Command center

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Command_center 

 

War Room at Stevns Fortress used in Denmark during the Cold War

 

A command center (often called a war room) is any place that is used to provide centralized command for some purpose.

While frequently considered to be a military facility, these can be used in many other cases by governments or businesses. The term "war room" is also often used in politics to refer to teams of communications people who monitor and listen to the media and the public, respond to inquiries, and synthesize opinions to determine the best course of action.

If all functions of a command center are located in a single room this is often referred to as a control room. 

A command center enables an organization to function as designed, to perform day-to-day operations regardless of what is happening around it, in a manner in which no one realizes it is there but everyone knows who is in charge when there is trouble.

Conceptually, a command center is a source of leadership and guidance to ensure that service and order is maintained, rather than an information center or help desk. Its tasks are achieved by monitoring the environment and reacting to events, from the relatively harmless to a major crisis, using predefined procedures.

Types of command centers

There are many types of command centers. They include:

Data center management

Oversees the central management and operating control for the computer systems that are essential most businesses, usually housed in data centers and large computer rooms.

Business application management

Ensures applications that are critical to customers and businesses are always available and working as designed.

Civil management

Oversees the central management and control of civil operational functions. Staff members in those centers monitor the metropolitan environment to ensure the safety of people and the proper operation of critical government services, adjusting services as required and ensuring proper constant movement.

Emergency (crisis) management

Directs people, resources, and information, and controls events to avert a crisis/emergency and minimize/avoid impacts should an incident occur.

19th century War Room of the United States Navy

Types of command and control rooms and their responsibilities

• Command Center (CC or ICC)
  • Data center, computer system, incident response
• Network Operation Centers (NOC)
  • Network equipment and activity
• Tactical Operation Centers (TOC)
  • Military operations
  • Police and intelligence
• Security Operation Centers (SOC)
  • Security agencies
  • Government agencies
  • Traffic management
  • CCTV
• Emergency Operation Centers (EOC)
  • Emergency services
• Combined Operation Centers (COS)
  • Air traffic control
  • Oil and gas
  • Control rooms
  • Broadcast
• Audio Visual (AV)
  • Simulation and training
  • Medical
• Social Media Command Center
  • Monitoring, posting and responding on social media sites

Military and government

A command center is a central place for carrying out orders and for supervising tasks, also known as a headquarters, or HQ.

Common to every command center are three general activities: inputs, processes, and outputs. The inbound aspect is communications (usually intelligence and other field reports). Inbound elements are "sitreps" (situation reports of what is happening) and "progreps" (progress reports relative to a goal that has been set) from the field back to the command element.

The process aspect involves a command element that makes decisions about what should be done about the input data. In the US military, the command consists of a field – (Major to Colonel) or flag – (General) grade commissioned officer with one or more advisers. The outbound communications then delivers command decisions (i.e., operating orders) to the field elements.

Command centers should not be confused with the high-level military formation of a Command – as with any formation, Commands may be controlled from a command center, however not all formations controlled from a command centre are Commands.

Examples

Canada

During the Cold War, the Government of Canada undertook the construction of "Emergency Government Headquarters", to be used in the event of nuclear warfare or other large-scale disaster. Canada was generally allied with the United States for the duration of the war, was a founding member of NATO, allowed American cruise missiles to be tested in the far north, and flew sovereignty missions in the Arctic.

For these reasons, the country was often seen as being a potential target of the Soviets at the height of nuclear tensions in the 1960s. Extensive post-attack plans were drawn up for use in emergencies, and fallout shelters were built all across the country for use as command centres for governments of all levels, the Canadian Forces, and rescue personnel, such as fire services. 

Different levels of command centres included:

• CEGF, Central Emergency Government Facility, located in Carp, Ontario, near the National Capital Region. Designed for use by senior federal politicians and civil servants.
• REGHQ, Regional Emergency Government Headquarters, of which there were seven, spread out across the country.
• MEGHQ, Municipal Emergency Government Headquarters
• ZEGHQ, Zone Emergency Government Headquarters, built within the basements of existing buildings, generally designed to hold around 70 staff.
• RU, Relocation Unit, or CRU, Central Relocation Unit. Often bunkers built as redundant backups to REGHQs and MEGHQs were given the RU designation.

Serbia

Joint Operations Command (JOC) is the organizational unit of the Serbian Armed Forces directly subordinated to the General Staff of the Armed Forces. The main duty of the Command is to conduct operational command over the Armed Forces. The Operations Command has a flexible formation, which is expanded by the representatives of other organizational units of the General Staff, and, if there is a need, operational level commands. In peacetime, the commander of the Joint Operations Command is at the same time Deputy of Serbian Armed Forces General Staff.

United Kingdom

Constructed in 1938, the Cabinet War Rooms were used extensively by Sir Winston Churchill during the Second World War.

United States

NORAD Command Center at the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, Colorado

A Command and Control Center is a specialized type of command center operated by a government or municipal agency 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Various branches of the U.S. Military such as the U.S Coast Guard and the U.S. Navy have command and control centers.

They are also common in many large correctional facilities. A Command and Control Center operates as the agency's dispatch center, surveillance monitoring center, coordination office, and alarm monitoring center all in one.

