WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.459 --> 00:00:04.890 A scientist sits in his lab working on an experiment when the door suddenly opens and 00:00:04.890 --> 00:00:07.200 a tall, hard-nosed man enters. 00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:11.140 The scientist hastily stands up and salutes the General who oversees the scientist’s 00:00:11.140 --> 00:00:12.280 entire program. 00:00:12.280 --> 00:00:15.969 The General dispenses with formalities and tells the scientist that he’s being assigned 00:00:15.969 --> 00:00:17.550 to something new. 00:00:17.550 --> 00:00:20.999 Before the scientist can even ask what it is he’ll be working on, the General gives 00:00:20.999 --> 00:00:24.060 a small wave of his hand and two soldiers appear in the doorway. 00:00:24.060 --> 00:00:28.599 They are each holding the side of a large metal box, and from the strained expression 00:00:28.599 --> 00:00:31.819 on their faces, it’s clear that the box is very heavy. 00:00:31.819 --> 00:00:36.010 They set the box down on the scientist’s heavy wooden desk with a loud thud before 00:00:36.010 --> 00:00:37.010 stepping away from it. 00:00:37.010 --> 00:00:41.610 The scientist looks over the bulky, lead case that’s been brought to him, no idea of what 00:00:41.610 --> 00:00:42.949 could be waiting inside. 00:00:42.949 --> 00:00:47.829 “Be very careful with this” the General says, before handing a folder full of papers 00:00:47.829 --> 00:00:49.190 to the scientist. 00:00:49.190 --> 00:00:53.489 The scientist, unsure of how to respond, moves his hand to salute the General, but he has 00:00:53.489 --> 00:00:57.480 already turned on his heel and started to exit the small lab, followed closely behind 00:00:57.480 --> 00:00:59.339 by the two soldiers. 00:00:59.339 --> 00:01:01.859 The scientist looks over the folder that was given to him. 00:01:01.859 --> 00:01:05.960 There’s nothing on the cover so he opens it and starts looking inside, skimming over 00:01:05.960 --> 00:01:10.320 the long, dry paragraphs that say nothing at all and seem to be included in every government 00:01:10.320 --> 00:01:11.700 report for some reason. 00:01:11.700 --> 00:01:13.580 Ah, there it is. 00:01:13.580 --> 00:01:14.580 Contents. 00:01:14.580 --> 00:01:16.420 One 6.2 kilogram sphere of… 00:01:16.420 --> 00:01:18.840 Plutonium 239. 00:01:18.840 --> 00:01:19.840 Plutonium 239?! 00:01:19.840 --> 00:01:24.140 He’s been doing research in this Army run research lab for some time and knows exactly 00:01:24.140 --> 00:01:25.160 what this is. 00:01:25.160 --> 00:01:31.730 A sphere of plutonium 239 can only be one thing… a core for a new atomic bomb. 00:01:31.730 --> 00:01:35.759 Two were already dropped on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and their never before 00:01:35.759 --> 00:01:39.590 seen power caused death and destruction on a truly horrendous level. 00:01:39.590 --> 00:01:43.799 But they had also helped to put an end to the second world war, potentially saving the 00:01:43.799 --> 00:01:46.890 lives of thousands or even millions more. 00:01:46.890 --> 00:01:51.150 And no matter what moral questions he had about it, this was his job, and as an expert 00:01:51.150 --> 00:01:55.090 in physics and chemistry, his research would potentially help put a stop to fighting in 00:01:55.090 --> 00:01:56.250 the future. 00:01:56.250 --> 00:02:00.109 After all, no one would dare go to war when they knew their opponent had weapons that 00:02:00.109 --> 00:02:03.159 could cause devastation on this scale, right? 00:02:03.159 --> 00:02:07.039 The scientist pours over the typewritten reports, reading each and every handwritten note in 00:02:07.039 --> 00:02:08.340 the margins. 00:02:08.340 --> 00:02:12.090 As he reads through them, he sees warnings about the experiments from the report’s 00:02:12.090 --> 00:02:13.250 unnamed author. 