In the late '80's early '90's I did a lot of outcrop logging with a gamma-ray scintillometer to produce synthetic GR logs to accompany lithologic descriptions. Our instrument of choice was about the size of shoe box, weighed ~12lbs and ate batteries like crazy. Now I see you with a pocket tool. I'm so jealous.

That radiation that you are detecting is most likely from Arco Idaho. The nuclear lab in Arco had an accident back some time in the 50's or 60's. The test reactor had a meltdown and breached containment. The map you showed for the fall out starts at and around arco. Just an fyi. I live in Idaho as well.

Im still waiting for your channel to blow up. You will get there some day, keep up the hard work! This content is worthy of a lot more subscribers!

For those who don't know, The "Baby tooth study" is a super interesting study into the fallout, and where it settled after the first rounds of nuclear testing

Hi, I don’t know if you have heard this, I grew up in St. Louis, MO. I was in 3rd grade in 1959. The school collected our ‘baby teeth’. It turned out they were doing an ‘autopsy’ on us to determine our Cesium 137 exposure. Chemically it looks like calcium, so it ended up in teeth and bones. Kennedy signed a treaty that stopped open air testing in the early’60s. I’m sure that fallout 1,500-2,000 miles down win changed a lot of minds. They didn’t have anything near as nice as your gamma wave detector back then. Back then they didn’t even know that they needed it. (So the story goes)

I love that a lot of the narration was done outdoors at the trail. Not many youtubers do that, instead favoring a studio setup. While studio setups sound great, they feel more sterile.

The more thumbs up the more the system recommends the channel. This guy needs more exposure so click the up thumb on as many comments as you can.

I live in a small region in Australia which is known to have been specifically impacted by fallout from a British nuclear test conducted quite distantly (in the late ‘50s) and brought down by heavy rain. It’s not _widely_ known due to secrecy, and the local dairy industry was particularly affected with limited and insufficient quarantining of milk (also very hushed). If spectrographic tools like this are affordable now, I’d be fascinated to do some surveying myself. Some evidence of residual contamination would be helpful in revealing the truth of this awful event to those who were never aware or have forgotten. Thanks for this short but enlightening presentation.

I lived in Montana in the early 60s. I remember being warned about radioactive snow.

I've lived all over that country and never knew this. Thanks for the video.

Almost all of the nuclear weapons tests conducted in the contentental US were in southern Nevada. If you look at your fallout map you can see a path that starts in eastern Idaho. You're probably detecting fallout from the Idaho National Labratory between Arco, Idaho and Idaho Falls. Lots of blown up, melded down reactors out there. Thank you, for your channel. I've always said these are criminally underrated videos.

I did a paper in the 90's about the continental contamination from above ground nuclear testing. People would be surprised what we did to ourselves!

My coffee mug once sent a geiger counter nutter. It was earthenware, made by my great grandmother from West Virginia mountain clay. We suspect one of the glazes used was the culprit, as that same clay made all the old moonshine jugs. More radioactive than my 17 jewel Gruen gold watch radium hands and dial markers.

78yr old American veteran, living at White Bird, Idaho. Thanks for the information.

To your point, lots of thyroid cancer in folks from Central Montana that grew up in the 70s. My mom and dad lost friends to it.

There's quite a bit of mines, tailings and old possibly government sites back on the "Navajo reservation" Arizona from 1920' - 1970's ish. Where abandoned equipment, waste, and uranium deposits can still be found. If that's interest you.

Can you please consider doing an episode on gamma spectroscopy, using your RadiaCode 101 using some of the items that you have in your collection, such as the radium and uranium sources to see how well it works in identifying these known isotopes?

These videos are helping me out a great deal. You have a gift. You communicate with your audience in a way the average person can understand, follow and find interesting. This may seem somewhat simplistic to you, and you may not even realize you are doing this. But, you are. A lot of people cannot do this.

Really nice and interesting video. Amazing quality as always. Wouldn't have thought that fallout from such a distance and long time ago.