Command and control centers are not staffed by high-level officials but rather by highly skilled technical staff. When a serious incident occurs the staff will notify the agency's higher level officials.

In service businesses

A command center enables the real-time visibility and management of an entire service operation. Similar to an air traffic control center, a command center allows organizations to view the status of global service calls, service technicians, and service parts on a single screen. In addition, customer commitments or service level agreements (SLAs) that have been made can also be programmed into the command center and monitored to ensure all are met and customers are satisfied.

A command center is well suited for industries where coordinating field service (people, equipment, parts, and tools) is critical. Some examples:

• Intel's security Command Center
• Dell's Enterprise Command Center
• NASA's Mission Control Houston Command Center for Space Shuttle and ISS

War rooms can also be used for defining strategies, or driving business intelligence efforts.

In popular culture

Model of the war room constructed for Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove.

 

The most famous war room in popular culture was the one depicted in the 1964 film Dr. Strangelove. War rooms were also seen in other films like Fail Safe and WarGames.

A command center is used as the headquarters of the Power Rangers in the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers television series.

Command centers are used in the game Command and Conquer: Generals to train Workers and Dozers, provide vision, and command special weapons.

Artificial intelligence in heavy industry

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence_in_heavy_industry 

 

The goals of AI: a learning machine that can evolve and make its own decisions.

AI-driven systems can discover patterns and trends, discover inefficiencies, and predict future outcomes based on historical trends, which ultimately enables informed decision-making. As such, they are potentially beneficial for many industries, notably heavy industry.

While the application of artificial intelligence in heavy industry is still in its early stages, applications are likely to include optimization of asset management and operational performance, as well as identifying efficiencies and decreasing downtime.

Potential benefits

AI-driven machines ensure an easier manufacturing process, along with many other benefits, at each new stage of advancement. Technology creates new potential for task automation while increasing the intelligence of human and machine interaction. Some benefits of AI include directed automation, 24/7 production, safer operational environments, and reduced operating costs.

Directed automation

AI and robots can execute actions repeatedly without any error, and design more competent production models by building automation solutions. They are also capable of eliminating human errors and delivering superior levels of quality assurance on their own.

24/7 production

While humans must work in shifts to accommodate sleep and mealtimes, robots can keep a production line running continuously. Businesses can expand their production capabilities and meet higher demands for products from global customers due to boosted production from this round-the-clock work performance.

Safer operational environment

More AI means fewer human laborers performing dangerous and strenuous work. Logically speaking, with fewer humans and more robots performing activities associated with risk, the number of workplace accidents should dramatically decrease. It also offers a great opportunity for exploration because companies do not have to risk human life.

Condensed operating costs

With AI taking over day-to-day activities, a business will have considerably lower operating costs. Rather than employing humans to work in shifts, they could simply invest in AI. The only cost incurred would be from maintenance after the machinery is purchased and commissioned.

Environmental impacts

Self-driving cars are potentially beneficial to the environment. They can be programmed to navigate the most efficient route and reduce idle time, which could result in less fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The same could be said for heavy machinery used in heavy industry. AI can accurately follow a sequence of procedures repeatedly, whereas humans are prone to occasional errors.

Additional benefits of AI

AI and industrial automation have advanced considerably over the years. There has been an evolution of many new techniques and innovations, such as advances in sensors and the increase of computing capabilities. AI helps machines gather and extract data, identify patterns, adapt to new trends through machine intelligence, learning, and speech recognition. It also helps to make quick data-driven decisions, advance process effectiveness, minimize operational costs, facilitate product development, and enable extensive scalability.

Potential negatives

High cost

Though the cost has been decreasing in the past few years, individual development expenditures can still be as high as $300,000 for basic AI. Small businesses with a low capital investment may have difficulty generating the funds necessary to leverage AI. For larger companies, the price of AI may be higher, depending on how much AI is involved in the process. Because of higher costs, the feasibility of leveraging AI becomes a challenge for many companies. Nevertheless, the cost of utilizing AI can be cheaper for companies with the advent of open-source artificial intelligence software.

Reduced employment opportunities

Job opportunities will grow with the advent of AI; however, some jobs might be lost because AI would replace them. Any job that involves repetitive tasks is at risk of being replaced. In 2017, Gartner predicted 500,000 jobs would be created because of AI, but also predicted that up to 900,000 jobs could be lost because of it. These figures stand true for jobs only within the United States.

AI decision-making

AI is only as intelligent as the individuals responsible for its initial programming. In 2014, an active shooter situation led to people calling Uber to escape the shooting and surrounding area. Instead of recognizing this as a dangerous situation, the algorithm Uber used saw a rise in demand and increased its prices. This type of situation can be dangerous in the heavy industry, where one mistake can cost lives or cause injury.

Environmental impacts

Only 20 percent of electronic waste was recycled in 2016, despite 67 nations having enacted e-waste legislation. Electronic waste is expected to reach 52.2 million tons in the year 2021. The manufacture of digital devices and other electronics goes hand-in-hand with AI development which is poised to damage the environment. In September 2015, the German car company Volkswagen witnessed an international scandal. The software in the cars falsely activated emission controls of nitrogen oxide gases (NOx gases) when they were undergoing a sample test. Once the cars were on the road, the emission controls deactivated and the NOx emissions increased up to 40 times. NOx gases are harmful because they cause significant health problems, including respiratory problems and asthma. Further studies have shown that additional emissions could cause over 1,200 premature deaths in Europe and result in $2.4 million worth of lost productivity.

