This is incrediblbe and the echo is just amazing.
It's actually kinda creepy.
It's like...
You're hearing ghost or something.
I don't know, it's weird.
Hello!
I'm here at Satsop Business Park.
Now you may be wondering, "What the hell am
I doing at a business park?"
Well, this is not your typical business park.
Just imagine, in the 80's, the state of Washington
was in the process of building a nuclear power
plant and at some point, they ran out of funds
and they just stop in the middle of production
or building.
What do you do?
Well, for years...
This nuclear power plant set dormant.
In fact, you can't even say it was dormant,
because it never went into production or into
service because they ran out of money and
they never finished it.
So, someone came up with a bright idea to
turn this place into a business park.
Go figure, who would have thought?
But even though it was a business park, they
found themselves with a challenge.
They found a lot of people curious about these
nuclear towers and people trying to explore
them.
So they put these no trespassing signs up
and they were citing and arresting people
who hopped the fence to tour these towers
and that's when somebody got another brilliant
idea and they're like, "You know...
Instead of turning these people away...
Why don't we offer tours and let them see
the actual nuclear power plant site and hence,
the Satsop Nuclear Walking Tour was born.
So I came here...
Maybe....
Six or seven months ago.
This is before I knew of the tour and I was
about that close to hopping the fence.
Fortunately for me...
Today's day and age.. you don't have to do
much research.
You just get on the Google machine and you
start typing and I discovered that they offered
tours.
I don't need to trespass at all.
So, that's what I'm going to do today, check
out the Satsop Nuclear Powerplant.
Prior to my tour, I arrived early just to
take a look around the facility.
I figured that there would be quite a few
people on the tour so I wanted to beat the
crowd.
This whole experience was reminicent of the
time I first came to visit this nuclear site.
I found it calling my name.
The desire to hop the fence and explore was
just urking me.
Peeking though the fence, I felt like someone
who was about to give in to a guilty pleasure.
The first time I came to this place, I was
on the verge of giving in.
Fortunatelty for me, I came to my senses.
My employer tends to frown on criminal records
so I weighted whether or not hoping the fence
was worth the price of my job.
What would you have done?
Let me know in the comment section below.
Before I knew it, it was time to start the
tour.
I headed to the office where I met Nate, our
tour guide.
The tour was very loosely organized.
Basically, they let you look around some of
the interesting areas.
Should you have a question, you can ask and
they will do their darnest to answer, although
it may not be a complete answer.
I say that because the guys that conduct the
tours know just a little bit more than me
about nuclear reactors.
Okay, I'm sure they know a lot more than me.
My point is..
They aren't nuclear physicist.
Moving on to tower number 3, we first passed
by this monsterous chunk of metal.
It was used to bore the holes that connected
the cooling towers with the nuclear reactor.
Upclose, it really dwarfs you in size when
you compare your height to the height of the
bore and cooling tower.
Going in for a closer look at tower number
three, I couldn't help but notice that there
was water in the tower.
Now it's perfectly normal for a cooling tower
to have water at a nuclear plant.
However, the odd part was that this nuclear
plant never went into service, so why was
there water here now?
The answer was that one of the tennats in
the business park required the water, although
I don't know what for.
Had the cooling tower actually been in service,
I'm told that the water would be raining down
from the top of the tower rather than still
water, like in a pool.
It was a facinating sight to see.
Moving on from tower number three, we headed
towards where the nuclear reactor was supposed
to be.
These structures have thick layers of concrete.
Concrete is a good way to keep all that radiation
trapped inside.
It was daunting as I approached the reactor.
This would have definitely been an amazing
place to visit.
However, there was a film crew on sight the
day I came and access was restricted.
They were flying a drone in and out of the
facility.
If you listen closely, you should be able
to hear the whine of the drone.
Unfortunately, this is as close as I was allowed
to get before moving on to tower number 5.
Tower 5 would be the highlight of the tour
and I will get to why it was the highlight
in a minute.
Like tower 3, number 5 looks exactly the same,
with one major difference.
The inside of this tower is hallowed out which
made for some really interesting acoustics.
It was so tempting to fly my drown inside
the tower and out it's top, but I was told
by the local security not to fly UAV over
or into the structure.
In a hurry to beat the crowd, I made sure
I was first into the tower structure.
I wanted to get some good footage unhindered
by people and boy I'm glad I did.
The whole thing was just a surreal experience.
The place took on an air of not being of this
planet.
It definitely felt like a close encounter
of something alien like.
I made the most of the few short minutes I
got to enjoy being alone in the structure.
By now, people started to arrive and the place
took on a different atmosphere.
The echos in the chamber were definitely creepy.
So, I am in the cooling tower here at Satsop
Nuclear Power Plant and I didn't anticipate
how kinda creepy it is here.
Everything echos.
There's a little kid here and he's making
noise.
I'm telling you, it feels like it's striaght
out of a horror movie.
I'm sure you can hear it.
Anyway, the guy on the tour, he gave me a
tip.
I brought my drone and the guy said that they
don't really encourage flying drones here,
but I spoke to the manager and he said...
He told me...
We were talking about flying drones here...
There is actually a film crew flying a drone
around here.
I was saying how I wanted to do that.
He suggested that I come during the summer
time, when the sun's up, late at night, about
9 o'clock, there's usually no body here and
you can fly your drone into this cooling tower
and straight up out of it.
I'm totally going to come back and do that.
Plus, another incentive is, you can arrange
for a private tour.
I wanted to go on top of the cooling tower
here, but they don't do that on this tour.
It's really not that expensive, but you do
have to get insurance.
Sounds like it's going to be roughly one hundred
dollars to do that tour.
Definitely a good excuse to come back here.
Check this out!
This is cool!
