The Soviet Union's Deadly Abandoned Nuclear Generators

Aug 10, 2023

The Soviet Union's Deadly Abandoned Nuclear Generators

Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators, or RTGs (sometimes incorrectly called Nuclear Batteries) are usually utilized in deep space exploration.
But during the 1970s and 1980s, during the height of The Cold War, The Soviet Union manufactured over 2500 terrestrial RTGs to power its unmanned Lighthouses and Radio Navigation Beacons on the Northern Arctic seaboard, or deployed in the USSR’s remotest hinterland rural regions.

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, all these highly dangerous, intensely radioactive devices were simply abandoned in situ, and left to rot for the next 2 decades… until they started to kill people in the 21st century, with Acute Radiation Exposure. This finally caused the international community to start to take the hazard they posed seriously.

This 30 min video is a documentary on the reasons the Soviet Engineers chose to use dangerous Radioisotope Thermal Generators to power equipment, the technology and nuclear physics behind them, with the help of Matt Damon in the movie ’ The Martian’ (2015) .
We explore some Abandoned Places in the Former Soviet Union that are still home to decaying RTGS , such as Aniva Lighthouse, on Russia’s Sakhalin Island.
Finally the video tells the story of the Lia, Georgia Radiation Incident of 2001, when 3 Georgian woodsmen, accidentally stumbled upon an abandoned, highly radioactive RTG core. Which sadly killed one man and seriously injured the others.
An incident that needed human radiation clean up techniques not seen since the ‘bio-robots’ of the 1986 Chernobyl Disaster.

Despite several years of The Russian Federation and the EU/US West cooperating to decommission and make safe many orphan Soviet RTGs after the Lia Incident, since 2014 Vladimir Putin’s government has withdrawn this international cooperation, leaving 100s of these highly radioactive and deadly devices unaccounted for across Russia, posing a deadly threat to its unsuspecting rural population.

Chapters:

00:38 Intro
01:02 Space RTGs (featuring Matt Damon)
02:48 Soviet Kerosine Lantern Radios
05:50 Soviet Terrestrial RTG Technology
15:20 The Post Soviet Years
20:15 The Lia, Georgia Radiation Incident - 2001
29:36 The present situation and ominous future

#coldwar #soviet #nuclearphysics #abandonedplaces

Content

0.07 ->

7.99 -> foreig

11.95 -> This is a

40.32 -> cold war story that didn't become well known about in the West until after the collapse

43.82 -> of the Soviet Union in 1991. In this video we're going to take a look at the deadly Legacy

49.379 -> of the USSR's abandoned Terrestrial Radioisotope Thermal Generators or RTGs for short ,first

56.559 -> though I'm going to hand over to Matt Damon in the 2015 movie 'The Martian' to give you

61.26 -> an introduction into RTGs.. ".. good news I may have a solution to my heating problem bad

68.65 -> news it involves me digging up the radioisotope thermoelectric generator now if I remember

74.29 -> my training correctly one of the lessons was titled don't dig up the big box of plutonium

79.59 -> Mark I get it RTGs are good for spacecraft but if they rupture around humans no more

85.5 -> humans which is why we buried it when we arrived and planted that flag so we would never be

90.65 -> stupid enough to accidentally go near it again but as long as I don't break it I almost just

97.909 -> said everything will be fine out loud look the point is I'm not cold anymore and sure

102.73 -> I could choose to think about the fact that I'm warm because I have a decaying radioactive

107.86 -> isotope riding right behind me but right now I got bigger problems on my hands although

112.68 -> The Martian is science fiction the RTG that Matt Damon is digging up isn't. These are NASA

119.13 -> RTGs that were used on the Cassini spacecraft and this is a photo from 1997 where a technician

125.399 -> is measuring the external radiation on the RTG. RTGs have been used to power long-range

131.63 -> spacecraft since early 1970s but generally they're not used for manned space travel or

137.17 -> satellites due to the risk to humans. It was of course the 1986 Chernobyl disaster that

143.82 -> disclosed to the Western World the woeful state of the USSRs nuclear facilities and the

148.39 -> Soviet state's Cavalier attitude to radiological safety; and poor nuclear engineering. So if the

154.209 -> West only used RTGs for long-range space travel due to the risk they presented to humans, how

160.33 -> on earth did the Soviet Union end up littering their Countryside with over 2 500 devices,

166.18 -> every bit as radioactive as an RMBK reactor The story begins well before the invention