AI trained to act on environmental variables might have erroneous algorithms, which can lead to potentially negative effects on the environment. Algorithms trained on biased data will produce biased results. The COMPAS judicial decision support system is one such example of biased data producing unfair outcomes. When machines develop learning and decision-making ability that is not coded by a programmer, the mistakes can be hard to trace and see. As such, the management and scrutiny of AI-based processes are essential.

Effects of AI in the manufacturing industry

Landing.ai, a startup formed by Andrew Ng, developed machine-vision tools that detect microscopic defects in products at resolutions well beyond the human vision. The machine-vision tools use a machine-learning algorithm tested on small volumes of sample images. The computer not only 'sees' the errors but processes the information and learns from what it observes.

In 2014, China, Japan, the United States, the Republic of Korea and Germany together contributed to 70 percent of the total sales volume of robots. In the automotive industry, a sector with a particularly high degree of automation, Japan had the highest density of industrial robots in the world at 1,414 per 10,000 employees.

Generative design is a new process born from artificial intelligence. Designers or engineers specify design goals (as well as material parameters, manufacturing methods, and cost constraints) into the generative design software. The software explores all potential permutations for a feasible solution and generates design alternatives. The software also uses machine learning to test and learn from each iteration to test which iterations work and which iterations fail. It is said to effectively rent 50,000 computers [in the cloud] for an hour.

Artificial intelligence has gradually become widely adopted in the modern world. AI personal assistants, like Siri or Alexa, have been around for military purposes since 2003.

Fallout shelter

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fallout_shelter 

A fallout shelter sign in the United States of America.

 

A fallout shelter is an enclosed space specially designed to protect occupants from radioactive debris or fallout resulting from a nuclear explosion. Many such shelters were constructed as civil defense measures during the Cold War. 

During a nuclear explosion, matter vaporized in the resulting fireball is exposed to neutrons from the explosion, absorbs them, and becomes radioactive. When this material condenses in the rain, it forms dust and light sandy materials that resemble ground pumice. The fallout emits alpha and beta particles, as well as gamma rays.

Much of this highly radioactive material falls to earth, subjecting anything within the line of sight to radiation, becoming a significant hazard. A fallout shelter is designed to allow its occupants to minimize exposure to harmful fallout until radioactivity has decayed to a safer level.

History

Idealized American fallout shelter, around 1957.

North America

During the Cold War, many countries built fallout shelters for high-ranking government officials and crucial military facilities, such as Project Greek Island and the Cheyenne Mountain nuclear bunker in the United States and Canada's Emergency Government Headquarters. Plans were made, however, to use existing buildings with sturdy below-ground-level basements as makeshift fallout shelters. These buildings were placarded with the orange-yellow and black trefoil sign designed by United States Army Corps of Engineers director of administrative logistics support function Robert W. Blakeley in 1961.

The National Emergency Alarm Repeater (NEAR) program was developed in the United States in 1956 during the Cold War to supplement the existing siren warning systems and radio broadcasts in the event of a nuclear attack. The NEAR civilian alarm device was engineered and tested but the program was not viable and was terminated in 1967.

In the U.S. in September 1961, under the direction of Steuart L. Pittman, the federal government started the Community Fallout Shelter Program. A letter from President Kennedy advising the use of fallout shelters appeared in the September 1961 issue of Life magazine. Over the period 1961-1963, there was a growth in home fallout shelter sales, but eventually there was a public backlash against the fallout shelter as a consumer product.

In November 1961, in Fortune magazine, an article by Gilbert Burck appeared that outlined the plans of Nelson Rockefeller, Edward Teller, Herman Kahn, and Chet Holifield for an enormous network of concrete lined underground fallout shelters throughout the United States sufficient to shelter millions of people to serve as a refuge in case of nuclear war.

The United States ended federal funding for the shelters in the 1970s. In 2017, New York City began removing the yellow signs since members of the public are unlikely to find viable food and medicine inside those rooms.

Europe

Similar projects have been undertaken in Finland, which requires all buildings with area over 600 m² to have an NBC (nuclear-biological-chemical) shelter, and Norway, which requires all buildings with an area over 1000 m² to have a shelter.

The former Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries often designed their underground mass-transit and subway tunnels to serve as bomb and fallout shelters in the event of an attack.

Germany has protected shelters for 3% of its population, Austria for 30%, Finland for 70%, Sweden for 81%, and Switzerland for 114%.

Switzerland

The Sonnenberg Tunnel, in Switzerland, was the world's largest civilian nuclear fallout shelter, designed to protect 20,000 civilians in the eventuality of war or disaster (civil defense function abandoned in 2006).

 

Switzerland built an extensive network of fallout shelters, not only through extra hardening of government buildings such as schools, but also through a building regulation requiring nuclear shelters in residential buildings since the 1960s (the first legal basis in this sense dates from 4 October 1963). Later, the law ensured that all residential buildings built after 1978 contained a nuclear shelter able to withstand a blast from a 12 megaton explosion at a distance of 700 metres. The Federal Law on the Protection of the Population and Civil Protection still requires that every inhabitant should have a place in a shelter close to where they live.

