I hate it when I accidentally lose my seven plutonium cores on top of a five mile tall mountain

Teacher: "Where's your homework?" Me: "I lost it" Teacher: "You're lying" Me: "So the CIA can lose 2 nukes and 8 plutonium cores but I'm expected to take care of a piece of paper like my life depended on it"

Yes...my uncle who still lives...was a member of this crew from indian counterpart. He was a young IB ( an IPS) officer. And he stil narrates and in fact we use to hear this as one of our bedtime stories from him.As of now we still ask this incidence from him...he lives in Dehradun

Anyone else remember the days when youtube didn't drown you in ads while while watching a video?

US Government: “Quick think of a really subtle name for our top secret mission.” CIA: “Operation Hat.”

Hearing about this stuff makes you wonder how many crazy things we'll find out about in like 50 years

Interestingly radioisotope thermal electric generators were often used to power unmanned light houses until they were eventually decommissioned in fear of people looting for nefarious reasons. We still use RTGs today to power satellites and rovers as seen in the documentary The Martian. Another tidbit is that there are an estimated 35,000 cremations along the Ganges each year with many not cremated but weighted down with stone and pushed into the river.

As an Indian commenting 2 years after this video was released, I'm so thankful to you to add to my insecurities and worries because of this video

I remember reading this on the internet, that after further studies from multiple prominent researchers, it has been found that it's actually caused by Scrat, the squirrel form Ice Age.

There were other "devices" lost or misplaced in forests around Russia, they were used as power sources in remote settings. There have been reports, not recent, of hunters finding these small devices and sleeping next to time to keep warm; they would wake up in the morning with burns and other terrible side effects (possibly death as a result of their injuries later on). Moral of the story: if you find a small odd looking device that quietly generates its own heat while walking in the forest, run away.

I always like the way you tell these stories, its pretty interesting and amazing, thanks for doing it.

From Wikipedia- (Plutonium-238 has a half-life of 87.7 years and emits alpha particles. It is a heat source in radioisotope thermoelectric generators, which are used to power some spacecraft. Plutonium isotopes are expensive and inconvenient to separate, so particular isotopes are usually manufactured in specialized reactors.) That being said it’s lost a lot of its radioactivity (almost a whole half-life), which equals less heat emissions. I don’t think it would have the ability to melt that much snow in the first place.

Blow up and irradiate the tropical paradise of Bikini Atoll, check. Litter Earth's formerly pristine orbit with countless metal wires, check. Lose Plutonium in the pristine alpine valley that is the source of the Ganges river, check. Ah the Cold War...

I remember reading a story about how climbers of Mount Kailash in the Himalayas reported that their finger nails and hair grew faster on the mountain, which is something that could be caused by radiation. Interestingly India doesn't allow anyone to climb that mountain anymore.

Hopefully they will invent something that can somehow detect plutonium long range in the near future so they can find and properly dispose. Maybe detect from satellite? They must have an approximate area to search. It would be catastrophic if it leaked.

9:32 hey that’s my town! That climb is called Saigon and is very very hard lol

My father narrated me this story while we were traveling last year. I am from Shivalik Himalayas.

"Why does saying two bombs one satellite make me feel queasy?" Hold up I thought this was a PG channel

This case was a subject of a lecture in my structural geology class in 1982. Our professor had been a consultant in the investigation.

Watching this guy after years! Love the experience!

The same river is literally 200 metres away from my house..you scared the shit out of me for the rest of my life now

i love how he says ~it might sound crazy~ to allege that America / the CIA has done something stupid and reckless in another country 😭😂

Channels like like are what makes information fun to listen to and also learn. I never find your videos boring

It's really hard to get a bunch of plutonium to explode, that requires critical mass of highly reactive isotope which if it existed in that box would have already decayed well below any dangerous threshold decades ago. The heat given off from this device might have a local impact but not enough to cause sudden flooding.

This UKpostsr is underrated. He puts together very enjoyable 15 minute videos about some random but interesting topic and averages 100-400k views. I feel like it should be 10x that with the quality of the videos

The part about recruiting climbers reminds me of Armageddon - recruiting miners and teaching them to be astronauts.

today is 8th year of me and Thoughty2. i love you man. you are family now. thanks for being there always. i use you for relaxing my anxiety. i have watched few videos atleast 20 times. i love you man

It's all fun and games until the radiation cooks your nuts 😂

So back then in Cold War times whoever had an amazingly stupid idea against the opponent they just did it.

That must have been fun to hear... "Okay boys, looks like you are going to have to carry it by hand all the way to the top."....

