WEBVTT - From the Vault: The Atomic Scar 0:00:05.720 --> 0:00:07.880 Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. This is 0:00:07.960 --> 0:00:11.000 Robert Land and I'm Joe McCormick, and it's Saturday. Time 0:00:11.039 --> 0:00:12.880 to go into the vault for an older episode of 0:00:12.880 --> 0:00:17.160 the show. This one originally aired September and was called 0:00:17.239 --> 0:00:19.800 the Atomic scar This one was about some of the 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:23.880 after effects of nuclear testing. All right, let's dig right in. 0:00:27.560 --> 0:00:29.920 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of My 0:00:30.040 --> 0:00:39.040 Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:42.280 My name is Robert Land and I'm Joe McCormick, and 0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:46.000 today we're going to be talking about nuclear weapons testing. Now, 0:00:46.040 --> 0:00:47.720 this is something that has come up on the show 0:00:48.159 --> 0:00:50.840 a good bit before. Obviously, we've had to talk many 0:00:50.880 --> 0:00:55.640 times about the very real, uh you know, danger potential 0:00:55.760 --> 0:00:59.520 civilization level threat and and the real human costs of 0:00:59.640 --> 0:01:03.320 nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons testing. But today I wanted 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:06.479 to focus on a couple of interesting and lesser known 0:01:06.640 --> 0:01:11.920 environmental effects of nuclear weapons testing. Specifically something that I 0:01:11.920 --> 0:01:15.960 came across as it pertains to industrial metals, and then 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:18.600 we're going to get into some other scientific territory as 0:01:18.600 --> 0:01:22.480 we go on. But quite apart from any straightforward chemical 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:24.800 effects on the atmosphere, I think it is pretty fair 0:01:24.840 --> 0:01:29.000 to say that the the the human departure into the 0:01:29.080 --> 0:01:33.040 nuclear weapons testing era in nineteen forty five was really 0:01:33.080 --> 0:01:38.640 sort of a shift moment for for humankind as a species. Yeah, 0:01:38.720 --> 0:01:43.400 and I feel like there there are very few things 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:45.000 that have been said there are There are very few 0:01:45.000 --> 0:01:48.520 audio samples certainly that sum it up quite as well 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:51.440 or or or are as haunting as those given by J. 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:56.120 Robert Oppenheimer in nineteen sixty five on the television documentary 0:01:56.360 --> 0:01:59.080 The Decision to Drop the Bomb, broadcast as an in 0:01:59.160 --> 0:02:02.000 DC White Pay for I imagine most of you have 0:02:02.080 --> 0:02:04.760 heard this before. I've heard it's a sampled and used 0:02:04.800 --> 0:02:09.320 in music. It uh, it shows up in comic books, literature, 0:02:09.800 --> 0:02:14.160 um in it. The American theoretical physicist and father of 0:02:14.160 --> 0:02:18.120 the atomic bombs he's sometimes referred, shares the following regarding 0:02:18.120 --> 0:02:20.960 the first successful detonation of an atomic bomb at the 0:02:20.960 --> 0:02:27.320 Trinity Test in New Mexico on July six. He said, quote, 0:02:27.840 --> 0:02:30.160 we knew the world would not be the same. A 0:02:30.200 --> 0:02:34.000 few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. 0:02:34.520 --> 0:02:37.880 I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture the Bagavad Gita. 0:02:38.360 --> 0:02:40.600 Fish Nu is trying to persuade the prince that he 0:02:40.600 --> 0:02:43.359 should do his duty, and to impress him, takes on 0:02:43.480 --> 0:02:47.120 his multi armed form and says, now I am become Death, 0:02:47.200 --> 0:02:50.440 the destroyer of worlds. I suppose we all thought that 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:54.520 one way or another. It's a difficult thing to imagine 0:02:54.680 --> 0:02:57.040 working on that kind of research in a way, feeling 0:02:57.080 --> 0:02:59.680 that it is your duty or your necessity to aid 0:02:59.720 --> 0:03:03.400 the light cause in World War Two, but at the 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:06.519 same time knowing that you were working on something that 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:10.480 that would unleash an age of terror in human history. Yeah, 0:03:10.520 --> 0:03:15.960 