The Swiss authorities maintained large communal shelters (such as the Sonnenberg Tunnel until 2006) stocked with over four months of food and fuel. The reference Nuclear War Survival Skills declared that, as of 1986, "Switzerland has the best civil defense system, one that already includes blast shelters for over 85% of all its citizens." As of 2006, there were about 300,000 shelters built in private homes, institutions and hospitals, as well as 5,100 public shelters for a total of 8.6 million places, a level of coverage equal to 114% of the population.

In Switzerland, most residential shelters are no longer stocked with the food and water required for prolonged habitation and a large number have been converted by the owners to other uses (e.g., wine cellars, ski rooms, gyms). But the owner still has the obligation to ensure the maintenance of the shelter.

Details of shelter construction

Door of a public fallout shelter in Switzerland (2014).

 

Large fire door, sealing a fallout and air raid shelter inside the basement parking garage of a hotel in Germany.

Shielding

A basic fallout shelter consists of shields that reduce gamma ray exposure by a factor of 1000. The required shielding can be accomplished with 10 times the thickness of any quantity of material capable of cutting gamma ray exposure in half. Shields that reduce gamma ray intensity by 50% (1/2) include 1 cm (0.4 inch) of lead, 6 cm (2.4 inches) of concrete, 9 cm (3.6 inches) of packed earth or 150 m (500 ft) of air. When multiple thicknesses are built, the shielding multiplies. Thus, a practical fallout shield is ten halving-thicknesses of packed earth, reducing gamma rays by approximately 1024 times (2¹⁰).

Usually, an expedient purpose-built fallout shelter is a trench; with a strong roof buried by 1 m (3 ft) of earth. The two ends of the trench have ramps or entrances at right angles to the trench, so that gamma rays cannot enter (they can travel only in straight lines). To make the overburden waterproof (in case of rain), a plastic sheet may be buried a few inches below the surface and held down with rocks or bricks.

Blast doors are designed to absorb the shock wave of a nuclear blast, bending and then returning to their original shape.

Climate control

Dry earth is a reasonably good thermal insulator, and over several weeks of habitation, a shelter will become dangerously hot. The simplest form of effective fan to cool a shelter is a wide, heavy frame with flaps that swing in the shelter's doorway and can be swung from hinges on the ceiling. The flaps open in one direction and close in the other, pumping air. (This is a Kearny air pump, or KAP, named after the inventor, Cresson Kearny) 

Unfiltered air is safe, since the most dangerous fallout has the consistency of sand or finely ground pumice. Such large particles are not easily ingested into the soft tissues of the body, so extensive filters are not required. Any exposure to fine dust is far less hazardous than exposure to the fallout outside the shelter. Dust fine enough to pass the entrance will probably pass through the shelter. Some shelters, however, incorporate NBC-filters for additional protection.

Locations

Effective public shelters can be the middle floors of some tall buildings or parking structures, or below ground level in most buildings with more than 10 floors. The thickness of the upper floors must form an effective shield, and the windows of the sheltered area must not view fallout-covered ground that is closer than 1.5 km (1 mi). One of Switzerland's solutions is to use road tunnels passing through the mountains, with some of these shelters being able to protect tens of thousands.

Fallout shelters are not always underground. Above ground buildings with walls and roofs dense enough to afford a meaningful protection factor can be used as a fallout shelter.

Contents

A battery-powered radio may be helpful to get reports of fallout patterns and clearance. However, radio and other electronic equipment may be disabled by electromagnetic pulse. For example, even at the height of the cold war, EMP protection had been completed for only 125 of the approximately 2,771 radio stations in the United States Emergency Broadcast System. Also, only 110 of 3,000 existing Emergency Operating Centers had been protected against EMP effects. The Emergency Broadcast System has since been supplanted in the United States by the Emergency Alert System.

The reference Nuclear War Survival Skills includes the following supplies in a list of "Minimum Pre-Crisis Preparations": one or more shovels, a pick, a bow-saw with an extra blade, a hammer, and 4-mil polyethylene film (also any necessary nails, wire, etc.); a homemade shelter-ventilating pump (a KAP); large containers for water; a plastic bottle of sodium hypochlorite bleach; one or two KFMs (Kearny fallout meters) and the knowledge to operate them; at least a 2-week supply of compact, nonperishable food; an efficient portable stove; wooden matches in a waterproof container; essential containers and utensils for storing, transporting, and cooking food; a hose-vented 5-gallon can, with heavy plastic bags for liners, for use as a toilet; tampons; insect screen and fly bait; any special medications needed by family members; pure potassium iodide, a 2-oz bottle, and a medicine dropper; a first-aid kit and a tube of antibiotic ointment; long-burning candles (with small wicks) sufficient for at least 14 nights; an oil lamp; a flashlight and extra batteries; and a transistor radio with extra batteries and a metal box to protect it from electromagnetic pulse.

Inhabitants should have water on hand, 1-2 gallons per person per day. Water stored in bulk containers requires less space than water stored in smaller bottles.

