Underground Survival Shelter Design

Preparing A Family Shelter For Radioactive Fallout

The bomb just went off ...now what?

There is a big mushroom cloud over town about 30 miles away. What do you do? You could run. Ummm...maybe not. You could hunker down and wait for the fallout. Ummm...maybe not. All my life I have heard that there is no need to worry about a nuclear bomb because when the day comes you will die immediately and there is nothing you can do about it. After taking an instructor's college course in Family Planning for a Nuclear Event, I learned that much of the conventional thought on the subject was wrong. Why take a course like that? I went to college sixty miles from the Oak Ridge Nuclear Laboratory and I was in the US Army during the Cuban Crisis in the sixties. I developed an appreciation for the possibility of a nuclear event.

C-Span recently had a defense expert being interviewed about the possibility of a nuclear terrorist attack. He said that if a forty-megaton bomb were dropped on Washington, D.C. it is likely that twenty per cent of the deaths would occur immediately with the explosion. Eighty per cent of the deaths would result afterward because of (1) lack of medical care, (2) panic and disorder, (3) radioactive fallout, and (4) lack of understanding of radiation effects. The old attitude of "We are going to die anyway" is wrong because reasoned action may save lives.

Because a nuclear explosion creates a tremendous fireball, there would be 500 mph winds covering miles outward from ground zero. Those who survive will have serious burns and/or serious bodily damage from flying debris. Proper community planning can be instrumental in saving lives. The problem for the planners will be attempting to find and treat patients while deadly radiation is rapidly filling the atmosphere and endangering the first responders and the caregivers that are available.

Okay, so what do I do? The first step is to understand what you are dealing with. If you are in the blast area near the explosion (ground zero), you probably will not survive or you will be injured and/or burned so badly that there will not be sufficient medical care to keep your injuries from being fatal. The following is for those that are outside the ring of initial devastation and will have to contend with radioactive fallout.

Think of radiation as dust...dust that can kill you. Once this dust is released into the atmosphere there is a short time for you to react depending on the wind direction. Your first thought should be how you can best protect yourself and your family. You have two basic options: run away or hunker down and protect yourself the best way you can.

Running Away

The first problem you will have with running away is that human instinct will dictate that a huge volume of people will attempt to do the same thing. If you live in a heavily metropolitan area you can assume that the roads out of town will be jammed. If you saw or read about the evacuation of Houston, Texas during a recent hurricane, you know that a mass exodus by car is very, very slow and most likely will not give you enough time to escape radioactive fallout. There have been many filmed car impact tests made on the front-end, the side, and the car's rear-end. It is doubtful that there has ever been an impact test on the top of a car. The top of the car has a very thin sheet of metal above your head protecting you from radiation. It takes five inches of steel to stop radioactive gamma rays. Your car will not protect you especially if you are stalled in traffic.

How soon will you be exposed to radioactive fallout?

Wind speed direction and your distance from ground zero will affect how you need to respond to the situation. For instance, if you are forty miles north of the blast and the winds are out of the south at about 10 mph then you assume that you are in the direct path of the fallout and you can also assume that you have maybe 20-30 minutes before the fallout arrives.

How do you protect yourself?

Any attempt to stay-in-place and prepare a sheltered environment quickly requires an understanding of certain radioactive fallout characteristics. Radioactive fallout can contain three different types of radioactive rays:

ALPHA RAYS - protection can be something so minor as a piece of paper.

BETA RAYS - protection can include your clothing and other minor defense. Unprotected skin will be affected.

GAMMA RAYS - protection can be steel, lead, concrete, rock, dirt, aluminum and water. (A material's effectiveness is determined by its molecular structure not its thickness. Contrary to popular belief wood is not as effective as steel and other metals.)

There are three generally accepted defenses against radioactive fallout:

TIME - Fallout from a nuclear explosion has a surprisingly rapid deterioration of its effectiveness. Within the first 24-72 hours the fallout will lose one half of its radioactive effectiveness. The problem is that it will take another 50 years or so for the other half to die out. An all-out effort should be exerted to maximize protection during the first three days. Short departures from the shelter should occur once advised by local authorities or no earlier than 7-10 days after the event if authorities are not available. Any departure from the shelter should be for very short duration and only when needed for emergencies. Curiosity is not a good reason to leave a shelter.

SHIELDING - This can be your home or your work site. Staying indoors is generally not enough. Gamma rays are particularly effective at penetrating general residential housing or businesses and traveling for some distance. Houses with basements or businesses with underground floors are most desirable as a shelter. Regardless of the structure, remember that fallout is basically dust or powder with radioactive particles attached. It can penetrate almost any structure so one of the primary steps in defense is to cut off inside A/C fans. As an air conditioner pulls in air it will pull in air from outside through very slight openings in doors and windows that are not well sealed.

SPACE - One of the reasons that basements were mentioned above is that they not only provide shielding but they also provide space or distance from the radioactive material. If you elect to maintain your emergency shelter in a home or business you need to select a shelter location that maximizes the shielding and distance from the radioactive fallout.

How do you create a shelter?

Your first concern is protection inside your shelter against dust that is now radioactive. Duct tape can be used to provide additional sealing around exterior doors and windows to keep dust out. Again, shut off the AC fan. Select the best spot available in the building. No selection is going to be perfect but you can, with forethought, find one spot that offers more protection than others. Look for thick fireplaces, rooms built into the side of a hill, or crawl spaces under the building. Once the location is decided, a temporary shelter should be arranged. Maybe start with a large table covered with all the aluminum foil you can find. If an air mattress or waterbed mattress is available you can try to fill it with water and put it on top of the table. Remember that seventeen inches of water will shield against gamma rays. Accumulate all the steel, rock and dirt available to build a protective wall to shield your most exposed side or sides (the one with the short distance from the outside of the building and very little shielding). Plan on bedding down on a continual basis, staying low to the ground where your maximum protection is. Do not overlook any metal available (fridge, mower, tools, canned goods, metal furniture from outside, microwave, vacuum cleaner, etc.) Any metal is good.

