OPERATION TEAPOT, Nevada Test Site, February-May 1955. Project 35.5. Effects of a Nuclear Explosion on Records and Records Storage Equipment

OPERATION TEAPOT, Nevada Test Site, February-May 1955. Project 35.5. Effects of a Nuclear Explosion on Records and Records Storage Equipment PDF

Author: William J. Lloyd

Publisher:

Published: 1956

Total Pages: 40

ISBN-13:

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The objectives of Project 35.5 were to determine the effects of a nuclear explosion on various types of records and records storage equipment. In Apple II shot, materials and storage equipment normally found in government, business, and archival institutions were placed at 11 different unshielded distances from Ground Zero in a zone where sever damage to surface structures was expected. Other records and equipment were placed within different type structures located (1) in a zone where severe damage was expected and (2) in a zone where little damage was expected. Of 22 units of unshielded storage equipment containing records, only six units were accessible with contents intact. The records and equipment placed within the structures were virtually undamaged. This would indicate that records housed within the type of equipment tested would survive if protected by some type of structure, except for damage resulting from debirs, fire, and water. However, the best protection was afforded by the basement (below ground level) of the structures even though the upper stories collapsed and were destroyed.

Assessing Medical Preparedness to Respond to a Terrorist Nuclear Event

Assessing Medical Preparedness to Respond to a Terrorist Nuclear Event PDF

Author: Institute of Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2009-08-19

Total Pages: 189

ISBN-13: 0309143969

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A nuclear attack on a large U.S. city by terrorists-even with a low-yield improvised nuclear device (IND) of 10 kilotons or less-would cause a large number of deaths and severe injuries. The large number of injured from the detonation and radioactive fallout that would follow would be overwhelming for local emergency response and health care systems to rescue and treat, even assuming that these systems and their personnel were not themselves incapacitated by the event. The United States has been struggling for some time to address and plan for the threat of nuclear terrorism and other weapons of mass destruction that terrorists might obtain and use. The Department of Homeland Security recently contracted with the Institute of Medicine to hold a workshop, summarized in this volume, to assess medical preparedness for a nuclear detonation of up to 10 kilotons. This book provides a candid and sobering look at our current state of preparedness for an IND, and identifies several key areas in which we might begin to focus our national efforts in a way that will improve the overall level of preparedness.