I mean absolutely, a weapon that would as of this recording, uh, 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:20.600 has only been used twice in war, which on one 0:03:20.639 --> 0:03:23.120 hand you can you can say, thankfully has only been 0:03:23.200 --> 0:03:24.960 used twice in war, but on the the same hand 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:29.919 you can say, tragically has been used twice in war. Um. Yeah, Well, 0:03:29.960 --> 0:03:33.400 we'll get into the just the destructive capabilities a bit 0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:36.280 of of the bomb as we proceed here, And of 0:03:36.280 --> 0:03:39.400 course we've covered it on the show before to varying degrees. 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:42.560 But I want to come back to the quote that 0:03:43.520 --> 0:03:48.000 that Oppenheimer is um is deploying here. So if if 0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:50.960 you're not familiar with it, basically, these are these are 0:03:50.960 --> 0:03:54.040 who the figures are in this You've got Vishnu, one 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:57.760 of the principal deities of Hinduism. Uh. The Bugabod Guetta 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:00.960 or the gutas it's sometimes just short too, is part 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:04.560 of the Hindu epic, the Mahabarata. Technically it's book six 0:04:04.640 --> 0:04:08.640 in that. And the prince in question is the hero Argina, 0:04:09.240 --> 0:04:14.640 part of the Pandava family that wages war against the Caravas. Uh. 0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:17.479 That that's the big struggle. That's uh, that's key to 0:04:17.520 --> 0:04:20.840 the Mahabarata. Anyway, at the beginning of the Gita, which 0:04:20.839 --> 0:04:25.480 Appenheimer is um is quoting here, Argena rides his chariot 0:04:25.560 --> 0:04:28.880 onto the field of forthcoming battle between these two families. 0:04:29.320 --> 0:04:32.640 But he suddenly overcome by doubt and depression as he notes, 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:35.040 they're there on the other side, within the ranks of 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:39.960 the enemy's he recognizes friends, relatives, teachers, and Uh. And 0:04:40.000 --> 0:04:45.400 therefore has this this just immense so weight descend upon him. Um. 0:04:45.440 --> 0:04:47.560 This is a quote from it. This is as translated 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:51.320 by Edwin Arnold in five and as as is always 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:55.360 the case with translated works of literature and poetry, Uh, 0:04:55.400 --> 0:04:58.680 you know, the English is going to be approximate, and 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:02.359 certainly with Hinduism, they're many cases where particular ideas and 0:05:02.400 --> 0:05:07.240 phrases don't really have a parallel word in English. Um. Anyway, 0:05:07.240 --> 0:05:10.719 it goes as follows quote. Thus, if we slay kinsfolk 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:14.240 and friends for love of earthly power, avat, what an 0:05:14.240 --> 0:05:17.080 evil fault it were better? I deem it. If my 0:05:17.200 --> 0:05:20.680 kinsmen strike to face them, weaponless and bear my breast 0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:24.479 to shaft and spear, then answer blow with blow. So, 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:27.760 speaking in the face of those two hosts, Arginas sank 0:05:27.880 --> 0:05:31.320 upon his chariot seat and let fall bow and arrows 0:05:31.360 --> 0:05:34.640 sick at heart. So the prospect of the forthcoming bloodshed 0:05:34.680 --> 0:05:37.039 is just too much for him. But what does he do? 0:05:37.160 --> 0:05:42.120 He turns to his charioteer UH for counsel, and luckily 0:05:42.560 --> 0:05:46.240 his charioteer is the blueskinned Krishna, the avatar of the 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:49.599 mighty Vishnu, and he gives him his counsel. In fact, 0:05:49.640 --> 0:05:53.640 he gives him his counsel for eighteen chapters. That's that's 0:05:53.640 --> 0:05:56.640 what the Geta is is basically him providing all of 0:05:56.680 --> 0:06:00.680 this uh philosophical and spiritual advice on what it is 0:06:00.960 --> 0:06:03.800 to have to make these sorts of decisions and engage 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:06.240 in war and duty and so forth. It's kind of 