WEBVTT - The Atomic Scar 0:00:03.040 --> 0:00:05.280 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, the production of 0:00:05.360 --> 0:00:14.480 My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:17.720 My name is Robert Land, and I'm Joe McCormick. And 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:21.480 today we're going to be talking about nuclear weapons testing. Now, 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:23.160 this is something that has come up on the show 0:00:23.600 --> 0:00:26.279 a good bit before. Obviously we've had to talk many 0:00:26.320 --> 0:00:31.080 times about the very real, uh you know, danger potential 0:00:31.200 --> 0:00:34.960 civilization level threat and and the real human costs of 0:00:35.120 --> 0:00:38.720 nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons testing. But today I wanted 0:00:38.760 --> 0:00:41.680 to focus on a couple of interesting and lesser known 0:00:42.080 --> 0:00:47.360 environmental effects of nuclear weapons testing, specifically something that I 0:00:47.360 --> 0:00:51.400 came across as it pertains to industrial metals, and then 0:00:51.600 --> 0:00:54.040 we're going to get into some other scientific territory as 0:00:54.080 --> 0:00:57.920 we go on. But quite apart from any straightforward chemical 0:00:57.960 --> 0:01:00.280 effects on the atmosphere, I think it is pretty fair 0:01:00.320 --> 0:01:04.440 to say that the the the human departure into the 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:08.480 nuclear weapons testing era in nineteen forty five was really 0:01:08.560 --> 0:01:14.160 sort of a shift moment for for humankind as a species. Yeah, 0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:18.840 and I feel like there there are very few things 0:01:18.880 --> 0:01:20.440 that have been said there are there are very few 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:23.959 audio samples certainly that sum it up quite as well 0:01:24.120 --> 0:01:26.559 or or as or are as haunting as those given 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:30.319 by J. Robert Oppenheimer in nineteen sixty five on the 0:01:30.319 --> 0:01:34.319 television documentary The Decision to Drop the Bomb, broadcast as 0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:37.440 an NBC white Paper. I imagine most of you have 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:40.240 heard this before. I've heard it's a sampled and used 0:01:40.240 --> 0:01:44.800 in music. It uh, it shows up in comic books, literature, 0:01:45.240 --> 0:01:49.600 um in it. The American theoretical physicist and father of 0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:53.120 the atomic bomb is he's sometimes referred, shares the following 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:56.280 regarding the first successful detonation of an atomic bomb at 0:01:56.320 --> 0:01:59.560 the Trinity Test in New Mexico on July six, nine, 0:01:59.800 --> 0:02:04.400 four five. He said, quote, we knew the world would 0:02:04.440 --> 0:02:07.080 not be the same. A few people laughed, a few 0:02:07.120 --> 0:02:10.960 people cried, most people were silent. I remembered the line 0:02:10.960 --> 0:02:14.440 from the Hindu scripture the Bagavad Gita. Fish Knu is 0:02:14.480 --> 0:02:16.959 trying to persuade the prince that he should do his duty, 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:20.160 and to impress him, takes on his multi armed form 0:02:20.240 --> 0:02:24.040 and says, now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds. 0:02:24.480 --> 0:02:27.400 I suppose we all thought that one way or another. 0:02:27.800 --> 0:02:31.040 It's a difficult thing to imagine working on that kind 0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:33.160 of research in a way feeling that it is your 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:36.240 duty or your necessity to aid the Allied cause in 0:02:36.320 --> 0:02:40.200 World War Two, but at the same time knowing that 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:43.200 you were working on something that that would unleash an 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:47.000 age of terror in human history. Yeah, I mean absolutely 0:02:47.040 --> 0:02:52.040 a weapon that would as of this recording, UH, has 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:56.240 only been used twice in war, which on one hand 0:02:56.280 --> 0:02:58.839 you can you can say, thankfully, has only been used 0:02:58.840 --> 0:03:00.840 twice in war, but in the same hand you can say, 0:03:00.919 --> 0:03:05.359 tragically