Reasonable Rascal
06-07-02, 18:20
The following article is used with permission from the author, Shane Connor. Shane is the author of the Potassium Iodide Anti-Radiation Pill FAQ. This version of the article has been slightly edited for length. The full version may be found at: http://www.ki4u.com/transpacific.htm
Trans-Pacific Fallout
Fallout here from nuke use in Pakistan, India, Mid-East, Korea, Taiwan, China, Russia, etc.
If nukes are ever used by any of the warring participants over there, we could soon be in deep trouble over here, too, * even if * in the unlikely event we had managed somehow not to get involved and it all ended as quick as it began.
Few realize that shortly after any nuclear detonation anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere, we in the USA could be having their spent nukes radioactive fallout raining down on us here, too. Especially of concern, according to health physicists, will be plenty of thyroid contaminating radioactive iodine. All courtesy of the prevailing westerly trade winds blowing their nuclear fallout onto our shores a few days after any of them trade nuclear blasts with any of their neighbors.
The Nuclear War Survival Skills book (by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 1979, a Facility of the U.S. Department of Energy, Updated and Expanded 1987 Edition) details the above and shows where a single, and very small, above ground Chinese nuclear test explosion ("a few hundred kilotons") on December 28, 1966 resulted in the fallout cloud covering most of the United States.
Cresson H. Kearny, the author of the above book, also states about this now declassifed incident:
"It produced fallout that by January 1, 1967 resulted in the fallout cloud covering most of the United States. This one Chinese explosion produced about 15 million curies of iodine- 131 - roughly the same amount as the total release of iodine-131 into the atmosphere from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster."
"Fallout from the approximately 300 kiloton Chinese test explosion shown in Fig. 1 caused milk from cows that fed on pastures near Oak Ridge, Tennessee and elsewhere to be contaminated with radioiodine, although not with enough to be hazardous to health."
"However, this milk contamination (up to 900 picocuries of radioactive iodine per liter) and the measured dose rates from the gamma rays emitted from fallout particles deposited in different parts of the United States indicate that trans-Pacific fallout from even an overseas nuclear war in which "only" two or three hundred megatons would be exploded could result in tens of thousands of unprepared Americans suffering thyroid injury."
"Perhaps the first nuclear war casualties in the United States will be caused by fallout from an overseas nuclear war in which our country is not a belligerent. As the number of nations with nuclear weapons increases - especially in the Middle East - this generally unrecognized danger to Americans will worsen."
"Trans-Pacific war fallout, carried to an America at peace by the prevailing west-to-east winds that blow around the world, could be several hundred times more dangerous to Americans than fallout from the worst possible overseas nuclear power reactor accident, and many times more dangerous than fallout from a very improbable U.S. nuclear power reactor accident as lethal as the disastrous Chernobyl accident was to Russians."
The following Declassified Fallout Map of the USA from this Chinese nuke fallout and a free on-line copy of the complete 280 page Nuclear War Survival Skills book are at the FAQ. (This book also covers and details preparations for much more than just the threat of radioiodine fallout, too.)
http://www.ki4u.com/free_book/nw151.jpg
Also, commenting on the world health effects a nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan would create, for example, Dr. Henry Kendall of the Union of Concerned Scientists said in October of 1999:
"It would be very similar to Cherynobl. But it could be on a substantially larger scale."
- Shane Connor
--------------------------------------------------
Additional comments/observations by RR
The subject of radiation fallout protection has taken on renewed urgency with the current situation between the Asian sub-continent countries of India and Pakistan. While this site is of necessity politically neutral it nevertheless behooves us to report on the effects of a potential nuclear conflict due to the far-reaching public health aspects. Fallout is by nature uncontrollable as far as dispersion and unpredictable as the early above-ground nuclear tests of the 50's, 60's and 70's showed us.
While countries such as the US, Russia and France and Great Britian undertook years ago to produce reduced radiation weapons the newer members of the nuclear club have not always been so careful and are not as skilled in their weapons production. Their weapons tend to be "dirtier", and their use would more likely involve ground bursts rather than air bursts - creating significantly greater levels of fallout - due to their less well developed delivery systems. Their weapons consist of artillery, air and sub-continental missile delivery systems.
The saving grace to this conflict - should it ever go nuclear - is that between them they likely posses no more than a total of 50 megatons effective yield amongst all their weapons, the same yield as the largest weapon ever actually tested (Russia, 1961, Tsar Bomba, half-yield test version). [Source: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists; http://www.thebulletin.org/research/qanda/bombsize.html] The downside is also the potential total yield: 3,200+ times greater than the 15-15 kiloton yield of the bomb dropped over Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945.
The two most dangerous substances likely to fall on North America are Iodine-131, Cesium-137 and Strontium-90, all of which can be ingested by food animals through grazing, and thence passed on to consumers of the meat and dairy products.
Protection against absorption of I-131 and Sr-90 consists of pre-loading the body prior to exposure in order to minimize absorption and thus allow the substances to pass through without accumulating. In the case of Sr-90, it mimics calcium in the way it is absorbed by the bones. Increased calcium intake prior to exposure, and maintaining same, *may* be effective in blocking absorption. This is, however, theoretical, based upon research conducted following the Chernobyl, Ukraine reactor explosion/fire.
