Nuclear Defense and YOU

 

The talk of the web is about an idiot with a button. Sorry if I offend anyone with that description of Kim Jung Un but it fits. AND we have the same idiot in other countries INCLUDING the US. That being said lest spend some time on DEFENDING against Nuclear incidents

First lets get it out of the way. Faraday Cage.  In the image above there is a Tesla Coil. And a Faraday CAGE.

THIS is NOT a Faraday cage. This is someone with WAY to much time and aluminium foil on hand!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Faraday boxes

A cheap effective one is a foam cooler and you wrap your electronics in mylar wrap. If you do not have mylar wrap them in bubble wrap then place in a zip lock. Seal the zip lock and then wrap the bag in aluminum foil. Use at least 1-2 layers. Place the items in a foam ice chest. Seal it with aluminum duct tape. Then wrap the bag in foil. Bigger items like alternators battery chargers etc I use the packing plastic wrap that we use wrap pallets. Then wrap with foil. For the foil you have some choices. I use the Sams Club brand.

I have one box that is an old metal Coleman cooler. There is no metal on the inside the outside is metal and its sealed with metal tape. The only mods I made to it are, the lid has a silicone seal. A bead of silicone was run around the lid to seal it and the drain has a rubber stopper in it that is siliconed in.

I use the old metal trash can or metal barrel for bigger items like a laptop or more importantly battery chargers a solar panel a few car alternators bigger stuff that I am NOT going to be carrying around.

For small items like radios I use the same method to wrap them. Instead of a cooler I put Styrofoam sheets in an ammo can. Plywood works also. The important thing is that then can be no air leaks. Seal the corners with silicone sealant. Once I have all the items in it seal the top. Make sure to use the same or similar material to seal the insulating box. On mine that are plywood I silicone the plywood lid. This makes it a pain to open. But you won’t be needing into it unless the worst has happened. Also do not forget to put moisture absorbing products in the box.

I use that white crystal cat litter. Also the older clay type litter does well. Place both in a sock. The clay litter I bake at 300 degrees for about 30 minutes to drive out any moisture out. Do not put the litter in the box hot It will cause condensation of any moisture in the box or in the air in the box

Then the ammo can is sealed. Use the metal duct tape to seal the can completely. The idea is not to absorb the EMP energy but to shunt it. Also you see all sorts of articles on grounding or not grounding a Faraday box. My bigger ones are grounded to the cold water pipe in our water softener closet. The big barrel is grounded to 2 copper rods driven 4 feet into the ground in the barn. An engineer friend of mine does not ground small small items like radios and other electronics equipment, He uses use the nested Faraday cage system of alternating foil (or screen) and plastic, and doesn’t’ bother with the ground connection.

One thing. A Faraday box is not meant to “absorb” EMP energy. The idea is to deflect or shunt it away from your electronics. Yup thats not a type. I did repeat myself.  One misconception is a microwave oven. Take your cell phone. Place it in your microwave. Shut the door. DO NOT TURN ON THE MICROWAVE. Call your phone. WHOA it rings! So now imagine the microwaves that are escaping. (Really its not that bad) Now take some aluminium tape and seal the door of the microwave. On most micro waves the phone will not ring. This is the example I wanted to show on why its so important to seal all the airgaps. Photons are slippery customers

My current project is to turn my generator shed into its own Faraday box to protect my generator.

A Faraday box is not rocket science. There are dozens out there to purchase for 10s to hundreds of dollars

Did you just take my picture, or is that a thermonuclear device detonation?

Nuclear is the easiest of the the 3 to defend against. Nuclear follows very specific rules of physics where Chemical and Bio are at the whims of nature. .

The biggest thing to remember about nuclear is time and distance. The longer you are away and the further away the better.

The types of radiation.
Alpha – these are fast moving helium atoms. They have high energy,but due to their large mass, they are stopped by just a few inches of air, or a piece of paper.

Beta – these are fast moving electrons. Since electrons are might lighter than helium atoms, they are able to penetrate further, through several feet of air, or several millimeters of plastic or less of very light metals.

Gamma – these are photons, just like light, except of much higher energy,. X-Rays and gamma rays are really very similar thing, the difference is how they were produced. Depending on their energy, they can be stopped by a thin piece of aluminum foil, or they can penetrate several inches of lead,.

We are not going to get into particle  physics. IE Quarks, Barions Gluons etc. I am NOT taking a chance on rolling a SAN check!

Nuclear detonation is extremely destructive. But it is less so than an runaway reactor. The main reason is to get maximum destruction the device needs to be detonated in the air. Ground bursts do not have the same “power” Also air bursts are much cleaner. The 15KT device we used on Hiroshima And the Trinity device detonated in NM were the same. 2 years after the device We were rebuking the city with Japan. Trinity site is still to contaminated to even stand on for a long period of time. Why? The bomb was detonated at 1900 feet. Trinity was detonated at 100 feet Essentially a ground burst.

Reactors on the other hand when they melt down cause much greater contamination due to the fact they melt and then the steam build up in the contaminated reactor vessel builds to a point that it blows the reactor and scatters much more dirty contaminants than a bomb.

The final hazard is dirty bombs. This is where some group steal nuclear material from hospitals waste areas or hijacking transport and mixing that material in a regular terrorist device (ANFO for example) and detonating it in a stadium town center etc. No one knows a nuclear device has been used until people get sick from the radiation..

