Nuclear preparedness

[Bmyers]

I was going to post this under the humor topic till I checked and found out it was real and NYC had released it on July 11th.

Maybe, if they had explained that they were trying to deal with the topic of a 'dirty bomb' the video might make a little more sense. Yet, the video shows destroyed buildings and the narrator states the "big one has hit".

Their advice is:

• Get inside
• Take a shower
• Watch the tv

This is what a city looked like after the 'little one' hit (compared to today's size of nukes).

NYC might have some good building codes, but I doubt that they are up to taking a 'big one'.

I know it is just a PSA, but I would expect more from the NYC ESD.

 

[mcfarmall]

You'd probably have a higher chance of survival if you keep the TV turned OFF. Worked for me over the past few years.

 

[Yooper]

I was going to post this under the humor topic till I checked and found out it was real and NYC had released it on July 11th.

Maybe, if they had explained that they were trying to deal with the topic of a 'dirty bomb' the video might make a little more sense. Yet, the video shows destroyed buildings and the narrator states the "big one has hit".

Their advice is:

• Get inside
• Take a shower
• Watch the tv

This is what a city looked like after the 'little one' hit (compared to today's size of nukes).

View attachment 83509

NYC might have some good building codes, but I doubt that they are up to taking a 'big one'.

I know it is just a PSA, but I would expect more from the NYC ESD.

I just saw somewhere that the destruction shown in that picture only took 6 grams of plutonium or uranium. Sheesh!

 

[Bmyers]

I just saw somewhere that the destruction shown in that picture only took 6 grams of plutonium or uranium. Sheesh!

Here is an article talking about the first two bombs:

Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Subsequent Weapons Testing - World Nuclear Association

Two atomic bombs made from uranium-235 and plutonium-239 were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively early in August 1945. The atmospheric testing of some 545 nuclear weapons continued up to 1963.

www.world-nuclear.org

The first two atomic bombs in 1945
The Hiroshima bomb was made from highly-enriched uranium-235. This was prepared by diffusion enrichment techniques using the very small differences in mass of the two main isotopes: U-235 (originally 0.7% in the uranium) and U-238, the majority. As UF6 , there is about a one percent difference in mass between the molecules, and this enables concentration of the less common isotope. About 64 kilograms of highly-enriched uranium was used in the bomb which had a 16 kiloton yield (i.e. it was equivalent to 16,000 tonnes of TNT). It was released over Hiroshima, Japan's seventh largest city, on 6 August 1945. Some 90% of the city was destroyed.

The 21 kiloton explosive charge for the bomb detonated over Nagasaki three days later was provided by about 6.2 kilograms of plutonium-239 (>90% Pu-239), and its preparation depended on the operation of special nuclear reactors built for the purpose. During 1942, under conditions of wartime secrecy, the first human-designed reactor* had been constructed, in a squash court at the University of Chicago. It used highly purified graphite to slow the neutrons released in fission to enable further fission. This paved the way for more substantial production reactors at Hanford. The plutonium-239 generated in these could be separated by simple chemical methods, with no need for the complexities of isotope separation.

 

[D2Cat]

I'm sure there will be a water tower standing so there is water pressure for a shower, and power plant still generating electricity and power lines uninterrupted for TV viewing. Well thought out solutions for a PSA !!

 

[Pawnee]

I think I'd just take a walk around outside for a last look. If I was in good enough condition.
Nobody wants to live in a world like that.
Maybe it's time we gave the cockroaches a shot.

 

[Fordtech86]

Supposedly this was in a NJ area mall

 

[D2Cat]

I thought we were suppose to assume the per-natal position under our desk!

 

[RBsingl]

I bought this setup a few years ago but purely as a display item to go with some of my cold war era restored radio gear. I have no desire to play nuclear survival living in an underground shelter while watching the readouts on meters reading exterior and interior radiation levels. It is a cool set dating from a different time when every well equipped Civil Defense shelter had a few of these radiation survey setups.

