deliberate misinformation saying that all of the tribal people were removed from this area prior to testing and that was absolutely not the case. The people responsible for poisoning the land, poisoning the people and displacing hundreds of the traditional owners of this land is a grave offence and nobody has ever had to stand in court and take responsibility for the terrible consequences of their actions.
I actually watch Tibees because her voice calms me down in times of stress.
1:59 "…require it to be safeguarded from bad actors trying to make a bomb." Now I have a mental image of the Hemsworth brothers sitting around a campfire trying to comprehend the Teller-Ulam design.
(Excellent video, by the way)
This is the attitude the UK and British side of our government have always had, it's sad that often the people who dislike a more Australian Australia also seek to cover up the past and have the power to do so
And then we make the same mistakes over and over because of it
One of the main reasons might be that our people basically trashed that good old book called the bible. One of the many lessons I took from it was that we should not put our trust in princes and mortal men. Today we still make gods of fallible people and it causes suffering.
I had no idea about this and I have been studding nuclear physics for most of my adult life. Very interesting topic and excellent video
I need a 2 hour ASMR sleep video by Tibee.
Big fan of this documentary style format, and thank you for bringing light to this history.
That Geiger counter used in the video is a Ludlum model 2 paired with a 44-3 1.5 inch NaI scintillating probe. I used to fix these detectors up. Despite the scary sounding beeping, it isn't a lot of radiation with that detector. An old orange uranium glazed dish will make it beep far more. With that said, the bulk of what it's detecting is probably 137Cs and unreacted 238U from the bomb casing. Plutonium emits extremely weak x rays at 4, 8, and 14keV. To detect that you need a large and thin scintillating material with a beryllium foil window. The smoking gun detector for pu239 is a neutron energy detector, but these are fairly complicated and require a helium 3 proportional tube. The Native Americans feel the Aborigines pain, their reservations were used as nuke testing grounds as well. Terrible.and awful 😖
Congratulations for winning, Toby! I loved your plans, and even when bad things happened, you always had a plan. You even had enough to skip two, which I found very surprising. I never knew that someone whom I once watched the videos of to (initially, but unboxing exams became too fun) see what my dad experienced during Gaokao could participate as a guest (and win!) such an amazing game. Way to go!
Going from seeing Toby be loud, smart, extremely agile and energetic to these ASMR type videos is a whiplash. I’m here for it tho!
Couple of important things you missed.
They also tested nuclear radiation on Australian Troops, getting them to walk around the detonation sight without any protective gear shortly after the detonation. Survivors have been seeking compensation ever since, unsuccessfully, as far as I know, because Aus government at the time gave the UK some kind of legal immunity.
The US cutting intelligence ties with the UK and AUS around this time because of spies in UK and aus was just a convenient excuse or the result of incompetence and miscommunication with the US: the US had a huge USSR leak from their own circles going on that they knew about that they allowed to continue throughout this time.
This is all covered in the excellent book "Secret" by Australian journalist Brian Toohey.
It's important to understand this history now that Au is entering into new secret agreements with a new great power via AUKUS.
As a Brit I wish I could say I'm surprised by this, but I'm not. I've never even heard of these tests - thank you for putting the information out there; great video!
When you see how badly the British military treated their own soldiers that were working on the sites, it's not surprising to hear they had little respect for anything else.
Spoke with a 90 yo man from Jamaica recently and he explained that when the British aluminum company (Rey..) ran the show things were bad and they were disliked but when the German Alcan took over, things "were much better".
Beautifully delivered and packed with facts and lots of good information to digest.
I actually remember when this was going on back in the 80s. It was pretty big news.
Thanks, Toby...you are challenging the biggest documentary channels with your content.
i echo that sentiment
1:35 That's some very weird selection of languages on that sign... below English it's Italian, Greek, Spanish and Czech (I think, at least). I kinda get Spanish as it surpasses English in terms of native speakers (hardly any of them in Aus though...) but the rest is so random. It's like whoever was responsible for properly marking the area was like "yeah, we need this to be multilingual, let's get that janitor from Czechoslovakia to translate it". Yet no one thought it appropriate to include the local aboriginal language(s).