Keep up the good work ; Thoughty

i really enjoy your videos and love your humour. top stuff fella :)

9:08 "I don't climb. I mainly just stand here and look cool" 🤣🤣😂

Some of the stuff the Americans did to keep the "world safe" is mind-boggling

Of course it could be a problem for future generations. the issue is in the containment. it was to be used to power a device, it was not properly contained and sealed for safe long-term disposal storage, like we see in deep underground placements. the material is probably in it's original cartage floating suspended in a layer of ice, or lodged into a rock crevasse. or, perhaps someone planned to steal that radioactive material all along.

So they just waited out a blizzard at camp for several months? Honestly I'm betting they lodged it in ice in a cave near their camp, not thinking about the fact that it constantly gives off heat. I mean when they go back several months later it could be hundreds of feet down the mountain or down an ice filled cavern

You forgot to mention that area is on a highly volatile earthquake fault-line that's waking up right now?

If I ever invent a time machine I may need to go back in time and snag that plutonium. Just to make sure it doesn't cause any problems in the future... Wait... Maybe I already did.

The plutonium shown is Pu-238 and is used as a thermal energy source. Nowadays much wanted as a thermal energy source for far space missions. Warhead-cores are Pu-239. The 238 isotope generates much more heat than 239. It is inconceivable that the decay of Pu 239 is melting vast amounts of ice. A quantitative back -of -the envelope calculation: Let a warhead-core consist of 6 kg Pu-239 This is 25 moles, or 3E24 atoms. Pu 239 has a half life of 24125 years, so formula for the amount remaining is 3E24*e^(-9.1E-13 t) where t is measured in seconds. The number of atoms decaying per second then is 3E24*9.1E-13=2.7E12. The energy per decay is 5.2MeV = 8.3E-13J, so the decay power is 2.7E12×8.3E-13 = 2.24 W. The decay heat of a nuclear 239-Pu core is capable of melting ice at a rate of just over half a litre per day. A similar calculation gives a power of 537 W/kg for Pu-238, which is about equal to solar energy per square meter. 1 kg of Pu-238 produces enough decay heat to melt 139 kg of 0°C ice per day. Even with 40 kg of this stuff (about what would remain today of a possible original 60 kg), it is impossible that the energy of Pu decay is enough to cause floodings. A very serious concern however is the radiation of the Pu, should it contaminate water, esp drinking water.

Hmm if it's lost in India, Then probably someone dismantled it and sold the pieces. They are genius at it 😁

No better way id rather spend my bathroom break, than be serenaded by thoughty2

*”Nuclear device lost...”* _Is definitely one of the most terrifying 3 word combinations-ever._ 😳

Those may sound silly but why not use one of the cores to power a sled to get them to the finish line? Unless it was take too much to encase it for safety

Sir .. recently got stuck to your stuff across different categories...from quick sand to db Cooper ..to Japanese solider still fighting nww2..to a corpse who caused Nazis the war..n greatest sniper ever ... coming from India .. would like to suggest a topic considering your interest in Himalayas something about mysterious Kailash mountain...why still it's not conquered or nothing much known about it except for religious pious seclusion

That moustache could destroy the himalayas.

42: 2 bombs 1 satellite Me: *stops eating chocolate pudding*. I am not hungry all of a sudden

that device would surely have melted its way to the bottom of the ice layer, which is apparently a huge dept, and likely rest there safely for as long as there is ice and glacier on top

may i know if there's a lost TSAR bomba cuz that bomb has an area of effect of 300 miles

Oh man. Another thing to worry about I've never heard of. Thanks.

Thoughty2: the world-class walker perfectly on the knife edge between an excellent promotional title and clickbait.... 😉

On the way to Meru vis vi Kalish were lost cores to accelerate the subduction.Surprised they didn't take over the Potala..

I'm just wondering, what if they used the plutonium cores to stay warm and the guy who got testicular cancer actually sat on the box for quite a while

Based on their cringe worthy recruitment video they just released, I doubt the CIA could even find Nanda Devi today, much less a plutonium device.

Absolutely incredible!….

The playback speed button was without a doubt implemented for this channel specifically. Popping one of these on after a Simon Whistler marathon and I couldn't possibly handle it at slower than 1.5.

It's not as bad as it seems. This is Plutonium-238, and its risk profile was analyzed in depth in 1991 by the American Institute of Physics. Key takeaways are, skin contact and ingestion represent minimal cancer risk, while inhalation has higher risk for cancer. That's good for the Nanda Devi case because inhalation is the least likely exposure vector.

Should be on mainstream TV this man , better than most presenters.

My question is why can't the USA with all their so called ultra high tech satellites use their sensors and instrumentation to locate a source of radiation decay or constant radioactivity being generated by the "sealed"case . Even conduct water testing for trace elements that give higher than average radiation levels , this can be done by India and any other nation .

