Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Over 10,000
• Destruction of intestinal lining. Damage to the central nervous system. Death between hours and
two weeks.
(Source: Adapted from JP Laboratories “Effect of Radiation” and U.S. EPA “Radiation Protection: Health Effects”)
In the event of a nuclear catastrophe, if you are able to determine the nature of this disaster,
to some extent this will dictate what strategies and course of action should be followed. If the
disaster is related to a nuclear power plant that has breached its containment vessel, as long as
the reactor continues to release significant radioactivity into the environment, the accumulated
radioactivity downwind will continue to rise with time, and your best bet is to get out of the
downwind vicinity as soon as possible, while doing your best to prevent breathing contamin-
ated air or ingesting contaminated food and water.
Radioactive iodine tends to concentrate in the thyroid gland, often resulting in tumors in
the years following the ingestion of food or water that was contaminated by radioactive fallout.
A simple way to avoid this problem is to ingest clean iodized salt, so the body takes in uncon-
taminated iodine rather than drawing its iodine from contaminated food, though it is claimed
that there is really not enough bioavailable iodine in iodized salt to properly accomplish this
task and so a more effective prophylactic treatment is to eat sea vegetables that contain high
amounts of natural iodine, or take potassium iodide (KI) tablets. If you have planned ahead for
the possibility of a nuclear event, and have a supply of potassium iodide tablets, then you
should begin taking them as soon as you are aware that a nuclear disaster has occurred in your
vicinity.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, there was a drastic reduction in
the probability that our world might end in a conflagration of thermonuclear detonations, and
many breathed a giant sigh of relief. Unfortunately the collapse of the Soviet Union also left
thousands of nuclear devices and massive amounts of radioactive materials under the jurisdic-
tion of a variety of relatively unstable governments. These dangerous materials have at times
been guarded by people who were being paid very little, if anything, so one might assume that
there has been ample opportunity for well-funded terrorist groups to bribe the appropriate offi-
cials and purchase some of these materials. In addition to the potential for a terrorist group or
unstable government to detonate a nuclear weapon or a “dirty bomb,” due to the presence of
nuclear reactors in many parts of the world, there is always the potential for an earthquake (as
happened at the Fukushima reactors in Japan), industrial accident, act of war, or terrorist action
to breach the containment vessel of a nuclear reactor, resulting in widespread radioactive con-
tamination.