has been used twice in war. Um. Yeah, Well, 0:03:05.400 --> 0:03:08.840 we'll get into the just the destructive capabilities a bit 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:11.640 of of of the bomb as we proceed here, and 0:03:11.639 --> 0:03:14.120 of course we've covered it on the show before to 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:17.040 varying degrees. But I want to come back to the 0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:22.840 quote that that Oppenheimer is UM is deploying here. So 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:25.919 if if you're not familiar with it, basically these are 0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:29.239 these are who the figures are in this. You've got Vishnu, 0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:32.880 one of the principal deities of Hinduism. UH. The Bugabad 0:03:32.880 --> 0:03:36.160 Gheita or the gutas it's sometimes just shortened to, is 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:39.720 part of the Hindu epic, the Mahabarata. Technically it's books 0:03:39.760 --> 0:03:43.160 six in that and the prince in question is the 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:47.960 hero Argina part of the Pandava. Finally that wages war 0:03:48.080 --> 0:03:52.120 against the Caravas. Uh. That that's the big struggle. That's uh, 0:03:52.280 --> 0:03:55.200 that's key to the Mahabarata. Anyway, at the beginning of 0:03:55.280 --> 0:03:59.360 the Geta, which Oppenheimer is um is quoting, here Aregenna 0:03:59.720 --> 0:04:03.320 rights his chariot onto the field of forthcoming battle between 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:06.760 these two families. But he suddenly overcome by doubt and 0:04:06.840 --> 0:04:09.840 depression as he notes they're there on the other side, 0:04:09.840 --> 0:04:14.040 within the ranks of the enemy's he recognizes friends, relatives, teachers, 0:04:14.680 --> 0:04:17.800 and uh. And therefore has this this just immense so 0:04:17.960 --> 0:04:21.960 weight descend upon him. Um. This is a quote from it. 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:25.680 This is as translated by Edwin Arnold in five and 0:04:25.760 --> 0:04:28.960 as as is always the case with translated works of 0:04:29.200 --> 0:04:32.640 literature and poetry, Uh, you know, the English is going 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:35.680 to be approximate, and certainly with Hinduism there are many 0:04:35.680 --> 0:04:39.320 cases where particular ideas and phrases don't really have a 0:04:39.800 --> 0:04:44.920 parallel word in English. Um. Anyway, it goes as follows quote. Thus, 0:04:44.960 --> 0:04:48.120 if we slay kinsfolk and friends for love of earthly power, 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:52.200 av what an evil fault? It were better I deem it. 0:04:52.279 --> 0:04:55.560 If my kinsmen strike to face them weaponless and bear 0:04:55.640 --> 0:04:59.159 my breast to shaft and spear, then answer blow with blow. 0:04:59.720 --> 0:05:02.960 So speaking in the face of those two hosts, Arginas 0:05:03.000 --> 0:05:06.760 sank upon his chariot seat and let fall bow and arrows. 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:10.080 Sick at heart. So the prospect of the forthcoming bloodshed 0:05:10.160 --> 0:05:12.479 is just too much for him. But what does he do? 0:05:12.600 --> 0:05:17.599 He turns to his charioteer UH for counsel, and luckily 0:05:18.040 --> 0:05:21.680 his charioteer is the blueskinned Krishna, the avatar of the 0:05:21.800 --> 0:05:25.080 mighty Vishnu, and he gives him his counsel. In fact, 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:29.080 he gives him his counsel for eighteen chapters. That's that's 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:32.120 what the Geta is is basically him providing all of 0:05:32.160 --> 0:05:36.120 this uh philosophical and spiritual advice on what it is 0:05:36.400 --> 0:05:39.240 to have to make these sorts of decisions and engage 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:41.680 in war and duty and so forth. It's kind of 0:05:41.720 --> 0:05:44.159 like something like the Book of Job in the form 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:46.000 we have it now, which you have a sort of 0:05:46.040 --> 0:05:51.960 small framing narrative that mainly contains a didactic discourse on 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:55.760 theological matters. Right and now, if you want to, like 0:05:55.800 --> 0:06:00.120 a really good breakdown all of this episode, uh in 0:06:00.160 --> 0:06:03.760 