Kearny fallout meter

Commercially made Geiger counters are expensive and require frequent calibration. It is possible to construct an electrometer-type radiation meter called the Kearny fallout meter, which does not require batteries or professional calibration, from properly-scaled plans with just a coffee can or pail, gypsum board, monofilament fishing line, and aluminum foil. Plans are freely available in the public domain in the reference Nuclear War Survival Skills by Cresson Kearny.

Use

Inhabitants should plan to remain sheltered for at least two weeks (with an hour out at the end of the first week – see Swiss Civil Defense guidelines), then work outside for gradually increasing amounts of time, to four hours a day at three weeks. The normal work is to sweep or wash fallout into shallow trenches to decontaminate the area. They should sleep in a shelter for several months. Evacuation at three weeks is recommended by official authorities.

If available, inhabitants may take potassium iodide at the rate of 130 mg/day per adult (65 mg/day per child) as an additional measure to protect the thyroid gland from the uptake of dangerous radioactive iodine, a component of most fallout and reactor waste.

Relative abilities of three different types of ionizing radiation to penetrate solid matter.

The protection factor provided by 10 cm of concrete shielding where the source is the idealised Chernobyl fallout.

The protection factor provided by 20 cm of concrete shielding where the source is the idealised Chernobyl fallout.

The protection factor provided by 30 cm of concrete shielding where the source is the idealised Chernobyl fallout.

Calculated relative gamma dose rates from atomic bomb and Chernobyl fallout

Different types of radiation emitted by fallout

Alpha (α)

In the vast majority of accidents, and in all atomic bomb blasts, the threat due to beta and gamma emitters is greater than that posed by the alpha emitters in the fallout. Alpha particles are identical to a helium-4 nucleus (two protons and two neutrons), and travel at speeds in excess of 5% of the speed of light. Alpha particles have little penetrating power; most cannot penetrate through human skin. Avoiding direct exposure with fallout particles will prevent injury from alpha radiation.

Beta (β)

Beta radiation consists of particles (high-speed electrons) given off by some fallout. Most beta particles cannot penetrate more than about 10 feet (3 metres) of air or about ​¹⁄₈ inch (3 millimetres) of water, wood, or human body tissue; or a sheet of aluminum foil. Avoiding direct exposure with fallout particles will prevent most injuries from beta radiation.

The primary dangers associated with beta radiation are internal exposure from ingested fallout particles and beta burns from fallout particles no more than a few days old. Beta burns can result from contact with highly radioactive particles on bare skin; ordinary clothing separating fresh fallout particles from the skin can provide significant shielding.

Gamma (γ)

Gamma radiation penetrates further through matter than alpha or beta radiation. Most of the design of a typical fallout shelter is intended to protect against gamma rays. Gamma rays are better absorbed by materials with high atomic numbers and high density, although neither effect is important compared to the total mass per area in the path of the gamma ray. Thus, lead is only modestly better as a gamma shield than an equal mass of another shielding material such as aluminum, concrete, water or soil. 

Some gamma radiation from fallout will penetrate into even the best shelters. However, the radiation dose received while inside a shelter can be significantly reduced with proper shielding. Ten halving thicknesses of a given material can reduce gamma exposure to less than ​¹⁄₁₀₀₀ of unshielded exposure.

Weapons versus nuclear accident fallout

The bulk of the radioactivity in nuclear accident fallout is more long-lived than that in weapons fallout. A good table of the nuclides, such as that provided by the Korean Atomic Energy Research Institute, includes the fission yields of the different nuclides. From this data it is possible to calculate the isotopic mixture in the fallout (due to fission products in bomb fallout).

Other matters and simple improvements

While a person's home may not be a purpose-made shelter, it could be thought of as one if measures are taken to improve the degree of fallout protection.

Measures to lower the beta dose

The main threat of beta radiation exposure comes from hot particles in contact with or close to the skin of a person. Also, swallowed or inhaled hot particles could cause beta burns. As it is important to avoid bringing hot particles into the shelter, one option is to remove one's outer clothing, or follow other decontamination procedures, on entry. Fallout particles will cease to be radioactive enough to cause beta burns within a few days following a nuclear explosion. The danger of gamma radiation will persist for far longer than the threat of beta burns in areas with heavy fallout exposure.

Measures to lower the gamma dose rate

The gamma dose rate due to the contamination brought into the shelter on the clothing of a person is likely to be small (by wartime standards) compared to gamma radiation that penetrates through the walls of the shelter. The following measures can be taken to reduce the amount of gamma radiation entering the shelter:

• Roofs and gutters can be cleaned to lower the dose rate in the house.
• The top inch of soil in the area near the house can be either removed or dug up and mixed with the subsoil. This reduces the dose rate as the gamma rays have to pass through the topsoil before they can irradiate anything above.
• Nearby roads can be rinsed and washed down to remove dust and debris; the fallout would collect in the sewers and gutters for easier disposal. In Kiev after the Chernobyl accident a program of road washing was used to control the spread of radioactivity.
• Windows can be bricked up, or the sill raised to reduce the hole in the shielding formed by the wall.
• Gaps in the shielding can be blocked using containers of water. While water has a much lower density than that of lead, it is still able to shield some gamma rays.
• Earth (or other dense material) can be heaped up against the exposed walls of the building; this forces the gamma rays to pass through a thicker layer of shielding before entering the house.
• Nearby trees can be removed to reduce the dose due to fallout which is on the branches and leaves. It has been suggested by the US government that a fallout shelter should not be dug close to trees for this reason.