172.12 -> of nuclear power , in the Years immediately after World War II. Before the war throughout

177.34 -> the Soviet Union the farms and Rural communities had been collectivized and were now run by

182.48 -> the state as a socialist enterprise. The Peasants now toiled the fields in remote areas supervised

188.34 -> by communist commissars as part of a great socialist endeavor. These Shiny Happy People

194.59 -> (that's where the REM reference comes from) needed organizing; and they needed educating

200.34 -> politically and motivating; and one of the tools to do that then as it is now, was by

206.54 -> the mainstream media. Strictly censored and vetted printed material and state-run newspapers

211.95 -> had a major role to play in propaganda but one of the best devices in the early 1950s

218.22 -> bearing in mind that a lot of the Soviet population in the rural areas were illiterate was

222.76 -> the use of the radio. With the use of shortwave radio Moscow could effectively talk to the

227.81 -> whole Soviet population at once with a very strictly controlled narrative; and therefore

233.909 -> State constructed radios like this one were rolled out across communities throughout the

238.7 -> USSR [Music]

245.67 -> [Music] there was one major problem to all of this, rural communities across the

256.489 -> Soviet Union did not have electricity. So Engineers had come up with a solution to

261.639 -> that these radios will be powered by a thermal electrical generator powered by kerosene lantern

268.051 -> that you can see to the rear right of this photograph. These kerosene lantern electrical

273.4 -> generators relied on very simple technology which took advantage of the Seebeck Effect

278.83 -> Discovered in 1821 by Thomas Johann Seebeck applying heat to a semiconductor and cooling

286.009 -> the inverse side of that conductor induced a electrical cover between the two, this was

292.419 -> a very inefficient way of generating electricity as over 96% of the energy was lost. The Soviet

299.07 -> kerosene lantern generators relied on the heat from the lantern flame to heat the hot

303.74 -> side of the semiconductor, whilst a crown of cooling fins attached to the top of the lantern

308.93 -> would dissipate the heat out into the room thus inducing enough current to run the shortwave

313.58 -> radio. By the mid-1960s most Soviet rural communities had diesel generators installed, and this type

320.68 -> of thermal generator fell into obsolescence. Although the lanterns became obsolecent in the

325.47 -> early 1960s, it would be less a decade before the Soviet Union required Thomas Johann Seebeck's

330.86 -> technology again. By the late 1960s the Soviet Union had an engineering problem on their

336.78 -> hands, the Soviet coastline was over 10 000 miles long, three-quarters of which was located

343.61 -> within the Arctic Circle. the Northern sea route was hard to navigate and treacherous but the

350.819 -> Soviet government required it for sea trade but also more importantly at the height of

355.8 -> The Cold War for the passage for the Soviet Navy. Starting in the early 1970s The Soviet Union

361.84 -> began constructing a chain of over 1 000 lighthouses and radio navigation beacons along its entire

367.4 -> coastline, a project that would take well over a decade to complete. There was only one problem

373.49 -> many of these lighthouses would be hundreds if not a thousand miles away from civilization

379.3 -> and during the Arctic winter months could not be visited. so conventional power supplies

384.979 -> such as diesel generation were not practicable. In looking for a solution to the power supply

389.991 -> problem Engineers recalled the success of the kerosene lantern generators used for domestic

395.74 -> radios in the 1950s. But now what was needed was enough power to supply a lighthouse and

402.62 -> a radio beacon that could be left for years without resupply or maintenance, so now kerosene

408.33 -> lanterns would not be enough something altogether hotter and more reliable was needed . Step forward

415.289 -> Radioisotopes. This is a pressed ceramic Ingot of Plutonium 238 oxide as used on the

422.16 -> NASA space probes that I show you the beginning of the video. it is glowing red hot due to

427.24 -> self-heating and is around 800 degrees Centigrade the self-heating is caused by the release of radioactive decay heat plutonium-238 has

432.425 -> a half life of 88 years that means that this particular Ingot will be glowing red hot at 800 degrees Centigrade for the best part of a century. A very brief look at the physics behind this radioactive atoms are unstable

452.87 -> and nature abhors instability, so unstable atoms seek to become more stable by shedding

459.4 -> either highly energetic particles or energy or both and this is known as radioactive decay

465.009 -> the particles are either alpha particles which are two protons two neutrons or beta particles

470.02 -> which are highly energetic electrons both are forms of ionizing radiation and are bad

475.68 -> for humans the excess energy shed can be in the form of highly energetic waves known as