the Mahabarata of the Gita, and especially as it relates 0:06:03.880 --> 0:06:07.640 to Oppenheimer in his life. There's a wonderful paper that 0:06:07.920 --> 0:06:09.520 you can find out there in full on the on 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:12.920 the internet from James A. Hegi, a professor of history, 0:06:13.040 --> 0:06:16.279 University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. Uh. He this was a nice 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:19.359 write up he did for the American Philosophical Society in 0:06:19.360 --> 0:06:22.159 two thousand and He goes into greater depth, but he 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:26.640 also summarizes Chrishna's counsel as follows He's He says, look, 0:06:26.720 --> 0:06:30.040 you're a soldier, Aregna. You have to fight. Fighting is 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:33.080 your duty, so you need to do it. Um. He 0:06:33.200 --> 0:06:37.880 also says, look, Krishna, uh, you know this, this God, 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:40.240 who I also am, is going to be the one 0:06:40.279 --> 0:06:42.479 to determine who lives and who dies. It's not your 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:48.080 place to mourn or rejoice over human loss in this case. 0:06:48.360 --> 0:06:51.880 You should try to remain unattached from the outcome. And 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:54.520 then also faith in Krishna is going to be what 0:06:54.640 --> 0:06:57.839 saves your soul, Aregenna, and this is the most important 0:06:58.279 --> 0:07:00.880 part of the whole scenario. But as Argina begins to 0:07:01.040 --> 0:07:05.120 metaphorically see the light or I suppose behold the true 0:07:05.200 --> 0:07:08.200 nature of the reality he's faced with. He asks if 0:07:08.240 --> 0:07:12.840 he can see Christiana's godlike form, and this site ultimately 0:07:12.920 --> 0:07:15.960 seals Argina's commitment to do his duty. And this occurs 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:19.840 in chapter eleven, verse thirty two, where uh where the 0:07:19.920 --> 0:07:25.000 now cosmically embodied Vishnu speaks to Argena. And what he 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:30.000 exactly says of two English speaking ears is going to 0:07:30.080 --> 0:07:33.080 depend on the translation, but for instance, the writer translation 0:07:33.400 --> 0:07:37.800 has him say death, am I and my present task destruction. Um. 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:40.800 There's a translation by Arnold that says, VU seest me 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:43.880 as Time, who kills Time, who brings all to doom, 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:47.280 the slayer Time, ancient of days, come hither to consume. 0:07:48.000 --> 0:07:50.200 And there's another one I came across that I thought 0:07:50.280 --> 0:07:52.520 was pretty good. I am mighty Time, the source of 0:07:52.560 --> 0:07:55.960 destruction that comes forth to annihilate the world's And I've 0:07:56.000 --> 0:08:00.679 always loved this one by J. A. B. Van Bitten quote, 0:08:00.760 --> 0:08:04.920 I am time growing old to destroy the world embarked 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:08.520 on the course of world annihilation. I am Time grown old. 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:11.520 Always find that kind of there's something kind of perplexing 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:14.440 about that phrasing that seems to befitting of this all 0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:17.560 powerful being that is, you know, that has taken on 0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:20.559 his true form to you. Yeah, there's something that comes 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:24.160 in the fullness of time. Yeah. Yeah, it's interesting the 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:28.920 way the personification as time further serves that purpose of 0:08:28.960 --> 0:08:33.240 the kind of depersonalization of one's role in history. You 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:36.960 know that there is a kind of like a fate 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:40.240 or world path that is executed through the passing of time, 0:08:40.880 --> 0:08:44.200 and what you are is someone who plays a role 0:08:44.280 --> 0:08:48.680 within it, not the shaper of it. Yeah. Absolutely, Um again, 0:08:48.679 --> 0:08:51.400 it is it is even in translation as it's it's 