0:06:06.279 --> 0:06:08.680 like something like the Book of Job in the form 0:06:08.760 --> 0:06:10.560 we have it now, which you have a sort of 0:06:10.600 --> 0:06:16.400 small framing narrative that mainly contains a didactic discourse on 0:06:16.600 --> 0:06:20.320 theological matters, right and now if you want to like 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:24.640 a really good breakdown all of this episode, uh, in 0:06:24.680 --> 0:06:28.320 the Mahabarata of the Gita, and especially as it relates 0:06:28.440 --> 0:06:32.200 to Oppenheimer in his life. There's a wonderful paper that 0:06:32.440 --> 0:06:34.080 you can find out there in full on the on 0:06:34.120 --> 0:06:37.400 the internet from James A. Hegi, a professor of history, 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:40.560 University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. Uh. He did. This was a 0:06:40.640 --> 0:06:43.799 nice write up he did for the American Philosophical Society 0:06:43.800 --> 0:06:46.599 in two thousand and He goes into greater death, but 0:06:46.640 --> 0:06:51.200 he also summarizes Chrishna's counsel as follows He's he says, look, 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:54.599 you're a soldier, Arena. You have to fight. Fighting is 0:06:54.640 --> 0:06:57.640 your duty, so you need to do it. Um. He 0:06:57.720 --> 0:07:02.440 also says, look, Krishna, uh, you know this, this god 0:07:02.720 --> 0:07:04.760 who I also am, is going to be the one 0:07:04.839 --> 0:07:07.039 to determine who lives and who dies. It's not your 0:07:07.080 --> 0:07:12.640 place to mourn or rejoice over human loss. In this case, 0:07:12.920 --> 0:07:16.440 you should try to remain unattached from the outcome. And 0:07:16.480 --> 0:07:19.040 then also faith in Chrishna is going to be what 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:22.400 saves your soul, Argenna. And this is the most important 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:25.440 part of the whole scenario. But as Argina begins to 0:07:25.560 --> 0:07:29.640 metaphorically see the light or I suppose behold the true 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:32.760 nature of the reality he's faced with, he asks if 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:37.400 he can see Chrishna's godlike form, and this site ultimately 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:40.480 seals Arginna's commitment to do his duty. And this occurs 0:07:40.520 --> 0:07:44.400 in chapter eleven, verse thirty two, where uh where the 0:07:44.480 --> 0:07:49.560 now cosmically embodied Vishnu speaks to Arginna. And what he 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:54.520 exactly says of two English speaking ears is going to 0:07:54.600 --> 0:07:57.600 depend on the translation. But for instance, the writer translation 0:07:57.960 --> 0:08:02.320 has him say death, am I my present task destruction? Um. 0:08:02.360 --> 0:08:05.360 There's a translation by Arnold that says, thou seest me 0:08:05.440 --> 0:08:08.440 as Time, who kills Time, who brings all to doom, 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:11.840 the slayer Time, ancient of days, come hither to consume. 0:08:12.560 --> 0:08:14.760 And there's another one I came across that I thought 0:08:14.840 --> 0:08:17.080 was pretty good. I am mighty Time, the source of 0:08:17.080 --> 0:08:20.520 destruction that comes forth to annihilate the world's And I've 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:25.280 always loved this one by J. A. B. Then Bitinen quote, 0:08:25.320 --> 0:08:29.480 I am time grown old to destroy the world embarked 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:33.120 on the course of world annihilation. I am time grown old. 0:08:33.160 --> 0:08:36.079 Always find that kind of there's something kind of perplexing 0:08:36.120 --> 0:08:38.959 about that phrasing that seems to befitting of this all 0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:42.120 powerful being that is, you know, that has taken on 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:45.120 his true form to you. Yeah, there's something that comes 0:08:45.160 --> 0:08:48.679 in the fullness of time. Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting the 0:08:48.720 --> 0:08:53.480 way the personification as time further serves that purpose of 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:57.600 the kind of depersonalization of of one's role in history. 