The top secret plan to explode a nuclear bomb in Yorkshire

Рет қаралды 2,503,411

2 жыл бұрын

In the 1960s, America was running "Operation Plowshare": the idea that perhaps nuclear bombs could be used for peace, not war. At least some British scientists had similar ambitions, and it involved setting off a nuclear bomb under Wheeldale, in the North York Moors National Park.
Based on catalogue reference ES 26 in the National Archives, mainly ES 26/2 and 26/4. "Atomic Weapons Research Establishment and Atomic Weapons Establishment: Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Explosions: Files and Reports". Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/d...
The Open Government License does not cover personally identifying information, so names and signatures on documents have been blurred.
Operation Plowshare footage from the Prelinger Archives: archive.org/details/Plowshar1961 and archive.org/details/Plowshar1...
🟥 MORE FROM TOM: www.tomscott.com/
(you can find contact details and social links there too)
📰 WEEKLY NEWSLETTER with good stuff from the rest of the internet: www.tomscott.com/newsletter/
❓ LATERAL, free weekly podcast: lateralcast.com/ / lateralcast
➕ TOM SCOTT PLUS: / tomscottplus
👥 THE TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES: / techdif

Пікірлер: 2 600

@TomScottGo 2 жыл бұрын

"It's Valentine's Day, Tom! People are doing all sorts of romantic content, what are y- never mind."

@acidrink 2 жыл бұрын

@ailaG 2 жыл бұрын

@TheEmon 2 жыл бұрын

That's hilarious, Tom.

@pandapops5428 2 жыл бұрын

wait hold on "5 days ago"?

@stuwustudio 2 жыл бұрын

Is tom single 😳

@Etropalker 2 жыл бұрын

Cant blame the people that researched it though. They were trying to use one of the most powerful technologies ever developed to do something other than blowing up cities, and actually properly evaluated their ideas before going through with them.

@RAFMnBgaming 2 жыл бұрын

I think we all owe a lot to the scientists hired to look at these kinds of proposals and work out that they were a bad idea before we actually did them.

@UkSapyy 2 жыл бұрын

@@RAFMnBgaming And yet the USSR went and did it all. I suspect the UK just watched soviets from afar taking notes.

@Scroolewse 2 жыл бұрын

@@UkSapyy the USSR made decent use of peaceful nukes, most pointless but there were a few times it worked as theorized

@DannySullivanMusic 2 жыл бұрын

this is 1000% correct

@evilsharkey8954 2 жыл бұрын

At least someone in the UK actually researched it and tabled it. The US and USSR operations were spectacularly stupid. Think of how many people had to be involved in planning and executing such massive, expensive operations and not have a single person up top ask “but what about radiation?”

@BlueJayYT 2 жыл бұрын

There have actually been some good uses of peaceful nuclear explosions. Back in the 60's, a gas well in Uzbekistan had caught fire and been steadily burning for 3 years and was seemingly unstoppable. Soviet physicists decided that the best way to stop the fire was with a deep underground nuclear explosion... and it worked! 20 seconds after detonation, the fire was quenched and this technique would be used a few more times by the Soviets until their collapse!

@HipposaurusRex 2 жыл бұрын

Interesting, do you have any sources for that? I'd like to read more

@MrCamille9999 2 жыл бұрын

Is there any problem that can't be solved with a nuke anyway?

@lezelligfan 2 жыл бұрын

@@MrCamille9999 Good question, nope.

@fuomag9 2 жыл бұрын

@@HipposaurusRex there are some russian documentaries on youtube with a lot of videos taken at the time!

@daseinzigwahrem 2 жыл бұрын

@@MrCamille9999 Solved? More like dissolved

@menachemsalomon 2 жыл бұрын

Until you know all the environmental risks, it's not an irrational idea to consider. They thought about it, fleshed out the major details, and then shelved it pending further review. In other words, exactly what they should have done, given the data at the time. Fascinating, and thanks, Tom. But neither shocking nor horrifying.

@raddysurrname7944 2 жыл бұрын

I would say it is shocking and horrifying to find something like this in today's day and age, at least until you consider people's knowledge in 1969.

@caffeine_squirrel 2 жыл бұрын

@@raddysurrname7944 people's knowledge like a massive increase in cancers, miscarriages and birth defects after Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

@chameleonedm 2 жыл бұрын

@@caffeine_squirrel Yes, exactly that knowledge. What are you actually trying to say?

@flinko99 2 жыл бұрын

Nuclear weapons are inherently shocking and horrifying.

@menachemsalomon 2 жыл бұрын

@@flinko99 Why? And before you answer, consider: Is that a good and valid reason, or is it overhype?

@lauscar 2 жыл бұрын

what I should have taken away from this: they were going to blow up a nuclear bomb about a mile away from my house! what I actually took away from this: Tom Scott was about a mile away from my house!

@teachies902 2 жыл бұрын

haha

@donutlovingwerewolf8837 2 жыл бұрын

Tom Scott: High Five! You: *surprised by Tom's sudden appearance* Tom Scott: Too slow! *shimmers out of existence* You: NOOOOO!!!

@plasmibot 2 жыл бұрын

yep!

@roguishpaladin 2 жыл бұрын

Tom Scott - the peaceful nuclear explosion of the 21st century.

@RepublicOfIraq 2 жыл бұрын

You just doxxed yourself

@CallanKilderry 2 жыл бұрын

UK nuclear testing in the 1950s - let's do it as far away as possible in the most remote parts of Australia. UK nuclear testing in 1969 - let's do it in Yorkshire.

@petertr2000 2 жыл бұрын

Probably just wanted better beer?