Thanks. Amazing how little people with power care about other human beings.
Powerful little people 🤔
Normal, healthy minded people don't want power over others. That's why those in power are evil. Because power in itself is evil.
Really liked this video, brings to light the shady government dealings I would have otherwise not known about. Also it's cool to see the variety in your videos, you keep them interesting no matter the topic!
What a grotesque danger to so many that could have been prevented. :(
Aussies are definitely Fallout material. My guy checking for radiation wearing only shorts!
Better insight than all mainstream media combined, excellent work !
The video is good so far, but you commented when the video was a minute old. You could not possibly have watched enough to make a statement like that.
1st!
@@Warwipfelll, whatever your calculation/experience may have been, @maxkuijper8621 is definitely correct in his statement.
This is top shelf history doco work.
@@walteredstates Yeah, okay, that doesn't change anything. The guy commented on the video a minute after it was posted. Nothing he said holds any value. He only posted that to farm likes, at the time of posting it was impossible for him to know if the video was actually good or not.
@@Warwipf Perhaps, like i do sometimes, he commented and praised someone on the first item mentioned that is usually ignored by lamestream media. i am trying to read all the comments here because her work is so outstanding, i want to rejoice in all the praise being heaped on her!
WOW Tibees, what a wonderful and insightful short documentary! THANK YOU
Thank you for this video. I've read a great deal about nuclear weapons development and testing and was unaware of the extent of the testing in Australia. Growing up in the US in the 1950s, I later became aware, from my reading, that our bodies were soaking up radioactive fission products like Caesium 137, as building blocks for the growing bodies of kids in the 50s. The negligence in Australia was astounding and sad. But thanks for this video. The world needs this information.
Very interesting and informative. You presented the story very well. Thank you!
A very unexpected video from you, however it was informative, as I was not aware that Australia was used as a nuclear testing ground. Thanks for this unexpected informative subject.
Very interesting information it appears as if there were lots,( Many) testing grounds in many countries and the people were treated just as abusive in all of them by their government maybe we were created to see how much abuse we could tolerate. Thanks for the information.
Such a pleasant way to learn about terrifying things. Well researched and the videos are just the right length.
I've always been curious what those thin geometric cloud like lines are that seem to surround those explosions - it seems pretty common with these things. If anyone knows please comment below.
I vaguely remember that this was maybe the guide/support wires vaporising but I'm not 100% sure.
They fired off rockets to make those trails. It gave them a grid to measure the nuclear blast.
Subscribed to your channel based on JetLag on Nebula. Looking forward to tomorrow's episode. :) Good stuff! Thank you!
If you narrated audiobooks I would listen to all of them :)
Tibees, it's very interesting you say that a lot of Australian's do not know about nuclear testing in Australia.
I never gave this a thought because I was aware of nuclear testing in Australia. I'm 53 now, & I'm aware of the Australian nuclear program. At school all the other kids did too.
Nuclear War, nuclear testing & everything nuclear was up to the end of the 80's as big an issue then as Global Warming is today.
All the kids talked about it. we talked about it with each other, we talked with our parents, we talked to our teachers, & everyone in those days talked about nuclear testing & Nuclear War.
Everyone was aware with it. Nearly everyone was worried about nuclear war & very concerned about nuclear testing that had been done in Australia up to 1964 & Mururoa Atol by the French right up to 1996.
There was also the 1985 French Government's bombing of the Rainbow Warrior, which had everything to do with the French testing nuclear Bombs at Mururoa.
Nuclear War & Nuclear testing as issues started to slow down in the 90's. There are a number of reasons for this such as the collapse of the USSR, the Betlin Wall coming down, & the French finishing testing at Mururoa Atol in 1996.
I'm guessing that it is definitely an age thing. If you were born before 1980 you would definitely be aware of nuclear testing. Those born between 1980 & 1990 might know about nuclear testing in Australia & Mururoa. It all depends what these young kids remember from their parents.