0:08:57.720 --> 0:09:01.040 You know that there is a kind of like a 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:04.320 fate or world path that is executed through the passing 0:09:04.320 --> 0:09:08.280 of time, and what you are is someone who plays 0:09:08.280 --> 0:09:11.920 a role within it, not the shaper of it. Yeah. Absolutely, 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:15.120 Um again, it is it is even in translation as 0:09:15.320 --> 0:09:20.400 it's it's this really perplexing and beautiful passage. Now, it 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:24.400 should stress that Oppenheimer was not religiously Hindu, but he 0:09:24.480 --> 0:09:27.240 was interested in Hindu scripture, and clearly he found an 0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:30.200 association here between his role in the creation of the 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:35.440 bomb and the idea of duty performed regardless of potential outcome. Now, 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:39.120 he certainly is bending the text here a bit, because 0:09:39.160 --> 0:09:42.600 in in the Gita Vishnu slash Krishna is saying, look, 0:09:42.679 --> 0:09:45.760 I'm the prime mover here, I'm the one who destroys you. 0:09:45.840 --> 0:09:49.679 Just do your duty. Oppenheimer seems to be implying the opposite, 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:53.240 that there perhaps is no all powerful force that bears 0:09:53.320 --> 0:09:56.439 the burden of our deeds, that the burden is instead 0:09:56.440 --> 0:09:59.240 on the shoulders of those involved in the creation of 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:01.960 such a weapon. You know, when he's saying, you know, 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:05.040 now I am become death, and that we all felt 0:10:05.080 --> 0:10:08.079 that way one way way or another. I mean, I mean, 0:10:08.120 --> 0:10:12.960 he is he is. He He's confronting the personal responsibility 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:15.240 that seems to be there in the creation of such 0:10:15.240 --> 0:10:17.960 a weapon. But so it does seem that there's this 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:21.760 this double terror in Oppenheimer's mind, like what if we fail? 0:10:21.880 --> 0:10:25.559 But also what if we succeed? Yeah? Yeah, that that 0:10:25.559 --> 0:10:28.959 that's something that Heggia gets into, you know, this this 0:10:29.080 --> 0:10:32.240 idea that there's this an immense fear of failure. You know, 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:34.240 what if we don't develop the bomb as we've been 0:10:34.240 --> 0:10:36.880 tasked with, uh, and what will that mean for us. 0:10:36.920 --> 0:10:40.160 But then, yeah, well, how much mass human death will 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:43.599 be brought into the world, even on the short term, Uh, 0:10:43.640 --> 0:10:46.480 if this is successful, without even getting into the way 0:10:46.559 --> 0:10:49.600 that it will change the landscape of of not only 0:10:50.360 --> 0:10:54.120 warfare and and potential warfare in global security, but just 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:57.320 human civilization itself. Yeah, there's so many ways you can 0:10:57.360 --> 0:11:00.840 track the impact of the invention of nuclear weapons. Clearly 0:11:00.880 --> 0:11:04.360 one of them is a sort of like world psychological impact. 0:11:04.400 --> 0:11:07.320 You know, there's just there's bomb consciousness in the world 0:11:07.360 --> 0:11:10.720 now that that sort of will always be there unless 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:14.160 nuclear weapons are entirely eliminated, But even even then they 0:11:14.160 --> 0:11:16.800 would they'll probably still be the knowledge that they could 0:11:16.840 --> 0:11:19.719 be built again. Yeah. This this reminds me of one 0:11:19.760 --> 0:11:24.040 of Grant Morrison's creations for the Doom Patrol comic book, 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:27.680 the idea of the Candlemaker, This embodiment of all of 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:32.880 our apprehension, uh, surrounding nuclear annihilation that takes on this 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:36.840 kind of godlike really almost kind of terrifying, Vishnu like 0:11:37.000 --> 0:11:41.280 appearance in the human psyche. Is this the guy who's 0:11:41.320 --> 0:11:43.920 made of wax? It is, and we'll have we'll have 0:11:44.000 --> 0:11:47.440 more to say about him in a forthcoming October episode 