@dominateeye 2 жыл бұрын

To London, those were probably about the same thing.

@catmonarchist8920 2 жыл бұрын

Underground in Yorkshire

@paulqueripel3493 2 жыл бұрын

Idea proposed by a Lancastrian?

@MatthewMakesAU 2 жыл бұрын

Trying to get a bit of mutant variety in the cricket side

@Teeafit 2 жыл бұрын

I’ve lived in the North York Moors for 50 years, and never heard that! But I’m remembering the local outcry when it was proposed to frack under Flamingoland just down the road, the reaction was so great that the company pulled out... and that was ‘only’ fracking!!

@andfoundout Жыл бұрын

Watch this be evidence of divine planning

@absalomdraconis 2 жыл бұрын

Last I heard (though I vaguely recall something about one of them being decommissioned), there were actually two _drink8ng water_ storage tanks that the Soviets had made with nukes, and then continued to use into at least the 90s. After the initial flush (not sure I want to know what _that_ did), there was so little contamination in comparison to the throughput of the tanks that it didn't pose a safety hazard. However, it _also_ likely was done with thermonuclear devices instead of pure fission devices, and thus much cleaner than anything "Hiroshima scale".

@TotallyAHuman 2 жыл бұрын

So, some Soviet guys seriously thought they could create *_drinking_* water storage tanks... using nukes!?

@craigme2583 2 жыл бұрын

Did they ever test the water or care , not a lot of transparency in USSR.

@fitrianhidayat 2 жыл бұрын

@@TotallyAHuman they could and they did

@vulpes7079 2 жыл бұрын

@@TotallyAHuman they could, they did, it worked, minimal contamination

@the_expidition427 3 ай бұрын

Saving this

@magic_cfw 2 жыл бұрын

I now need a "a possible future" from Tom talking about what if they did decide to nuke the underground of a national park

@piranha031091 2 жыл бұрын

Not much would be different. There would just be a large cavity deep underground in a park in Yorkshire. It would have too much residual radioactivity to use as gas storage for a good while. It's possible it could eventually be used as such decades later.

@theJellyjoker 2 жыл бұрын

@@piranha031091 and then the inevitable leakage of radiation and contamination of the ground water etc...

@Spartan0430 2 жыл бұрын

@@theJellyjoker bah! a little radiation never hurt no one!

@safe-keeper1042 2 жыл бұрын

@@theJellyjoker Contaminated drainwater, not great, not terrible.

@timothymclean 2 жыл бұрын

Well, the world would need to be a _lot_ more cavalier about advanced technology in general and nuclear technology in specific. So, well...has anyone played a Fallout game lately?

@TheIronArmenianakaGIHaigs 2 жыл бұрын

It's interesting how in that time period how they wanted to use splitting the atom. From portable mini power stations to making deep water harbours for ships.

@psoma_brufd 2 жыл бұрын

Yup, they very optimistically thought it was safer than it is though we do use it for a heck of a lot safely nowadays.

@LuxFerre4242 2 жыл бұрын

Are nuclear "portable mini power stations" not what power submarines and aircraft carries now?

@safe-keeper1042 2 жыл бұрын

To be fair, it's always like that. Some new technology comes along and everyone starts musing about all the possible applications. I remember stories and drawings from when rockets were invented and people imagined tiny rockets used to deliver express mail from a city to another. Or a Donald Duck story from back when radar was a new invention, and Carl Barks treated it as this near-magical technology that allowed you to see through walls.

@thespicywolf8818 2 жыл бұрын

bot

@justuslm 2 жыл бұрын

If you have a hammer, every problem will look like a nail...

@JerryRigEverything 2 жыл бұрын

You make the coolest videos.

@wotizit 3 ай бұрын

So do you tom and jerry

@actuallyneon 3 ай бұрын

how does this only have 3 comments.

@mehmeh1234 3 ай бұрын

I don't know why

@averyeml 2 жыл бұрын

I definitely admire the people who took the whole “nuclear bomb” thing and tried to do something different with it. I mean, nuclear fission/fusion was (and still is tbh) the stuff of science fiction and I’m sure once they started to crack that they felt like it must have a nearly infinite number of uses. Back then, it must’ve felt as close to magic as you could get. I know it was very quickly sorted out that it wasn’t what they thought it was, but in those developmental moments it probably felt like a crazy new world to explore in all fields.

@tadpole9264 2 жыл бұрын

fusion is still the stuff of the future, fission has been in safe use for decades just thought Id clarify

@averyeml 2 жыл бұрын

@@tadpole9264 I know it HAS been, I’m referring to the time when they were testing this out. Even if it was around, it was all the brave new world of the time. Sort of like how when the iPhone came out people assumed Smartphones would become literally every moment of our lives.

@Djiehh 2 жыл бұрын

Imagine going through with the plan and trying to keep it secret. "Remember that earthquake a few months ago? Turns out that was nothing to be concerned about. On an unrelated note, we found a massive cavern under the national park that we will use as a gas storage facility once the random radioactive radiation inside of it subsides."

@scorchedearth1451 2 жыл бұрын

I think it would be more than just an "earthquake". They couldn't grasp what a nuke does back then. I've read somewhere that when you detonate a nuke underground, the ground moves so violently, and more than when an earthquake occurs, that your legs break immediately when you're standing on the floor. Whole city's miles away would have flattened in a second.

@tylisirn 2 жыл бұрын

@@scorchedearth1451 That is completely ridiculous and wrong. The atmospheric test ban came to force in 1963, and by 1969 underground nuclear testing was routine and the general destructive effects were well understood. Between just 1963 and 69 literally hundreds of underground tests had been conducted. (In total there has been over 2000 known nuclear tests, which is an insane number.)

