A few preps for nuclear events

With North Korea and Iran now poised to build nuclear arsenals, attention has turned to a nearly 60-year-old concern, what to do in event of nuclear engagement. It is fairly easy to be at least partially prepared to survive a nuclear event.

I am now the proud owner of a NukAlert, a small device that can serve as a key ring charm or a pendant that will let forth with squeals of radioactive delight when in proximity of a ticking dirty bomb, operating X-ray machine, or the hot rubble spewed by a thermonuclear blast. One squeal in a half-minute means you're 42 days from getting radiation sickness if the radiation were constant. Ten squeals means you'd better get the hell outta there 'cause in two hours you're cooked. The battery is said to last ten years under normal conditions.

I also have KI pills (130 mg. Potassium Iodide) at home, in my van, and in my bug-out bag. They keep your thyroid from concentrating radionuclides of Iodine, which can kill you if the blast or the fallout radiation doesn't. The main strategy following a radiological event is to place mass and distance between you and any surfaces that would collect radioactive fallout. The level of gamma radiation attenuates rapidly so a couple days' hunkering in the most protected position before making limited indoor forays should do the trick. You'd need water and a waste bucket at a minimum. A pile of food, a mattress, and blankets would be great assets too.

If an incredibly bright, searing, and lasting flash occurs, leap for cover, away from windows and exterior doors, covering your face, eyes, and head. Do not look at the fireball as it can scorch your retinas and leave you permanently blind. A tornado-force wind gust will shatter windows and rip doors from their hinges. Race for the basement if one is present. If in the open, dive behind a solid feature such as a large rock, log, or stone wall. If none are around, look for a ditch or other depression. A pond or stream might be a great place to be. A large culvert is another great shelter. Intense thermal radiation will commence from the outset and continue as the fireball lifts over the terrain. The exterior of any building you might be in may catch fire.

Once the shock wave is past, quickly seek out the most protected area to serve as a fallout shelter. You may have only a few minutes before fallout arrives depending on blast proximity and prevailing winds. In that time, grab lots of water, food, buckets, plastic bags for waste, a battery or hand-crank radio, mattress, blankets and, barring the presence of a serious fallout shelter, make yourself a small cave, surrounding yourself with as much mass as possible. A large, sturdy table would make a good starting point. Load boxes of books, bricks, canned food, full water containers, stacks of lumber, bags of concrete mix, fertilizer, potting soil, etc.. If breezes could blow fallout into the area, nail, duct-tape, or thoroughly staple plastic, tarps, or blankets over openings to keep the fallout from entering.

Of course having a plan and materials already in place would be a big help. You might not be able to build a fully encased concrete bunker beneath your cellar stairs but you could identify the basement corner you would use and have several five-gallon containers of water, a bunch of ready-to-eat canned food, a can opener and spoon, some spare blankets and pillows in protective wraps, an air mattress, a box or two of small or tall-kitchen trash bags, a potty bucket, some toilet tissue (!), some tarps or polyethylene sheeting and duct tape for sealing off broken windows or other intrusions, and a hand-cranked radio.

You may not be home when disaster strikes. For this reason keeping a few items in your vehicle would be a good idea. Besides KI tablets for a half-dozen people I keep a full roll (10' x 100') of polyethylene, two big rolls of duct tape, a five-gallon container of water, and a week's food supply in my van. I am at least partially prepared to improvise a shelter wherever I am. I can't count on driving home first because the thermal radiation and shock wave may have destroyed my vehicle and the roads could be impassible from debris and disabled vehicles.

If you don't have a radiation measuring device, you will have to rely on your radio for news on the attenuation factor so you can know when it's safe to emerge and help in the cleanup effort. Long-lived radionuclides will still exist in low concentrations. You don't want them to lodge in your lungs where they can cause cancers so be sure to wear a close fitting particle mask during the cleanup phase. I keep a couple boxes of N-95 face masks handy (good in case of flu pandemics too).