The second photo is a Morrow CM-1 "Conelrad" receiver I own. It was designed to be tuned to an AM broadcast station acting as a CD alert station, every area would have an assigned broadcast station on either 640 or 1240 Khz to act as the alert station. If a nuclear attack was imminent, the broadcast station would drop their carrier for 5 seconds, bring it back up for 5 seconds, drop it again for 5 seconds and then come back on with 15 seconds of 1 Khz. tone. It has two handy CD triangles on the tuning dial to mark the official CD warning station frequencies.

Dedicated Conelrad receivers like my CM-1 would sound an alert from this warning and a built in relay would also kill the power to a connected ham radio transmitter to prevent the Russians from using it as a homing signal. That last part was pretty silly because nobody would base a guidance system on homing in on a low power signal with very intermittent operation and no specific operating schedule. The CM-1 works well as a decent AM radio receiver and also simultaneously as a coffee warmer with 5 vacuum tubes operating in a very small space.

My larger Morrow Falcon receiver was intended for use as a car mounted ham radio receiver in conjunction with their matching transmitter, it has a built in additional tuner for the AM broadcast band with CD markings but no ability to turn off the transmitter automatically. I guess in a car you could hope to outrun the incoming missile tracking you

Rodger

 

[NorthwoodsLife]

I hope to be directly in the impact zone and get vaporized, or 1,000 miles away with food and ammo on hand. Radiation poisoning is a bad way to go, so I've read. But not as bad as dealing with roving armed criminals close to ground zero.
I enjoy the movie "The Book of Eli".

 

[fried1765]

I thought we were suppose to assume the per-natal position under our desk!

What you suggest is "old school stuff".
That is what we did in the 50's.
It musta worked.
We are still here.

 

[skeets]

Yup get under your desk, curl up and kiss our asses good by. They figured the burgh would be one of the first to go due to the steel mills coal mines and heavy equipment suppliers. But thats all gone now, so I dont think anyone is worried about us any more

 

[Lil Foot]

Back in olden times when I was a kid living in Cedarburg, WI, my Father built & stocked a bomb shelter.
('60-'65)
He picked a corner of the basement with two outside walls, and we filled hundreds (thousands, millions?)
of sandbags, which he used to build a 2ft+ thick set of outer walls. There was a ledge about 6-7ft up the concrete outer walls, which he used to lay one end of 4x6 "roof joists", then another layer of sandbags for a roof. He got a huge quantity of lead foil from somewhere, so the whole shelter was sheathed in lead foil.
It was maybe 8'x 18' inside, and had a floor drain with a cap on it. Door was wooden, with lead foil sheathing.

I remember shelves crammed with army rations, saltine crackers, lots of jugs & cans of water, a Geiger counter, a radio of some sort, mess kits, TP, a portable toilet, guns, ammo, gas masks.
Sleeping bags, vitamin/mineral/energy tablets, flashlights & batteries, and a small camp stove.
I remember a hand-cranked dynamo for charging batteries, and a first aid kit. (Mom was a RN.)

It was off limits to us kids, except for the "drills" we had.
My Dad used the "This is a test of the emergency broadcast system" announcements as the trigger for our drills.
It all seemed like a lot of fun to us kids at the time. ("Hey, let's build a fort!")

I remember tearing it all down, on the realtor's recommendation, before we sold the house.

Seems like such a colossal waste of time, energy, and money looking back at it from here and now.
But it was Dad trying to protect us, and it was a family bonding experience.