@adolfhitler7394 2 жыл бұрын

@@scorchedearth1451 source: trust me bro

@countingwithjerold Жыл бұрын

@@scorchedearth1451 actually nukes are very safe

@scorchedearth1451 Жыл бұрын

@Aquarium Gravel I read that in a book. They built nuclear bunkers to prevent this effect.

@KHRrocks 2 жыл бұрын

As a history undergrad I am extremely envious of Tom being able to casually stroll up to the British National Archives and sieve through the documents I can only wish of accessing (due to costs and covid)

@Teverell 2 жыл бұрын

The British National Archives is a fantastic place and honestly it doesn't take much to get a reader's ticket - you don't even have to be resident in the UK, you can get one if you're visiting. (Hopefully you'll be able to in the not so distant future, too.)

@jessedwardes690 2 жыл бұрын

Going to the National Archives and looking through the documents is completely free. I’m assuming there’s some travel cost for you, but I hope you’re able to get there sometime soon. I’m going to be studying a history undergrad from September and i’m going to the Archives this saturday :)

@jolyontayrol1028 2 жыл бұрын

@@norwice That plan was in 1953, more than fifteen years earlier. And it concerned nuclear weapons tests, not peaceful applications. And the village was fifty miles away. So no, nothing whatsoever to do with this. As can be seen by reading that Yorkshire Post article.

@rachelcookie321 2 жыл бұрын

@@jolyontayrol1028 damn, they really wanted to blow up Yorkshire.

@DasGanon 2 жыл бұрын

@@rachelcookie321 I blame Lancashire.

@KlaxontheImpailr 2 жыл бұрын

“Nuclear Fraking” is not a pair of words that should ever be together.

@paulgibson1700 2 жыл бұрын

I very much enjoy the documentary "To Mars by A-Bomb: The Secret History of Project Orion", it's very easy to find online with a quick search. It details how far not just the theoretical research went but even the practical experiments that were carried out to see if peaceful nuclear explosions were a viable alternative to the methods of rocket propulsion, at the time.

@bmp011 2 жыл бұрын

I grew up in Whitby and I've always said it's one of the most isolated towns in England, so I totally understand why someone thought it would be a good idea to nuke the local countryside.

@TheHulksMistress 2 жыл бұрын

I love Whitby. Bought some Whitby jet jewellery last time I visited ^^

@thomasboynton1 2 жыл бұрын

Plot twist: it was actually an attempt at nuking the vampire caves deep below Whitby Cathedral

@Oli-Johnson 2 жыл бұрын

Drove back from Whitby once along the Egton to Rosedale Abbey road. Never felt so isolated anywhere else in England. Only people I saw where in full camo and had shotguns and half the road signs had been shot at some point 😂

@DubsnSubsSessions 2 жыл бұрын

@@Oli-Johnson wow, I've never heard of places like that being described like this! England always feels so small and knowing those moors well it all just feels like home.

@HiThere-ig5iz 2 жыл бұрын

I grew up in Whitby, too.. Whitby, Ontario; a few towns over from Pickering, Ontario.. very original, we are

@davidgillies620 2 жыл бұрын

I used to live in Bradford and it's hard to argue that a bijou, Hiroshima-scale nuke, like the one in the study, wouldn't have been an improvement.

@dielaughing73 2 жыл бұрын

Just a little dainty nuke-ette

@garysmith2845 2 жыл бұрын

I’m from Bradford now and couldn’t agree more

@TheMajkla 2 жыл бұрын

I think Frankie Boyle said that about Glasgow.

@ShalomBrother 2 жыл бұрын

🤣

@aley921 2 жыл бұрын

I second that, who do we contact?

@Solid_Fuel 2 жыл бұрын

Tom is one of the few that can make a video about a place wehre nothing happened and keep it super interesting

@swiftyskys8948 2 жыл бұрын

Your videos are amazing mate, Your production quality is unquestionable and your delivery hits perfectly. Keep up this amazing work.

@Marconius6 2 жыл бұрын

In the Fallout universe, the experiment was successfully carried out and repeated multiple times over the decades. The entire national park had been converted into Yorkshire National Gas Storage Park, known only as Gashire to the ghouls inheriting the area after the War.

@TheErador 2 жыл бұрын

Pronounced 'gasher' presumably

@hamstirrer6882 2 жыл бұрын

Ere whats thar lookin at, smoothskin

@18thshaz 2 жыл бұрын

fallout uk

@PrinceWesterburg 2 жыл бұрын

What, so like, this didn’t happen?

@stevethepocket 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for reminding me how badly I want the next _Fallout_ game to be set somewhere outside of the US.

@devindykstra 2 жыл бұрын

I always found this subject fascinating. I love the concept of using something designed for conflict and destruction in a way that benefits humanity. Such a shame Nukes are so radioactive, it's almost like they were designed to make cities uninhabitable.

@Stlaind 2 жыл бұрын

You might find Project Orion interesting regarding peaceful use of nuclear explosives

@swagnermiteTV 2 жыл бұрын

@Soundcitylolbruh get a job

@widmo206 2 жыл бұрын

@Soundcitylolbruh No, I don't think I will.

@Tjalve70 2 жыл бұрын

I don't think Hiroshima or Nagasaki are uninhabitable.