Fallout shelters in popular culture

Robert W. Blakeley-designed fallout shelter sign used in the United States.

 

The international distinctive sign of civil defense personnel and infrastructures.

Fallout shelters feature prominently in the Robert A. Heinlein novel Farnham's Freehold (Heinlein built a fairly extensive shelter near his home in Colorado Springs in 1963), Pulling Through by Dean Ing, A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller and Earth by David Brin. 

The 1961 Twilight Zone episode "The Shelter", from a Rod Serling script, deals with the consequences of actually using a shelter. Another episode of the series called "One More Pallbearer" featured a fallout shelter owned by millionaire. The 1985 adaption of the series had the episode "Shelter Skelter" that featured a fallout shelter.

In the Only Fools and Horses episode "The Russians are Coming", Derek Trotter buys a lead fallout shelter, then decides to construct it in fear of an impending nuclear war caused by the Soviet Union (who were still active during the episode's creation).

In 1999 the film Blast from the Past was released. It is a romantic comedy film about a nuclear physicist, his wife, and son that enter a well-equipped, spacious fallout shelter during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. They do not emerge until 35 years later, in 1997. The film shows their reaction to contemporary society.

The Fallout series of computer games depicts the remains of human civilization after an immensely destructive global nuclear war; the United States of America had built underground vaults that were advertised to protect the population against a nuclear attack, but almost all of them were in fact meant to lure subjects for long-term human experimentation.

Paranoia, a role-playing game, takes place in a form of fallout shelter, which has become ruled by an insane computer.

The Metro 2033 book series by Russian author Dmitry Glukhovsky depicts survivors' life in the subway systems below Moscow and Saint-Petersburg after a nuclear exchange between the Russian Federation and the United States of America.

Fallout shelters are often featured on the reality television show Doomsday Preppers.

The Silo series of novellas by Hugh Howey feature extensive fallout-style shelters that protect the inhabitants from an initially unknown disaster.

The Tomorrow Man centers around a reclusive man whose main preoccupation is tending to his in-home fallout shelter and the conspiracy theory(s) that could put it to use.

Effects of nuclear explosions on human health

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_nuclear_explosions_on_human_health 

 

The medical effects of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima upon humans can be put into the four categories below, with the effects of larger thermonuclear weapons producing blast and thermal effects so large that there would be a negligible number of survivors close enough to the center of the blast who would experience prompt/acute radiation effects, which were observed after the 16 kiloton yield Hiroshima bomb, due to its relatively low yield:

• Initial stage—the first 1–9 weeks, in which are the greatest number of deaths, with 90% due to thermal injury and/or blast effects and 10% due to super-lethal radiation exposure.
• Intermediate stage—from 10–12 weeks. The deaths in this period are from ionizing radiation in the median lethal range - LD50
• Late period—lasting from 13–20 weeks. This period has some improvement in survivors' condition.
• Delayed period—from 20+ weeks. Characterized by numerous complications, mostly related to healing of thermal and mechanical injuries, and if the individual was exposed to a few hundred to a thousand Millisieverts of radiation, it is coupled with infertility, sub-fertility and blood disorders. Furthermore, ionizing radiation above a dose of around 50-100 Millisievert exposure has been shown to statistically begin increasing a person's chance of dying of cancer sometime in their lifetime over the normal unexposed rate of c. 25%, in the long term, a heightened rate of cancer, proportional to the dose received, would begin to be observed after c. 5+ years, with lesser problems such as eye cataracts and other more minor effects in other organs and tissue also being observed over the long term.

Depending on whether individuals further afield shelter in place or evacuate perpendicular to the direction of the wind, and therefore avoid contact with the fallout plume, and stay there for the days and weeks after the nuclear explosion, their exposure to fallout, and therefore their total dose, will vary. With those who do shelter in place, and or evacuate, experiencing a total dose that would be negligible in comparison to someone who just went about their life as normal.

Staying indoors until after the most hazardous fallout isotope, I-131 decays away to 0.1% of its initial quantity after ten half-lives – which is represented by 80 days in the care of I-131 case, would make the difference between likely contracting thyroid cancer or escaping completely from this substance depending on the actions of the individual.

Some scientists estimate that if there were a nuclear war resulting in 100 Hiroshima-size nuclear explosions on cities, it could cause significant loss of life in the tens of millions from long term climatic effects alone. The climatology hypothesis is that if each city firestorms, a great deal of soot could be thrown up into the atmosphere which could blanket the earth, cutting out sunlight for years on end, causing the disruption of food chains, in what is termed a nuclear winter scenario.

Blast effects — the initial stage

Immediate post-attack period

Melted and fused pieces of metal (including coins that were in people's pockets) from the Atomic bombings of Japan. The melting of metal like this occurred during the ensuing fires and firestorms, long after the bombs had exploded.