Cover your temporary shelter with a plastic drop cloth (like you use for painting) and seal it shut with duct tape. Remember that you are creating a sterile environment that is free of radioactive dust or fallout. If someone goes out of the shelter, they are no longer sterile. They need a complete change of clothes and bathing before they enter the shelter. Cut a hole in the cloth and tape into place any available AC filter. Be prepared to create your own fans that will create a flow of air if electricity is not available. A good rule to follow in planning for any emergency is the assumption that public utilities are going to fail. Generally the last to fail are telephone and natural gas. Have electrical appliances available if electricity is available. You do not want to exit the shelter later to obtain any items.

What about sanitation?

The folks coming back from western parts of Iraq can tell you that temporary field toilets come in strange sizes and shapes. They will also tell you that each facility works but has its own set of rules. Your toilet can be a five-gallon bucket with a plastic bag inside that covers the bucket. You can remove a toilet seat from any bathroom and place it on top of the bucket. It is not fancy but it will work. Each time it is used you remove and seal the bag and put it in another sealed bag outside the shelter. If you have some large people in the shelter that are going to have difficulty maneuvering onto a five gallon bucket, you can place a heavy chair on each side to provide support as they lower themselves onto your improvised toilet. Remember to keep a plentiful stock of toilet paper and plastic bags for this or any emergency. The folks that were stranded in the coliseum in New Orleans for a week would have been very thankful if someone had thought to provide these basic supplies during their emergency situation.

It is possible, almost likely, that some or all in the shelter will get radiation sickness. Radiation sickness is the result of white blood cells being destroyed by the exposure to radiation. There will be exposure. The severity of the radiation sickness will depend on the severity and length of time of the exposure. Destruction of white blood cells destroys our immunity to infection inside and outside the body. After a day or two you may find sores breaking out on the skin. The sickness can cause vomiting and diarrhea. In a tight environment with limited facilities like a temporary shelter, the situation can be very difficult and discouraging. This is one of the reasons that your toilet facilities become critical.

What about water?

Water seems to always be a factor in any emergency. Before you go to your shelter try to gather all the water you can. You will not be able to trust your water supply after this event and boiling water does not remove radioactive fallout. Remember that some water may not be good drinking water but if it is free of radioactive fallout it could be used to wash off someone who is covered in fallout dust and wants to enter your sterile shelter. Remember you also have water stored in your hot water heaters and backside of toilets.

What about food?

Consume only sealed food. Remember the danger is radioactive dust that can get into open containers. Canned goods, frozen foods, and peeled fruit should all be edible if clear of contamination internally. Radiation will not make food radioactive if it is in a sealed can. A well-stocked shelter is critical to your well-being and ability to manage a difficult situation.

Radiation suits for all?

There is no radiation suit that will protect you from gamma rays destroying your white blood cells. It takes five inches of steel to stop the rays so it would be impossible to design a lightweight flexible suit that would be usable. The suits you see in movies are for protection against fallout so that you can shed the suit after working outside and enter a sterile environment without contaminating others. People who wear these suits still have gamma rays penetrating the suits and destroying blood cells. Exposure time and intensity of the radiation while wearing the suit should still be monitored and controlled.

What about iodine?

One of the dangers of radioactive fallout is the potential of contracting thyroid cancer, especially with young children. The thyroid requires a daily intake of 150 milligrams of iodine. This can occur from eating food, breathing, and absorption through the skin. Once the thyroid obtains the 150 milligrams it does not take in any more iodine and allows iodine to pass through the body without being retained in the system. The goal is to supply the thyroid with its daily requirement of iodine by supplying it with 150 milligrams of non-contaminated iodine. You may notice many of the daily vitamins now on sale contain this 150 milligram daily requirement.

During the Chernobyl disaster in Russia a web site recently reported that the government supplied all the children living within thirty miles of the power plant with potassium iodine tablets. None of the children living within the thirty-mile circle contracted thyroid cancer after taking the potassium iodine tablets. Twenty-eight children living 30-300 miles away from Chernobyl did not receive the potassium iodine but did contract thyroid cancer. There is an apparent controversy in the medical profession about stocking emergency supplies of potassium iodine tablets in schools and homes for children. The fear is evidently that some children will have a reaction to the pills and suffer in other ways. The decision is yours.

What do I need to bring to the shelter?

Blankets, pillows and bedding

Change of clothing for two weeks

Canned and/or sealed food

Can opener

Games and books

Five-gallon bucket and support chairs

Plastic bags

Toilet paper

Duct tape and plastic drop cloths

Air Filters

Sealed water containers (maximum available)

Battery operated radio

Flashlights

Laptops

Microwave, lamp and fan (you may have electricity)

Necessary medication

First Aid Kit (anticipate skin sores)

Towels (lots of towels)

Pans, dishes and glasses

Dish soap

Toothbrushes and paste

Outcome

No one can guarantee survival in an extensive nuclear disaster without a well-designed, expensive nuclear fallout shelter. The intent here was to arm you with information that will provide you with the ability to maximize your shelter defenses and possibly save your life. Lack of knowledge and an understanding of radioactive fallout could be the greater danger to you in case of a nuclear event.