@LikenewvegasScoob 2 жыл бұрын

Or you could say using the basis of all manifestation for absolute destruction

@guystewart1930 2 жыл бұрын

In 1968 I was present at a project plowshare simulated nuclear blast. They had bleachers set up but placed them too close to the blast site. When debris started raining down on the crowd everyone grabbed their kids, scrambled for their cars and raced away. The test was code named “pre-gondola” and conducted near fort peck in Montana.

@Kim-the-Dane-1952 2 жыл бұрын

Interesting that you mention the possible effects on Pickering. The Canadian namesake of Pickering, Ontario is home to an 8 reactor nuclear power station and when you stopped at the local railway station there are (or at least used to be) signs that read "We radiate happiness " 😄😄

@TheFarCobra 2 жыл бұрын

“When I was a lad, they tried to explode a nuclear bomb in the middle of the road.” “Luxury”

@jaakkomantyjarvi7515 2 жыл бұрын

"3.6 Yorkshiremen. Not great, not terrible."

@adrianthoroughgood1191 2 жыл бұрын

@@jaakkomantyjarvi7515 outstanding!

@rynonymouss 2 жыл бұрын

for some reason before tom said "lower" i imagined them flying a bomber over a natioanl park for the bomb to perfectly go down the hole and explode

@reddwarfer999 2 жыл бұрын

Like the Death Star, you mean?

@ord_huntire8412 2 жыл бұрын

My mind was blown when you said the towns pickering and Whitby. As I live in Whitby, Canada ontario… the city next to me is also called, pickering 🤯

@MrPaddyR 2 жыл бұрын

Pickering and Whitby are about 40mins distance in North Yorks as Pickering is my hometown. The naming of old colonial towns like Pickering, Whitby and Scarborough was definitely a choice made by colonists trying to Anglicise Canadian settlements by using UK town names 😅

@brianharrison7085 2 жыл бұрын

Amazing video Tom. Thank you for sharing this local history I never knew about.

@TheFarCobra 2 жыл бұрын

My favorite nuke testing story is still the manhole cover that got launched into space. … but this is right up there.

@TheMajkla 2 жыл бұрын

for blasted into Space before Sputnik 😁

@SupersuMC 2 жыл бұрын

@@TheMajkla America was always winning the space race. We just didn't tell anyone. 😉

@aryapatel1932 21 күн бұрын

Wait till you see the chicken powered nuclear landmine, look it up it’s real

@DronesClubMember13 2 жыл бұрын

As someone who enjoys wikipedia dives when they can't sleep, you find all sorts of wild things in random tangent research.

@DronesClubMember13 2 жыл бұрын

@Gillie Monger dodgy sources are everywhere. I generally take it with some level of questioning attitude. Like media, You read something, poke at it with a "does this sound plausible?" and maybe try to reconstruct what could have happened based on what you know. If it seems like a good answer, then you take it as a reasonable explanation knowing you probably don't have 100% fact...Hopefully >90%. Really, no matter what, I'm with Socrates when I say, I know nothing. (Didn't someone on Hogan's heros say the same thing?)

@nmstoker 2 жыл бұрын

This is a great story! Thanks Tom Also really pleased to see the National Archive - I used to cycle past it and never knew that's what it was, but recognised the building the instant you showed it.

@KopCole 2 жыл бұрын

Never fails to amaze me where Tom actually finds these stories. The ideas for these vids must be job in itself. Love this channel

@tylisirn 2 жыл бұрын

I mean, that's literally Tom's job. (Large part of it)

@TheGreatCalsby 2 жыл бұрын

In a different reality, this video is titled "The giant nuclear gas cavern under Yorkshire" where Tom is wearing a red radioactive suit

@variousthings6470 2 жыл бұрын

Hopefully a red radiation protection suit, not a red radioactive suit! It's probably a bad idea to wear clothing that emits radiation...

@Synthonym 2 жыл бұрын

Given how rapidly Whitby's cliffs and seaside streets are falling into the sea, plus many of it's buildings being hundreds of years old, an underground explosion like that might just have collapsed several buildings, if not more

@FlamRackett 2 жыл бұрын

I love how your videos aren't titled with clickbait. This is exactly what the vids about. Great job!

@KrozacNexus 2 жыл бұрын

I wish you would make more videos, I think you are the most interesting youtuber I have ever watched, and even better than most TV presenters. Thank you for all your hard work on researching for these videos Tom, you always make my week when I see you've released a new video.

@kennorcott7074 2 жыл бұрын

Why do random tiny towns in the UK always have some relation to explosions

@mvl71 2 жыл бұрын

Perhaps they were not so tiny before the explosions?

@Validole 2 жыл бұрын

"... conveniently right _after_ the US and USSR had found out it was a bad idea". On the one hand, yes, of course. They found out it was a bad idea, so it made sense to ban it, lest others make the same mistake. On the other hand... I love that kind of humour.

@anna-flora999 2 жыл бұрын

I'm not sure if I'd be that optimistic about their motives

@CalvinsWorldNews 2 жыл бұрын

There were also a lot of plans for 'wacky' (apocalyptic) thing in Scotland. For a while it was considered running a less efficient grid by placing all the nuclear plants up north in case something went wrong, or by building several plants in the highlands and migrating heavy industry up there, again to keep it away from London if something went badly wrong (which at the time was considered a genuine possibility)

@armadillito 2 жыл бұрын

Perhaps this will be revived to bring real meanining to "levelling up" the North? ;) Actually... given Scotland's relative wealth of renewables and massive coastline for Nuclear maybe it's not a stupid idea? Just the motivations werre wrong

@kjj26k 2 жыл бұрын

@@armadillito It could certainly severly change the balance of power on Great Britain.