Treatment
The way to treat someone that has breathed in or ingested radiation, Alpha and Beta particles is to just remove them. In the early days of the nuclear age when workers were contaminated with alpha radiation. Beer. Lots of it and right now. It was first used for all alpha radiation then mainly for Tritium (ever wonder why your night sights glow? They are radioactive Tritium.

But the idea is for what’s called water turnover. So lots of beer means lots of urine. Also by adding in what’s called Prussian Blue, a dye used in the last century, It will bind with Cesium and Thallium in the digestive tract and keep them from being absorbed. Your protective mask WILL protect you from Alpha exposure. Over the years following the disasters of Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima a lot of research was done on how to rid the body of radiation. And yes beer, Prussian blue.

There is no real “Anti Radiation Pill” as seen on TV. Potassium iodide is sold to a lot of preppers but it only works on radioactive iodine. Plus KI only works for 24 hours and excessive use is dangerous.1 The gamma rays are in and out at nearly the speed of light. And they can and do cause damage but there is no true decontamination steps. Now one of t he best for Alpha and Beta internal decontamination was found to be. Zeolyte. For those unfamiliar with that name, it used to be the active ingredient in the first generation Quikclot.

It was also used by spreading on the ground to absorb ground contamination. It works by attacking the heavy metals that are part of radiation absorbing them and them letting the body eliminate them. Mixed in a dilute solution and drunk, and yes it tastes like mud, it binds with the radiometric particles and letting the body eliminate it naturally.

So you or a group has been exposed How do you “decontaminate”? Who here remembers the James Bond movie Dr. No? The scene where Sean Connery and Ursula Andress are on the island and are captured and forced into the shower and scrubbed down? 
The same procedure is used today except for one thing. Stiff brushes are no longer used. They can damage the skin and allow contamintion in to the body.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image courtesy of Eon Productions and YouTube.

 

Decontamination procedure

 

This procedure is a modification of the US Army FM 3-7 NBC Field Book Datred 1994

 

1. Gross Whole-Body Contamination

1. Begin by carefully removing all of patient’s/victim’s clothing or have patients/victims undress themselves, working from head to toe.

   1. Removal of shoes and clothing can reduce contamination by as much as 90%.

2. Place all property of each patient/victim in a single, airtight container e.g., property bag.

   1. Label property bag with

      1. Patient/victim name

      2. Date and time of collection

      3. Location of collection

      4. Radiation warning label

   2. Store property bags in secure location designated by RSO (Radiation Safety Officer) for later radiation evaluation (as necessary) and appropriate disposal.

   3. Separate property bags from one another to avoid creating high radiation areas within contamination zone, as instructed by RSO.

3. Perform  whole body radiation survey. 

   1. Mark on patient’s/victim’s skin, using waterproof felt tip marker, any areas of high level contamination found by radiation survey.

   2. Ensure that meter-to-skin distance is consistent in all surveys to minimize inter-survey errors.

   3. Record initial and all follow-up survey results for an individual patient/victim on a body diagram include name, and time and date of initial and all follow-up radiation surveys.

   4. Update body diagram after each decontamination cycle or use new body diagram for each cycle.

4. Conduct decontamination in the following order

   1. Whole body

   2. Radioactive shrapnel

   3. Open wounds

   4. Body entrance cavities: nose, mouth, ears urethra vagina rectum

   5. Localized skin decontamination starting with area of highest contamination noted on radiation body survey

5. Consider general guidance

   1. Goal of whole body external decontamination is to decrease external contamination to a level of no more than .2 times background radiation level

   2. Perform two decontamination cycles if feasible, with a whole body radiation survey after each cycle.

   3. Use tepid decontamination water.

      1. Avoid cold water which tends to close skin pores, trapping radioactive contamination. Cold water may also cause hypothermia.

      2. Avoid hot water which tends to enhance absorption of radioactive material through vasodilation and increased skin blood flow. Hot water may also cause thermal burns.

   4. Add mild soap (neutral pH) to water to emulsify and dissolve contamination.

   5. Direct contaminated waste water away from patient, rather than over the rest of the body.

   6. Stop whole body external decontamination efforts after 2 decontamination cycles and handle patient with standard precautions if the second whole body radiation survey shows:

      1. External Contamination in excess of 2 times background radiation level

      2. Additional whole body external decontamination efforts do not further reduce contamination levels by more than 10%.

   7. Consider that attempts to remove all contamination from skin may not be feasible or desirable.

      1. Some radioactivity may be trapped in outermost layer of skin (stratum corneum) and will remain until normal sloughing occurs (12-15 days).

      2. Attempts at vigorous decontamination may result in loss of normal intact skin barrier and an increased risk of internal contamination.

   8. Cover areas of residual radiation contamination with waterproof dressings/drapes in order to limit spread of contamination to other body sites, immediate environment, and others.

   9. Persistently elevated levels of external contamination after adequate decontamination efforts may also be due to internal contamination retained radioactive foreign bodies (shrapnel), contaminated wounds, or contaminated body orifices.

This is a lot to process. and a lot to do. And the chances of HAVING to do it are not not high, but are rising. Not only from NK. But from multiple sources. IE Terrorists using a dirty bomb, our aging nuclear reactors nuclear waste vehicle accidents  industrial accidents.  We can not live our lives in fear. But we can live our lives as our gods and goddesses intended. As free women and men living our lives to the fullest. And also by being prepared to face what man throws at us.