vintage Notice poster Instruction In Case of Nuclear Bomb attack

[David P]

vintage Notice poster Instruction In Case of Nuclear Bomb attack

[Paul]

This shows the safest place to stand in a house, during a nuclear attack.

It's possible a portion of that was in "Trinity and Beyond" documentary.

Paul

[Chris Hogg]

Sure it does! About ten miles away!

But what's the cloud of what looks like black smoke enveloping the front of the house, milliseconds before the shock wave hits (second picture, top of the RH column)? Is it the radiated heat wave igniting paint etc?

[Colin Bignell]

If you watch the videos of the tests, you can clearly see it is smoke, which rises very quickly up the front of the building as the heat wave strikes and ignites the paint on it.

[Paul]

I found that mentioned in a discussion thread.

It's the paint vaporizing when the prompt infrared hits it.

That's why you don't want to be standing on the front porch.

If you stand on the back porch, you'll live 15 seconds longer. Bonus!

*******

As for where to stand, the art of the bomb has been perfected to the point, they know the correct altitude for detonation. If you were thinking "that hill next to me will protect me", if all depends on whether it goes off at zero feet or

2000 feet above ground level.

The bombs are also of different types, and can be optimized for different properties. They won't be quite as crude as the one burning the paint off that house. They can place a tasty wrapper around the outside of the bomb.

"The neutron bomb differs from standard nuclear weapons insofar as its primary lethal effects come from the radiation damage caused by the neutrons it emits. It is also known as an enhanced-radiation weapon (ERW)."

They can make broiled chicken out of you, and keep your house...

It's all so civilized.

Paul

[newshound]

That poster is a joke, of course. There has been quite a lot of mockery of some of the advice offered in the 50's and 60's, but actually it was all valid approaches to survival at some distance. As an example of the mis-match between actual experts and the chattering classes, I recall a TV program where concerned members of the public were quizzing the military. One question was "How will I know if there is fallout", to which the officer (who might well have been present at atmospheric tests) said "You will be able to see it". At which point the questioner went apoplectic and said "Rubbish, everyone knows that radiation is invisible". But of course the soldier was right. The stuff that you can see is what you definitely need to avoid, and simple things like staying indoors and taping newspaper over the windows and sealing doors can make a big difference to the dose that you get outside the immediate blast and flash radius.

What got the unfortunate fishermen on the Lucky Dragon was the layer of white ash that settled on everything, that being pulverised coral that had been activated by the neutron irradiation.

[Bob Eager]

ISTR that one bit of advice was that buildings painted white would survive the flash better than those painted (say) black. Some demo with a shed.

One good book is 'Beneath The City Streets', by Peter Laurie,

[GB]

There are 70 million people in this country. During the middle ages, this country grew enough food for around 5 million. And, of course, yields will be far lower during a nuclear winter. And, then, there's the radiation. Do you really want to survive the flash?

[Fredxx]

I live in a more rural setting. When all the city dwellers have been incinerated I would expect there would be enough food to go round. Perhaps I ought to get some iodine tablets?

Of course UK population growth was driven by immigration until the referendum changed things back:

And because France didn't open the same floodgates had a lower population growth, and now UK population is pretty much the same as France's.

[Robin]

Yes! I have a cunning contingency plan to steal one of the many narrow boats moored these days on the Lee navigation and head for NZ. (Or rural Hertfordshire if turning it around proves too tricky.)

[Matthias Czech]

[..]

Turnig a boat around in a canal is not too tricky.

[GB]

Choose one facing the right way. Canal travel is likely to be faster than the roads.

[Fredxx]

No shit, Sherlock. That's British speak for "you can't see the irony"!

[Colin Bignell]

I suspect that, if the building is close enough for the colour to matter, even if it survives, the occupants won't.

[newshound]

My recollection is that fire will destroy timber structures well beyond the main blast damage radius, and that exposed skin will suffer third degree burns at a distance where the immediate radiation dose is a small fraction of the LD50.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Yes. IIRC the 'results' of the Hiroshima 'experiment' were that massive gamma rays incinerated most stuff pretty close by, blast took out the next level structurally, and massive burns gave way to massive radiation sickness as the levels came down, in people somewhat sheltered from light, but still close. What there were not were long term cancer issues. Very few people who survived, died later from cancer any more than would have been expected. Nor did people who moved in to the rebuilt, but never decontaminated cities, appear to suffer higher cancer rates. Certainly not anything like what the LNT hypothesis predicted.