In the early 60's I took a course in survival in a nuclear incident, and while in the service I actually witnessed a detonation. Your right it's not as risky out there just don't eat off the ground, lol.

Born and raised in Bozeman. Never heard of anything up there being affected. Thank you for sharing this.

Wouldn’t have expected this high after more than 6 decades. That map explains some things I experienced in Idaho. The wildlife would set off detectors when they came close to the facility. Then they’d have to be collected (with a 30-06).

So glad I found your channel yesterday. Great video!

Just stumbled across this video, have been greatly intetested in anything and everything radiation related, so ofcourse i was very happy indeed to find your channel!

It's crazy that A-Bomb tours used to be a thing back in the day. People would pay to sit in a spot designated safe and upwind from fallout and watch the bomb go off.

As far as a gamma spectrometer goes, the radiacode 101 has pretty poor resolution. It will pick up the spectrum of a smoke detector pretty easily but it's really bad at picking out stuff from uranium ore. It's great as a general purpose meter you can take on trips and keep in your pocket for long term data collection to identify geographic hotspots.

Atmospheric ground testing of nuclear weapons in Nevada produced particulate clouds. These clouds of particulates seeded water clouds and produced localized precipitation events that contained high levels of radioactive materials. Particulates became the nuclei of water droplets, which fell as rain, and then sometimes the water portion evaporated before it hit the ground. These events produced particles that were collected and mixed by the water condensation, then as the water evaporated they were gathered together into dust sized particles which eventually settled to the ground.

I love your videos they are so inspiring and i did a school presentation with stuff you teached me. Keep going man!😄

KZfaq suggested your channel today, and I’m glad that it did. Fascinating video that captured my attention. Keep it up!!!

That cancer map you showed looks pretty similar to the fallout map that I saw on another channel, where it was said that the USA copped a huge amount of fallout from it’s own weapons testing. Think it was Veritasium talking about FFT’s or Tom Scott’s channel.

Your channel contains awesome content! Love this! Keep it coming!

Been enjoying your outdoor exploring episodes for radioactive materials. Place might be interesting is Colorado near Rulison. Back in the late 60's they did tests with nuclear devices for gas extraction.

I worked in software development for nuclear detectors early in my career. It's stronger some places then others but you can pick it up anywhere in the world. It just takes a tiny trace amount to produce a signal.

Another fascinating find….I enjoy these.

Come to Mississippi and inspect the Tatum Salt Dome. The only nuclear underground test East of the Mississippi River. This was a test conducted in a salt formation at roughly 1000' at depth. Some rich history with the test that also include a second test in the underground excavated salt dome.

Great location and very informative thankyou drew and regards from Scotland to you all on here....fallout is scary but I'm amazed that there's still signs of atomic tests wow bro...wow

Nicely done. That Radiacode is a lot cheaper than my home setup, and it travels, very cool.

Good stuff you deserve way more views than what the algorithm is giving you

Have been really enjoying your content. I have been interested in radioactive things since my dad gave me a radium dial aircraft timer when I was about 4 years old. He had borrowed a Geiger counter from his physics lab to demonstrate. Looks like I will be upgrading my old Vic Tic pretty soon now that there are cool new data acquisition units like the Radeye

I live in the state of New Mexico. And from what I was told that the average background radiation is a lot higher here than most places I guess that’s because we went boom first with the atomic bomb and we continue to do it here for years on end

Dana Durnford (YT) has been reporting on the world's radioactivity for years. He "live" streams several times a week, with 24/7 phone-in, too... and, every show is packed with nuclear updates and knowledge - and, will defintely add to Radoactive Drew's investigations. Cheers

About 22 years ago several friends and I were traveling North through the canyon at around 4:30 am. We all witnessed a spectacular and very large ufo hovering over the Portal Creek area. I went up Portal Creek road recently and it is very obvious that a large circular area of the forest has encountered serious stunted growth! Not sure if it's related at all to your discovery but, it seems like a pretty interesting coincidence.