 

The main causes of death and disablement in this state are thermal burns and the failure of structures resulting from the blast effect. Injury from the pressure wave is minimal in contrast because the human body can survive up to 2 bar (30 psi) while most buildings can only withstand a 0.8 bar (12 psi) blast. Therefore, the fate of humans is closely related to the survival of the buildings around them.

Fate within certain peak overpressure

• over 0.8 bar (12 psi) - 98% dead, 2% injured
• 0.3 - 0.8 bar (5-12 psi) - 50% dead, 40% injured, 10% safe
• 0.14 - 0.3 bar (2-5 psi) - 5% dead, 45% injured, 50% safe

Types of radioactive exposure after a nuclear attack

Japanese woman (one of the Hiroshima Maidens) suffering burns from thermal radiation after the United States dropped nuclear bombs on Japan.

 

In a nuclear explosion the human body can be irradiated by at least three processes. The first, and most major, cause of burns is due to thermal radiation and not caused by ionizing radiation.

• Thermal burns from infrared heat radiation, these would be the most common burn type experienced by personnel.
• If people come in direct contact with fallout, beta burns from shallow ionizing beta radiation will be experienced, the largest particles (visible to the naked eye) in local fallout would be likely to have very high radioactivity because they would be deposited so soon after detonation; this fraction of the total fallout is called the prompt or local fallout fraction. It is likely that one such particle upon the skin would be able to cause a localized beta burn. This local fallout, termed Bikini snow after the Pacific island weapon tests, was experienced by the crew on the deck of the Lucky Dragon fishing ship following the explosion of the 15 megaton Shrimp device in the Castle Bravo event. However, these particular decay particles (beta particles) are very weakly penetrating and have a short range, requiring almost direct contact between fallout and personnel to be harmful.
• Rarer still would be personnel who experience radiation burns from highly penetrating gamma radiation. This would likely cause deep gamma penetration within the body, which would result in uniform whole body irradiation rather than only a surface burn. In cases of whole body gamma irradiation (c. 10 Gy) due to accidents involving medical product irradiators, some of the human subjects have developed injuries to their skin between the time of irradiation and death.

In the picture above, the normal clothing (a kimono) that the woman was wearing attenuated the far reaching thermal radiation; the kimono, however, would naturally have been unable to attenuate any gamma radiation, if she were close enough to the weapon to have experienced any, and it would be likely that any such penetrating radiation effect would be evenly applied to her entire body. Beta burns would likely be all over the body if there was contact with fallout after the explosion, unlike thermal burns, which are only ever on one side of the body, as heat radiation infrared naturally does not penetrate the human body. In addition, the pattern on her clothing has been burnt into the skin by the thermal radiation. This is because white fabric reflects more visible and infrared light than dark fabric. As a result, the skin underneath dark fabric is burned more than the skin covered by white clothing. 

There is also the risk of internal radiation poisoning by ingestion of fallout particles, if one is in a fallout zone.

Radiation poisoning

Radiation poisoning, also called "radiation sickness" or a "creeping dose", is a form of damage to organ tissue due to excessive exposure to ionizing radiation. The term is generally used to refer to acute problems caused by a large dosage of radiation in a short period, though this also has occurred with long-term exposure to low-level radiation. Many of the symptoms of radiation poisoning occur as ionizing radiation interferes with cell division. There are numerous lethal radiation syndromes, including prodromal syndrome, bone marrow death, central nervous system death and gastrointestinal death.

Prodromal syndrome

The “prodromal syndrome” is not a diagnosis, but the technical term used by health professionals to describe a specific group of symptoms that may precede the onset of an illness. For example, a fever is “prodromal” to measles, which means that a fever may be a risk factor for developing this illness.

Bone marrow death

Bone marrow death is caused by a dose of radiation between 2 and 10 Gray and is characterized by the part of the bone marrow that makes the blood being broken down. Therefore, production of red and white blood cells and platelets is stopped due to loss of the blood-making stem cells (4.5 Gray kills 95% of stem cells). The loss of platelets greatly increases the chance of fatal hemorrhage, while the lack of white blood cells causes infections; the fall in red blood cells is minimal, and only causes mild anemia.

The exposure to 4.5 Gray of penetrating gamma rays has many effects that occur at different times:

In 24 hours:

• vomiting
• diarrhea

These will usually abate after 6–7 days. 

Within 3–4 weeks there is a period of extreme illness.

• severe bloody diarrhea, indicating intestinal disorders causing fluid imbalance
• extensive internal bleeding
• sepsis infections

The peak incidence of acute BM death corresponds to the 30-day nadir in blood cell numbers. The number of deaths then falls progressively until it reaches 0 at 60 days after irradiation. The amount of radiation greatly affects the probability of death. For example, over the range of 2 to 6 Gray the probability of death in untreated adults goes from about 1% to 99%, but these figures are for healthy adults. Therefore, results may differ, because of the thermal and mechanical injuries and infectious conditions.

Gastrointestinal death

Gastrointestinal death is caused by a dose of radiation between 10 and 50 Gray. Whole body doses cause damage to epithelial cells lining the gastrointestinal tract and this combined with the bone marrow damage is fatal. All symptoms become increasingly severe, causing exhaustion and emaciation in a few days and death within 7–14 days from loss of water and electrolytes.