480.479 -> Gamma rays which are ionizing or as heat . Different radioactive atoms decay in different modes

486.979 -> that is either alpha decay, beta decay or gamma decay and it should be remembered not all

491.979 -> decay modes are accompanied with the generation of heat. So the takeaway point here is as well

497.479 -> as generating 800 Degrees of heat which is useful to us, this slug of Pu238 is emitting

503.699 -> a fairly horrific level of ionizing radiation that you can't see. Pu238 decay is an alpha

509.569 -> mode so it's emitting a storm of alpha particles and maybe a bit of Gamma. The red glow here

515.44 -> is due to incandescence that is non-ionizing photons being released from the material due

520.32 -> to its high level of heat, no different to putting a piece of Steel into a furnace. An

525.29 -> important myth I think I need to kill at this point in the video which will be relevant

529.01 -> later is that radioactive materials do not glow in the dark, this misconception is not

535.86 -> helped because certain materials will glow if subjected to ionizing radiation, such as

541.86 -> phosphor in gaseous treatment light sources or night sights and instrumentation all the

547.13 -> Cherenkov effect, the blue glow seen surrounding water in nuclear reactors. Why is this important

553.38 -> because human senses cannot detect ionizing radiation no matter how intense and hazardous

559.47 -> to the health it is. For example this is an intensely radioactive cylinder of Cobalt 60

565.25 -> a very intense Gamma source. Note the ominous warning that says Drop and Run. Now

571.97 -> if you were to be unfortunate enough to pick this up and hold it in your hand it would

577 -> feel cold to the touch, it would not glow in the dark, you would not feel anything. If you

582.66 -> held it in your hand for more than 30 seconds you would lose that hand! If you held it for

587.75 -> more than 10 minutes or you're in the same room as it for more than 10 minutes it would

592.88 -> kill you! Contained within his 1988 whistleblowing Memoir written just for his death, the Chief

599.07 -> Scientific Advisor for the Soviet Chernobyl commission Valerie Legasov gave a very chilling

604.399 -> description of the effect of acute radiation syndrome on the human body, narrated here by

611.19 -> British actor Ade Edmondson: "if its damaged severely enough all this radiation will escape

621.529 -> it'll travel through almost anything, drift with the Wind, odorless, indiscriminate

630.91 -> and it takes life in silence.! Severe exposure to radiation begins a decline that is untreatable,

637.519 -> and atrocious! After initial dizziness and vomiting, sensitive tissues like the tongue

643.98 -> begin to swell, skin blackens, detaches itself, the cells of your body begin to break down, but

651.149 -> your DNA is also grotesquely transformed, so that in the days following exposure you're

659.329 -> gradually robbed not just of your life, but of the very thing that makes you the human

665.76 -> being you are!"

671.04 -> Despite the very real risks of deploying highly radioactive material to completely unsupervised

676.079 -> and insecure remote locations the Soviet Engineers designed this terrestrial radioisotope thermal

683.68 -> generator to power their lighthouses and radio beacons. This is called a Beta-M , it is a mid-1970s

691.389 -> designed Soviet terrestrial RTG it is about 1.5 meters wide and 1.5 meters tall and it

699.7 -> weighs just over one metric ton. The Russian words stenciled that are on the crown of the

704.37 -> cooling fan say: Осторожно, радиоактивность or in English: Caution Radiation the body of

711.8 -> the BETA-M unit is a very heavy cast steel bulkhead about 10 centimeters thick, and this acts as

717.75 -> the outer radiation shield. A heavy 20 centimeter thick machine steel lid seals the unit but

724.36 -> in a very serious design flaw, this is secured only with normal industrial bolts; not intrinsically

731.339 -> safe / safety interlocked or tamper-proof bolts something that will come back to haunt this

736.74 -> design in the future. Inside the bulkhead sits an inner tungsten liner which is the primary

743.17 -> radiation shield, above that the thermal generator and heat exchanger to the cooling

748.98 -> fin crown. The heart of the unit of course is the Radioactive Heat Source indicated in

754.36 -> red in this diagram which is about the size of a paint can or a large food can. The power

760.82 -> output for the whole unit was 250 Watts thermal equating to electrical wattage of 10 watts

767.74 -> which really doesn't sound much but you have to remember these units were usually deployed

771.45 -> in pairs and also they charged a battery. They didn't connect directly to the lighthouse

776.579 -> the Beta M radiation heat source looked like this.. unlike spacecraft RTGs Soviet terrestrial