If you ever come to Colorado I'd love to see what you find at the site of the former Rocky Flatts nuclear site. They have opened up much of the site to a wildlife preserve, although I think some small parts of the site are off limits.

THERE'S THIS PLACE.....up near Dawsonville GA. Back in the 60's they would expose missile components and other electronic gear to giant doses of gamma radiation - presumably to see how the devices would perform in a nuclear environment, being bombed, etc. They used a source on an elevator that rose up and blasted the test articles for a specified time, then was lowered back into it's shielded enclosure. I'm not sure where it is, but it's sort-of off limits, but people have clambered all over the place..... might be worth a look if you ever get into north Georgia. Pretty good barbecue here, too. I'm a radioman and a junk collector and your video of the aircraft instruments inspired me to find and collect all my radium-bearing meters in my parts room and ....take them out of the house. They say they're "SEALED - DO NOT OPEN".... but they're in ammo cans on the porch now. (What does one do with such stuff anyhow without getting on some evil watch list?) Love your stuff. You may have raised my chances of living to old age, Drew. Thanks. Jeff

fascinating, Montana.. like all the western states are great places to to hike and explore.. I would love to explore some of the locations in your videos when I retire in 2024 though climbing and hiking is my main interest.. this only adds another interesting detail to think about.

I love my B20-ER, but that Radiascan looks awesome!

Ever hear of the story behind the shooting of the John Wayne movie 'The Conqueror' and how the crew and cast all had very high cancer rates. They shot the movie in a fallout zone. Maybe visit the shooting location and see what pops up.

The Kodak company new the first nuclear test was done half way across the country when there x ray film got spots on at the factory . Scary shit that they polluted the planet 🌏 back then .

The detectors I trained with started reading at 1/rad per hour. We were trained to walk in find that reading and mark the line. Then walking the edge to mark a relatively safe path for following units. Seems your unit is much more sensitive.

After about 2000 nuke tests in Nevada it shouldn't be a surprise.

Interesting to see how far detectors have come. Back in the day a group from Sandia and Lawrence Livermore visited my work site. They were part of DOEs NEST team. We provided different sources and completed items for them to train on detecting hidden items. Their equipment was in a small motor home which they would drive by the test area and get their readings. They actually detected each source and where they were manufactured. I visited the NTS too. That was a fascinating place. For me, the vacuum testing was the most interesting.

Cyclotron Engineer here. Love the videos

Thank you for the information.

Really interesting find. And nicely shot video. Keep it up!

I wonder how Treasure Island is looking these days? We lived there back in the late 80s when everyone was at a slow cook while living over a radioactive landfill. I think the 89 earthquake fluffed the sheets.

There is also a controversy about exotic,man made radio-isotopes found on mars...... Fallout on land would be also be worse without rainfall and the movement of material down the watershed and transported out by water movement, basically leaching process. Its how the oceans became salty.

I-131 has an 8-day half-life. That means in a month It has reduced by 16x. Iodine typically comes from milk and seafood, reducing or eliminating your consumption of these items for 1 month after the accident will drastically lower your risk (and is also effective if you don't have KI around). This is what they should have done for the Chornobyl accident (which even though handled badly, still killed very few people, and few got thyroid cancer). Radiation is a hazard, but it is the dose that makes the poison - very high one-time doses or moderately high ones over a long time have a significant effect. Anything low dose has no statistical negative effect. There is no need to live in abject fear of radiation in our daily lives and nuclear plants release far less radiation than coal plants. Also, the Gy numbers quoted account for ALL the radiation released, not just I-131. The actual I-131 was far lower than the total release, and due to its short half-life, decayed quickly. Thyroid cancer has a 99% survival rate, particularly if addressed quickly, but it is easily prevented in a nuclear release from these tips. The bomb on the other hand is the real problem.

You have to wonder if the source might be more specific than mere fallout. Satellite Iridium-33 debris from 09 onward could have landed in Montana, I personally saw one fireball as far south as Oregon.