 

[Yooper]

Here is an article talking about the first two bombs:

Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and Subsequent Weapons Testing - World Nuclear Association

Two atomic bombs made from uranium-235 and plutonium-239 were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki respectively early in August 1945. The atmospheric testing of some 545 nuclear weapons continued up to 1963.

www.world-nuclear.org

The first two atomic bombs in 1945
The Hiroshima bomb was made from highly-enriched uranium-235. This was prepared by diffusion enrichment techniques using the very small differences in mass of the two main isotopes: U-235 (originally 0.7% in the uranium) and U-238, the majority. As UF6 , there is about a one percent difference in mass between the molecules, and this enables concentration of the less common isotope. About 64 kilograms of highly-enriched uranium was used in the bomb which had a 16 kiloton yield (i.e. it was equivalent to 16,000 tonnes of TNT). It was released over Hiroshima, Japan's seventh largest city, on 6 August 1945. Some 90% of the city was destroyed.

The 21 kiloton explosive charge for the bomb detonated over Nagasaki three days later was provided by about 6.2 kilograms of plutonium-239 (>90% Pu-239), and its preparation depended on the operation of special nuclear reactors built for the purpose. During 1942, under conditions of wartime secrecy, the first human-designed reactor* had been constructed, in a squash court at the University of Chicago. It used highly purified graphite to slow the neutrons released in fission to enable further fission. This paved the way for more substantial production reactors at Hanford. The plutonium-239 generated in these could be separated by simple chemical methods, with no need for the complexities of isotope separation.

Yup. No doubt about it! I need hearing aids. Thanks for posting!

 

[radas]

Higher chance of survival if they weren't living in a congested city that would be completely gridlocked during/immediately before a national emergency situation.

 

[Borane4]

Since they cannot flog COVID fear anymore, they need a new threat to keep the population uneasy and dependent. The tell is the instruction to "Follow Media"

 

[skeets]

I wonder if maybe I should clean out the root cellar?

 

[Fordtech86]

I thought we were suppose to assume the per-natal position under our desk!

Duck and cover - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[GrumpyFarmer]

I think it all depends on the lenses that you look thru…different people have lived thru different things…for anyone who has seen the devastation, (ever been to the dome across the pond and the memorials? That was is a very different feeling that what you get at a Gettysburg…no one that I am aware recreates nucs for a hobby) It was hell truly truly hell on earth) after the fact, I can’t even imagine being the recipient of that in the moment…however the OP hit nail on the head, (I suspect the clowns that recommend go inside are same ones that don’t realize a mask is a screen door in a submarine) there is no hope for anything in its landing zone. I can only imagine the new tech/toys the govts have today compared to the pic would make the what’s happened previous seem like a hand job from an angel. Say a prayer for those you loved and lost and make peace with with whom ever and whatever you believe and love. Or don’t. Either way going inside isnt going to help much.

 

[PoTreeBoy]

I think it all depends on the lenses that you look thru…different people have lived thru different things…for anyone who has seen the devastation, (ever been to the dome across the pond and the memorials? That was is a very different feeling that what you get at a Gettysburg…no one that I am aware recreates nucs for a hobby) It was hell truly truly hell on earth) after the fact, I can’t even imagine being the recipient of that in the moment…however the OP hit nail on the head, (I suspect the clowns that recommend go inside are same ones that don’t realize a mask is a screen door in a submarine) there is no hope for anything in its landing zone. I can only imagine the new tech/toys the govts have today compared to the pic would make the what’s happened previous seem like a hand job from an angel. Say a prayer for those you loved and lost and make peace with with whom ever and whatever you believe and love. Or don’t. Either way going inside isnt going to help much.

I agree with most of your post. However, your Gettysburg comparison struck a nerve. We read about Gettysburg in school, of course, but until I visited there at about age 30 it was just old news. Once I got past the chintzy shops in town and out on the actual ground, it hit me like a brick. Picturing hundreds of men with muskets charging into cannons loaded with the equivalent of shot . . . And the aftermath, wounded men lying untended for hours, days afterward. . . And the people charged with cleaning up later . . .

Yes, they didn't have nuclear weapons and fewer people were involved, but it was the great disaster of the time.

BTW, when I was young, I read a book in the church library about 5 or 9 ( can't remember) people who survived Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I think that was the title of the book. These people were in Hiroshima for the first bomb, then got to Nagasaki just in time for the second! And lived - at least for a while.