0:08:51.440 --> 0:08:56.560 this really perplexing and beautiful passage. Now, it should stress 0:08:56.559 --> 0:09:00.480 that Oppenheimer was not religiously Hindu, but he was interested 0:09:00.480 --> 0:09:03.680 in Hindu scripture, and clearly he found an association here 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:06.520 between his role in the creation of the bomb and 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:10.880 the idea of duty performed regardless of potential outcome. Now, 0:09:11.520 --> 0:09:14.560 he certainly is bending the text here a bit, because 0:09:14.600 --> 0:09:18.080 in in the Gita, Vishnu slash Krishna is saying, look, 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:21.200 I'm the prime mover here, I'm the one who destroys you. 0:09:21.280 --> 0:09:25.119 Just do your duty. Oppenheimer seems to be implying the opposite. 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:28.720 That there perhaps is no all powerful force that bears 0:09:28.760 --> 0:09:31.880 the burden of our deeds, that the burden is instead 0:09:31.880 --> 0:09:34.720 on the shoulders of those involved in the creation of 0:09:34.720 --> 0:09:37.440 such a weapon. You know, when he's saying, you know, 0:09:37.880 --> 0:09:40.520 now I am become death and that we all felt 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:43.520 that way one way way or another. I mean, I mean, 0:09:43.559 --> 0:09:48.400 he is he is. He he's confronting the personal responsibility 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:50.680 that seems to be there in the creation of such 0:09:50.679 --> 0:09:53.040 a weapon. But so it does seem that there's this 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:57.199 this double terror in Oppenheimer's mind, like what if we fail? 0:09:57.320 --> 0:10:00.800 But also what if we succeed? Yeah? Yeah, that that 0:10:01.000 --> 0:10:04.400 that's something that Heggia gets into. You know, this this 0:10:04.520 --> 0:10:07.680 idea that there's this an immense fhere of failure. You know, 0:10:07.679 --> 0:10:09.679 what if we don't develop the bomb as we've been 0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:12.320 tasked with, uh, and what will that mean for us? 0:10:12.360 --> 0:10:15.600 But then yeah, well, how much mass human death will 0:10:15.640 --> 0:10:19.000 be brought into the world, even on the short term, Uh, 0:10:19.120 --> 0:10:21.920 if this is successful without even getting into the way 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:25.040 that it will change the landscape of of not only 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:29.600 warfare and and potential warfare in global security, but just 0:10:29.720 --> 0:10:32.800 human civilization itself. Yeah, there's so many ways you can 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:36.280 track the impact of the invention of nuclear weapons. Clearly 0:10:36.320 --> 0:10:39.800 one of them is a sort of like world psychological impact. 0:10:39.880 --> 0:10:42.760 You know, there's just there's bomb consciousness in the world 0:10:42.800 --> 0:10:46.120 now that the sort of will always be there unless 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:49.600 nuclear weapons are entirely eliminated, But even even then they 0:10:49.600 --> 0:10:52.240 would they'll probably still be the knowledge that they could 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:55.160 be built again. Yeah. This this reminds me of one 0:10:55.200 --> 0:10:59.480 of Grant Morrison's creations for the Doom Patrol comic book, 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:05.120 the idea of Candlemaker, this embodiment of all of our apprehension, uh, 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:09.520 surrounding nuclear annihilation that takes on this kind of godlike 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:14.720 really almost kind of terrifying, Vishnu like appearance in the 0:11:14.760 --> 0:11:17.439 human psyche. Is this the guy who's made of wax? 