1959 THE NUCLEAR LANCE- PREPARING OUR YOUTH FOR THE USAF

THE USAF IS LOOKING FOR THAT FUTURE STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND PILOT, OR RADAR OPERATOR, NAVIGATOR, WEAPONS SYSTEM SPECIALIST TO CARRY THE HOME TEAM DEEP INTO THE SOVIET HEARTLAND AND INCINERATE SOME GODLESS HEATHENS AT LEAST THAT'S WHAT THE LITTLE GUY IS PROBABLY THINKING WHAT A GREAT TOY ,WHAT A GREAT MARKETING IDEA FROM POST, THOUGH LITTLE JOHNNY WOULD BE KICKING THE TIRES AND LIGHTING THE FIRES FOR MISSIONS OVER VIETNAM ANOTHER TYPE OF GODLESS HEATHEN THAT WORSHIPED THE SAME IDEOLOGY AND STILL HAS PRISONERS OF WAR, I UNEARTHED A POST ABOUT THE B-58 HUSTLER AND ITS TWO STORIES BELOW THIS ONE ,ALL THE SPECS AND PICS OF THE USAF'S BEST COLD WAR NUCLEAR BOMBER. THIS LINDBERG MODEL IS A MUST HAVE I WISH I HAD ONE THEY DON'T MAKE TOYS LIKE THIS ANYMORE AND THE LIBERAL PACIFISTS WOULDNT LET THEIR CHILDREN NEAR A GREAT TOY LIKE THIS MUCH LESS GREEN ARMY MEN! ** thank you Sonny Holt USAF (ret) who flew these birds and more a real interesting guy check out his posts on aircraft of the cold war a facebook group**

1954 - COLD WAR USA - USAF GOOD MORNING WAKE UP USING A B-36 AT LOW LEVEL OVER FORT WORTH

USAF B-36 PEACEMAKER MADE FOR MAKING NUCLEAR DELIVERIES DEEP INSIDE THE SOVIET UNION AND WAKING UP SLEEPY FORT WORTH NEIGHBORHOODS JUST CAUSE WE COULD DO IT


Quite often, the B-36 would be called upon to demonstrate how quickly it could get off the ground, especially when loaded with a minimum amount of fuel. On a Sunday afternoon in October 1954 a group of firemen were having a convention in town and were on a tour of the Base. In order for a person to draw his flight pay he was required to fly at least fours a month, and 100 hours each year. Thad Neal's crew was scheduled for a two or three week leave in October, so in order to get in the required flying time this pilot proficiency mission was set up for the crew. I believe it was on a Sunday afternoon.

Before leaving home for the Base that morning, Thad called and told me to have Rin (my wife) standing by with the movie camera. I knew he had visitors and that he wanted them to get a good look at the plane, so I expected that it would be a low flyover but had no idea just how low he planned on making it.

The visiting firemen were on the ramp at the time of our take off so Thad was directed to make a maximum performance takeoff and then come around with the low pass over. With a minimum fuel load the B-36 really got off the ground in a hurry. We taxied onto the runway heading south and set the brakes. Thad called for full power on the six recips and four jet engines. That old bird started to stutter and seemed to skid until the brakes were released. I don't think we used a thousand feet of runway before breaking ground. We leveled off at four thousand and headed to the north end of Eagle Mountain Lake at 4,000' before turning south and heading for the north end of the runway. When over Eagle Mountain Lake the plane turned south. With "six turning and four burning" the plane headed directly for the north end of the runway. In a shallow dive with full power the plane skimmed down the runway at almost no altitude. I don't know how fast we were going but it had to be at least 180 mph. Thad kept right on the deck for the whole length of the runway. I was sitting in the glass nose and had a good view. The operators in the GCA shack along side the runway took a dive for the ground as the plane approached with the props almost ticking the concrete.

Thad had originally planned on flying directly over his house. Between the Base and West Ridglea the ground rises maybe a hundred feet so. Thad could not get a true bead on his house from the low altitude so he flew down the road where Ridgmar Mall sits today. Climbing over the small ridge he soon spotted his house just a wee bit off to the left. Still following the terrain he pushed the nose down a bit again but did not dare to drop the wing in a turn. After crossing he ridge, the land gradually gets lower until it reaches Mary's Creek. We stayed on the deck all the way and then part way down highway 377. Then we climbed back to altitude and my log book show we flew for six hours. 

Trinka was in her front yard filming the approach, until frightened, when she dropped the camera. Rin had heard us takeoff so she got our camera and sat on the back porch to wait for the next event. It came so fast and caught her by surprise so that all she could do was step off the porch and shoot between the two houses. She did get a short blip of film as we passed about a block away. She did run out front and got a few feet as we few down the hill to the Creek, then she went in the house and poured herself a stiff drink.

As we flew down the highway I recall seeing cars stop and people head for the ditches. Several years later I was telling this story to some co-workers at General Dynamics and one man told me that he was one of those that had sought shelter in a ditch.

We landed and went home to prepare for our vacation not realizing the furor that was going on in Headquarters. One man had called in demanding that his TV antenna be returned. He claimed that a jet pod had removed it from his roof. One character even claimed that the jet exhaust had set fire to a phone pole. There were claims about cracked plaster and pictures that had fallen from the walls.

There was such a fuss raised that General Jack Ryan the 19thAD CO had to take some action. Early the following morning before we could get away, Thad called and said not to leave. General Ryan wanted to talk with all of us. We met at his office and one by one had to go in to give our version of the whole episode. When it was all over he had to fine Thad. I believe it was for $250.00 and he was taken off the promotion list for a couple of years, but as he left the General's office, General Ryan told Thad that was the best buzz job he had ever heard of. It didn't hurt his career either. He would serve as a Commander at Wichita Falls, and then in the Pentagon before going to Florida. He retired as a Lieutenant Colonel.

