I’m old enough to remember basement areas in places like high schools that had “fallout shelter” signs on them. This was the '80s and they weren’t used for that purpose, but in the 60s, they had this idea that people en masse could go to public fallout shelters and wait out the radiation. Unfortunately, they decided on rather random places (like the many-windowed stairwell at one of the buildings in my alma mater), so it wouldn’t have even work.
Also, we had one of these as a trash can in my high school auditorium. All of my high school friends (and my former drama teacher who I’m in touch with on social media) remembered it fondly when I found another one in an antique store and shared a photo of it.
They really thought everyone would just go down to the local schoolhouse basement, wait a week and everything would be back to normal.
They really thought everyone would just go down to the local schoolhouse basement, wait a week and everything would be back to normal.
I looked this up because I remembered reading that nuclear bombs don’t have an excessively long fallout, since most of the energy is designed to be released during the detonation (as opposed to an accident like Chernobyl)
Sources say minimum of 24 hours, after levels fall significantly but you should still wait for direction. Another source said 3-5 weeks. Hmm.
It’s really hard to know because the nuclear weapons we have now are far more powerful and use different materials than the only two ever used in wartime.
I’m old enough to remember basement areas in places like high schools that had “fallout shelter” signs on them. This was the '80s and they weren’t used for that purpose, but in the 60s, they had this idea that people en masse could go to public fallout shelters and wait out the radiation. Unfortunately, they decided on rather random places (like the many-windowed stairwell at one of the buildings in my alma mater), so it wouldn’t have even work.
Also, we had one of these as a trash can in my high school auditorium. All of my high school friends (and my former drama teacher who I’m in touch with on social media) remembered it fondly when I found another one in an antique store and shared a photo of it.
They really thought everyone would just go down to the local schoolhouse basement, wait a week and everything would be back to normal.
The Post Office in the town I used to live in, only 10 miles or so from downtown Boston, still has its fallout shelter sign on it.
I looked this up because I remembered reading that nuclear bombs don’t have an excessively long fallout, since most of the energy is designed to be released during the detonation (as opposed to an accident like Chernobyl)
Sources say minimum of 24 hours, after levels fall significantly but you should still wait for direction. Another source said 3-5 weeks. Hmm.
It’s really hard to know because the nuclear weapons we have now are far more powerful and use different materials than the only two ever used in wartime.
Good call, especially if the fallout is the point.