@beany118118 2 жыл бұрын

This is literally right on my door step , wish I knew you were here!

@Samuel127849 2 жыл бұрын

I just did a report on the plowshares in Colorado. Radiation in the natural gas was not the issue, the cost of the warhead and public outcry were. A lot of natural gas wells go through formations containing uranium and thorium and is naturally radioactive so that can be fixed.

@Samuel127849 2 жыл бұрын

Look up Project Rulison

@personzorz 2 жыл бұрын

The uranium in the bomb is not the problem it's the short-lived daughter products

@Samuel127849 2 жыл бұрын

@@personzorz My point is that radio active daughters are already a problem for the Energy industry and that it wasn't the reason for the failure of the project

@hewhohasnoidentity4377 2 жыл бұрын

I seem to recall that the winds changed direction unexpectedly right after one of the major tests at the Nevada Test Site and there was a rush to get everyone in St George Utah to remain inside and close all doors and windows until told otherwise. No need for concern. The public decided they were done having their own government playing with nuclear bombs like they were part of an erector set.

@timothymclean 2 жыл бұрын

I feel like the cost of the warhead is a non-issue when we've got thousands of the things lying around. Public outcry can't be dismissed so easily.

@andrerenault 2 жыл бұрын

Extra points for being a Yorkshire-based fact

@FrankFurther 2 жыл бұрын

Another incredibly interesting video! Love your work Tom

@Thorstenator 2 жыл бұрын

This is probably one of the most masterfully done combinations of video title and thumbnail.

@tlspark8250 2 жыл бұрын

"Is it a good idea to nuke a bit of a national park?" Now that's a sentence I didn't know that I needed to hear today

@rexfoxoloughlin6033 2 жыл бұрын

I live in Kiruna, Sweden, where underground explosions occur every night at 1:20am, and a lot of the buildings here have been developing cracks, and even the ground itself is cracking (to the point that they're moving the city 3km west). Now, the explosions here are much closer to the buildings and much smaller than the proposed Yorkshire nuke, but I can guarantee there would've been more than "a few small cracks"!

@rikspring 2 жыл бұрын

Facts plz...

@TheEulerID 2 жыл бұрын

@@rikspring Kiruna is the site of a huge, underground iron ore mine, and the explosives used, along with the subsidence from mine workings is causing a lot of problems with the building and infrastructure so they have decided to move the place. The population is about 23,000, so it's not a small job. It seems to be the subsidence that's the main problem (the place is very remote in Northern Sweden, so there's no shortage of land). The location where Tom was is further away from the nearest towns than Kiruna is from the iron ore mines (about 7km from the nearest village). As far as the effect of a nuclear explosion, then given the yield being talked about, it's somewhat less than a magnitude 5 earthquake. That's at the level where it would be felt and rattle the ornaments in the affected area, but any damage will be very limited. Also, it's not possible to generalise too much on damage as that will depend on the local geology as well, which can make the effects less or more (for instance, how firm the foundations are). I suspect the North York Moors are fairly solid in this respect as they are primarily sandstone in that area.

@rjmun580 2 жыл бұрын

@@rikspring If you Google ` Kiruna explosions` then all will be revealed.

@potkettle 2 жыл бұрын

This would be an excellent video for Tom. I only know about this because I follow Mia Stalnacke on Twitter - she's kinda the unofficial Kiruna ambassador and has talked about it lots. It's somewhere I'd love to visit

@Valks-22 2 жыл бұрын

@@TheEulerID I'd only argue that an earthquake of magnitude ~5 would do worse than just rattle ornaments. My city was bit by a 5,6 last year and the damage was significant (not catastrophic). Old town buildings (pre WW2) suffered major damage including complete wall/roof collapses falling roof tiles and chimneys wounded people and damaged cars, some modern buildings were deemed unsafe to live due to new ground conditions (those not on rock foundations), and generally a lot of minor but $$$ damage on building exteriors. I gained much respect since for Japanese and US wesr coast cities shrugging 7's and higher somewhat often.

@haloecake1181 2 жыл бұрын

I enjoyed this video very much thanks Tom 😁👍

@PipinhoSnow 2 жыл бұрын

Another piece of history, tks TS :)

@estrogeneral-intelligence 2 жыл бұрын

Imagine taking a nice stroll in the park and you just hear a loud rumbling from below...

@ignaciotorovillacura6342 2 жыл бұрын

Well, it's just a regular earthquake

@needude7218 2 жыл бұрын

Tom mentioning Wheeldale just gave me PTSD flashbacks of a GCSE Geography school trip to the Moors to measure the widths of depths of the ravines the streams had dug over the millions of years. There were a few different streams allocated to the groups, and mine was Wheeldale Gill

@Ali-mv3jc Жыл бұрын

I fell in a river when I did that in y9

@hightt2449 Жыл бұрын

I cycled my bike across the North York Moors in my teens and stayed a night at the Wheeldale Lodge Youth Hostel - that was my flashback from this video.

@garywheeler7039 2 жыл бұрын

Tom you come up with some amazing stuff!

@hbowman108 2 жыл бұрын

In the USA, they did a few of these. Most were in the West, but one that stands out as being in a "populated area" like this one was in Mississippi, about 25 km southwest of Hattiesburg. They were looking at its effect on a salt formation and whether they could make a storage tank.

@shrimpflea 2 жыл бұрын

The tests in the US were on nuclear testing gounds in Nevada. They have never actually did them in a populated area.

@hbowman108 2 жыл бұрын

@@shrimpflea The site in Mississippi where they had an underground "peaceful nuclear explosion" was quite definitively NOT in Nevada, and not on a "nuclear test site".