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:19.880 It is, and we'll have we'll have more to say 0:11:19.920 --> 0:11:23.440 about him in a forthcoming October episode of Stuff to 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:26.280 Blow Your Mind. Oh, that's right, it's almost October. It is. 0:11:27.120 --> 0:11:30.120 But to come back to the part of Oppenheimer's quote 0:11:30.160 --> 0:11:33.440 that is not part of on the of the Guida, Um, 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:36.360 we knew the world would not be the same, uh, 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:40.040 and that that is true. It wasn't it isn't, And 0:11:40.160 --> 0:11:42.760 you're you're probably aware of most of the reasons why. 0:11:42.880 --> 0:11:45.000 But but yeah, today's episode, we're going to look at 0:11:45.120 --> 0:11:49.480 some of the particular ways that it was changed, Uh, 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:54.440 particularly regarding um, you know, a few environmental scenarios as 0:11:54.480 --> 0:11:58.280 well as the nature of steel. Yes, So getting into 0:11:58.320 --> 0:12:01.240 these lesser known environmental effects, I want to start with 0:12:01.280 --> 0:12:05.000 the fact that might seem extremely odd, which I was 0:12:05.040 --> 0:12:07.880 reading about in an article published in the journal Health 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:11.760 Physics in two thousand seven by a health physicist named 0:12:11.760 --> 0:12:16.319 Timothy P. Lynch, and the articles called a historically significant 0:12:16.360 --> 0:12:20.680 shield for in vivo measurements, And the fact goes like this. 0:12:21.360 --> 0:12:26.120 In Richland, Washington, there is a research facility called the 0:12:26.240 --> 0:12:31.400 in Vivo Radio Bioassay and Research Facility. And within this 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:35.560 facility there is a special room that is surrounded on 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:40.000 all sides by thick plates of steel that was once 0:12:40.080 --> 0:12:43.400 part of a World War Two era battleship called the 0:12:43.520 --> 0:12:46.960 USS Indiana. This was a battleship that served in the war. 0:12:47.040 --> 0:12:50.320 It was launched in nineteen It was in a number 0:12:50.320 --> 0:12:53.720 of battles It served extensively in the Pacific theater during 0:12:53.760 --> 0:12:57.720 the war, and then after it was decommissioned, they took 0:12:57.880 --> 0:13:02.240 steel out of the ship to build this room. Why 0:13:02.240 --> 0:13:06.319 would anybody do that? Yeah, if you don't know the answer, 0:13:06.360 --> 0:13:09.000 it sounds a bit mysterious, right it all. It sounds 0:13:09.040 --> 0:13:10.880 like the kind of thing Grant Morrison would make up 0:13:10.920 --> 0:13:13.120 where you're having to engage in some sort of magical 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:18.480 ritual involving steel from old ships. Oh yeah, yeah, it 0:13:18.520 --> 0:13:21.080 totally sounds like something magical, either kind of magical or 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:24.120 symbolic thinking of like, you know, I'm gonna melt down 0:13:24.200 --> 0:13:26.960 the statue of the Golden Calf for the false title 0:13:27.080 --> 0:13:30.200 or king or whatever and and turn it into something holy. 0:13:30.600 --> 0:13:32.240 I'm going to make a throne out of all the 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:35.760 swords of those who wants opposed my rule. Exactly. Yes, 0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:38.280 it is the iron throne. So this is the the 0:13:38.320 --> 0:13:42.839 iron throne of rooms. Now the room is again an 0:13:43.000 --> 0:13:47.439 in vivo radio bioassay detector, and Lynch tells us in 0:13:47.480 --> 0:13:50.600 the paper that quote the detection system is used to 0:13:50.720 --> 0:13:56.080 monitor workers for intakes of fission and activation products. So 0:13:56.120 --> 0:13:59.680 this means that it's used to check workers people to 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:05.400 see if they have ingested tiny radioactive particles known as radionuclides. 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:10.640 Radionuclides consist of atoms that can decay into different isotopes 0:14:10.720 --> 0:14:13.520 and emit radiation as they do so, and if you 0:14:13.640 --> 0:14:16.240 take them into your body, say by swallowing them or 0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:19.280 breathing them in, they can do this inside your body 0:14:19.400 --> 0:14:23.360 and provide internal radiation sources which you do not want. 0:14:23.400 --> 0:14:26.320 They can pose a serious health risk if enough of 0:14:26.360 --> 0:14:29.360 them accumulate in the body, A large dose could cause 0:14:29.400 --> 0:14:33.840 acute radiation syndrome. Prolonged exposure to even smaller doses over 0:14:33.880 --> 0:14:37.080 time could be a risk for damaging DNA and causing cancer. 