0:11:47.520 --> 0:11:49.559 of stuff to pull your mind. Oh, that's right, it's 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:53.160 almost October. It is. But to come back to the 0:11:53.200 --> 0:11:56.160 part of Openheimer's quote that is not part of on 0:11:56.240 --> 0:11:59.360 the of the guida, Um, we knew the world would 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:02.480 not be this same, uh, and that that is true. 0:12:02.640 --> 0:12:05.840 It wasn't. It isn't. And you're you're probably aware of 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:08.679 most of the reasons why. But but yeah, today's episode, 0:12:08.679 --> 0:12:12.319 we're going to look at some of the particular ways 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:16.320 that it was changed, uh, particularly regarding um, you know, 0:12:16.559 --> 0:12:21.800 a few environmental scenarios as well as the nature of steel. Yes, 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:25.360 So getting into these lesser known environmental effects, I want 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:29.040 to start with the fact that might seem extremely odd, 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:31.560 which I was reading about in an article published in 0:12:31.559 --> 0:12:35.040 the journal Health Physics in two thousand seven by a 0:12:35.160 --> 0:12:39.000 health physicist named Timothy P. Lynch. And the article is 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:44.000 called a historically significant shield for in vivo measurements, And 0:12:44.040 --> 0:12:48.480 the fact goes like this. In Richland, Washington, there is 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:53.360 a research facility called the in Vivo Radio Bioassay and 0:12:53.480 --> 0:12:57.720 Research Facility. And within this facility there is a special 0:12:57.880 --> 0:13:02.319 room that is surrounded on all sides by thick plates 0:13:02.360 --> 0:13:05.920 of steel that was once part of a World War 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:10.120 two ERAB battleship called the USS Indiana. This was a 0:13:10.120 --> 0:13:12.280 battleship that served in the war. It was launched in 0:13:12.400 --> 0:13:16.079 nineteen It was in a number of battles It served 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:19.959 extensively in the Pacific theater during the war, and then 0:13:20.040 --> 0:13:23.800 after it was decommissioned. They took steel out of the 0:13:23.880 --> 0:13:28.920 ship to build this room. Why would anybody do that? Yeah, 0:13:29.840 --> 0:13:32.280 if you don't know the answer, it sounds a bit mysterious, 0:13:32.440 --> 0:13:34.160 right it all. It sounds like the kind of thing 0:13:34.200 --> 0:13:36.560 Grant Morrison would make up where you're having to engage 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:41.880 in some sort of magical ritual involving steel from old ships. 0:13:42.240 --> 0:13:44.720 Oh yeah, yeah, it totally sounds like something magical, either 0:13:44.800 --> 0:13:47.040 kind of magical or symbolic thinking of like, you know, 0:13:47.080 --> 0:13:50.520 I'm gonna melt down the statue of the Golden Calf 0:13:50.640 --> 0:13:52.880 for the false Sidle or king or whatever and and 0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:56.160 turn it into something holy. I'm gonna make a throne 0:13:56.200 --> 0:13:58.600 out of all the swords of those who once opposed 0:13:58.640 --> 0:14:02.080 my rule. Exactly. Yes, it is the iron throne. So 0:14:02.160 --> 0:14:05.440 this is the the iron throne of rooms. Now the 0:14:05.559 --> 0:14:11.000 room is again and in vivo radio bioassay detector, and 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:14.040 Lynch tells us in the paper that quote, the detection 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:17.920 system is used to monitor workers for intakes of fission 0:14:18.080 --> 0:14:22.080 and activation products. So this means that it's used to 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:26.480 check workers people to see if they have ingested tiny 0:14:26.680 --> 0:14:32.920 radioactive particles known as radionuclides. Radionuclides consist of atoms that 0:14:33.000 --> 0:14:37.160 can decay into different isotopes and emit radiation as they 0:14:37.200 --> 0:14:39.200 do so. And if you take them into your body, 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:42.360 say by swallowing them or breathing them in, they can 0:14:42.400 --> 0:14:46.800 do this inside your body and provide internal