KENNEWICK — Did a Tri-Cities scientist eat radioactive uranium in the ’80s to prove that it is harmless?
Maybe, says a recent new fact check by Snopes.com.
Galen Winsor was a Richland nuclear chemist who helped build and run processes to extract plutonium starting in 1950 at the Hanford nuclear site in Eastern Washington, according to his obituary and other information in Tri-City Herald archives.
In 1984, presumably no longer working at Hanford then at the age of 58, he toured the Northwest for the conservative John Birch Society, sharing his theories on over-regulation of the nuclear industry.
He told audiences that he believed the Three-Mile Island nuclear plant problems were manufactured and never actually occurred, the Herald reported then about his speaking tour.
It said Winsor was appearing on radio and TV talk shows.
In one film clip that has repeatedly resurfaced on social media in recent years, he holds up a bottle of what is says is radioactive uranium oxide.
“The state of Washington sent two of its Gestapo agents over to my home to confiscate my uranium samples,” he says on “The Nuclear Scare Scam” posted to YouTube.
He pours some into his hand and then holds it to a Geiger counter that starts clicking.
He pops it into his mouth and then holds a Geiger counter close to his face, starting it clicking again, and then licking his hand for good measure.
Swallowing uranium
He said in the video that he swallowed uranium for two years on his lecture tours.
He died at the age of 82 in 2008 in West Richland of causes not revealed in his obituary.
Snopes confirmed that the video was authentic and showed Winsor, who was known for his unconventional views on radiation safety. But it was unable to verify what he ate.
It also questioned one claim that he was a “renowned physicist,” but said he had a chemistry degree according to information in the Herald and elsewhere.
Snopes didn’t address where there was any truth to claims that he swam in a reactor pool used to cool irradiated uranium rods and drank a glass of the pool water daily.
Commenters were mostly amused by a clip of the video posted to Reddit earlier this year.
“A moment on the lips, a half life on the hips,” posted Halcii.
“You’re just fission for upvotes,” responded RandyArgonianButler.
