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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: unclewest who wrote (20801)	3/7/2002 5:47:25 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

.they are taught to contain the problem. Precisely, West. That is what they will do. Fortunately for most of us, any attack will most probably hit New York or Washington. The terrorists want a "High Profile" hit. This means that fall out, etc, will be over the ocean. As I have said before, it is another reason I like it here in Waikiki!

To: unclewest who wrote (20801)	3/7/2002 7:39:50 AM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

a late model American nuclear weapon is very clean. once the shock wave passes over you and returns most of the hazard is over. The reason American nukes are "clean" is primarily because they are more accurate (yes, and better designed.. :0), designed to explode 1/2 mile above the ground in order to create a wide "cone of destruction". Thus, relatively little fall-out is produced. What one has to understand is that ANY nuclear bomb detonated at ground level (which is what we must assume will be the case in a terrorist bombing) creating what is known as a "surface burst". The result will be a very large crater, with an incredible amount of dirt and debris pulverized and churned up into the atmosphere, all of it highly radioactive. This dust and debris is what constitutes the "fallout", and depending on prevailing wind speed and force, the heaviest particles will fall relatively close to ground zero (especially if still surrounded by high rises that haven't collapsed). And it's those heavy particles one wishes to avoid by placing a dense shield in between one's flesh and the irradiating source for several days until most of the gamma radiation has decayed. I seem to recall reading somewhere that 6 inches of earth reduces radiation penetration by 1/2, and something like 3 inches for concrete, and 1/2 an inch of lead. As for the threat, what is most risky are the gamma emmitters. Fortunately, being relatively unstable elements, they generally have a short half-life, but they are very intense emmitters of radiation. Some of these isotopes created by nuclear fission only last for seconds. Thus, that's why it's all important to immediately find something very dense to use as a shield between yourself and the burst. Here's an interesting site I found that includes the graph of radioactive decay I was looking for: ki4u.com As one can see, the majority of radiactive elements stop emmitting significant radiation within 7 hours of the blast. That's why it's so important for people to seek shelter in the initial moments (preferably a basement, subway, or underground parking garage if in NYC) away from the initial blast. Btw,.. I'm not an expert either... This was just one of those topics that I found rather interesting over the past 15 years, and so I read quite a few of the same manuals you probably did. Hawk