radiation sources 0:14:46.840 --> 0:14:49.120 which you do not want. They can pose a serious 0:14:49.160 --> 0:14:52.240 health risk. If enough of them accumulate in the body, 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:57.119 a large dose could cause acute radiation syndrome. Prolonged exposure 0:14:57.120 --> 0:14:59.280 to even smaller doses over time could be a risk 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:03.320 for damaging d n A and causing cancer. This is 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:06.560 to use one example why you don't want to consume 0:15:06.760 --> 0:15:10.800 things that would come from a radioactively contaminated area, you know, 0:15:10.880 --> 0:15:14.280 somewhere around a nuclear meltdown. Why would you not want to, say, 0:15:14.320 --> 0:15:16.960 you know, roll around in the dirt near Chernobyl or 0:15:17.000 --> 0:15:20.920 drink the water there. It's because the the environment is 0:15:20.960 --> 0:15:24.480 contaminated with radio neuclides, these little particles that you don't 0:15:24.520 --> 0:15:26.680 want anywhere near your body. You do not want them 0:15:26.680 --> 0:15:30.840 going inside you. So people who get tested regularly in 0:15:30.840 --> 0:15:34.040 this room would include Department of Energy workers, but Lynch 0:15:34.120 --> 0:15:36.880 also mentions that the room has been used to test 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:41.040 a helicopter pilot and some other workers from Chernobyl, as 0:15:41.040 --> 0:15:44.520 well as children from Chernobyl. I guess who lived nearby. 0:15:44.560 --> 0:15:46.400 So this has been in use for a long time, 0:15:46.440 --> 0:15:52.040 and it's used to measure the radiation coming from living people. 0:15:52.640 --> 0:15:55.280 So somebody walks into the detector room, they get scanned 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:57.720 for radio neuclides across the length of the body by 0:15:57.720 --> 0:16:02.320 accounting system that Lynch describes is comprised of five coaxial 0:16:02.760 --> 0:16:07.600 germanium detectors, and because the level of radiation emitted by 0:16:07.600 --> 0:16:11.040 these radio newclides is usually very faint outside the body, 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:15.440 you need an extremely sensitive detector. And here you hit 0:16:15.480 --> 0:16:20.400 another problem, which is interference from background levels of radiation 0:16:20.880 --> 0:16:23.200 coming from the rest of the world. So you've got 0:16:23.280 --> 0:16:28.920 cosmic sources, atmospheric sources, terrestrial sources. So in order to 0:16:29.000 --> 0:16:32.680 scan the body properly, you need a room with extremely 0:16:32.840 --> 0:16:36.840 tight radiation shielding. And this is where the steel comes in. 0:16:37.440 --> 0:16:40.240 So the counting chamber here is surrounded by a thin 0:16:40.360 --> 0:16:45.040 layer of lead and then cadmium and then copper. This 0:16:45.120 --> 0:16:48.040 is what's known together as a graded Z shield. And 0:16:48.080 --> 0:16:52.760 then outside that you have thirty solid cinameters of steel 0:16:53.240 --> 0:16:57.240 that's all pre war battleship steel, and this keeps the 0:16:57.280 --> 0:17:01.840 background radiation within the chamber within low minimum detectible activities. 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:05.240 But the question remains, Okay, so you need thirty centimeters 0:17:05.240 --> 0:17:07.840 of steel, but why couldn't you just build your radiation 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:10.600 shield out of any old steel, Like, if regular steel 0:17:11.000 --> 0:17:13.840 is good enough for your car and your appliances and 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:16.719 your sky scrapers, why would you have to harvest the 0:17:16.760 --> 0:17:20.440 flesh of a decommissioned battleship in order to build this 0:17:20.520 --> 0:17:23.880 thick radiation shield. Yeah. Again, it's it's easy to sort 0:17:23.920 --> 0:17:27.280 of leap to magical conclusions. It's kind of like, well, 0:17:27.680 --> 0:17:31.240 we live in a we live in a sinful world. 