Thad was killed in a crash in the early 60's while training in C-123's in Florida. The training was preparing him for duty in Viet Nam, defoliation, I think they called it. In the middle of a low altitude turn he lost an engine and went down. 
















HISTORY OF THE PEACEMAKER

The Convair B-36 "Peacemaker"^{[N 1]} was a strategic bomber built by Convair and operated solely by the United States Air Force (USAF) from 1949 to 1959. The B-36 was the largest mass-produced piston engine aircraft ever made. It had the longest wingspan of any combat aircraft ever built (230 ft, 70.1 m), although there have been larger military transports. The B-36 was the first bomber capable of delivering any of the nuclear weapons in the U.S. arsenal from inside its two bomb bays without aircraft modifications. With a range of 16,000 km (9,900 mi) and a maximum payload of 33,000 kg (73,000 lb), the B-36 was the world's first manned bomber with an unrefueled intercontinental range. Until it was replaced by the jet powered Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, which first became operational in 1955, the B-36 was the primary nuclear weapons delivery vehicle of the Strategic Air Command (SAC), and the B-36 set the standard for range and payload for subsequent U.S. intercontinental bombers

Early in the war, the military refused to supply materials, tradesmen, and engineers to the project, which slowed work. As the Pacific war progressed, the United States increasingly needed a bomber capable of reaching Japan from its bases in Hawaii, and the B-36 began its development in earnest again. Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson, in discussions with high-ranking officers of the AAF, decided to waive normal army procurement procedures, and on 23 July 1943 ordered 100 B-36s before the completion and testing of the two prototypes.^[7] The first delivery was due in August 1945, and the last in October 1946, but Consolidated (now renamed Convair) delayed delivery. The aircraft was unveiled on 20 August 1945, and flew for the first time on 8 August 1946.^[8]

After the establishment of an independent United States Air Force in 1947, the beginning in earnest of the Cold War with the 1948 Berlin Airlift, and the 1949 atmospheric test of the first Soviet atomic bomb, American military planners sought bombers capable of delivering the very large and heavy first-generation atomic bombs. The B-36 was the only American aircraft with the range and payload to carry such bombs from airfields on American soil to targets in the USSR. The modification to allow the use of larger atomic weapons on the B-36 was called the "Grand Slam Installation."^[9]

The B-36 was arguably obsolete from the outset, being piston-powered, particularly in a world of supersonic jet interceptors.^[2][10] But its jet rival, the Boeing B-47 Stratojet, which did not become fully operational until 1953, lacked the range to attack the Soviet homeland from North America without aerial refueling and could not carry the huge first-generation Mark 16 hydrogen bomb. Nor could the other American piston bombers of the day, the B-29 or B-50.^[11] Intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) did not become effective deterrents until the 1960s. Until the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress became operational in 1955, the B-36, as the only truly intercontinental bomber, continued to be the primary nuclear weapons delivery vehicle of the Strategic Air Command (SAC).^[2]

Convair touted the B-36 as the "aluminum overcast", a so-called "long rifle" giving SAC truly global reach.^[2] While General Curtis LeMay headed SAC (1949–57), he turned the B-36 arm, through intense training and development, into an effective nuclear delivery force, forming the heart of the Strategic Air Command. Its maximum payload was more than four times that of the B-29, and exceeding that of the B-52. The B-36 was slow and could not refuel in midair, but could fly missions to targets 3,400 mi (5,500 km) away and stay aloft as long as 40 hours.^[2] Moreover, the B-36 was believed to have "an ace up its sleeve": a phenomenal cruising altitude for a piston-driven aircraft, made possible by its huge wing area and six 28-cylinder engines, putting it out of range of most of the interceptors of the day, and ground batteries.^[2]

(1951) UNITED STATES ARMY AND ATOMIC ENERGY COMMISION - THE PSYCHOLOGICAL AND MEDICAL EFFECTS OF EXPOSURE TO AN ATOMIC WEAPON ON THE COMBAT SOLDIER