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:41.200 This is to use one example why you don't want 0:14:41.240 --> 0:14:45.960 to consume things that would come from a radioactively contaminated area, 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:48.880 you know, somewhere around a nuclear meltdown. Why would you 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:50.840 not want to, say, you know, roll around in the 0:14:50.920 --> 0:14:54.680 dirt near Chernobyl or drink the water there. It's because 0:14:54.840 --> 0:14:58.720 the the environment is contaminated with radio nuclides, these little 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:01.360 particles that you don't want anywhere near your body. You 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:04.800 do not want them going inside you. So people who 0:15:04.880 --> 0:15:08.040 get tested regularly in this room would include Department of 0:15:08.120 --> 0:15:11.200 Energy workers, but Lynch also mentions that the room has 0:15:11.240 --> 0:15:14.160 been used to test a helicopter pilot and some other 0:15:14.200 --> 0:15:18.000 workers from Chernobyl as well as children from Chernobyl I 0:15:18.040 --> 0:15:21.080 guess who lived nearby. So this has been in use 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:24.680 for a long time and it's used to measure the 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:29.320 radiation coming from living people. So somebody walks into the 0:15:29.320 --> 0:15:32.120 detector room, they get scanned for radio neew clides across 0:15:32.160 --> 0:15:34.880 the length of the body by accounting system that Lynch 0:15:34.960 --> 0:15:41.120 describes as comprised of five coaxial germanium detectors. And because 0:15:41.200 --> 0:15:44.200 the level of radiation emitted by these radio neew clides 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:47.440 is usually very faint outside the body, you need an 0:15:47.520 --> 0:15:52.280 extremely sensitive detector. And here you hit another problem, which 0:15:52.360 --> 0:15:57.040 is interference from background levels of radiation coming from the 0:15:57.080 --> 0:16:01.720 rest of the world. So you've got cosmic sources, atmospheric sources, 0:16:01.840 --> 0:16:05.840 terrestrial sources. So in order to scan the body properly, 0:16:06.320 --> 0:16:10.720 you need a room with extremely tight radiation shielding and 0:16:10.800 --> 0:16:13.720 this is where the steel comes in. So the counting 0:16:13.800 --> 0:16:16.680 chamber here is surrounded by a thin layer of lead 0:16:17.000 --> 0:16:21.120 and then cadmium and then copper. This is what's known 0:16:21.120 --> 0:16:24.680 together as a graded Z shield. And then outside that 0:16:24.760 --> 0:16:29.640 you have thirty solid centimeters of steel that's all pre 0:16:29.800 --> 0:16:34.120 war battleship steel and This keeps the background radiation within 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:39.160 the chamber within low minimum detectable activities. But the question remains, Okay, 0:16:39.200 --> 0:16:41.960 so you need thirty centimeters of steel, but why couldn't 0:16:42.000 --> 0:16:45.040 you just build your radiation shield out of any old steel, Like, 0:16:45.080 --> 0:16:48.120 if regular steel is good enough for your car and 0:16:48.160 --> 0:16:51.280 your appliances and your sky scrapers, why would you have 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:55.320 to harvest the flesh of a decommissioned battleship in order 0:16:55.360 --> 0:16:58.640 to build this thick radiation shield. Yeah. Again, it's it's 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:02.160 easy to sort of leap to magical conclusions. It's kind 0:17:02.160 --> 0:17:05.600 of like, well, we live in a we live in 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:09.159 a sinful world. We have to build our sacred vessel 0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:12.680 out of wood from the garden of Eden. You know, um, 0:17:12.720 --> 0:17:15.520 you know, the the atomic age is so scarred our 0:17:15.640 --> 0:17:18.320 world that we have to we have to find artifacts 0:17:18.359 --> 0:17:21.639 from before that time. Yeah, it certainly does feel like that. 0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:25.080 But no, there is actually a very good physical, scientific 0:17:25.160 --> 0:17:27.280 reason for this, and maybe we should take a break 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:29.359 and then get back into it when we come back. 0:17:30.920 --> 0:17:35.919 Than alright, we're back. So we've been talking about the 0:17:35.960 --> 0:17:42.040 idea of radiation shielding around a very sensitive radiation detector room, 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:44.679 and the