The symptoms of gastrointestinal death are:

• gastrointestinal pain
• anorexia
• nausea
• vomiting
• diarrhea

Central nervous system death

Central nervous system death is the main cause of death in 24–48 hours among those exposed to 50 Gray.  The symptoms are:

• vomiting
• nausea
• diarrhea
• drowsiness
• lethargy
• tremors
• delirium
• frequent seizures
• convulsions
• heat prostration
• coma
• respiratory failure
• death

Short-term effects (6–8 weeks)

Skin

The skin is susceptible to beta-emitting radioactive fallout. The principal site of damage is the germinal layer, and often the initial response is erythema (reddening) due to blood vessels congestion and edema. Erythema lasting more than 10 days occurs in 50% of people exposed to 5-6 Gray.

Other effects with exposure include:

• 2–3 Gray—temporary hair loss
• 7 Gray—permanent epilation occurs
• 10 Gray—itching and flaking occurs
• 10–20 Gray—weeping blistering and ulceration will occur

Lungs

The lungs are the most radiosensitive organ, and radiation pneumonitis can occur leading to pulmonary insufficiency and death (100% after exposure to 50 Gray of radiation), in a few months.

Radiation pneumonitis is characterized by:

• Loss of epithelial cells
• Edema
• Inflammation
• Occlusions of airways, air sacs and blood vessels
• Fibrosis

Ovaries

A single dose of 1–2 Gray will cause temporary damage and suppress menstruation for periods up to 3 years; a dose of 4 Gray will cause permanent sterility.

Testicles

A dose of 0.1 Gray will cause low sperm counts for up to a year; 2.5 Gray will cause sterility for 2 to 3 years or more. 4 Gray will cause permanent sterility.

Long-term effects

Cataract induction

The timespan for developing this symptom ranges from 6 months to 30 years to develop but the median time for developing them is 2–3 years.

• 2 Gray of gamma rays cause opacities in a few percent
• 6-7 Gray can seriously impair vision and cause cataracts

Cancer induction

Cancer induction is the most significant long-term risk of exposure to a nuclear bomb. Approximately 1 out of every 80 people exposed to 1 Gray will die from cancer, in addition to the normal rate of 20 out of 80. About 1 in 40 people will get cancer, in addition to the typical rates of 16-20 out of 40. Different types of cancer take different times for them to appear:

• 2 years for leukemia to appear
• 20 or more years for skin cancer or lung cancer

In utero effects on human development

A 1 Gy dose of radiation will cause between 0 and 20 extra cases of perinatal mortality, per 1,000 births and 0-20 cases per 1000 births of severe mental sub-normality. A 0.05 Gy dose will increase death due to cancer 10 fold, from the normal 0.5 per 1000 birth rate to a rate of 5 per 1,000. An antenatal dose of 1 Gy in the first trimester causes the lifetime risk of fatal cancer sometime in the child's life to increase from c. 25% in non-exposed humans to 100% in the first trimester after exposure.

Transgenerational genetic damage

Exposure to even relatively low doses of radiation generates genetic damage in the progeny of irradiated rodents. This damage can accumulate over several generations. No statistically demonstrable increase of congenital malformations was found among the later conceived children born to survivors of the Nuclear weapons at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The surviving women of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, that could conceive, who were exposed to substantial amounts of radiation, went on and had children with no higher incidence of abnormalities than the Japanese average.

Infectious diseases resulting from nuclear attack

It was assumed in the 1983 book Medical Consequences of Radiation Following a Global Nuclear War that, although not caused by radiation, one of the long-term effects of a nuclear war would be a massive increase in infectious diseases caused by fecal matter contaminated water from untreated sewage, crowded living conditions, poor standard of living, and lack of vaccines in the aftermath of a nuclear war, with the following list of diseases being cited:

• Dysentery
• Typhoid
• Infectious hepatitis
• Salmonellosis
• Cholera
• Meningococcal meningitis
• Tuberculosis
• Diphtheria
• Whooping cough
• Polio
• Pneumonia

However although what the authors describe are conditions already prevalent in many of the world's city slums, it is inconceivable why people would try to remain living in crowded conditions by reverting to slum lifestyles, during or after a nuclear war. As many cities would already be destroyed, with urban life, slum or otherwise, this would serve no benefit to inhabitants.

There would be billions of disease carrying vectors, in the form of city residents, lying deceased in cities caused by the direct nuclear weapons effects alone, with the surviving few billion people spread out in rural communities living agrarian lifestyles, with the survivors therefore posing a way of living far less prone to creating the crowded slum living conditions required for infectious diseases to spread. Moreover, as reported in a paper published in the journal Public Health Reports, it is also one of a number of prevalent myths that infectious diseases always occur after a disaster in cities.

Epidemics seldom occur after a disaster, and dead bodies do not lead to catastrophic outbreaks of infectious diseases. Intuitively, epidemic diseases, illnesses, and injuries might be expected following major disasters. However, as noted by de Goyet, epidemics seldom occur after disasters, and unless deaths are caused by one of a small number of infectious diseases such as smallpox, typhus, or plague, exposure to dead bodies does not cause disease ... Cholera and typhoid seldom pose a major health threat after disasters unless they are already endemic.