OPERATION  DESERT ROCK 

THE ATOMIC WEAPON TESTS
ON THE COMBAT SOLDIER 

T

US MARINES ARE FERRIED IN BY CHOPPER TO ASSESS DAMAGE
YARDS FROM GROUND ZERO

OPERATION

DESERT ROCK THE EFFECTS OF RADIATION ON THE U.S. SOLDIER 

THE 1950s WAS A HOT TIME RUSSIA DEVELOPED THE BOMB ,COMMUNISTS WERE INFILTRATING AMERICA AND THE TESTS IN NEVADA CONTINUED. THE UNITED STATES HAD ONLY HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI AS TEST RESULTS SO WITHOUT THE AMERICAN CITIZENS KNOWLEDGE THEY TESTED MANY ATOMIC WEAPONS IN THE DESERT OUTSIDE LAS VEGAS AND THE AVERAGE AMERICAN  WITHIN A FEW HUNDRED MILES OF THE NEVADA TEST SITE WERE GREATED BY EARLY SUNRISES AS FIREBALLS SHOT INTO THE STRATOSPHERE AND THE LIGHT WAS SEEN FROM AS FAR AWAY AS LOS ANGELES AS WAS THE  GROUND MOVING BENEATH THEIR FEET. WHAT THEY DID NOT KNOW WAS AFTER EVERY TEST HIGHLY CONTAMINATED RADIOACTIVE CLOUDS CIRCLED THE UNITED STATES BEFORE GOING ON TO THE WORLD RELEASING RADIOACTIVE PARTICLES OF WHAT WAS VAPORIZED AND SUCKED UP INTO THE FIREBALL CALLED FALLOUT. THESE CLOUDS WERE TRACKED AND FOLLOWED BY CHASE AIRCRAFT MONITORING THE RADS BEING EMITTED CAREFUL TO KEEP OUT OF THE CLOUDS AND STAY A DISTANCE AWAY ,.....BUT WHAT OF THE AVERAGE AMERICAN ? DURING THESE TESTS AMERICANS WERE BEING RADIATED BY THESE TESTS,  DENTISTS IN ST LOUIS COLLECTED TEETH OF BABYS THAT NATURALLY FELL OUT AND WERE SHOCKED TO FIND  HIGH AMOUNTS OF STRONIUM-90 WITHIN THESE TEETH IT WAS FOUND IN THE MILK PRODUCED BY DAIRY FARMS ACROSS AMERICA, KODAK LABS IN ROCHESTER HAD FILM BEING RUINED. NOW, KODAK CHOSE THEIR ROCHESTER N.Y. SITE FOR IT'S LOW NATURAL BACKGROUND RADIATION THAT AFFECTS FILM BUT BATCHES UPON BATCHES OF FILM WERE MARRED BY RADIOACTIVE FALLOUT. EVERYTIME IT RAINED OR SNOWED FALLOUT WAS DEPOSITED AROUND THE KODAK FACILITY RUINING LARGE AMOUNTS OF FILM AND UPON INVESTIGATION IT OCCURED AFTER EVERY DETONATION OF TEST SHOTS AT THE NTS. THE CANCER RATE FROM THAT ERA UP UNTIL THE YEARS MOST OF THOSE UNKNOWINGLY WERE DUSTED WERE HIGH AND ONE OF THOSE HIGH CANCER CLUSTERS HAPPENED TO BE IN THE NYC - LONG ISLAND AREA THOSE THAT LIVED DURING THESE SHOTS AND ARE IN THEIR 70s HAVE AND WERE DYING FROM CANCER MORE THAN ANY GENERATION. COINCIDENCE.......HMMMM LETS LOOK AT THE VETERANS OF THE DESERT ROCK EXERCISES THESE MEN WERE SUBJECT OF A MOVIE SHOWING GROSS NEGLIGENCE ON THE US MILITARIES PART AS THEY SUFFERED FROM DISEASES AND CANCERS THAT WERE HORRIFIC AND YET THE DEPT. OF DEFENSE WOULD NOT RECOGNIZE THEIR SICKNESS AS SERVICE RELATED. EVEN AS THEY MARCHED THESE MEN INTO GROUND ZERO BENEATH A FIVE MILE HIGH MUSHROOM CLOUD  AND LOADED THEM INTO TRUCKS AND DROPPED THEM OFF WITH NO FOXHOLES OR PROTECTIVE COVERING LEAVING THEM TO FACE THE BLAST IN ANY WAY THEY COULD FIND. LATER IN THE 1990s AMERICA  PRESIDENT CLINTON ADMITTED THAT THESE MEN WERE PART OF RADIATION EXPIREMENTS AND OFFERED A MILKWARM APOLOGY LETS TAKE A LOOK AT THE DESERT ROCK TEST SERIES THE BIGGEST MILITARY WARGAMES INVOLVING ATOMIC WEAPONS EVER CONDUCTED BY ANY NATION.

THESE SOLDIERS LEAE THEIR FOXHOLES IN BATTLE FORMATION
AND SIMULATE ADANCING ON A ENEMY POSITION JUST BLASTED WITH AN ATOMIC WEAPON THEY GOT WITHIN 1700 YARDS OF GROUND ZERO AND INSPECTED TANKS THAT WERE BLOWN HUNDREDS OF FEET FROM WHERE THEY WERE PLACED AND FLIPPED UPSIDE DOWN 

In 1951, the Army, working with the Atomic Energy Commission, carried out the Desert Rock Exercises, an experiment to "dispel much of the fear and uncertainty surrounding atomic radiation and the effects of gamma and x-rays."

A tent encampment was set up about 27 miles from where the atomic explosions were detonated on the Nevada Proving Grounds. The encampment housed about 5,000 Army soldiers, civilian observers and technicians. Troops spent hours in classes receiving training in radiation and nuclear weapons effects.

The following is a recorded interview between a sergeant and a training officer prior to a blast:

Question. "How many of your men would volunteer to go up and be in the 
foxholes?" (one-half mile from ground zero)

Answer. "I guess about half a dozen."

Question. "It's quite a loud noise when that bomb goes off ... would it do 
them any harm?"

Answer. "No sir, not the noise, no."

Question. "How about the radiation? Do you think there is much danger?"

Answer. "Radiation is the least of their worries that the men are thinking 
about."

Question. "I think most thought radiation was the greatest danger, didn't 
they? Where did they learn differently?"

Answer. "They were, prior to our instructions here. We received a very 
thorough briefing."

For the Desert Rock I Exercise, the weapon was fired as an airburst. The majority of the troops were out in the open about seven miles away. The soldiers were told to crouch down and face away from the blast. The bomb flash blanked out the troops from view, and the flash was followed by blast winds and the noise of the explosion. Interviews with soldiers were conducted after the test.

Following the test, the troops were trucked toward the stationary military equipment used for experiments. The experiments were set up one-half mile and also at three miles from the blast. At three miles, the gun emplacements and military vehicles were undamaged, but at on-half mile damage was moderate to heavy.

There was a dialog error made in this military film. Near the beginning of the film there was a claim that these tests were conducted 75 miles northeast of Las Vegas, while they really were staged the same distance northwest of Las Vegas.

Desert Rock exercises

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Aerial view of Camp Desert Rock.

Desert Rock was the code name of a series of exercises conducted by the US military in conjunction with atmospheric nuclear tests. They were carried out at the Nevada Proving Grounds between 1951 and 1957.

Their purpose was to train troops and gain knowledge of military maneuvers and operations on the nuclear battlefield. They included observer programs, tactical maneuvers, and damage effects tests.

Camp Desert Rock was established in 1951, 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) south of Camp Mercury. The site was used to billet troops and stage equipment. The camp was discontinued as an Army installation in 1964.