shielding was made out of steel that was 0:17:44.760 --> 0:17:49.199 harvested from a decommissioned World War Two battleship called the 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:52.240 USS Indiana. So the question is, why would you need 0:17:52.280 --> 0:17:54.320 to get steel from a source like that, Why couldn't 0:17:54.359 --> 0:17:57.840 you just use regular steel. Well, so let's look at 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:00.800 how you make steel. Steel is of course a mixture 0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:04.359 of iron and carbon and sometimes other additives to create 0:18:04.400 --> 0:18:08.679 alloys with special properties, and crucially for our purposes, the 0:18:08.760 --> 0:18:14.159 process for making steel involves the incorporation of atmospheric gases. 0:18:14.960 --> 0:18:17.280 I was reading about this in an article for Chemistry 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:19.399 World by Kit Chapman. I think it was also a 0:18:19.440 --> 0:18:22.399 podcast episode of Their's talking about how they're There are 0:18:22.400 --> 0:18:26.080 two major industrial processes for making steel in the modern world. 0:18:26.560 --> 0:18:30.000 One is known as the Bessemer process, and this involves 0:18:30.160 --> 0:18:34.040 melting the iron in a furnace and then removing impurities 0:18:34.080 --> 0:18:37.760 by blowing air through the molten metal. The other is 0:18:37.800 --> 0:18:40.639 known as the bos process, and this is similar, but 0:18:40.680 --> 0:18:44.879 it uses pure oxygen instead of air, but that oxygen 0:18:45.000 --> 0:18:49.440 is still extracted from the atmosphere, and so the problem 0:18:49.520 --> 0:18:53.479 is that either way, the gas you're blowing through the 0:18:53.480 --> 0:18:57.120 molten iron to make your steel comes from the atmosphere 0:18:57.359 --> 0:19:01.080 from the air, and ever since nuclear your weapon tests 0:19:01.080 --> 0:19:04.400 began in nineteen forty five, that has not exactly been 0:19:04.520 --> 0:19:09.000 regular air. It is bomb air. Yeah. The the ghastly 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:11.640 truth of it is, Yeah, we we find ourselves saying, oh, 0:19:11.640 --> 0:19:13.600 we need to use air in this is like, oh 0:19:13.680 --> 0:19:15.600 that the air, the air we breathe, that's where we 0:19:15.600 --> 0:19:19.800 set off, um, a whole lot of nuclear weapons. Um, 0:19:20.040 --> 0:19:23.439 and and therefore changed it. Um that air is not 0:19:23.520 --> 0:19:26.240 good enough for our steel, for for the special steel, 0:19:26.280 --> 0:19:29.639 at least, just for our breathing and our our food 0:19:29.720 --> 0:19:33.360 and our our children and so forth. Now we'll get 0:19:33.400 --> 0:19:35.399 a bit more into the history of the nuclear testing 0:19:35.440 --> 0:19:37.960 era in a second here, But in short, there was 0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:39.920 a period of time in the middle of the twentieth 0:19:39.960 --> 0:19:43.679 century when lots of nuclear weapons tests were conducted around 0:19:43.680 --> 0:19:50.040 the world, and these tests seeded the atmosphere with radioactive contamination. Now, 0:19:50.160 --> 0:19:53.360 the levels today are much lower than they were, say 0:19:53.400 --> 0:19:56.159 in the mid nineteen sixties, when these tests have been 0:19:56.200 --> 0:19:58.560 going on for a decade and a half, but even 0:19:58.600 --> 0:20:02.000 today the air still contain in some radioactive isotopes such 0:20:02.000 --> 0:20:05.560 as cobalt sixty and others. Uh that is left over 0:20:05.760 --> 0:20:10.040 from the hundreds of nuclear detonations that characterized the post 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:12.800 war period. Now this had many effects, of course, the 0:20:12.840 --> 0:20:15.400 most important of which are probably like the health effects 0:20:15.400 --> 0:20:18.800 on humans and the effects on wildlife. But another one 0:20:18.840 --> 0:20:21.480 of the effects is that for a long time you 0:20:21.560 --> 0:20:26.439 couldn't make steel via normal processes without it being potentially 0:20:26.440 --> 0:20:31.280 contaminated with radioactive particles. Not so many radioactive particles that 0:20:31.280 --> 0:20:34.520 it would be unsafe for regular use, but enough that 0:20:34.560 --> 0:20:37.200 it would be unsuitable if you were trying to make 0:20:37.200 --> 0:20:39.560 a sensitive instrument. So if you needed to make a 0:20:39.600 --> 0:20:44.360 Geiger counter or shielding for a sensitive radio bioassay chamber. 