However those born after 1990 probably would not have a clue, unless of course they educated themselves.
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
Tibees, without nuclear testing being an issue during your life, when was it you found out about nuclear testing in Australia. I'm guessing it was when you were at Uni studying Physics. Am I correct that you were so gobsmacked & angry, that you then educated yourself on the matter?
*I could be wrong...
Great video, I hope we'll see more!
The least you could do is point out that the "chunks" were about 100 millionths of a meter across. The more common term for this sort of stuff is "dust".
Her voice is soo soothing
So as a Physicist, and someone who has self-proclaimed themselves as falling asleep to these videos (for therapeutic purposes), I think this theme is something that is particularly important to dig into, especially with the proposed changes to our society (post 2023). It's not that any particular change is good or bad, but rather we need to have a conversation as to what 'normal' people understand and accept - rather than what their attention-span can adsorb. This is the sort of discourse that is really important for our society - not just you, but for all of us (to ensure we understand what/how we're transitioning to... and why... ) and what the trade-offs are. Well done on this post btw.
During the Vietnam war, which Australia had to be involved in because of a security pact with the US, researchers wanted to see how effective a nuclear blast would be at clearing dense rainforest coverage. Australian scientists gathered together a huge amount of explosives, enough to be the equivalent of a nuclear blast, and blew up a huge area of rainforest in the far north of Queensland. Amazingly, the blast wasn't very effective at all. The forest was just too dense. This is one of the reasons why Agent Orange was used so intensively (it caused the trees to drop their leaves and die, meaning enemy soldiers couldn't hide as easily).
i cannot give your comment a thumbs up. It's just doesn't feel right. Thank you.
Fungi can kinda assimilate radioactive waste but what happens inside of a mycel won't be understood yet. So if some "badland" gets drilled holes filled with compost and specific fungi (like some specimen liking heavy metal), this can reduce the healing process by a factor of 5 or more, but that would still be many hundred years. Just for anybody reforestating there.
There was a centurion mark 3 tank 400m away from the Totem 1 test which was found after, still in ine piece and functional, it was later used in vietnam where my grandfather was the commander of the tank and served until it was hit by an rpg. Having grown up with this story, I have had a bit if knowledge on some of the atomic bomb blasts but this video put my knowledge if it to shame, very informative!
Fascinating. Do you think your granfather's health was adversely affected as a result?
@@pbsluvr312 not that I know of, he's still fairly healthy despite being in his 70s
@@JayJayGamerOfficial Glad to hear it.
A small correction:
A critical mass is one in which the population of successive neutron generations remains constant.
A supercritical mass is one in which the number of free neutrons grows over time (i.e., the average free neutron will liberate more than one neutron).
Extremely interesting and an entirely obscure event. This is completely new to me however I will definitely do more research
I’m a recent subscriber and had no interest in the math sciences. This is beginning to change as I do find the content interesting
I might add I do live with two excellent cats 😊
It hasn't been obscure to Australians.
@@stefanschleps8758
I understand but I live in the US and we barely know of the nuclear testing done here much less in Australia
@@stefanschleps8758 It is not obscure to people in the UK either. A sad event in the UK's history.
Toby, thanks for that content on JetLag series, I absolutely appreciate them and your smart play there!
Thanks for making this video. I have learned a lot today.
I nominate Toby Hendy for Best Short Documentary at the 39th Annual International Documentary Association Documentary Awards. Brava!
I had never head of these events before. So sad Australia was abused this way; shame !!!
There’s a few things to unpack here. What is “high levels”. Detectable levels possibly, but dangerous levels….doubtful.
She is alive alright.
She's legally blind 🦮🦯
I don’t see it.
@@doctorpanigrahi9975 not her mind
@@doctorpanigrahi9975 so you’re saying I got a shot then, alright!
What is amazing is that the British were allowed back after their first failured nuclear experiment.
As am American, I always wondered how the Manhattan project got started so quickly. It is never mentioned that they started the project using British research.
The British are well known for their secrets and lack of responsibility in such matters.