@wilyriley_ 9 ай бұрын

@@hbowman108also, Bikini Atoll, which despite also not being Nevada, did have people on it before the US nuked the island to bits

@hbowman108 9 ай бұрын

@@wilyriley_ Bikini Atoll was permanently evacuated. Mississippi was not.

@MCjossic 2 жыл бұрын

I have a sneaking suspicion that whatever was plugging the hole would have been blasted into space. Also that the resulting cavern might have immediately collapsed in on itself.

@AlternateRealityMusic 2 жыл бұрын

This happened before! Fastest manhole cover ever

@watchm4ker 2 жыл бұрын

Depends on the bedrock, and how much of it there would have been between the cavern and the surface.

@DrDeuteron 2 жыл бұрын

operation Plumbbob Pascal-A, expected yield 1 kg TNT equiv, got 50 tons worth. Blew the lid off.

@theJellyjoker 2 жыл бұрын

there is a theorized orbital defense weapon called a "thunder well" it was used in a novel called Footfall by Larry Niven.

@du42bz 2 жыл бұрын

@@theJellyjoker i was about to say that

@rich1051414 2 жыл бұрын

Often bad ideas just keep getting put on the bottom of the stack until it is sufficiently old to just archive and forget about it. In other words, this is likely the 'bad idea' that was never even properly acknowledged.

@adamsbja 2 жыл бұрын

These sorts of things were seriously considered. We know now that it's clearly a bad idea, but the only way we found out they were bad ideas were from doing things like (carefully) making craters in the Nevada desert to see what happened.

@jockeyfield1954 2 жыл бұрын

@@adamsbja bruh, nevada has more radiation in it than it does people

@QsPracticalNonsense 2 жыл бұрын

Absolutely crazy, well made video as always!

@horrgakx 2 жыл бұрын

Great research Tom ;)

@jankisi 2 жыл бұрын

Somehow it never occurred to me to use nuclear bombs the way explosives are used although it is acutally a fairly obvious idea (not a good one though, as one might have noticed)

@killman369547 2 жыл бұрын

Unfortunately the radiation inherent to nuclear weapons makes them not practical for large scale excavation works. The Soviets of all people though did find a peaceful use for the bomb. They used one to seal a natural gas well that had blown out and was burning out of control. There is a video of it. You can see the flame just go out moments after the detonation. A flame that was over 50 meters tall and burning at over 2000 degrees.

@Cartasio69 2 жыл бұрын

Wow Tom Scott makes a video about a topic I've heard about before. Incredible work!

@warrenloving1141 Жыл бұрын

plot twist, tom is actually standing on two of a top secret gas storage facility

@13thravenpurple94 Жыл бұрын

Great work Thank you

@frederik6543 2 жыл бұрын

With Tom's videos it's always the same for me... "I wonder what this could be about, it can't be just what the title says right?" "Oh, it is wtf?!?" Every damn time

@adrianthoroughgood1191 2 жыл бұрын

You seen the one about Swiss shooting range? Or anthrax island?

@cloverhighfive 2 жыл бұрын

This video feels like WE are in the alternate universe of the universe where Tom Scott makes a video saying "I wish I could make this video on an untouched land, talking about what might have been".

@technoman9000 2 жыл бұрын

Nice video Tim!

@stony666cpt 2 жыл бұрын

You really are a legend!! I appreciate all your videos and keep me connected to my home back in the UK! Love that you keep exploring how epic our little island is!! But for now.. il try to do my best in New Zealand with your inspiration!

@Venator70 2 жыл бұрын

Not the only time the British Gov thought about nuking a part of Great Britain. In 1953, when the nuclear programme was still being developed, they thought about testing them in the north of Scotland. Reason they didn't? "Too wet". (Specifically, rain may have interfered with triggers and cloud cover could have reflected the shock waves back onto settled areas). So they moved to Australia and nuked some bits of there instead - showing even less concern for local inhabitants than they did for people in Scotland.

@someone-pz4dg 2 жыл бұрын

Figures

@KaleunMaender77 2 жыл бұрын

"Well, they're just local fauna; no one's gonna care about them anyways" 😡😠🤬

@evilsharkey8954 2 жыл бұрын

The Western nuclear powers all did a lot of tests in areas far from their own soil. The US is big enough to test nukes far from civilization, but we still preferred to nuke tropical islands where they could be farther from prying eyes. Most tests were conducted underground or in the upper atmosphere, though.

@WildBluntHickok 2 жыл бұрын

@@evilsharkey8954 "Nuke The Sky!" as George Carlin described the massive amount of atmosphere tests the US did in a 3 year period until the Russians objected to the UN. "But watch out for those Russians, THEY'RE trying to kill us!" :)

@allenjenkins7947 2 жыл бұрын

@@KaleunMaender77 If you're talking about the indigenous inhabitants, be assured that the British government didn't care much about the welfare of a bunch of colonial convicts either.

@josgibbons6777 2 жыл бұрын

The _Thunderbirds_ equivalent would be a conventional digging machine powered by a nuclear reactor.

@killman369547 2 жыл бұрын

Those actually exist. They're unimaginatively called "Nuclear tunnel boring machines". How they work is simple enough. A liquid-metal cooled reactor is used to heat up the boring face of the TBM sufficiently to melt the rock and soil in front of it. As the TBM moves forward the molten rock cools and re-solidifies to form the tunnel walls making a perfect gas-tight seal.