Contents

  [hide] 

• 1Summary
• 2Desert Rock I, II, III
• 3Desert Rock IV
• 4Desert Rock V
• 5Desert Rock VI
• 6Desert Rock VII, VIII
• 7See also
• 8Research
• 9External links

Summary[edit]

Exercise	Nuclear Test Series	Date	Total DoD Participants	Tactical Maneuver Personnel
Desert Rock I, II, III[1]	Operation Buster–Jangle	22 Oct. - 22 Nov. 1951	11,000	6,500
Desert Rock IV[2]	Operation Tumbler–Snapper	1 Apr. - 5 Jun. 1952	11,700	7,400
Desert Rock V[3]	Operation Upshot–Knothole	17 Mar. - 4 Jun. 1953	20,100
Desert Rock VI[4]	Operation Teapot	18 Feb. - 15 May 1955	11,700	8,000
Desert Rock VII, VIII[5]	Operation Plumbbob	24 Apr. - 7 Oct. 1957	14,000

Desert Rock I - Buster-Jangle Dog - November 1, 1951.

Desert Rock IV - Tumbler-Snapper George - June 1, 1952.

Desert Rock I, II, III[edit]

Observer programs were conducted at shots Dog, Sugar, and Uncle. Tactical maneuvers were conducted after shot Dog. Damage effects tests were conducted at shots Dog, Sugar, and Uncle to determine the effects of a nuclear detonation on military equipment and field fortifications.

Desert Rock IV[edit]

Observer programs were conducted at shots Charlie, Dog, Fox, and George. Tactical maneuvers were conducted after shots Charlie, Dog, and George. Psychological tests were conducted at shots Charlie, Fox, and George to determine the troops' reactions to witnessing a nuclear detonation.

Desert Rock V[edit]

Exercise Desert Rock V included troop orientation and training, a volunteer officer observer program, tactical troop maneuvers, operational helicopter tests, and damage effects evaluation.

Desert Rock VI[edit]

Observer programs were conducted at shots Wasp, Moth, Tesla, Turk, Bee, Ess, Apple 1, and Apple 2. Tactical maneuvers were conducted after shots Bee and Apple 2. Technical studies were conducted at shots Wasp, Moth, Tesla, Turk, Bee, Ess, Apple 1, Wasp Prime, Met, and Apple 2.

A test of an armored task force, RAZOR, was conducted at shot Apple 2 to demonstrate the capability of a reinforced tank battalion to seize an objective immediately after a nuclear detonation.

Desert Rock VII, VIII[edit]

Tactical maneuvers were conducted after shots Hood, Smoky, and Galileo. At shot Hood, the Marine Corps conducted a maneuver involving the use of a helicopter airlift and tactical air support. At shot Smoky, Army troops conducted an airlift assault, and at shot Galileo, Army troops were tested to determine their psychological reactions to witnessing a nuclear detonation.

See also[edit]

Totskoye nuclear exercise of 1954, a somewhat comparable series of Soviet exercises.

Research[edit]

1. Jump up^ Operation BUSTER-JANGLE Fact Sheet Defense Threat Reduction Agency
2. Jump up^ Operation TUMBLER-SNAPPER Fact Sheet Defense Threat Reduction Agency
3. Jump up^ Operation UPSHOT-KNOTHOLE Fact Sheet Defense Threat Reduction Agency
4. Jump up^ Operation TEAPOT Fact Sheet Defense Threat Reduction Agency
5. Jump up^ Operation PLUMBBOB Fact Sheet Defense Threat Reduction Agency

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Desert Rock exercises.

• Camp Desert Rock Tests on YouTube
• The short film Big Picture: Atomic Battlefield is available for free download at the Internet Archive
• The short film Exercise Desert Rock (1951) is available for free download at the Internet Archive
• THIS EMBEDDED MOVIE IS SILENT AND SHOWS SOME GREAT SHOTS OF THE NUCLEAR TESTS THEMSELVES AND HOW UNPREPARED THESE MEN WERE AS THEY WERE WALKED INTO THE SHOTS GROUND ZERO HOURS AFTER THE BLAST LITERALY HOURS SOME CRAZY GENERAL THOUGHT IT WOULD BE GREAT TO PARACHUTE A REGIMENT INTO THE ATOMIC DIN RIGHT INTO GROUND ZERO THESE STORIES AND MORE CAN BE FOUND AROUND THIS SITE  ENJOY FSNYC WARDEN

https://www.youtube.com/embed/aH299Mhyyqo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>

THESE BRAVE PARATROOPERS WERE INSERTED INTO OPERATION DESERT ROCK AND THEIR LANDING ZONE WAS GROUND ZERO ITS UNIMAGINABLE THE TYPES OF OPERATIONS CONDUCTED DURING THESE TESTS, MEN ASSAULTED GROUND ZERO FROM THE AIR BY TANK AND TRUCK AND MARCHED STRAIGHT INTO THE HYPO CENTER ITSELF

Categories: 

• Military exercises involving the United States
• American nuclear weapons testing

2016- ATOMIC JUNK DRAW - FINALLY THE WIKIPEDIA DEFINITION OF FALLOUT SHELTER WORLD WIDE

WELL HERE IS THE FALLOUT SHELTER WIKI I HOPE IT WORKS. I AM A LITTLE MIFFED THAT ALL THE WAY IN 2016 THE FIRST PARAGRAPH AND PHOTO DESCRIBES YES A (decom) FALLOUT SHELTER  AND SIGN IN NEW YORK CITY IT NEVER ENDS, WE WILL ALWAYS BE LINKED TO ATOMIC WAR UNTIL IT FINALLY COMES. AND I REALLY THINK THE REST OF AMERICA HATES US AND WISHES WE WOULD BE THE FIRST CITY WIPED OUT VIA A NORTH KOREAN HAIL MARY MISSILE LAUNCH OR A TRUCK MOUNTED IRANIAN NUCLEAR GADGET. EVEN IF THE HATERS OF NYC GET THEIR WAY WE WILL PROBABLY SURVIVE AND THRIVE, AND ITS NOT OUR FAULT ABOUT TRUMP! HAPPY THANKSGIVING FROM NYC        

Fallout shelter

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

For the 2015 video game by Bethesda, see Fallout Shelter.