Uh.. isn't plutonium highly radioactive? You would think that if these cores were up there somewhere they could be found due to their radioactivity - I guess unless they were completely shielded.

The Abominable Snowman announced he will be moving from the Himalayan mountains to snow-capped mountains in Australia.

This is the most interesting video I have seen this year so far. Imagine losing a nuclear battery.

If I understand correctly the plutonium cores don't just produce electricity like a batteries, they emit radiation. So how they were supposed to power the radiostation??

And his team mates fell in a crevice in nandadevi with the equupment, never to be recovered...this equipment had radioactive

The plutonium stash is a bit like Sauron's ring of power. While it is currently lost in nature, if it emerges, an apocalypse could follow.

what hes actually saying: "hey Thoughty2 here." My brain: "Hey fourty-two here."

When its 2 am but you have to find out what can destroy india in Himalaja

Actually this operation was conducted by both the countries Intelligence Agencies - CIA of America and IB (Intelligence Bureau) of India.. there's a movie coming out soon

It's hard to imagine the Ganges River getting any more polluted than it already is.

Me living close to the ganga *chuckles * I am in danger ehe

Your take on the frozen hikers being used as landmarks up mount Himalayas would be interesting.

How could the plutonium blows its load in the river gangies? It’s not a bot but plutonium rods for energy, it can’t explode like that. It’s not a bomb and dosen’t have the fuel or reaction ability too “unload energy”

There's always an Arquillian Battle Cruiser, or a Corillian Death Ray, or an intergalactic plague that is about to wipe out all life on this miserable little planet, and the only way these people can get on with their happy lives is that they _do not know about it!_ - Agent Kay, Men in Black

Gotta wonder ... what other nuggets of destruction are hangin' around the planet that we still don't know about ? Scary stuff.

At least it's a Plutonium-powered Radio Sniffer or Signal Interceptor, not an actual Broken Arrow. Might cause Chemical Pollution or Localized Thermal Effects if the Casing breaks down, though.

Thanks a lot

2 bombs 1 satellite. You earned the like brother. Lol

I had wiped two girls one cup from my brain, thanks for bringing it back

Love how he says glacier and it sounds like glass e ear

"they're really bloody big" in combination with his expression got me good. but dang bro what the heck were they thinking. it seems paranoia got them good.

I thought that this sounded completely mental, but then remembered that it was 1950's/1960's CIA.

How has this not been made into a major Hollywood blockbuster yet? Also you've been smashing it with these past few uploads, excellent quality.

6:17 Thanks for reminding me I'm from Northern North America where we get the other one with shades.

14:59 You should have described the "apocalyptic scale". No idea what that means.

"man, the snow is getting pretty harsh, what if we just" *leaves device that constantly produces heat at the top of a large mostly frozen mountain that is almost impossible to access expecting it not to just melt and slide down/away*

I love the idea of losing a super weapon Scientist 1: hey Dave I’ve been looking but I can’t find the nuclear weapon. Scientists 2: ... Scientist 1: Dave?

Hey Thoughty2, small chance you'll see this. But Im watching this from the future and as much as it made sense when you wrote this script, saying "this year" in an educational video that is still fun to watch, might be better off just being the year it happened at. (Disclaimer: Im not criticizing anything, just giving an opinion on a small detail that I thought would help the quality of the videos)

After the cores were lost the plan was renamed to operation ASS HAT.

Not only CIA was present in Operation Hat Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), and Indian Army's mountain climber were also present

Don't forget the Decay. Look how much the Pioneer and Voyager probes have had to shut down, and they used newer cores.

‘“The CIA would have to carry it....” Sorry, but I have to correct you. The CIA wouldn’t have carried squat. It would have been the Sherpas doing the really hard work 🤣

Nice one Thoughty. I see that you are a graduate of Jeremy Clarkson's school of "In the world" pronunciation and enunciation. Well done!

Remember when the USA had nuclear bombers loaded and flying around the country 24/7 incase of a Russian preemptive strike one bomb was reported lost because of an accident but there could easily have been more that were lost but hushed up so it has probably happened a lot more than people think.

it woild be a small addition to the regular contamination of the ganges. hell, it might even help

"Two bombs one satellite" Unlocked a forgotten memory 💀

I love that I can listen to random knowledge shit from a smart-sounding british guy and also hear sex jokes in one video lol

Damn your videos are so intriguing.

It's been fun watching you calm down and --quit being so frothy at the mouth-- mature into your delivery. I just upgraded my notifications to "all" -- really good episode! Thanks!

“Really expensive ones with a bunny” im crying lmfao

“Batteries with the bunny on them” *proceeds to show duracel*

42: goes on and on about the potential pollution that could be caused by refined nuclear materials in the River Ganges Overlooked by 42: the absolute state of the Ganges