0:17:31.320 --> 0:17:34.480 We have to build our sacred vessel out of wood 0:17:34.520 --> 0:17:37.480 from the garden of Eden. You know, um, you know, 0:17:37.520 --> 0:17:40.760 the the atomic age is so scarred our world that 0:17:40.840 --> 0:17:43.600 we have to we have to find artifacts from before 0:17:43.680 --> 0:17:46.480 that time. Yeah, it certainly does feel like that, but no, 0:17:46.600 --> 0:17:50.520 there is actually a very good physical, scientific reason for this, 0:17:50.600 --> 0:17:52.520 and maybe we should take a break and then get 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:58.240 back into it when we come back. All right, we're back. 0:17:59.280 --> 0:18:03.320 So we've been talking about the idea of radiation shielding 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:07.560 around a very sensitive radiation detector room, and the shielding 0:18:07.720 --> 0:18:10.600 was made out of steel that was harvested from a 0:18:10.720 --> 0:18:15.359 decommissioned World War Two battleship called the USS Indiana. So 0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:17.359 the question is, why would you need to get steel 0:18:17.440 --> 0:18:19.359 from a source like that, Why couldn't you just use 0:18:19.440 --> 0:18:23.240 regular steel. Well, so let's look at how you make steel. 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:26.800 Steel is of course a mixture of iron and carbon 0:18:26.960 --> 0:18:30.639 and sometimes other additives to create alloys with special properties, 0:18:30.920 --> 0:18:35.040 and crucially for our purposes, the process for making steel 0:18:35.119 --> 0:18:40.280 involves the incorporation of atmospheric gases. I was reading about 0:18:40.280 --> 0:18:43.040 this in an article for Chemistry World by Kit Chapman. 0:18:43.080 --> 0:18:45.320 I think it was also a podcast episode of Their's 0:18:45.920 --> 0:18:48.800 talking about how they're There are two major industrial processes 0:18:48.840 --> 0:18:52.040 for making steel in the modern world. One is known 0:18:52.080 --> 0:18:55.679 as the Bessemer process, and this involves melting the iron 0:18:56.119 --> 0:18:59.600 in a furnace and then removing impurities by blowing air 0:18:59.800 --> 0:19:02.800 through the molten metal. The other is known as the 0:19:02.880 --> 0:19:06.119 bos process, and this is similar, but it uses pure 0:19:06.200 --> 0:19:10.840 oxygen instead of air, but that oxygen is still extracted 0:19:11.000 --> 0:19:15.600 from the atmosphere. And so the problem is that either way, 0:19:15.960 --> 0:19:19.240 the gas you're blowing through the molten iron to make 0:19:19.280 --> 0:19:23.240 your steel comes from the atmosphere, from the air. And 0:19:23.400 --> 0:19:28.040 ever since nuclear weapon tests began in nineteen that has 0:19:28.080 --> 0:19:32.600 not exactly been regular air. It is bomb air. Yeah. 0:19:32.640 --> 0:19:35.160 The the ghastly truth of it is, Yeah, we we 0:19:35.280 --> 0:19:37.480 find ourselves saying, oh, we need to use air in 0:19:37.480 --> 0:19:39.679 this is like, oh, that the air, the air we breathe, 0:19:39.680 --> 0:19:42.240 that's where we set off, um, a whole lot of 0:19:42.359 --> 0:19:47.399 nuclear weapons. Um. And and therefore changed it. Um that 0:19:47.520 --> 0:19:49.840 air is not good enough for our steel, for for 0:19:49.880 --> 0:19:52.960 the special steel, at least, just for our breathing and 0:19:53.400 --> 0:19:56.800 our our food and our our children and so forth. 0:19:57.320 --> 0:19:59.080 Now we'll get a bit more into the history of 0:19:59.080 --> 0:20:01.679 the nuclear testing era in a second here, but in short, 0:20:02.240 --> 0:20:03.919 there was a period of time in the middle of 0:20:03.920 --> 0:20:07.400 the twentieth century when lots of nuclear weapons tests were 0:20:07.400 --> 0:20:11.760 conducted around the world, and these tests seeded the atmosphere 0:20:11.760 --> 0:20:16.639 with radioactive contamination. Now, the levels today are much lower 0:20:16.680 --> 0:20:19.680 than they were, say in the mid nineteen sixties when 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:21.840 these tests have been going on for a decade and 0:20:21.880 --> 0:20:25.040 a half, but even today the air still contains some 0:20:25.160 --> 0:20:29.080 radioactive isotopes such as cobalt sixty and others. Uh that 0:20:29.280 --> 0:20:33.359 is left over from the hundreds of nuclear detonations that 0:20:33.520 --> 0:20:36.880 characterized the post war period. Now this had many effects, 0:20:36.920 --> 0:20:39.000 of course, the most important of which are probably like 0:20:39.119 --> 0:20:42.080 the health effects on humans and the effects on wildlife. 