00:02:13.250 --> 00:02:17.070 There are references to how slim the safety margins are when handling the material for 00:02:17.070 --> 00:02:18.070 testing. 00:02:18.070 --> 00:02:21.780 Since the core is intended to be used in a new nuclear weapon, it needs to be right on 00:02:21.780 --> 00:02:26.450 the edge of supercriticality, the point where fissile material undergoes a chain reaction 00:02:26.450 --> 00:02:28.410 that is key to nuclear detonations. 00:02:28.410 --> 00:02:32.490 The report then describes an experiment where the core was to be surrounded with bricks 00:02:32.490 --> 00:02:36.670 made of tungsten carbide that would act as a mirror of sorts, bouncing neutrons back 00:02:36.670 --> 00:02:39.360 at the core, which would knock loose other neutrons. 00:02:39.360 --> 00:02:43.250 The experiment was to be stopped before the core went supercritical, but when the scientist 00:02:43.250 --> 00:02:46.370 turns the page to view the results he finds… nothing. 00:02:46.370 --> 00:02:49.090 There’s no more pages in the folder. 00:02:49.090 --> 00:02:51.940 The scientist had heard rumors about these types of experiments. 00:02:51.940 --> 00:02:54.360 Tickling the dragon’s tail they called it. 00:02:54.360 --> 00:02:56.020 But where were the rest of the reports? 00:02:56.020 --> 00:02:58.560 Was this really the last experiment that was done? 00:02:58.560 --> 00:03:03.970 He sees at the top of the page that this last experiment was performed over a year ago. 00:03:03.970 --> 00:03:06.850 Just then the scientist notices someone walking by in the hall. 00:03:06.850 --> 00:03:08.340 It’s the general! 00:03:08.340 --> 00:03:10.980 He runs out into the hallway waving the report at him. 00:03:10.980 --> 00:03:12.140 “General, general!” 00:03:12.140 --> 00:03:15.720 The general stops and turns around, clearly annoyed at being intercepted while on the 00:03:15.720 --> 00:03:17.850 way from one important meeting to another. 00:03:17.850 --> 00:03:20.480 “General, what happened in the last experiment?” 00:03:20.480 --> 00:03:23.300 The General somehow looks even more annoyed by the question. 00:03:23.300 --> 00:03:25.960 “Don’t worry about it” he barks back at the scientist. 00:03:25.960 --> 00:03:27.920 “His time on the project was finished. 00:03:27.920 --> 00:03:29.360 It’s yours now.” 00:03:29.360 --> 00:03:34.300 And with that, the general leaves the scientist standing in the hall with his incomplete file. 00:03:34.300 --> 00:03:38.280 Days pass and the scientist receives additional orders on what types of experiments he should 00:03:38.280 --> 00:03:39.680 be carrying out. 00:03:39.680 --> 00:03:43.020 All of them are designed to guarantee that the core of plutonium will be suitable for 00:03:43.020 --> 00:03:45.120 use in a new weapon. 00:03:45.120 --> 00:03:48.710 For the latest test, he’s performing an experiment not dissimilar to the last one 00:03:48.710 --> 00:03:52.950 described in the report, but instead of using tungsten carbide bricks to reflect neutrons 00:03:52.950 --> 00:03:57.170 back at the core and achieve criticality, a beryllium dome had been created which is 00:03:57.170 --> 00:04:00.190 to be lowered down over the sphere of plutonium. 00:04:00.190 --> 00:04:04.460 As he lowers the dome, he knows that if it were to close completely, it would cause the 00:04:04.460 --> 00:04:06.720 core to go supercritical in an instant. 00:04:06.720 --> 00:04:11.990 In order to prevent this, he uses a screwdriver to prop up one side of the dome, allowing 00:04:11.990 --> 00:04:16.489 just enough neutrons to escape so that the core can maintain its stability. 00:04:16.489 --> 00:04:20.359 As he lowers the dome just a small amount more, he starts to hear something. 00:04:20.359 --> 00:04:24.930 It’s a faint noise at first, but gradually grows more and more audible. 