Scientist As soon as Ate Radioactive Uranium on Dwell TV To Show It Was Innocent?

A viral video has circulated on social media for years, allegedly displaying a “famend physicist” named Galen Winsor who purportedly ate uranium on stay tv in 1985 to show it was innocent.

This declare has been shared throughout platforms like Instagram and Facebook, usually accompanied by statements asserting Winsor’s perception that the risks of radiation have been exaggerated. For example, one Instagram post with the video learn:

Galen Winsor was a famend physicist in the US. He designed and labored on many nuclear energy crops. Winsor believed that the concern of radiation has been exaggerated. In order that a number of highly effective individuals can management energy sources, like coal, oil.

To show his level, Winsor ate Uranium stay on digital camera. He swam within the reactor cooling swimming pools to persuade the general public and likewise drank the nuclear reactor water to show his level. Winsor died in 2008, at 82, attributable to an unknown trigger.

One Facebook consumer captioned the video: “Galen Winsor claimed individuals have been ‘too afraid’ of radioactivity and this was a thought many held throughout this era. However this ‘thought’ ended within the worst potential method with nuclear disasters and hundreds of individuals struggling to this present day due to them.”

In brief, the footage was genuine and originated from a video titled “The Nuclear Scare Rip-off” that featured Winsor, a determine recognized for his unconventional views on nuclear vitality and radiation security — together with that the concern of nuclear radiation was exaggerated. 

Nevertheless, we have been unable to independently confirm the substance Winsor consumed within the video or verify whether or not it was broadcast stay on tv. Due to this fact, we charge the declare that the video shared on social media confirmed a famend physicist who ate radioactive uranium on stay TV in 1985 to show it was innocent as a “Combination” of true, false and undetermined info. 

The clip that circulated on social media originated from an extended recording titled “The Nuclear Scare Rip-off,” obtainable on the YouTube channel of EIKE – European Local weather and Vitality Institute, a German group that rejects the thought of human-caused local weather change:

The IMDB description of the video learn:

Galen Winsor is a nuclear physicist of renown who labored at, and helped design, nuclear energy crops in Hanford, WA; Oak Ridge, TN; Morris, IL, San Jose, CA; Wimington, NJ. Amongst his positions of experience he was accountable for measuring and controlling the nuclear gas stock and storage. Galen Winsor has traveled and lectured throughout America, spoken on nationwide discuss radio, and made a number of movies exposing the misunderstood problems with nuclear radiation. He reveals that concern of radiation has been exaggerated to scare individuals … so a number of highly effective individuals can keep complete management of the world’s most precious energy useful resource. Filmed by Ben Williams in 1986.

The caption of the video that was initially uploaded to the Ben Williams Library web site additionally indicated that it was revealed in 1986.

Who Was Galen Winsor?

Our analysis confirmed that Winsor was certainly an actual determine, in line with a number of newspapers from the Nineteen Eighties.

Winsor was recognized for his unconventional views on nuclear vitality and radiation security. He labored on a number of nuclear energy crops in the US and have become a vocal critic of what he perceived as extreme concern surrounding radiation. 

For example, Winsor was quoted in an article revealed on Oct. 27, 1985, in The Every day Herald of Provo, Utah, with the title “Former Trade Employee Assaults Federal Guidelines on Nuclear Waste,” we discovered by way of the Newspapers.com archive:

(Newspapers.com)

The article mentioned Winsor had eaten uranium oxide at a latest lecture (emphasis ours):

Galen Winsor is not afraid of radiation. He carries uranium in his briefcase and even eats it.

He ate uranium oxide at a lecture he gave Friday. That speech was sponsored by the Utah County Audio system Bureau and the John Birch Society.

“What I’ve simply performed makes me excessive stage nuclear waste,” Winson mentioned as he took a tongue studying along with his geiger counter. 

“In accordance with federal laws, they should bury me 3,000 ft in Carlsbad, N.M.”

Ray Carlson launched Winsor, saying, “if it weren’t for his credentials, his message can be nearly unbelievable.” 

Winsor advised the gang a cowboy from Nevada by no means passes a heat water ballot [sic]. As supervisor of security, he swam in a pool cooling excessive stage nuclear waste at a nuclear reactor, and even used spent nuclear gas to warmth his pool at dwelling. 

That article, in addition to one published in the identical newspaper a number of days earlier, mentioned Winsor had 33 years of expertise working within the nuclear trade.

The Oregonian in Portland additionally reported in 1985 that Winsor ate uranium, offering {a photograph} displaying an analogous scene to the one within the viral video (emphasis ours): 

[…] Galen Winsor, who has a dramatic method of constructing his level that radioactive substances do not harm you: He eats them. 