783.37 -> RTGs used the strontium-90 as their isotope not plutonium-238. Why ? B ecause it's cheap! Plutonium

790.501 -> is very very expensive and difficult to produce Strontium 90 can be refined from civil nuclear

798.399 -> reactor waste. But this comes with some serious downsides. The heat output is much lower and

804.149 -> the half-life much shorter. This unit would put out about 400 degrees Centigrade but with

810.24 -> a half-life of just 28 years. Meaning every two decades the heat source would need to

814.779 -> be replaced. Strontium 90 is also very very hazardous to humans, it mimics calcium in the

820.639 -> environment and is a bone seeker and is readily absorbed into the human body for that reason

826.61 -> the heat source is sealed into a stainless steel two centimeter thick flask and hermetically

832.399 -> sealed due to the Bremsstrahlung Effect the X-ray radiation being emitted from this unit

838.519 -> would be about 2 Sieverts an hour and this is a BETA-M RTG unit out in the field in the

844.209 -> present-day Russian Federation, looking very sorry for itself and neglected; but trust me

850.47 -> on this this one is in quite good condition this appears to be a defunct Soviet Radio

856.29 -> Beacon site, the collapsed radio mast is along the ground behind the unit and the RTG Transit

862.1 -> case is very rusted; quite often you'll find the RTGs deployed in these steel framed cases

868.85 -> this was to enable them to be under-slung from a military helicopter to be deployed

873.149 -> from the 1970s to the late 1980s over 1 000 Soviet lighthouses and nav beacons were equipped

880.589 -> with RTGs often deployed in pairs for redundancy During the Soviet years there were no issues

887.72 -> the technology worked well and Soviet military maintenance teams had a rolling visit program

892.74 -> to check the RTG safety and functions; in fact so successful was the RTG technology for the

898.5 -> Navy that other Soviet Ministries adopted the technology for any application that required

903.899 -> remote electrical power such as seismic sensors or radio rebroadcast or repeater stations

910.6 -> in the remote Soviet Hinterland by around the year 1989 some 2500 terrestrial rtgs had

917.72 -> been deployed across the whole Soviet Union Then in 1991 it all came crashing down! In

925.05 -> a few short months the USSR collapsed both politically and economically shattering into

931.399 -> 16 various independent states. The Soviet Ministries that regulated and maintained the RTGs ceased

936.899 -> to exist overnight and the new Russian Federation that now took over most of the old Soviet

942.149 -> land mass where most RTGs were cited was bankrupt and they had neither the will nor the money

947.93 -> to maintain the infrastructure. if a Lighthouse or Beacon worked all well and good, but if it broke

953.38 -> down it was simply abandoned and the RTG left a rot for the next decade nobody really cared

960.1 -> about these legacy radioactive devices not the Russian government nor the International

965.25 -> Community as most RTGs were deployed in remote locations away from governmental and environmental

972.31 -> NGO scrutiny, with the exception maybe of the most famous RTG site Aniva lighthouse in

979.31 -> Russia's far east, built in 1939 and abandoned in 1991 because of its creepy Gothic abandoned

986.589 -> style it became an unlikely tourist attraction for tourists and urban explorers. but an Aniva

993.46 -> Lighthouse was powered by two IEU 2 type RTGs At least the Russian authorities put out some Health and Safety signage to warn off tourists: Осторожно, радиоактивность - Caution Radioactivity

1008.569 -> and on the steps leading up to the lighthouse and the sea: Радиация - radiation because

1015.079 -> of Aniva lighthouse's popularity in the media it was one of the first to be decommissioned

1020.06 -> and the RTGs were removed in 2006. Fortuitously having never leaked or been tampered with

1026.6 -> by tourists. High profile sites like an Aniva Lighthouse with its well-behaved urban explorers

1031.709 -> and tourists was never the problem, it was elsewhere in the former Soviet Union particularly

1036.75 -> in the remote rural Russian Federation where after 20 years in service and 10 years of

1042.49 -> neglect some RTG sites were degrading rapidly. Like this now defunct and really rusty radio

1049.22 -> navigation Beacon site, the RTG unit would have been housed in this rusty equipment shed

1054.789 -> completely unsecured and unsupervised by the authorities, elsewhere in exposed areas storm

1060.289 -> weather destroyed woefully inadequate wooden protective enclosures exposing the RTG unit

1065.12 -> to Arctic storm conditions which in turn damaged the unit itself something that should have