A sign pointing to an old fallout shelter in New York City.

Nuclear weapons
Background
History Warfare Winter Workers Arms race Design Testing Ethics Effects Delivery Espionage Proliferation Arsenals Terrorism Opposition
Nuclear-armed states
NPT recognized United States Russia United Kingdom France China Others India Israel (undeclared) Pakistan North Korea
v t e

A fallout shelter is an enclosed space specially designed to protect occupants from radioactive debris or fallout resulting from a nuclear explosion. Many such shelters were constructed as civil defense measures during the Cold War.
During a nuclear explosion, matter vaporized in the resulting fireball is exposed to neutrons from the explosion, absorbs them, and becomes radioactive. When this material condenses in the rain, it forms dust and light sandy materials that resembles ground pumice. The fallout emits alpha and beta particles, as well as gamma rays.
Much of this highly radioactive material falls to earth, subjecting anything within the line of sight to radiation, becoming a significant hazard. A fallout shelter is designed to allow its occupants to minimize exposure to harmful fallout until radioactivity has decayed to a safer level.

Contents

 [hide] 

• 1 History
  • 1.1 Switzerland
• 2 Details of shelter construction
  • 2.1 Shielding
  • 2.2 Climate control
  • 2.3 Locations
  • 2.4 Contents
    • 2.4.1 Kearny fallout meter
• 3 Use
• 4 Different types of radiation emitted by fallout
  • 4.1 Alpha (α)
  • 4.2 Beta (β)
  • 4.3 Gamma (γ)
• 5 Weapons versus nuclear accident fallout
• 6 Other matters and simple improvements
  • 6.1 Measures to lower the beta dose
  • 6.2 Measures to lower the gamma dose rate
• 7 Fallout shelters in popular culture
• 8 See also
• 9 Notes and references
• 10 External links

History[edit]

Idealized American fallout shelter, around 1957.

During the Cold War, many countries built fallout shelters for high-ranking government officials and crucial military facilities, such as Project Greek Island and Cheyenne Mountain nuclear bunker in the United States and Canada's Emergency Government Headquarters. Plans were made, however, to use existing buildings with sturdy below-ground-level basements as makeshift fallout shelters. These buildings were usually placarded with the yellow and black trefoil sign.
The National Emergency Alarm Repeater (NEAR) program was developed in the United States 1956 during the Cold War to supplement the existing siren warning systems and radio broadcasts in the event of a nuclear attack. The N.E.A.R. civilian alarm device was engineered and tested but the program was not viable and was terminated in 1967.^[1] In the U.S. in September 1961, under the direction of Steuart L. Pittman, the federal government started the Community Fallout Shelter Program.^[2][3] A letter from President Kennedy advising the use of fallout shelters appeared in the September 1961 issue of Life magazine.^[4]
In November 1961, in Fortune magazine, an article by Gilbert Burck appeared that outlined the plans of Nelson Rockefeller, Edward Teller, Herman Kahn, and Chet Holifield for an enormous network of concrete lined underground fallout shelters throughout the United States sufficient to shelter millions of people to serve as a refuge in case of nuclear war.^[5]
Similar projects have been undertaken in Finland, which requires all buildings with area over 600 m² to have an NBC shelter, and Norway, which requires all buildings with an area over 1000 m² to have a shelter.^[6]
The former Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries often designed their underground mass-transit and subway tunnels to serve as bomb and fallout shelters in the event of an attack.
Germany has protected shelters for 3% of its population, Austria for 30%, Finland for 70%, Sweden for 81% and Switzerland for 114%.^[7]

Switzerland[edit]

The Sonnenberg Tunnel, in Switzerland, was the world's largest civilian nuclear fallout shelter, designed to protect 20,000 civilians in the eventuality of war or disaster (civil defense function abandoned in 2006).^[7][8]

Switzerland built an extensive network of fallout shelters, not only through extra hardening of government buildings such as schools, but also through a building regulation requiring nuclear shelters in residential buildings since the 1960s (the first legal basis in this sense dates from 4 October 1963).^[8] Later, the law ensured that all residential buildings built after 1978 contained a nuclear shelter able to withstand a blast from a 12 megaton explosion at a distance of 700 metres.^[9] The Federal Law on the Protection of the Population and Civil Protection still requires nowadays that every inhabitant should have a place in a shelter close to where they live.^[7]
The Swiss authorities also maintain large communal shelters (such as the Sonnenberg Tunnel) stocked with over four months of food and fuel.^[9] The reference Nuclear War Survival Skills declared that, as of 1986, "Switzerland has the best civil defense system, one that already includes blast shelters for over 85 percent of all its citizens."^[10] As of 2006, there were about 300,000 shelters built in private homes, institutions and hospitals, as well as 5,100 public shelters for a total of 8.6 million places, a level of coverage equal to 114% of the population.^[7]
In Switzerland, most residential shelters are no longer stocked with the food and water required for prolonged habitation and a large number have been converted by the owners to other uses (e.g., wine cellars, ski rooms, gyms).^[9] But the owner still has the obligation to ensure the maintenance of the shelter.^[7]

Details of shelter construction[edit]

Concrete door of a public fallout shelter in Switzerland (2014).

Large fire door, sealing a fallout and air raid shelter inside the basement parking garage of a hotel in Germany.