0:20:42.119 --> 0:20:44.760 But another one of the effects is that for a 0:20:44.800 --> 0:20:49.880 long time you couldn't make steel via normal processes without 0:20:49.920 --> 0:20:54.600 it being potentially contaminated with radioactive particles. Not so many 0:20:54.720 --> 0:20:58.000 radioactive particles that it would be unsafe for regular use, 0:20:58.200 --> 0:21:01.080 but enough that it would be uns suitable if you 0:21:01.080 --> 0:21:03.399 were trying to make a sensitive instrument. So if you 0:21:03.440 --> 0:21:06.639 needed to make a Geiger counter or shielding for a 0:21:06.680 --> 0:21:11.600 sensitive radio bioassay chamber. Uh, So, what would you do? Well, 0:21:11.680 --> 0:21:16.560 it probably wasn't impossible to make steel without environmental contaminants 0:21:16.600 --> 0:21:20.840 from nuclear tests, but it would have been expensive and difficult. 0:21:21.200 --> 0:21:25.399 And another option presented itself, which was harvesting steel made 0:21:25.480 --> 0:21:30.359 before the Trinity Test in nineteen forty and this precious 0:21:30.400 --> 0:21:34.600 material became known in the industry as low background steel, 0:21:34.840 --> 0:21:39.040 low background because of its low background radiation and what 0:21:39.119 --> 0:21:42.280 would be a great source of huge quantities of pre 0:21:42.480 --> 0:21:47.440 bomb steel old naval vessels. So to come back to 0:21:47.480 --> 0:21:51.840 the Timothy Lynch article about the radio bioassay facility in Richland, uh, 0:21:51.920 --> 0:21:55.240 the USS Indiana was again the battleship that was sourced. 0:21:55.320 --> 0:21:57.680 It was the source here. It was decommissioned on September 0:21:57.760 --> 0:22:02.040 eleven and then sold for scrap after it was taken 0:22:02.080 --> 0:22:05.800 off the navy list in on June one, nineteen sixty two. 0:22:06.400 --> 0:22:09.160 And as the ship was dismantled, some parts were kept 0:22:09.200 --> 0:22:13.120 for ceremonial purposes, like the mainmast and a forty millimeter 0:22:13.280 --> 0:22:17.119 gun were put on display on the campus of India University, Bloomington, 0:22:17.680 --> 0:22:19.639 and I know some of its anchors were put on 0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:23.159 display at various museums and memorials. You know, it's compasses, 0:22:23.200 --> 0:22:26.159 wheels and all that went to places where where you 0:22:26.200 --> 0:22:30.240 can honor the fallen ships. Well it this really drives 0:22:30.240 --> 0:22:33.280 home this metaphor of the ship is a fallen beast 0:22:33.440 --> 0:22:36.439 like the warship is a thing that once dead. Uh 0:22:36.520 --> 0:22:38.680 you know that certain parts are kept for like you said, 0:22:38.720 --> 0:22:43.440 ceremonial purposes, or display purposes, magical purposes, and yet other 0:22:43.480 --> 0:22:46.240 things are harvested for it for the raw meter bone 0:22:46.280 --> 0:22:49.200 of the creature, right, and the raw meter bone would 0:22:49.200 --> 0:22:51.320 be the steel here the snade up. The bulk of 0:22:51.359 --> 0:22:55.240 the ship was put to low background uses. So in Indiana, 0:22:55.320 --> 0:22:59.000 v A hospital got sixty five tons of low background 0:22:59.000 --> 0:23:02.760 steel from the Indiana and that was used for their own, uh, 0:23:03.080 --> 0:23:07.200 their own background radiation counting facilities. But then Lynch writes 0:23:07.280 --> 0:23:10.640 quote in addition to the VA hospital facility, several large 0:23:10.680 --> 0:23:14.119 sections of the hull, weighing a total of two tons, 0:23:14.480 --> 0:23:18.959 were also fabricated into a room. These applications were probably 0:23:19.000 --> 0:23:22.760 never imagined by the original designers of the Indiana. These 0:23:22.800 --> 0:23:25.199 sections of the hull are still being used for the 0:23:25.240 --> 0:23:28.920 original purpose as a shield, but instead of protecting against 0:23:29.040 --> 0:23:32.760 artillery shells and torpedoes, the new purpose is to shield 0:23:32.840 --> 0:23:38.120 radiation detectors from the background radiations originating from cosmic, atmospheric, 0:23:38.280 --> 0:23:41.960 man made and terrestrial sources. So what was once armor 0:23:42.000 --> 0:23:45.800 again unitions is now armor against the entire universe and 0:23:45.840 --> 0:23:50.520 its radioactive contents. The room was first constructed at the 0:23:50.600 --> 0:23:53.320 University of Utah Medical Center in Salt Lake City, where 0:23:53.359 --> 0:23:55.800 it was used for many years in radio biology research, 0:23:55.840 --> 0:23:58.120 and then it was finally moved to the Richland Facility 0:23:58.160 --> 0:24:02.119 in nine and the Indiana was not the only battleship 0:24:02.160 --> 0:24:05.080 that became a source of low background steel. So after 0:24:05.119 --> 0:24:08.080 the Armistice in nineteen eighteen, at the conclusion of World 0:24:08.160 --> 0:24:12.040