@TheMightiestTaco 2 жыл бұрын

"A few weeks ago, I was looking through records in the British National Archives for a separate video idea that didn't end up going anywhere" He's hiding something from us, and I'm scared to find out what

@Niohimself 2 жыл бұрын

Tom is probably not a secret service agent that answers directly to the Queen. Probably.

@TheMightiestTaco 2 жыл бұрын

@@Niohimself We've gotta be careful

@Sophiebryson510 Жыл бұрын

@@Niohimself king*

@Athix 2 жыл бұрын

That's right near my house, in fact that map at 2:08 has my house on it. Its great the hear something new about the place. Great video as always.

@geraldhenrickson7472 2 жыл бұрын

Perhaps out there somewhere in the UK they actually succeeded with a nuclear excavation. Then found it was unfeasible to use the resulting cavity. We need Scully and Mulder to work with Tom to sort this all out. Thanks for the video.

@empath69 2 жыл бұрын

It's probably more likely that whomever was running that project got some info from US's Operation Plowshare and the underground detonations they'd already done by that point, which likely would've greatly changed their cost estimates, and they changed their opinion on the project's viability and presented a final report saying as such. Mind you, because the final report would've been submitted to someone higher in HMG, it probably wouldn't be in the same part of the National Archives; it's probably there tho; sitting in some collected papers of a Cabinet Minister...

@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721 2 жыл бұрын

-Tom's Language Files- Tom's X-Files

@emily_nelson 2 жыл бұрын

"What I find implausible, Mulder, is the notion that the British government would knowingly endanger its own people by using nuclear bombs to excavate caverns!" "Pack your bags, Scully; we leave for the very plausible county of North Yorkshire in the morning."

@TheSecondVersion 2 жыл бұрын

If you think about it, in the long run, Chernobyl was a successful use of nuclear fission to create a wildlife reserve Plants and animals flourished in the exclusion zone after all the people were evacuated

@robertlinke2666 2 жыл бұрын

except that the radiation has affected wildlife as well

@atzuras 2 жыл бұрын

Not the best way to do it. Not that the purpose was to do it. And many, if not all big animals, were shot to avoid scattering radioactive dust. After thousands of dead prople related to that. Next time better set up a boring park.

@MrDanielsparrow 2 жыл бұрын

Incredible, thanks for the research!

@Downtheshed 2 жыл бұрын

Awesome when you mentioned capping the drilled hole it made me think of operation plumbob. In the states I did a similar thing of blowing up underground and the concrete cap may have been the fastest thing ever created by humans.

@bipbipletucha 2 жыл бұрын

I've ridden the heritage line between Pickering and Whitby before! Absolutely stunning country, what a shame it would have been if this plan went through

@ChazDude 2 жыл бұрын

Having been to Brimham Rocks myself, it's good to know I wasn't born in the alternate universe where this thing was set off.

@elliaurora825 2 жыл бұрын

Hey I've just came across your channel & after looking through your videos I've definitely sub'd to you, you have a huge range of topics so it'll keep me busy during these cold months ahead, keep up the good work your doing. X😎🐘

@sverleis 2 жыл бұрын

@2:41 The very slight jitter when explaining the moment of the explosion is editing beauty.

@alfiewalker970 2 жыл бұрын

My reactions whilst reading the title: Tom… you probably shouldn’t be showing this WAIT WHAT… YORKSHIRE!

@Akm72 2 жыл бұрын

My reaction: Lancashire is probably behind this somehow. 😀

@GustavSvard 2 жыл бұрын

1. This plan would have made for a great Yes, Minister episode. 2. Imagine the explosion going ahead, but something goes a bit wrong, and it all collapses down into a large crater. The famed Atomic lake at the heart of a Yorkshire nature preserve!

@atzuras 2 жыл бұрын

That is the kind of job for Jim Hacker.

@darreno9874 2 жыл бұрын

Wow, you find out the most obscure crazy things. Love it. Thank goodness Common scence prevailed. Keep up the good work God bless

@Archer-bc6cv 2 жыл бұрын

Amazing video!! One critique: when you did the spinning shot to show the setting what I think was camera stabilization made the shot really dizzying. Loved the story though

@Jenkers-li4dm 2 жыл бұрын

This idea still has potential, they should do it in the centre of Bradford or Milton Keynes...

@sparky4878 2 жыл бұрын

Who’d notice the difference?

@randomtransportguyx4397 2 жыл бұрын

I'm from Bradford and I agree

@mondaytuesday1202 2 жыл бұрын

I wouldn’t be surprised to find out they relocated the idea to central Wakefield. Would explain why it’s already a dystopian wasteland.

@SavageGreywolf 2 жыл бұрын

Sometimes, when I find, shall we say, _members of a particular older generation_ to be irrationally resistant to things like nuclear power plants that could provide millions upon millions of megawatts of relatively clean energy, I have to remind myself that their parents were constantly trying to do absolutely mad things like this.

@VincentGonzalezVeg 2 жыл бұрын

It's got vigor!

@sc149 2 жыл бұрын

Especially given that coal fired power plants also release radioactive material directly into the atmosphere, far, far, far more than a nuclear plant in normal operation.

@RhodokTribesman 2 жыл бұрын

@@sc149 THIS. People don't realize coal fly ash has wayyyy more radioactive particles than the steam released from cooling towers at a nuclear plant.

@oscarcacnio8418 2 жыл бұрын

You'd still probably have a hard time convincing them, since "nuclear" often had a strong connection with "bombs". ...And the fact that their parents came up with insane ways of using them "peacefully".

@grahamleiper1538 2 жыл бұрын

Did they put Dounreay where they did because it was "totally safe"?