0:20:45.040 --> 0:20:48.240 Uh so, what would you do. Well, it probably wasn't 0:20:48.320 --> 0:20:53.200 impossible to make steal without environmental contaminants from nuclear tests, 0:20:53.280 --> 0:20:57.159 but it would have been expensive and difficult. And another 0:20:57.200 --> 0:21:01.719 option presented itself, which is harvesting steel made before the 0:21:01.760 --> 0:21:06.320 Trinity test in nineteen forty five, and this precious material 0:21:06.720 --> 0:21:10.520 became known in the industry as low background steel. Low 0:21:10.560 --> 0:21:14.840 background because of its low background radiation and what would 0:21:14.840 --> 0:21:18.320 be a great source of huge quantities of pre bomb 0:21:18.480 --> 0:21:23.000 steel old naval vessels. So to come back to the 0:21:23.000 --> 0:21:27.280 Timothy Lynch article about the radio bioassay facility in Richland. Uh, 0:21:27.400 --> 0:21:30.679 the USS Indiana was again the battleship that was sourced. 0:21:30.800 --> 0:21:33.200 It was the source here. It was decommissioned on September 0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:37.119 eleven nine and then sold for scrap after it was 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:40.440 taken off the navy list in on June one, nineteen 0:21:40.480 --> 0:21:44.160 sixty two. And as the ship was dismantled, some parts 0:21:44.160 --> 0:21:47.760 were kept for ceremonial purposes, like the mainmast and a 0:21:47.800 --> 0:21:50.800 forty millimeter gun were put on display on the campus 0:21:50.800 --> 0:21:54.000 of India University, Bloomington. And I know some of its 0:21:54.040 --> 0:21:57.560 anchors were put on display at various museums and memorials. 0:21:57.640 --> 0:21:59.840 You know, it's compasses, wheels and all that went to 0:22:00.320 --> 0:22:04.240 places where where you can honor the fallen ships. Well 0:22:04.280 --> 0:22:07.680 it this really drives home this metaphor of the ship 0:22:07.800 --> 0:22:10.320 is a fallen beast, like the warship is a thing 0:22:10.359 --> 0:22:13.159 that once dead. Uh. You know that certain parts are 0:22:13.200 --> 0:22:17.080 kept for like you said, ceremonial purposes or display purposes, 0:22:17.119 --> 0:22:20.439 magical purposes, and yet other things are harvested for for 0:22:20.480 --> 0:22:23.480 the raw meter bone of the creature, right, and the 0:22:23.560 --> 0:22:26.040 raw meter bone would be the steel here the smade 0:22:26.080 --> 0:22:28.640 up the bulk of the ship was put to low 0:22:28.680 --> 0:22:32.639 background uses. So in Indiana, VA Hospital got sixty five 0:22:32.720 --> 0:22:36.440 tons of low background steel from the Indiana and that 0:22:36.480 --> 0:22:40.080 was used for their own uh their own background radiation 0:22:40.160 --> 0:22:43.840 counting facilities. But then Lynch writes quote in addition to 0:22:43.880 --> 0:22:47.080 the VA Hospital facility, several large sections of the hull, 0:22:47.160 --> 0:22:51.719 weighing a total of two tons, were also fabricated into 0:22:51.760 --> 0:22:55.560 a room. These applications were probably never imagined by the 0:22:55.600 --> 0:22:59.160 original designers of the Indiana. These sections of the hull 0:22:59.200 --> 0:23:02.520 are still being used for the original purpose as a shield, 0:23:02.960 --> 0:23:06.800 but instead of protecting against artillery shells and torpedoes, the 0:23:06.800 --> 0:23:10.679 new purpose is to shield radiation detectors from the background 0:23:10.800 --> 0:23:16.159 radiations originating from cosmic, atmospheric, man made and terrestrial sources. 0:23:16.200 --> 0:23:19.080 So what was once armor again unitions is now armor 0:23:19.240 --> 0:23:24.800 against the entire universe and its radioactive contents. The room 0:23:24.840 --> 0:23:27.720 was first constructed at the University of Utah Medical Center 0:23:27.760 --> 0:23:29.480 in Salt Lake City, where it was used for many 0:23:29.560 --> 0:23:32.119 years in radio biology research, and then it was finally 0:23:32.119 --> 0:23:36.400 moved to the Richland Facility in nineteen and the Indiana 0:23:36.480 --> 0:23:38.520 was not the only battleship that became a source of 0:23:38.560 --> 0:23:42.359 low background steel. So after the Armistice in nineteen eighteen, 0:23:42.400 --> 0:23:45.880 at the conclusion of World War One, the German High 0:23:45.920 --> 0:23:49.160 Seas Fleet was ordered to report to an Allied base 0:23:49.320 --> 0:23:53.000 known as the Scapa Flow, where the naval vessels were 0:23:53.040 --> 0:23:56.320 supposed to be handed over to the British Royal Navy. 0:23:56.359 --> 0:23:59.000 But the German officers did not like that. They had 0:23:59.040 --> 0:24:01.840