00:04:24.930 --> 00:04:29.810 Radioactivity produces no sound, so the scientist is confused, especially since it sounds like 00:04:29.810 --> 00:04:31.949 the noise is coming from inside the dome. 00:04:31.949 --> 00:04:33.630 But surely that’s impossible. 00:04:33.630 --> 00:04:38.330 There were no processes happening within that should be creating any sort of noise. 00:04:38.330 --> 00:04:42.711 The scientist bends down and lifts up the edge of the dome ever so slightly more, just 00:04:42.711 --> 00:04:45.050 enough so that he can peek inside. 00:04:45.050 --> 00:04:47.150 As he does, the sound grows louder. 00:04:47.150 --> 00:04:51.860 He looks right into the core of plutonium 239 and sees something. 00:04:51.860 --> 00:04:53.509 There is movement on the sphere. 00:04:53.509 --> 00:04:57.460 He knows this is impossible, but he can see them with his own eyes, images dancing on 00:04:57.460 --> 00:04:59.319 the surface of the plutonium sphere. 00:04:59.319 --> 00:05:04.370 They were faces, unnatural faces, contorted and twisted in pain. 00:05:04.370 --> 00:05:08.710 He can see now that these are the source of the sound he was hearing, because the faces… 00:05:08.710 --> 00:05:10.560 are screaming. 00:05:10.560 --> 00:05:13.800 The scientist jumps back and the screwdriver slips away from the edge of the beryllium 00:05:13.800 --> 00:05:17.789 dome, allowing it to fall and completely cover the plutonium. 00:05:17.789 --> 00:05:22.639 Out in the hallway, a security guard covers his eyes, momentarily blinded by the flash 00:05:22.639 --> 00:05:24.030 of intense, blue light. 00:05:24.030 --> 00:05:27.800 When his vision returns, he runs into the laboratory it came from. 00:05:27.800 --> 00:05:32.040 The exposed sphere of plutonium sits on the desk, and the security guard looks up to see 00:05:32.040 --> 00:05:35.620 that the dome that once covered it has been embedded into the ceiling. 00:05:35.620 --> 00:05:40.210 He hears a moan come from the other side of the desk and rushes around to help the scientist, 00:05:40.210 --> 00:05:43.790 but when he looks down at the ground he doesn’t see a man. 00:05:43.790 --> 00:05:47.849 Lying there on the floor is a charred and bloody body, the small amount of skin and 00:05:47.849 --> 00:05:50.919 flesh that is left sloughing off his body. 00:05:50.919 --> 00:05:58.509 The scientist reaches towards him with a skeletal hand, emitting one final groan before collapsing. 00:05:58.509 --> 00:06:02.639 Nuclear weapons have claimed many lives, not just those who suffered directly from their 00:06:02.639 --> 00:06:07.460 overwhelming destructive energy or the subsequent residual radiation known as fallout, but many 00:06:07.460 --> 00:06:11.639 of those who researched and developed the science and technology behind them also became 00:06:11.639 --> 00:06:15.379 victims of their incredible, almost otherworldly power. 00:06:15.379 --> 00:06:20.439 Today’s anomaly is an example of exactly that, combining the astonishing power of nuclear 00:06:20.439 --> 00:06:23.099 weapons with the world of the supernatural. 00:06:23.099 --> 00:06:26.560 This is SCP-095-FR… 00:06:26.560 --> 00:06:28.759 The Demon Core. 00:06:28.759 --> 00:06:36.499 SCP-095-FR, is a 6.2 kilogram sphere, 89 millimeters in diameter that is composed entirely of plutonium 00:06:36.499 --> 00:06:38.229 239. 00:06:38.229 --> 00:06:42.830 Despite at one point seeming to be a normal sphere of the plutonium isotope, SCP-095-FR 00:06:42.830 --> 00:06:47.460 now seems to be in a permanent self-sustaining state of criticality. 00:06:47.460 --> 00:06:51.389 This results in a near constant emission of alpha radiation which is powerful enough to 00:06:51.389 --> 00:06:54.900 damage any electrical circuits within a 20 meter radius. 