Actual arrival of radioactive fallout in North America will depend strongly on prevailing wind direction and speed and precipitation between the fallout source and the North American continent. Historical evidence tells us that some *will* arrive, the only question being, how much.
Trans-Pacific Fallout
Fallout here from nuke use in Pakistan, India, Mid-East, Korea, Taiwan, China, Russia, etc.
If nukes are ever used by any of the warring participants over there, we could soon be in deep trouble over here, too, * even if * in the unlikely event we had managed somehow not to get involved and it all ended as quick as it began.
Few realize that shortly after any nuclear detonation anywhere in the Northern Hemisphere, we in the USA could be having their spent nukes radioactive fallout raining down on us here, too. Especially of concern, according to health physicists, will be plenty of thyroid contaminating radioactive iodine. All courtesy of the prevailing westerly trade winds blowing their nuclear fallout onto our shores a few days after any of them trade nuclear blasts with any of their neighbors.
The Nuclear War Survival Skills book (by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 1979, a Facility of the U.S. Department of Energy, Updated and Expanded 1987 Edition) details the above and shows where a single, and very small, above ground Chinese nuclear test explosion ("a few hundred kilotons") on December 28, 1966 resulted in the fallout cloud covering most of the United States.
Cresson H. Kearny, the author of the above book, also states about this now declassifed incident:
"It produced fallout that by January 1, 1967 resulted in the fallout cloud covering most of the United States. This one Chinese explosion produced about 15 million curies of iodine- 131 - roughly the same amount as the total release of iodine-131 into the atmosphere from the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster."
"Fallout from the approximately 300 kiloton Chinese test explosion shown in Fig. 1 caused milk from cows that fed on pastures near Oak Ridge, Tennessee and elsewhere to be contaminated with radioiodine, although not with enough to be hazardous to health."
"However, this milk contamination (up to 900 picocuries of radioactive iodine per liter) and the measured dose rates from the gamma rays emitted from fallout particles deposited in different parts of the United States indicate that trans-Pacific fallout from even an overseas nuclear war in which "only" two or three hundred megatons would be exploded could result in tens of thousands of unprepared Americans suffering thyroid injury."
"Perhaps the first nuclear war casualties in the United States will be caused by fallout from an overseas nuclear war in which our country is not a belligerent. As the number of nations with nuclear weapons increases - especially in the Middle East - this generally unrecognized danger to Americans will worsen."
"Trans-Pacific war fallout, carried to an America at peace by the prevailing west-to-east winds that blow around the world, could be several hundred times more dangerous to Americans than fallout from the worst possible overseas nuclear power reactor accident, and many times more dangerous than fallout from a very improbable U.S. nuclear power reactor accident as lethal as the disastrous Chernobyl accident was to Russians."
The following Declassified Fallout Map of the USA from this Chinese nuke fallout and a free on-line copy of the complete 280 page Nuclear War Survival Skills book are at the FAQ. (This book also covers and details preparations for much more than just the threat of radioiodine fallout, too.)
http://www.ki4u.com/free_book/nw151.jpg
Also, commenting on the world health effects a nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan would create, for example, Dr. Henry Kendall of the Union of Concerned Scientists said in October of 1999:
"It would be very similar to Cherynobl. But it could be on a substantially larger scale."
- Shane Connor
--------------------------------------------------
Additional comments/observations by RR
The subject of radiation fallout protection has taken on renewed urgency with the current situation between the Asian sub-continent countries of India and Pakistan. While this site is of necessity politically neutral it nevertheless behooves us to report on the effects of a potential nuclear conflict due to the far-reaching public health aspects. Fallout is by nature uncontrollable as far as dispersion and unpredictable as the early above-ground nuclear tests of the 50's, 60's and 70's showed us.
While countries such as the US, Russia and France and Great Britian undertook years ago to produce reduced radiation weapons the newer members of the nuclear club have not always been so careful and are not as skilled in their weapons production. Their weapons tend to be "dirtier", and their use would more likely involve ground bursts rather than air bursts - creating significantly greater levels of fallout - due to their less well developed delivery systems. Their weapons consist of artillery, air and sub-continental missile delivery systems.
The saving grace to this conflict - should it ever go nuclear - is that between them they likely posses no more than a total of 50 megatons effective yield amongst all their weapons, the same yield as the largest weapon ever actually tested (Russia, 1961, Tsar Bomba, half-yield test version). [Source: Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists; http://www.thebulletin.org/research/qanda/bombsize.html] The downside is also the potential total yield: 3,200+ times greater than the 15-15 kiloton yield of the bomb dropped over Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945.
The two most dangerous substances likely to fall on North America are Iodine-131, Cesium-137 and Strontium-90, all of which can be ingested by food animals through grazing, and thence passed on to consumers of the meat and dairy products.
Protection against absorption of I-131 and Sr-90 consists of pre-loading the body prior to exposure in order to minimize absorption and thus allow the substances to pass through without accumulating. In the case of Sr-90, it mimics calcium in the way it is absorbed by the bones. Increased calcium intake prior to exposure, and maintaining same, *may* be effective in blocking absorption. This is, however, theoretical, based upon research conducted following the Chernobyl, Ukraine reactor explosion/fire.
Actual arrival of radioactive fallout in North America will depend strongly on prevailing wind direction and speed and precipitation between the fallout source and the North American continent. Historical evidence tells us that some *will* arrive, the only question being, how much.