Shielding[edit]

A basic fallout shelter consists of shields that reduce gamma ray exposure by a factor of 1000. The required shielding can be accomplished with 10 times the thickness of any quantity of material capable of cutting gamma ray exposure in half. Shields that reduce gamma ray intensity by 50% (1/2) include 1 cm (0.4 inch) of lead, 6 cm (2.4 inches) of concrete, 9 cm (3.6 inches) of packed earth or 150 m (500 ft) of air. When multiple thicknesses are built, the shielding multiplies. Thus, a practical fallout shield is ten halving-thicknesses of packed earth, reducing gamma rays by approximately 1024 times (2¹⁰).^[11]
Usually, an expedient purpose-built fallout shelter is a trench; with a strong roof buried by c. 1 m (3 ft) of earth. The two ends of the trench have ramps or entrances at right angles to the trench, so that gamma rays cannot enter (they can travel only in straight lines). To make the overburden waterproof (in case of rain), a plastic sheet may be buried a few inches below the surface and held down with rocks or bricks.^[12]
Blast doors are designed to absorb the shock wave of a nuclear blast, bending and then returning to their original shape.^[13]

Climate control[edit]

Dry earth is a reasonably good thermal insulator, and over several weeks of habitation, a shelter will become dangerously hot.^[14] The simplest form of effective fan to cool a shelter is a wide, heavy frame with flaps that swing in the shelter's doorway and can be swung from hinges on the ceiling. The flaps open in one direction and close in the other, pumping air. (This is a Kearny Air Pump, or KAP, named after the inventor, Cresson Kearny)
Unfiltered air is safe, since the most dangerous fallout has the consistency of sand or finely ground pumice.^[14] Such large particles are not easily ingested into the soft tissues of the body, so extensive filters are not required. Any exposure to fine dust is far less hazardous than exposure to the fallout outside the shelter. Dust fine enough to pass the entrance will probably pass through the shelter.^[14] Some shelters, however, incorporate NBC-filters for additional protection.

Locations[edit]

Effective public shelters can be the middle floors of some tall buildings or parking structures, or below ground level in most buildings with more than 10 floors. The thickness of the upper floors must form an effective shield, and the windows of the sheltered area must not view fallout-covered ground that is closer than 1.5 km (1 mi). One of Switzerland's solutions is to utilise road tunnels passing through the mountains, with some of these shelters being able to protect tens of thousands.^[15]
Fallout shelters are not always underground. Above ground buildings with walls and roofs dense enough to afford a meaningful protection factor can be used as a fallout shelter.^[16]

Contents[edit]

A battery-powered radio may be helpful to get reports of fallout patterns and clearance. However, radio and other electronic equipment may be disabled by electromagnetic pulse. For example, even at the height of the cold war, EMP protection had been completed for only 125 of the approximately 2,771 radio stations in the United States Emergency Broadcast System. Also, only 110 of 3,000 existing Emergency Operating Centers had been protected against EMP effects.^[17] The Emergency Broadcast System has since been supplanted in the United States by the Emergency Alert System.
The reference Nuclear War Survival Skills includes the following supplies in a list of "Minimum Pre-Crisis Preparations": one or more shovels, a pick, a bow-saw with an extra blade, a hammer, and 4-mil polyethylene film (also any necessary nails, wire, etc.); a homemade shelter-ventilating pump (a KAP); large containers for water; a plastic bottle of sodium hypochlorite bleach; one or two KFMs and the knowledge to operate them; at least a 2-week supply of compact, nonperishable food; an efficient portable stove; wooden matches in a waterproof container; essential containers and utensils for storing, transporting, and cooking food; a hose-vented 5-gallon can, with heavy plastic bags for liners, for use as a toilet; tampons; insect screen and fly bait; any special medications needed by family members; pure potassium iodide, a 2-oz bottle, and a medicine dropper; a first-aid kit and a tube of antibiotic ointment; long-burning candles (with small wicks) sufficient for at least 14 nights; an oil lamp; a flashlight and extra batteries; and a transistor radio with extra batteries and a metal box to protect it from electromagnetic pulse.^[18]
Inhabitants should have water on hand, 1-2 gallons per person per day. Water stored in bulk containers requires less space than water stored in smaller bottles.^[19]

Kearny fallout meter[edit]

Commercially made Geiger counters are expensive and require frequent calibration. It is possible to construct an electrometer-type radiation meter called the Kearny fallout meter, which does not require batteries or professional calibration, from properly-scaled plans with just a coffee can or pail, gypsum board, monofilament fishing line, and aluminum foil.^[20] Plans are freely available in the public domain in the reference Nuclear War Survival Skills by Cresson Kearny.^[21]

Use[edit]

Inhabitants should plan to remain sheltered for at least two weeks (with an hour out at the end of the first week – see Swiss Civil Defense guidelines (which was once part of Swiss Zivilschutz)), then work outside for gradually increasing amounts of time, to four hours a day at three weeks. The normal work is to sweep or wash fallout into shallow trenches to decontaminate the area. They should sleep in a shelter for several months. Evacuation at three weeks is recommended by official authorities.^{[citation needed]}
If available, inhabitants may take potassium iodide at the rate of 130 mg/day per adult (65 mg/day per child) as an additional measure to protect the thyroid gland from the uptake of dangerous radioactive iodine, a component of most fallout and reactor waste.^[22]

Relative abilities of three different types of ionizing radiation to penetrate solid matter.