A simple solution for the screen shutting off is enable developer options (tap build number in "about phone" till it turns them on) then set "do not sleep while charging" and connect a power bank

I love my radiacode! Great to see more content with it, you did a great job explaining the risk levels 👍

I'm Canadian, years ago we'd come down to that area to the Radiation mines for healing. Would that be the same?

I'm from Billings, Montana! I like your videos

Your videos amazes me every time, it also amazes me that America has een big area of elevated readings of radioactivity and probably caused people back in the days to have elevated risks of cancer, "but we are not sure so let us speculate ;)" Thank you for your amazing content videos i really learn a lot about radioactivity and elements its really interesting

Amazing stuff glad i found this channel 👍💯

Your videos are amazing!! I enjoy watching them!! Keep it up and hopefully your channel will blow! I really got into radiation testing during the COVID lockdown and since then I’ve been doing all sorts of testing and collecting. I actually bought the radiacode 101 a year ago and found out that the tiles in my house are slightly radioactive with thorium peaks, which is really interesting!!!

Yeah I pass by this at least 3 times a week. I live in The Big Lie and have a few old timers talk about radiation warnings from back in the day. Now I'm gonna freak out all the tourists😂😂

Could the radiation be from Eastern Washington's production of plutonium in the 40's, 50's and 60's. There was a huge downwind exposure to the population of Wasington and Idaho. My father died from cancer related to being a "downwinder".

I would love to see you come to Colorado and see if you can detect any plutonium downwind and downstream from the Rocky flats munitions plant where they have plutonium go into the river and also have plutonium fires... I heard in the news a few years ago that they decided not to finish building the 470 freeway because of contamination in the Arvada and golden area.

I just discovered your channel. I'm hooked.

I picked up a cheap Chinese GM tube counter as a first detector/dosimitier. Loved the fallout map you displayed. I'll try to see if I can find a good copy online. I live in Washington state, My background is detected at 0.12 usv/h which is lower than I expected as the map suggests the area is between 1 and 2. I was surprised to find my smoke detectors at contact, were only about double background. They are insignificant. On the other hand, do have some lantern mantles. Didn't have the Coleman brand, but do have the Aladdin brand for an Aladdin kerosene lamp. The mantle package in contact was about 12 usv/hr, so considerable, but not detectable at any real distance more than a foot away. Because I didn't know how strong the radiation was, I keep those in the cupboard over the fridge, so rarely get closer than 2 feet from them in the kitchen. Nice show. It will be unlikely for me to buy the detector you showed, even though a spectrum for isotope detection is quite cool.

I just got interested in your channel and I love your videos. They’re super interesting and shed light on a lot of things. I’m just curious, what’s the highest amount of radiation you’ve ever detected in person?

Ft McClellan Aka is covered with C 137 and cobalt 60.

My dad worked for Willow Run Radiation Lab WWll and after. These labs are everywhere. Sure, lots of contaminants and genetics affects health outcomes, but cancer profiles and data such as frequency of ALS diagnoses are higher in industrialization areas. Close in CWE has an EPA site a bit to the east and north that leaks into residential areas every time there is a heavy rain. Deserts are not the only environment in which our government has endangered its citizens.

This channel really radiates 😀

You need to check out Santa Susana Field Laboratory just outside of Los Angeles CA. Famed nuclear reactor meltdown back in the 50/60’s…

I notice you started glowing towards the end of the video. 👽🤖

Of St. George, Utah, Lewis Strauss, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission said: "East, they (the atomic clouds) go over St. George, which always gets plastered."

North of Paul, Idaho. Everyone has cancer in their family. Called cancer ridge. Very few live past 65 at least the people I know. Born in late 40s and into 50s. My boy was at high school when a boy brought a rock from his driveway- the haz mat was calling to get it because of radiation. I’m from that area

That $50 cheap Android phone is priceless compared to an Apple. There is so much you can do with it because they haven't locked out all the useful features yet.

Tests were performed in Maralinga Australia indigenous communities saw it lived to speak about everybody dying of cancer and one child becoming blind in 3 weeks

Lots of fallout in White Sulphur Springs area resulted in high cancer rate.

