Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
and dealing with, such an event that might one day affect millions of people. This chapter starts
by introducing the three main categories of nuclear threats, followed by strategies for coping
with each of these three types of nuclear disasters. It also details specific tools, tips, and tech-
niques both for preparing to survive a nuclear event, as well as coping with the aftermath.
Radiation Basics and Types of Nuclear Threats
“
And what about our reactors? In the United States we have twenty-three reactors of the same Gen-
eral Electric design as Fukushima No. 1. We also have atomic plants built on fault lines. For example,
the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant's units 1 and 2 not far from Santa Barbara, and outside San
Clemente there's the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, which has three reactors, two of which
are still running. Environmentalists protested and bitterly opposed the opening of these plants along
the California coast in a region of regular and often violent seismic activity. But as in Japan, their con-
cerns were brushed aside with assurances that all contingencies had been taken into account.
The American fleet of 103 atomic reactors is old and rickety. But more dangerous than the old and
brittle equipment, according to Bradford, may be overconfidence among regulators and managers.
'The phrase “it can't happen here” is an invitation to disaster,' said Bradford. Mix technological ar-
rogance with the profit motive, and you get slipshod management, corner-cutting and repeated ly-
ing.
”
—Christian Parenti, “Nuclear Hubris: Could Japan's Nuclear Disaster Happen Here?”
The Na-
tion
, March 14, 2011
There are three different types of nuclear threats: (1) the detonation of a nuclear bomb, which
may be a “fission”-type of nuclear device, such as the bombs that were dropped on Nagaski
and Hiroshima, or a “fusion”-type of device that yields a much larger explosion that will flatten
an area may times the size of what would be destroyed by a fission-type explosion; (2) a nucle-
ar reactor “meltdown,” internal gas explosion, or some other event that breaches the reactor's
safety mechanisms and the structural housing that surrounds the reactor core, leaking radioact-
ive contamination into the environment; or (3) a “dirty bomb,” which is a non-nuclear type of
explosive device that has been encased in highly radioactive materials that are dispersed into
the environment when the explosive is detonated.
There are also three main types of radiation that may be given off by radioactive materials
and nuclear detonations. The first type of radiation is direct electromagnetic radiation, similar
to the sun's rays, only of a higher intensity, mostly in the form of intense heat and/or high-en-
ergy “gamma radiation” radiating directly from a nuclear detonation's fireball, and from radio-
active material dispersed by a nuclear detonation. Gamma rays are a form of electromagnetic
radiation that have enough energy to penetrate through flesh and building walls, quite similar to