Excellent documentary, thank you!
The last time I drove across the country in 2018 I wanted to stop at Maralinga but the people I was travelling with were firmly (and reasonably) against the detour.
I was totally unaware that this happened in Australia. Being a lover of history, I really appreciate this video you have done.
Small addition: in order for fission to work the neutrons have to be slowed down (or moderated). Relatively speaking neutrons go from a good fraction of the speed of light to about the speed of sound before fission happens, so are at low speed.
What a chilling video. Yet necessary to watch.
"Why are you nuking all these random area's?"
". .. ...No reason."
Great video, thank you so much!
Operation Hurricane involved a scrapped British warship, HMS Plym as a test to see how warships would 'survive' a direct hit.
The explosion vaporised the main bulkheads of the ship instantly but a large section of the armoured bow weighing 60 tons landed on the island just over 1 mile away.
The anchor, also a substantial weight rose a thousand ft into the air.
Australian sailors from another warship conducting weather surveys for the operation arrived a day later on the islands shore to conduct further analysis.
The sailors are on film seen swimming off the beach.
Another early test in the Australian desert involved a British Centurion tank placed at a distance as a fallout survival test.
That tank was later put into combat in Korea.
I dread to think the long term effect it had on its crew.
Another commenter here claimed grandfather was posted to that very same tank!
Doesn’t ninety percent of Australians live in 10 percent of the land along the coast?
Glad to see a light finally shone on an overlooked event which still has repercussions today.
Fantastic video on an important part of Australian history. Thanks Tibees.
Wow, I am surprised I had no knowledge of any of this...
Great video Toby - very enlightening, and very well presented!
great video!
there is a tv series that portrays this. it's called Operation Buffalo and it was produced by ABC TV Australia. It's not perfect and it dramatizes some situations but I think it gives a good idea of what happened in these tests.
This is a very sad story but a necessary one. Thanks for the research and making this.
Australias still got huge swathes of almost useless land, contaminated naturally with asbestos and other carcinogenic minerals. In many ways the ideal land based test area on the planet (if there is such a thing). Plus Australia benefitted and still does from the UK protection agreements.
She left that out. We did benift from the tests one huge way was atomic science and the medical use of isotopes we even have a reactor in Sydney for this purpose
@@willam1992 Radioactive medical isotopes 'work' in their medical machines but it is a myth they are beneficial. Think about it - how could introducing *any* amount of radioactivity to living things be beneficial?
Feels so good to see another example of benevolent scientists looking after the greater good of humanity.
@ 0:04 the cross cross pattern behind the mushroom cloud is from rockets that are shot before the blast in order to create a form of graph paper in the sky in order that the magnitude of the blast can be measured.
Thanks, I was wondering what that was all about.
@@FiveTrackTape I actually emailed the public affairs office at Lawrence Livermore Labs over 30 years ago and they responded.
My generation here in New Zealand was well aware of these tests. We were already protesting about these matters in the Sixties/Seventies. We were mocked and shamed and dismissed as radicals and dreamers. I am proud of the 1987 New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act.
I didn't know Australia was ruined...
If anyone born around the 60s hasn’t herd of Marallinga they need to go back to school.
They still wouldn't be teaching it, though!
A sad, yet interesting story,. Thanks for telling it.
The Woomera Wocket Wange.
Hmmm, "ruined Australia" might be called hyperbole by some . . . .
Anyway, it is a reminder that maybe giving governments ever more power -- like regulating speech -- is a VERY bad idea.
Thanks for Sharing Mate!!!!!!!!!
Trust the science.
Informative video! I grew up in Australia and knew nothing about any of this.
This seems like a lot of work just to create the sets for the Mad Max films.
I knew about the tests but I didn't know about the mess we made of the "cleanup" and safeguarding the local population. Utterly shameful.
Thank you for bringing this to the world’s attention Toby. As a Brit I feel ashamed that we took advantage of Australia like that. We should have known better.
7:24 "it smelled like a dead kangoroo"
Descriptions which are valid only in Australia.