Elton Britt “with a Geiger counter in my hand, im going out to stake me some government land, uranium fever has gone and got me down.”

back in the 1960's, my dad, a chemical engineer with Union Carbide, spent lots of time around Bozeman, MT working with uranium mines and other stuff I didn't know about..I wonder if you are looking as some of the stuff he was playing with.

You want to see radioactive fallout, you need to explore around Harrisburg PA area and across from 3 Mile Island It is SUPER HOT

*Suddenly FBI agents come out of the trees confiscating your geiger counter*

Great video, Drew (as usual). Would love to see your take on the sources of fallout in the US. I see mentioned in the comments about accidents at various nuclear facilities and that tests were performed in southern Nevada. Are there other locations of interest/concern? And can you fingerprint the fallout down to the facility level (do they even have unique fingerprints?)? Thx!

It’s not known at what levels radiation begins to significantly increase cancer risk. Below 100 millisieverts, an increase in risk has not been shown to exist. However, by scaling the risk at higher doses down to lower doses, it has been estimated that 10 millisieverts of radiation exposure could increase the lifetime risk of an adult dying of cancer by about 0.05 percent. With a 21 percent overall lifetime risk of dying of cancer, 10 millisieverts of radiation exposure theoretically could raise the lifetime risk of dying of cancer to 21.05 percent. This is a small amount considering the benefits of medically needed imaging tests.

First off I must say that I like the content of your channel. Thanks for the time and effort to bring us this content. I only have one little gripe that’s caught my attention. It’s the way you are mispronouncing the word nuclear. It’s pronounced “new clear” not “nukeuler”. I only am saying this with the best intentions and I’m not the language police trying to bust your balls. It’s just hard for me to take your channel seriously when that word is mispronounced considering the seriousness of your subject matter. All the best and I’m looking forward to more.

I live near Dawson Forest in Georgia. Lockheed left some nasty stuff there. The firehouse closest has a map outlining the hot spots.

137Cs could have come from Fukushima as well, as it was detected reaching the west coast of the US in 2011.

Can you come to the areas surrounding Hanford Site? I’m sure you know of it since it’s the largest nuclear waste storage facility in the US. We have a major River next to it that is the Columbia Basin’s lifeline, and a lot of the west’s life line. We are smack dab between the old Umatilla Chemical Depot and Hanford. Lots of people here have rare blood cancers (I know at least two people with rare , chronic blood cancers). The rest of us seem to have autoimmune diseases. I’d like someone with your experience to take a look and see if it’s truly safe to be here. An older couple I’m related to by marriage, that worked there a long time ago lost three children and both had/have multiple cancers. We used to have to do drills as kids for both radioactive and chemical fallout. Nobody has ever paid attention to us or shared the story enough to get attention on us and get it solved. It’s really hushed. Actually the states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and Montana are all full of radioactive particles. 😂

White Sulpher Springs, MT always had the reputation of being the epicenter

All together now. Nuke-Leeee-er. Credibility goes down when I hear Nuke-U-ler

When chernoble blew up the news said it fell on the usa as well as many other places.

You ever think about Fukushima? C-137 was a major component released- probably too low level tho.

Go to Marysvale, Utah where Pratt Seegmiller hit the mother lode in uranium in 1951. 300 East Center Street was the uranium annex. I used to live in that building way back when.

If you make it back there, take a pry bar and open up some of those fractures in the rock beneath large, flat, exposed spots and look for concentrations of the isotopes from erosion

This is all well and good, but the important question is, which of these radioactive isotopes will be most likely to _infuse_ a person with superpowers? Oh, and which superpower(s) can one expect to acquire? Seriously though, in your travels, have you come across any areas where radiation is so severe that it would be potentially dangerous to spend a few hours(or maybe a few days) there?

I did this in a small German town where they had granite pawing stones.2-3 times background and I just walked back and forth it showed up as a nice plot

It is in Alaska as well they found it up there too