“It is simply one other type of sun-tan,” the Richland, Wash., resident mentioned, as he poured a small pile of uranium oxide into his palm, caught out his tongue and coated it with the yellow powder that, unrefined, is the primary chemical step towards nuclear reactor gas. 

“I do that in entrance of audiences, and so they go wild,” Winsor mentioned, swallowing and grinning with the delight of 1 who has simply roped an intractable steer.

(Newspapers.com)

The article reported that “state and federal officers who investigated the legality of Winsor’s personal inventory of uranium, are greater than a little bit skeptical about his claims — they regard him as an irresponsible nuisance,” highlighting that Winsor in all probability uncovered himself to a really small dose of radiation from the uranium:

“Winsor’s actions are troubling however, technically talking, fairly authorized,” mentioned Nancy Kerner, supervisor of the waste administration unit of the radiation management part of the Washington state Division of Social and Well being Companies.

For the reason that uranium Winsor eats is insoluble and possibly “exposes his intestine to some millirem, it is in all probability not that dangerous,” Kerner mentioned, “however it’s irresponsible.”

Winsor was additionally talked about in different articles, similar to “Winsor excursions for Birch Society” within the Tri-City Herald in Pasco, Washington, (1984), “Physicist to Communicate Towards Undue Nuclear Regulation” in New Jersey’s Press of Atlantic City (1984), and “Well being Physicist Talks About Vitality Manufacturing Monday” in California’s Pacifica Tribune (1985).

Winsor’s title doesn’t seem in scientific journals. He was briefly mentioned in a booklet, “Tales from physics 8: Quantum, Nuclear and Particle Physics,” revealed by the Institute of Physics on the King’s Faculty London:

Radioactive swimming

Within the early days of the American nuclear trade, in the course of the Nineteen Forties, the foundations for the dealing with of radioactive supplies have been laxer. Galen Winsor was a security officer on the Hanford Nuclear Website, the situation of the primary full-size plutonium-producing reactor. When Hanford’s reactors have been decommissioned on the finish of the Chilly Struggle, the positioning housed 177 storage tanks, containing 200,000 m3 of high-level radioactive waste. Winsor swam within the pool the place spent gas rods have been stored and the water was heated to 38°C. He additional claimed to have drunk a glass of water from the pool daily with out sick results. Against this, for the reason that Nineteen Eighties, former staff have been trying to realize compensation for signs attributable to alleged publicity to radiation attributable to lax security measures on the plant. 

Winsor’s obituary, originally published by the Tri-Metropolis Herald in July 2008 and obtainable by way of Legacy.com, mentioned he had a level in chemistry and labored as a nuclear chemist:

On July 19, 2008, Galen Hulet Winsor went peacefully from his mortal life to return to his Father in Heaven, there to be reunited along with his everlasting companion, LaDene Mikkelsen Winsor, who preceded him in loss of life 15 years earlier.

[…]

He graduated from Lincoln County Excessive College in 1944 and joined the Navy that September. He served a tour within the South Pacific and was a radio operator on Guam the place he was wounded by a sniper.

After leaving the service, he attended Brigham Younger College in Provo, UT, the place he graduated with a level in chemistry. There he met LaDene and so they have been married within the Salt Lake Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on August 29, 1947.

They moved to Richland, WA, in August of 1950 the place he labored for Normal Electrical at Hanford as a Nuclear Chemist. He helped construct and run processes involving extracting Plutonium.

[…]

In December 1964, the household moved to San Jose, CA, the place Galen was concerned in designing a business nuclear gas reprocessing plant.

[…]

In Could of 1969, he moved to Joliet, IL, the place the Midwest Gasoline Restoration Plant was constructed.

[…]

GE then had Galen handle a uranium ore facility in Nucla, CO. Galen accepted a job with United Nuclear in October 1976 and moved again to Richland.

“He has had many roles and tasks that promoted and advocated nuclear vitality even after retiring,” the obituary concluded.

What We Know and Do not Know

In abstract, the video in query is genuine and options Winsor, a nuclear chemist recognized for his unconventional views on nuclear vitality and radiation security. Winsor believed that the concern surrounding nuclear radiation was exaggerated, nonetheless, opposite to claims in wildly unfold social media posts, he was not a “famend physicist” however relatively held a level in chemistry and later labored as a nuclear chemist. 

It stays undetermined whether or not the substance Winsor consumed within the in-question video was uranium or whether or not the occasion was broadcast stay on tv. 

We have now investigated different claims concerning radioactivity, together with:

Sources