00:06:54.900 --> 00:06:57.930 The sphere’s danger grows the closer you get to it too. 00:06:57.930 --> 00:07:02.110 Within a 10 meter radius, any living tissue will become extremely irradiated, leading 00:07:02.110 --> 00:07:06.969 to radiation sickness, while denser materials like metal or bone will themselves become 00:07:06.969 --> 00:07:08.909 extremely radioactive. 00:07:08.909 --> 00:07:13.439 The plutonium sphere is somehow able to maintain a consistent mass despite its state which 00:07:13.439 --> 00:07:15.789 should lead to a decrease in overall mass. 00:07:15.789 --> 00:07:19.590 It’s theorized that it may be undergoing some kind of regenerative process, though 00:07:19.590 --> 00:07:24.830 it’s been impossible to determine just how this might be occurring. 00:07:24.830 --> 00:07:29.100 SCP-095-FR was recovered from the seafloor near Bikini Atoll, which was the site of a 00:07:29.100 --> 00:07:34.889 series of nuclear weapon tests by the United States government known as Operation Crossroad. 00:07:34.889 --> 00:07:39.409 These and later tests including the Castle Bravo test resulted in the island chain becoming 00:07:39.409 --> 00:07:44.590 extremely irradiated, and many of the island's residents soon showed signs of acute radiation 00:07:44.590 --> 00:07:49.430 syndrome leading to much of the indiginous population being forced to relocate. 00:07:49.430 --> 00:07:53.839 Following the Operation Crossroad test, an anomalously high source of radiation was detected 00:07:53.839 --> 00:07:55.190 in the sea. 00:07:55.190 --> 00:07:59.289 Though records are incomplete, it appears that the core of plutonium that had been responsible 00:07:59.289 --> 00:08:04.050 for the deaths of multiple scientists had somehow ended up on the ocean floor. 00:08:04.050 --> 00:08:07.569 Whether it got there due to being part of a failed bomb detonation, or if it somehow 00:08:07.569 --> 00:08:11.449 appeared there by other, more anomalous means is unknown. 00:08:11.449 --> 00:08:15.490 But regardless of how it got there, the attempted recovery of the object led to the deaths of 00:08:15.490 --> 00:08:20.229 several American servicemembers from radiation related illnesses, which the SCP Foundation 00:08:20.229 --> 00:08:22.039 soon learned of. 00:08:22.039 --> 00:08:26.159 After assisting in the retrieval of the sphere, the plutonium was relinquished to the Foundation’s 00:08:26.159 --> 00:08:28.919 custody for containment. 00:08:28.919 --> 00:08:33.560 The SCP-095-FR sphere was placed under the purview of the French Branch of the SCP Foundation, 00:08:33.560 --> 00:08:37.180 owing to their having a readily available site for containment, where the sphere was 00:08:37.180 --> 00:08:42.370 stored in a lead lined, radiation blocking safe and classified as Euclid. 00:08:42.370 --> 00:08:46.530 Only D-Class were permitted to transport and handle the plutonium since its effects amounted 00:08:46.530 --> 00:08:49.510 to a death sentence for anyone who got too close. 00:08:49.510 --> 00:08:53.470 They were also responsible for transferring the sphere to a new safe every six months 00:08:53.470 --> 00:08:57.770 due to the damage it was causing them from constant bombardment of radiation. 00:08:57.770 --> 00:09:01.330 All of these containment procedures would have to be changed though, following the events 00:09:01.330 --> 00:09:04.080 of January 7th, 2015. 