@maryc4312 2 жыл бұрын

Halo @ Tom Scott. This is very comforting and now I know I’m not the only one 🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗🤗

@maryc4312 2 жыл бұрын

What are your top 3 seismologists???

@maryc4312 2 жыл бұрын

And also your top 3 enthalpalpologists?? @ Thermodynamics ?? We can find a way to make it work 😁😁😁😁

@maryc4312 2 жыл бұрын

Have you met anyone named Adam Phillip Thomas Hartley or know if he’s alive?? He’s originally from Biggin Hill in Kent.

@conflict-tv 2 жыл бұрын

I live in Scarborough, and frequently visit the the Yorkshire Moors. There’s a tale that there are still tunnels running through the dales, still to be discovered. Maybe it’s time to dig up some archives on go on more of many discovery hikes I have been partaking in through the Moors recently. It’s also home to RAF Fylingdales, an OTH radar. Used to be known for its distinctive golf ball-like radar balloons.

@DoSLG 2 жыл бұрын

I just thought this was gonna be how some people from Lancashire wanted to one-up their rival county by... blowing up their rival county.

@catmonarchist8920 2 жыл бұрын

Second war of the roses = third Punic war.

@Teverell 2 жыл бұрын

The things you can discover by accident when conducting research at the National Archives!! (Mine was stumbling across a document signed by Admiral Lord Nelson!)

@baroque4days 2 жыл бұрын

Found a lot of interesting ways Porton, UKAEA and AWRE used to test equipment. They'd have Indians, Gurkhas, Sikhs, etc digging holes in gas masks while they'd essentially just play a game of pool in the masks or something ridiculous. Nothing quite beats the suggestion Atomic Energy Authority senior staff made to Porton to include a special port for smoking in all gas masks to make their jobs easier.

@Naultarous 2 жыл бұрын

Ideas like this make perfect sense. When the future knows this was a bad idea, the present is responsible to find out why. "Hey I have an idea. Here is all the details." "This seems like a really bad idea due to x, y and z." "Ah good point. Moving on."

@Zehle325 2 жыл бұрын

How many of your videos start with "A few weeks ago.."? Love your vids Tom!

@Mrcake0103 2 жыл бұрын

“Reading old classified documents and having one’s jaw drop” is literally the entire appeal of SCP. I wonder when Tom will pay Site-19 a visit...

@krashd 2 жыл бұрын

I thought SCP was all fiction?

@k.umquat8604 2 жыл бұрын

@@krashd It is

@walmartiancheese4922 2 жыл бұрын

And that's how yorkshire tea was mutated to taste good

@100Wilbur999 2 жыл бұрын

Tom ! I'd love to see you dissect conspiracies. Your concise and informative delivery would be a great take on some more bizarre mysteries throughout history. One such that comes to mind is the Banjawarn Station seismic disturbance of 1993. Supposedly, a cult mined Uranium in outback Western Australia and may have made a small nuclear device!

@sturmifan 2 жыл бұрын

a look back at the Bielefeld conspiracy, I agree

@peterprokop 2 жыл бұрын

You can´t make a nuke from mined Uranium, you have to enrich it using hundreds of centrifuges, which is not that easy even when you have the resources of a whole country. You would need a cult of the size of the catholic church to pull it off.

@wojciechturek1601 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for video 👏🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻💙

@bagamax 2 жыл бұрын

I’m a bit nervous realizing that governments still thinking about different horrible things that will be declassified only decades later.

@FirstNameLastName-lz8ej 2 жыл бұрын

Yup, it's like "we only used to do horrible things in the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s. But that was a long time ago, you can trust us now."

@cholten99 2 жыл бұрын

Governments are made of people, lots of people. Most of those people are trying very hard to help other people. Only a very tiny number are thinking up stupid or evil things to do and they'd be doing the same thing if they were in the private sector.

@associatedblacksheepandmisfits 2 жыл бұрын

@@cholten99 unfortunately it is the few that affect the many disproportionately.

@associatedblacksheepandmisfits 2 жыл бұрын

@Tin Watchman and they "do" more than we are told....

@associatedblacksheepandmisfits 2 жыл бұрын

@Tin Watchman thank goodness ! It's the oldest fault of humans, power corrupts , absolute power corrupts absolutely 💯 😑

@lizc6393 2 жыл бұрын

"The secret plan to explode a nuclear bomb in Yorkshire..." "It was not a good plan." I laughed harder than I had any right to.

@StefanBacon Жыл бұрын

Thank you for risking your life for that teaser shot with the snowboard.

@TheHariboharrison 2 жыл бұрын

I grew up on a farm exactly 5.5 miles from the marked site at the centre of the map at 2:09 and the primary school I attended is only 4.75 miles away. My family still live on that farm today and there is no other village/town/population centre between my family home and that site. I also went to secondary school in Whitby. North Yorkshire is a big place (by UK standards) so my jaw nearly hit the floor when I saw that map. When I saw the thumbnail for this video, I never imagined the site in question would be on my family's doorstep! It's wild to think that if this plan had been carried out, my family life as it goes on today, and my entire childhood as I remember it, might never have existed...

@safe-keeper1042 2 жыл бұрын

I watched this thinking about how reckless and naïve they were with nuclear energy back then and how little they knew. Then I remembered that only a couple years ago a sitting US president suggested nuking a hurricane.

@nicholasholloway8743 2 жыл бұрын

I believe that was in the last year wasn't it?

@johnmcgimpsey1825 2 жыл бұрын

@@nicholasholloway8743 2019

@geli95us 2 жыл бұрын

And now people are way too scared of it, even though it is probably the best source of energy we have, oh the irony