1070.04 -> been discovered by a maintenance inspection that never came, unbelievably some RTG units

1076.34 -> were intentionally deployed out in the open disclosing a shocking level of engineering

1081.309 -> incompetence, this for instance is a lighthouse seemingly constructed of waste timber and

1086.919 -> then hooked up to an early generation RTG left out in the elements, these type of slap

1092.38 -> dash timber lattice RTG powered lighthouses are not that uncommon in the Soviet wilderness

1098.429 -> built by Engineers presumably under time constraints but with little or no thoughts to the safety

1104.02 -> and the risks of the RTG unit that powered them, eventually and inevitably the exposed

1109.77 -> neglected units began to fail, with this RTG the outer case has been split open by water

1115.01 -> penetration and freezing in the harsh Russian Arctic, the label пов is Russian for Gully

1120.27 -> or crack, this unit would now be leaking significant amounts of radiation and would be a danger

1126.28 -> to anyone unfortunate enough to approach it, but weather alone was not the greatest safety

1132.58 -> threat to the abandoned RTGs that was as always is human stupidity and greed, the abandoned

1138.74 -> Lighthouse and Beacon sites provided potential rich pickings for metal thieves and scavengers

1145.169 -> who cut away the valuable copper and stole electrical equipment , some were wise enough

1150.47 -> not to go anywhere near the RTGs but many were not , this RTG unit has been attacked by

1156.7 -> a metal thief presumably with a Sledgehammer who lacked the tools to open the case . On occasion

1163.08 -> metal thieves would be stupid enough to open an RTG case, which as I described earlier in

1168.299 -> the video can be done with just a domestic spanner set this is a BETA-M unit that has been

1173.84 -> fully dismantled by metal thieves and the radioactive heat source and tungsten inner

1178.92 -> radiation shielding removed, according to the international atomic energy Authority the

1183.79 -> Russian authorities found the radioactive heat source unit about 100 meters away from

1187.84 -> this BETA-M unit and recovered it using a bomb disposal robot, the metal thieves that did

1192.57 -> this were never caught but they would almost certainly have suffered very serious radiation

1197.32 -> sickness and possibly would have died, by the late 1990s even the Russian government had

1203.52 -> to admit they had a serious problem on their hands, but with sad inevitability it would

1209.03 -> take a serious incident and of death and injury to innocent parties to galvanize the International

1214.25 -> Community into dealing with the Soviet RTG problem and that incident was the Lia Event

1220.08 -> in 2001. Lia is a small town in the caucus country of Georgia. Georgia was once part of

1226.06 -> the Soviet Union but gained independence in 1991. Our story takes place in December 2001.

1233.65 -> three men from the town took a flatbed truck up into the mountains above Lia intending

1238.09 -> to cut wood from the forest to sell on as firewood; towards the end of the day gathering

1242.58 -> wood one of the men found an area in the forest about five meters in circumference where the

1248.121 -> snow had completely melted in the center of this circle was a silver metal cylinder that

1253.83 -> was sizzling like an iron as the snowflakes fell on it and boiled off.... sadly viewers I'm

1259.61 -> pretty sure you've already guessed what this unfortunate Woodsman has found, but how would

1265.14 -> a poorly educated Woodsman have any comprehension of the danger he was in? fascinated by this

1271 -> magical natural heater the Woodsman decided to make a makeshift snare and drag the cylinder

1277.62 -> to the Forest track, to the area where he and his friends were intending to camp for the

1282.46 -> night the hot cylinder was propped up against a pile of rocks to reflect the heat back onto

1286.83 -> the sleeping area, the other Woodsman lit a fire and as night fell the three of them sat

1292.24 -> around the fire drinking bootleg vodka, after about two hours all three Woodsmen began

1298.029 -> vomiting, they had intense headaches something they attributed to contaminated vodka, they

1303.89 -> attempted to sleep but sleep was impossible as the sickness got much much worse during

1307.73 -> the night, eventually in the early hours they could take no more and decided to strike camp

1312.07 -> and drive back into Lia. Back in Lia all three men began to suffer burning sensations across

1316.91 -> their entire bodies, woodsman 1 who had found the cylinder, lost the use of

1320.96 -> his hands as his fingers had swollen up and it was painful to make a fist, all three sought

1327.299 -> medical attention and within seven days all three were hospitalized. Local Medics could

1333.16 -> not deal with the severity of their symptoms so we're transferred to a military hospital