00:09:04.080 --> 00:09:08.210 On that day, sixty-nine years after it first took the lives of two scientists at the Los 00:09:08.210 --> 00:09:13.590 Alamos laboratory, and despite it being a scientific impossibility, the Demon Core suddenly 00:09:13.590 --> 00:09:16.180 went supercritical all on its own. 00:09:16.180 --> 00:09:20.840 The resulting explosion was estimated to be roughly thirty-three kilotons, or about twice 00:09:20.840 --> 00:09:25.840 the power of the atomic bombs that had been detonated over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 00:09:25.840 --> 00:09:31.450 Nearly the entire site housing SCP-095-FR was destroyed along with fourteen other Safe 00:09:31.450 --> 00:09:37.340 and Euclid class anomalies, and in the end, the death count totalled 285, with casualties 00:09:37.340 --> 00:09:41.990 coming from either the blast itself, the collapse of structures on the site, or from the resulting 00:09:41.990 --> 00:09:43.630 radiation poisoning. 00:09:43.630 --> 00:09:48.710 Incredibly, the sphere itself survived the explosion, showing no signs that it had detonated 00:09:48.710 --> 00:09:53.000 with the force of a nuclear weapon when it was recovered from the site’s wreckage. 00:09:53.000 --> 00:09:56.560 Foundation researchers studying the Demon Core determined that it was likely to explode 00:09:56.560 --> 00:10:00.660 again in roughly fifty years, and that the only discernible difference measured in the 00:10:00.660 --> 00:10:04.560 core before it suddenly went supercritical and destroyed the Foundation site was a sudden 00:10:04.560 --> 00:10:06.790 spike in radiation. 00:10:06.790 --> 00:10:11.620 Foundation scientists have no idea how the Demon Core survived, or how it detonated without 00:10:11.620 --> 00:10:12.710 warning. 00:10:12.710 --> 00:10:17.120 Some theorize that it may exist in some kind of time loop, which would potentially explain 00:10:17.120 --> 00:10:21.560 its explosion-regeneration cycle, and that it is possible the core has actually detonated 00:10:21.560 --> 00:10:25.080 several times before entering into Foundation custody. 00:10:25.080 --> 00:10:28.750 But perhaps the bigger question when it comes to the Demon Core and why it has become such 00:10:28.750 --> 00:10:31.990 a dangerous object… is why. 00:10:31.990 --> 00:10:35.910 Is there something contained within this seemingly cursed sphere of plutonium? 00:10:35.910 --> 00:10:39.530 Is a part of those who have been impacted by the quest to harness the power of atomic 00:10:39.530 --> 00:10:41.740 energy somehow contained within? 00:10:41.740 --> 00:10:45.510 Now desperate to get out and unleash their anger on the world? 00:10:45.510 --> 00:10:49.710 Research continues, but due to the extreme danger that comes from working with the anomaly, 00:10:49.710 --> 00:10:54.060 it’s likely these questions will remain unanswered for some time. 00:10:54.060 --> 00:10:59.510 Following the destruction of the Foundation site, SCP-095-FR was reclassified to Keter, 00:10:59.510 --> 00:11:02.780 and moved to an underground bunker designed to withstand an explosion equivalent to a 00:11:02.780 --> 00:11:07.190 standard atomic bomb, which it is hoped will be enough to contain the blast that is almost 00:11:07.190 --> 00:11:09.160 inevitably going to happen again. 00:11:09.160 --> 00:11:13.670 It’s a sobering thought, even for those of us who work with and around anomalies on 00:11:13.670 --> 00:11:18.610 a daily basis, to be reminded of the incredible destructive power of nuclear weapons. 00:11:18.610 --> 00:11:23.570 Some of the most feared and deadly anomalies contained by the SCP Foundation pale in comparison 00:11:23.570 --> 00:11:28.580 to the carnage that we’ve inflicted on ourselves, and it's important to remember that sometimes 00:11:28.580 --> 00:11:31.770 the true demons are found inside of us. 00:11:31.770 --> 00:11:37.950 Now go and watch another entry from the files of Dr. Bob, like SCP-767 Crime Scene Photographs, 00:11:37.950 --> 00:11:41.280 for another anomalous object with a strange and deadly secret. 00:11:41.280 --> 00:11:45.660 And make sure you subscribe and turn on notifications, so you don’t miss a single anomaly, as we 00:11:45.660 --> 00:11:51.410 delve further and further into the SCP Foundation’s classified archives.