The protection factor provided by 10 cm of concrete shielding where the source is the idealised Chernobyl fallout.[23]

The protection factor provided by 20 cm of concrete shielding where the source is the idealised Chernobyl fallout.[23]

The protection factor provided by 30 cm of concrete shielding where the source is the idealised Chernobyl fallout.[23]

Calculated relative gamma dose rates from atomic bomb and chernobyl fallout

Different types of radiation emitted by fallout[edit]

Alpha (α)[edit]

In the vast majority of accidents, and in all atomic bomb blasts, the threat due to beta and gamma emitters is greater than that posed by the alpha emitters in the fallout. Alpha particles are identical to a helium-4 nucleus (two protons and two neutrons), and travel at speeds in excess of 5% of the speed of light. Alpha particles have little penetrating power; most cannot penetrate through human skin. Avoiding direct exposure with fallout particles will prevent injury from alpha radiation.^[24]

Beta (β)[edit]

Beta radiation consists of particles (high-speed electrons) given off by some fallout. Most beta particles cannot penetrate more than about 10 feet (3 metres) of air or about  ¹⁄₈ inch (3 millimetres) of water, wood, or human body tissue; or a sheet of aluminum foil. Avoiding direct exposure with fallout particles will prevent most injuries from beta radiation.^[25]
The primary dangers associated with beta radiation are internal exposure from ingested fallout particles and beta burns from fallout particles no more than a few days old. Beta burns can result from contact with highly radioactive particles on bare skin; ordinary clothing separating fresh fallout particles from the skin can provide significant shielding.^[25]

Gamma (γ)[edit]

Gamma radiation penetrates further through matter than alpha or beta radiation. Most of the design of a typical fallout shelter is intended to protect against gamma rays. Gamma rays are better absorbed by materials with high atomic numbers and high density, although neither effect is important compared to the total mass per area in the path of the gamma ray. Thus, lead is only modestly better as a gamma shield than an equal mass of another shielding material such as aluminum, concrete, water or soil.
Some gamma radiation from fallout will penetrate into even the best shelters. However, the radiation dose received while inside a shelter can be significantly reduced with proper shielding. Ten halving thicknesses of a given material can reduce gamma exposure to less than  ¹⁄₁₀₀₀ of unshielded exposure.^[26]

Weapons versus nuclear accident fallout[edit]

The bulk of the radioactivity in nuclear accident fallout is more long-lived than that in weapons fallout. A good table of the nuclides, such as that provided by the Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute, includes the fission yields of the different nuclides. From this data it is possible to calculate the isotopic mixture in the fallout (due to fission products in bomb fallout).^{[citation needed]}

Other matters and simple improvements[edit]

While a person's home may not be a purpose-made shelter, it could be thought of as one if measures are taken to improve the degree of fallout protection.

Measures to lower the beta dose[edit]

The main threat of beta radiation exposure comes from hot particles in contact with or close to the skin of a person. Also, swallowed or inhaled hot particles could cause beta burns. As it is important to avoid bringing hot particles into the shelter, one option is to remove one's outer clothing, or follow other decontamination procedures, on entry. Fallout particles will cease to be radioactive enough to cause beta burns within a few days following a nuclear explosion. The danger of gamma radiation will persist for far longer than the threat of beta burns in areas with heavy fallout exposure.^[27]

Measures to lower the gamma dose rate[edit]

The gamma dose rate due to the contamination brought into the shelter on the clothing of a person is likely to be small (by wartime standards) compared to gamma radiation that penetrates through the walls of the shelter.^[27] The following measures can be taken to reduce the amount of gamma radiation entering the shelter:

• Roofs and gutters can be cleaned to lower the dose rate in the house.
• The top inch of soil in the area near the house can be either removed or dug up and mixed with the subsoil. This reduces the dose rate as the gamma rays have to pass through the topsoil before they can irradiate anything above.
• Nearby roads can be rinsed and washed down to remove dust and debris; the fallout would collect in the sewers and gutters for easier disposal. In Kiev after the Chernobyl accident a program of road washing was used to control the spread of radioactivity.
• Windows can be bricked up, or the sill raised to reduce the hole in the shielding formed by the wall.
• Gaps in the shielding can be blocked using containers of water. While water has a much lower density than that of lead, it is still able to shield some gamma rays.
• Earth (or other dense material) can be heaped up against the exposed walls of the building; this forces the gamma rays to pass through a thicker layer of shielding before entering the house.
• Nearby trees can be removed to reduce the dose due to fallout which is on the branches and leaves. It has been suggested by the US government that a fallout shelter should not be dug close to trees for this reason.^[28]

Fallout shelters in popular culture[edit]

Fallout shelter sign of the United States.

The international distinctive sign of civil defense personnel and infrastructures.

Fallout shelters feature prominently in the Robert A. Heinlein novel Farnham's Freehold (Heinlein built a fairly extensive shelter near his home in Colorado Springs in 1963),^[29] Pulling Through by Dean Ing, A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller and Earth by David Brin.
The Twilight Zone episode "The Shelter", from a Rod Serling script, deals with the consequences of actually using a shelter.
In the Only Fools and Horses episode "The Russians are Coming", Derek Trotter buys a lead fallout shelter, then decides to construct it in fear of an impending nuclear war caused by the Soviet Union (who were still active during the episode's creation).
In 1999 the film Blast from the Past was released. It is a romantic comedy film about a nuclear physicist, his wife, and son that enter a well-equipped, spacious fallout shelter during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. They do not emerge until 35 years later, in 1997. The film shows their reaction to contemporary society.
The Fallout series of computer games depicts the remains of human civilization after an immensely destructive global nuclear war; the United States of America had built underground vaults that were advertised to protect the population against a nuclear attack, but almost all of them were in fact meant to lure subjects for long-term human experimentation.
Fallout Shelter is a free-to-play mobile simulation video game developed by Bethesda Game Studios and published by Bethesda Softworks. Part of the Fallout series, it was released for iOS devices on June 14, 2015, and is scheduled to release for Android devices in August 2015.
Paranoia, a role-playing game, takes place in a form of fallout shelter, which has become ruled by an insane computer.
The Metro 2033 book series by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky depicts survivors' life in the subway systems below Moscow and Saint-Petersburg after a nuclear exchange between the Russian Federation and the United States of America.
Fallout shelters are often featured on the reality television show Doomsday Preppers.^[30]
The Silo series of novellas by Hugh Howey feature extensive fallout-style shelters that protect the inhabitants from an initially unknown disaster.

