Recently, a video of a physicist eating uranium while delivering a lecture appeared on my social media feed. While I ignored it once or twice, THE ALGORITHM knows me better than I know myself, and I eventually watched it.
However, the short clip contained no information, and I couldn’t tell the context of why someone would do this, let alone if it was even real.
Turns out…it’s very real.
This is the full, unedited version of “The Nuclear Scare Scam”, a talk delivered by a man named Galen Winsor in 1985.
The “uranium eating” takes place around the 1 hour 12 minute mark.
Galen Winsor was a nuclear physicist who served in the Navy during World War II, returning home to help design and operate the first nuclear power plant in Hanford, WA – and many power plants thereafter.
Winsor dismantles the exaggerated fears surrounding nuclear energy, revealing how strategic disinformation and vested interests have perpetuated a culture of radiophobia in America.
Through personal anecdotes and historical context, he argues that the dangers of low-level radiation have been blown out of proportion. He critiques the overly cautious regulations driven by economic and political agendas, suggesting that these fears were deliberately cultivated to hinder the growth of atomic technology.
Winsor makes some…potentially controversial points in this talk. Most notably, his opinion on Three Mile Island. Currently, I am neither supporting nor condemning any of his spicier ideas – that’s for future episodes.
But: in the 1980s, Winsor traveled across America giving this same talk 77 times - and thus snacked on uranium dust 77 times.
Winsor did eventually die…
...in 2008, at the age of 86, more than 20 years after “The Nuclear Scare Scam” was recorded.
It’s hard to argue with the results.
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jason@coldlight.org