1337.789 -> in Triplisi. At the military hospital radiation exposure and acute radiation syndrome was

1342.76 -> diagnosed, And this is footage of all three being treated for serious radiation burns

1348.299 -> four weeks now after the incident

1352.39 -> patient One was The Woodsman who found the metal cylinder and he was the one that slept

1357.17 -> closest to it, by the pile of rocks at the campfire that evening p

1367.52 -> Patient Two, the second Woodsman had slept the second closest to the metal cylinder but about a metre further away than Patient One

1375.501 -> and it was this metre that probably saved his life. He had radiation burns to his legs buttocks and upper back. Patient Three the

1384.14 -> third woodsman, had slept the furthest away, about three and a half metres away from the metal

1387.84 -> cylinder and he had patchy burns to his upper back. Due to YouTube Community standards

1393.2 -> thankfully I cannot show you any more of the medical condition of the 3 woodsmen, but Valerie

1398.24 -> Legasov's description was completely accurate earlier in the video... their decline was horrendous!

1405.51 -> Radiation Burns do not heal like normal burns and all three woodsmen required multiple skin

1410.549 -> grafts, also because her immune systems had been destroyed by the radiation all three

1416.15 -> needed bone marrow transplants thankfully Woodsman 2 and Woodsman 3 survived their treatment

1422.779 -> after months at hospital , sadly Woodsman one patient one the guy who found the metal cylinder

1428.45 -> and slept closest to it did not live and he died after months of treatment. Once the woodsmen

1434.27 -> were diagnosed with a severe radiation exposure and recounted their story about the

1438.71 -> mysterious hot cylinder that they found in the woods, the Georgian authorities declared

1443.47 -> a major incident and physicists began to scour the mountain paths for the lost radiation

1448.49 -> source, this wasn't difficult because the radiation was detectable miles away, but the isolation

1454.22 -> took some time; the source found more or less where The Woodsmen described they had

1458.52 -> left it . The physicists found that the mysterious cylinder was indeed a radioactive heat source

1463.63 -> from a BETA-M type RTG that unknown metal thieves had dismantled on a nearby Mountain Top

1469.75 -> radio relay station, presumably discarding the RTG source cylinder near the mountain track. Having

1476.8 -> located the highly radioactive orphan source the Georgian Army sealed off the mountainous

1480.99 -> area and the International Atomic Energy Authority were called in as advisors and trainers to

1486.169 -> help train a Georgian Civil Defense Corps radioactive source recovery team for what

1491.1 -> would be a difficult and hazardous operation Because of the snow and the mountainous terrain

1496.74 -> it was not suitable for remote robot recovery of the source, so in scenes similar to the

1501.88 -> Chernobyl disaster.. humans would have to perform the recovery work using improvised long-rich

1507.88 -> tools. Each Man would have only 45 seconds to approach the source and perform his task

1515.669 -> the plan was simple to drag the source from behind the rocks where the Woodsmen have left

1520.21 -> it onto the mountain track , get it into a two-handed bucket and then tip it into a makeshift two-ton

1527.32 -> Lead Shield mounted on a flatbed truck

1529.6 ->

1541.24 -> After a week of training the civil defense team were ready to deploy, and conduct the

1544.45 -> operation, but getting up to the Georgia Mountains in the middle of winter would not be easy

1563.12 ->

1570.39 ->

1584.929 -> This is footage of the actual live recovery operation of the radioactive heat source that

1590.09 -> I just put three Georgian Woodsman into Hospital

1592.75 ->

1597.61 ->

1607.33 -> stay behind the rock

1620.59 ->

1624.07 ->

1641.47 ->

1655.29 ->

1699.929 ->

1762.799 ->

1764.399 ->

1765.99 -> [Applause] [Music]

1769.179 -> 40 Microsieverts

1773.97 ->

1775.57 -> The Lia event and the recovery operation woke the International Community

1781.04 -> up as to the dangers of orphan Soviet RTGs and the risks they posed to International

1786.13 -> safety. Over the next decade the Russian government co-funded by the EU and the USA removed over

1792.87 -> 1 000 Legacy RTGs on its territory, other former Soviet States removed all of theirs. But in

1801.2 -> 2014 as a punishment for invading Crimea, Russia was expelled from the G8. In retaliation they

1807.399 -> withdrew all International cooperation in tracking down and making safe orphan Soviet

1843.35 -> RTGS [Music]

1866.18 -> [Music]

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT8-b5YEyjo