See also[edit]

• Abo Elementary School
• Ark Two Shelter
• Blast shelter
• Bomb shelter
• Bunker
• Bruce D. Clayton, author of Fallout Survival and Life After Doomsday
• Collective protection
• Command center
• CONELRAD
• Continuity of government
• The Greenbrier
• Vivos (underground shelter)

Nation specific:

• Central Government War Headquarters, The UKs Gov. War Headquarters at Corsham, Wiltshire.
• Diefenbunker
• HANDEL, UK's former national attack warning system

General:

• Fission product
• Retreat (survivalism)
• Sonnenberg Tunnel
• Survivalism

Publications:

• Fallout Protection
• Survival Under Atomic Attack
• Nuclear War Survival Skills

Notes and references[edit]

1. Jump up ^ "Episode 709, Story 3: N.E.A.R Device" (transcript). pbs.com. Oregon Public Broadcasting. 2009. p. 11. Retrieved October 9, 2014. 
2. Jump up ^ "Civil Defense Museum-Community Shelter Tours Main Page". civildefensemuseum.com. Retrieved September 14, 2008. 
3. Jump up ^ "FALLOUT FEVER: Civil Defense shelters dotted area cities during the Cold War – My Web Times". mywebtimes.com. Retrieved September 14, 2008. 
4. Jump up ^ DOE.gov
5. Jump up ^ Fortune magazine November 1961 Pages 112–115 et al
6. Jump up ^ "FOR 1995-03-15 nr 254: Forskrift om tilfluktsrom". Lovdata.no. Retrieved August 15, 2012. 
7. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b c d e} (French) Daniele Mariani, "À chacun son bunker", Swissinfo, 23 October 2009 (page visited on 5 August 2015).
8. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} (French) Catherine Frammery, "Dans les entrailles du Sonnenberg, monstrueux témoin de la Guerre froide", Le temps, Monday 15 August 2016 (page visited on 15 August 2015).
9. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b c} Ball, Deborah (June 25, 2011). "Swiss Renew Push for Bomb Shelters". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved December 18, 2012. 
10. Jump up ^ Kearny, Cresson H (1986). Nuclear War Survival Skills. Oak Ridge, TN: Oak Ridge National Laboratory. pp. 6–10. ISBN 0-942487-01-X. 
11. Jump up ^ "Halving-thickness for various materials". "The Compass DeRose Guide to Emergency Preparedness – Hardened Shelters". 
12. Jump up ^ Kearny, Cresson H (1986). Nuclear War Survival Skills. Oak Ridge, TN: Oak Ridge National Laboratory. pp. 37–45. ISBN 0-942487-01-X. 
13. Jump up ^ "Secret U.S. Bunkers". Lost Worlds. Episode 18. August 29, 2007. The History Channel. 
14. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b c} Kearny, Cresson H (1986). Nuclear War Survival Skills. Oak Ridge, TN: Oak Ridge National Laboratory. pp. 51–56. ISBN 0-942487-01-X. 
15. Jump up ^ Foulkes, Imogen (February 10, 2007). "Swiss still braced for nuclear war". BBC News, Switzerland. Retrieved August 15, 2012. 
16. Jump up ^ Monteyne, David. Fallout Shelter: Designing for Civil Defense in the Cold War. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 2011. Print.
17. Jump up ^ Kearny, Cresson H (1986). Nuclear War Survival Skills. Oak Ridge, TN: Oak Ridge National Laboratory. p. 24. ISBN 0-942487-01-X. 
18. Jump up ^ Kearny, Cresson H (1986). Nuclear War Survival Skills. Oak Ridge, TN: Oak Ridge National Laboratory. pp. 133–134. ISBN 0-942487-01-X. 
19. Jump up ^ Hammes, JA (1966). Fallout shelter survival research. pp. 154–159. 
20. Jump up ^ Kearny, Cresson H (1978). The KFM, A Homemade Yet Accurate and Dependable Fallout Meter (PDF). Oak Ridge, TN: Oak Ridge National Laboratory. 
21. Jump up ^ Kearny, Cresson H (1986). Nuclear War Survival Skills. Oak Ridge, TN: Oak Ridge National Laboratory. pp. 95–100. ISBN 0-942487-01-X. 
22. Jump up ^ Kearny, Cresson H (1986). Nuclear War Survival Skills. Oak Ridge, TN: Oak Ridge National Laboratory. pp. 111–117. ISBN 0-942487-01-X. 
23. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b c} Note that this image was drawn using data from the OECD report and the second edition of The Radiochemical Manual
24. Jump up ^ Kearny, Cresson H (1986). Nuclear War Survival Skills. Oak Ridge, TN: Oak Ridge National Laboratory. p. 45. ISBN 0-942487-01-X. 
25. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} Kearny, Cresson H (1986). Nuclear War Survival Skills. Oak Ridge, TN: Oak Ridge National Laboratory. p. 44. ISBN 0-942487-01-X. 
26. Jump up ^ Kearny, Cresson H (1986). Nuclear War Survival Skills. Oak Ridge, TN: Oak Ridge National Laboratory. pp. 11–20. ISBN 0-942487-01-X. 
27. ^ Jump up to: ^{a b} Kearny, Cresson H (1986). Nuclear War Survival Skills. Oak Ridge, TN: Oak Ridge National Laboratory. p. 131. ISBN 0-942487-01-X. 
28. Jump up ^ Kearny, Cresson H (1986). Nuclear War Survival Skills. Oak Ridge, TN: Oak Ridge National Laboratory. p. 39. ISBN 0-942487-01-X. 
29. Jump up ^ site: Robert A. Heinlein – Archives – PM 6/52 Article
30. Jump up ^ Shelter - Doomsday Preppers Article - National Geographic Channel

External links[edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Fallout shelters.

• History of the design of the Fallout Shelter Sign
• Fallout exposure based on size of bomb and distance from explosion. (noradshelters.com)
• Bomb Shelter Questions and Answers (www.undergroundbombshelter.com)
• Nuclear War Survival Skills app. A: Instructions for Six Expedient Fallout Shelters
• The Fallout Shelter and Expedient Protection