Nuclear Suburbia: Prepping For A Blast

Nuclear Suburbia

While my modus operandi has been to largely ignore the type of disaster until it actually happens, there has been concern that New York City would be a terrorist target, . . . again, with the terrorists using a dirty bomb, or an actual nuclear device if they can get one. 

Since New York City is a commutable distance away, I believe this possibility is one I need to consider.  A single nuclear blast in New York City would not result in destruction of my home, but would probably leave us with a serious fall out problem, making Uncle Paranoid, well, paranoid.

Nuclear Prepping: First things first.

The first question one will have regarding fallout is whether it is actually occurring. 

Well, is it? 

Fortunately, there are these things called Geiger counters.  You’ve probably seen them in old movies and such.  Thousands, perhaps millions, of them were produced back in the 50’s and 60’s when the country took the possibility of nuclear war seriously. 

Also fortunately, they were built to survive a nuclear war.   These things are indestructible.  They are still around.  You can get a refurbished 1960’s era Geiger counter for a modest sum.  They take D cell batteries, so pack one Geiger counter away in a 50 caliber ammo can, converted into a Faraday cage, and toss in a fresh pack of D cells, ready to be installed in the Geiger counter. 

They fit perfectly in the 50 caliber can with just enough space for some cardboard to convert the 50 caliber can into a Faraday cage. 

The model you want is model V-717.  When in use, V-717 lets you place the sensor outside, while the unit itself is inside, connected by a cable.  You can sit safely in your bunker, checking the sensor readings from outside.

Your other alternative is look in the direction of your nearest major city for one of these:

The nuclear bunker mentality

This raises an interesting point.  Bunker?  What bunker?  How am I going to build a bunker?  Will the wife react like she did with the generator, or the BOV?  Will she think it was a worthwhile purchase after the nuclear clown lands on our house?  I absolutely had to figure this one out before Murphy did.  Otherwise the New York financial district was doomed!

It turns out that radiation diminishes as it passes through material, so putting a few feet of earth, concrete, etc. between you and the radiation diminishes it to safe levels. 

What is not so obvious is that any material will diminish the radiation, albeit the denser the material the better the effect.  Water works.  Wood works, just not as good as concrete or steel.  Paper, e.g. books, are surprisingly good.

Think outside the box

There is nothing that says your bunker needs to be built as a box underground.  In addition, Peoples Republic of New Jersey houses almost always have basements.  A typical basement will put you partially underground, leaving you with the problem of protecting yourself from what is directly overhead. 

If you are on the side of a hill, the earth surrounding your basement may be higher on one side of the house vs. another, so you may also need to worry about radiation from one side.  Typically one will probably have a couple windows high on the basement walls.  Block them with whatever material is handy.  Overhead one will have a couple floors of house and an attic.

Bunker supplies

If you’ve been following my series, and following my footsteps, you have about 1,000 cu. ft. of food and a couple hundred cu. ft. of dog food, or at least plan to have it.   You have furniture and other household stuff.  You also have a whole bunch of 50 caliber cans with various stuff in them and they stack neatly. 

Ammo would be perfect, (lead and other metals) but you don’t need ammo for the recommended Peoples of Republic of New Jersey firearms,   so just pack all those ammo cans full of Geiger counters if you don’t have enough ammo.    Required additional material, with this starting point, is a few sheets of thick plywood.

How they did it in the good old days!

The Plan

My plan is for a quick and dirty shelter assembled in my basement, per the 1950’s approach.  First on the floors above the basement, move all furniture and other material against the exterior walls, especially above where you intend to create your bunker.  Now move to the basement and toss the sensor end of a V-717 out the window, and close the window.  Move stuff to the outside walls as was done on the first floor.  We are now ready in our open basement floor space to build a bunker.

I need to create walls that will support a heavy ceiling out of what is handy.  I could have actual building materials, or just arrange all those 5 gallon buckets into walls.  8 ft. x 8 ft. is a handy floor size if you are working with plywood or other standard Home Depot stuff.  I’ll make the box about 6 ft. high.  Toss a few sheets of heavy plywood on top, and then stuff onto the plywood ceiling.  I’m thinking 4 sheets of ¾” plywood in two layers atop an 8 ft. x 8 ft. space. 

That leaves me with about 2 feet of space above the box, and below the basement ceiling, in which to place as much material as I can.  If I can cover the whole box with 50 caliber cans, especially if they are full of ammo, that is going to be a pretty dense roof.  If I don’t have that many ammo cans, I can use whatever material I have, like 5 gallon water jugs  or dog food. 

Now that I have space… 

I now have a room within my basement that is covered with a lot of overhead material, both from the box and on the first floor of the house, and the only construction cost was a few sheets of plywood and some sweat equity.

I can now get into my newly constructed food bunker, along with other people and The Jersey Boys, and avoid going outside.  Duct tape on windows, etc. is also recommended.  You can do the same thing if you have a basement and a bunch of easy to rearrange material.  The denser, the better.  How many feet of white rice will protect us adequately?  If you find an answer, let me know.  I’m just going to use all I have.

OK, you are good to go…

Now you are ready for a lone nuclear strike against your nearby city.  You are not ready for nuclear winter, nor the other effects of all out nuclear war, but the lone strike against a nearly city, or an accident at the local nuclear power plant, could be survived with this plan.  However, you need to pretty much stay in your box, er, bunker, until it is safe to emerge. 

When is it safe to emerge?  What does your Geiger counter say?  If you like the Geiger counter idea, I recommend two, but not for the usual two is one and one is none idea.  If you have one with the sensor outside and another with the sensor inside, you can determine both how bad your surroundings are, and with your second Geiger Counter, keep the sensor inside to see how well your box, bunker, whatever, is working at keeping you protected.

Now you may be thinking that 20 people aren’t going to fit in a 8 ft. x 8 ft. box.  However, in this scenario I doubt all will show up, due to lack of warning and time.  If they do show up, it will be after the radiation levels are down.  If I am wrong, then I may need to build more than one box in the basement.  All I need is more “stuff”.

Anyhow, that’s my plan and I am sticking to it, at least until I can think of a better one.  

Parts of this article have appeared in a previous article which this expanded one supersedes.