New nuclear bunker.

[Potemkin Villager]

Ah yes the tritium Achilles heel!

[adam2]

The owner of the shelter is concerned not just about russian nukes, but also about terrorists, Iran, north korea and others.

And the shelter stocks can be used for other emergencies. The generators may be used to supply back up power to the house, and the food stores could be very valuable in any future shortages.

[BritDownUnder]

Chinese have megaton warheads I believe which makes it logical that they should have megaton ones pointed at them. Preferably based in Northern Australia.

That's not logical. A larger number of smaller warheads - now that they can be accurately targeted offers greater utility.

Table 1 of this paper suggests Russia tops out at 800 kT https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10. ... 21.1885869
If maintenance has been poor, tritium boosters haven't been replaced frequently enough, yield may under perform.

Yes I would have expected since China can supposedly target a moving 40 metre wide US aircraft carrier with a ballistic missile they could do with smaller ones. Maybe something to do with what message they wish to spread and fallout effect they want. If they want to destroy US cities which can be quite large 50 miles wide easily then they will need some punch. Also a bigger warhead might lead to a taller mushroom cloud and hence spread the fallout over a wider area and into the stratosphere.

[Vortex2]

The Effects Of Nuclear weapons (1977 edition)

https://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/www/effects/

[clv101]

Check out figure 9.105, this will have particular meaning if you've seen the documentary 'Murder in the Pacific' currently on iPlayer.

[BritDownUnder]

Brings it all back - the inverse cubed law and everything. I liked the chapter on the blast effects best.
We have to calculate, or at least estimate the effects of blast from electrical arcs and discharges, actually for a US company (Wabtec) on their electric mining trucks and locos. The estimated blast effect is expressed in terms of grams of TNT and a standard measure. There's a lovely document on the Homeland Security department website all about the calculations. It was the only time I got recognition of the work I did from my company normally being a bit of shirker. We made $1000 revenue per chargeable hour on that work. I love it. You can tell how strong the electrical cabinets need to be before they explode and Wabtec actually test it in Pennsylvania.

Back on topic. Rather uncanny how the radioactive fallout seemed to almost want to fall on the other atolls not the open ocean. Maybe someone knew, and - I don't know - wanted to know the effects of radioactivity on people.

[Vortex2]

Blast is short range.

However, heat flash goes for miles.

That's why many buildings such as railway track cabins had their windows bricked up.

If you keep your eyes open, you will see that the ground floor of many building are 'odd' to defend against a variety of threats.

Central London : govt building reinforced and windows removed to protect againt blast

Courts & similar buildings : sloped approaches and high windows to make them defensible against rioters.

Equipment cabins: bricked up windows to protect against thermal flash.

Supermarket main hubs : massive security ... as they hold most of the food the UK uses.

[clv101]

Do you follow Julie McDowall's podcast Atomic Hobo? It's really well done, I think you'd like it Vortex.
She has a book I'm looking forward to, Attack Warning Red out next month.

[BritDownUnder]

I think the lack of ground floor windows in government departments was due to the IRA's liking for car and truck bombs. Then they found blowing up economic targets like the City of London and shopping malls got their message across.

[adam2]

Some extra doom supplies have been stored in the shelter.
6 cases of vodka
12 cases Scotch whiskey
6 cases of gin.
6 cases of brandy.

A good supply of medicines, painkillers and vitamin supplements mainly.

12 large PV modules and a number of smaller ones. PV charge controllers.
Several large and very comprehensive electricians tool kits.
Builders tools, pickaxes, crowbars, shovels etc.

Extra copies of reference books including "Engineering in emergencies" and the "Ship captains medical guide"

Substantial extra stocks of bedding have been transferred from the house to the shelter.

[kenneal - lagger]

Wot??? No rum!!

[clv101]

Just today I finished reading Attack Warning Red by Julie McDowall (she does the excellent Atomic Hobo podcast). The book covers the civilian response to the threat of nuclear war in the UK. In the 50s response was an evolution of our WW2 experience, dig a shelter, evacuate the children to the countryside, we survived the Blitz we can survive this. But one thread running through the book was the pointlessness of defending against or preparing for nuclear war, the blitz era national defence approach would have been woefully inadequate. When, during the 1980s it was thought the UK could be on the receiving end of over 100, megaton scale warheads the official 'preparedness' rhetoric was farcical. This was also the era of the 'nice' American film 'The Day After' and the far more harrowing British film 'Threads'.

The book also notes the rapid demobilisation and decommissioning of all the warning sirens, listening posts, shelters etc at the end of the cold war. Did the threat really vanish overnight?

I suggested the state knew how pointless it all was and were very glad to use the nominal end of the cold war to quietly drop the charade. However the risk of nuclear war never really went away, and some would say it's higher now than the 1980s. At least we no longer pretend we're prepared.
Review of book here: https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/how ... s-onwards/

This week I've been asking everyone I run into over the age of 50 about their personal memories of the 1980s nuclear threat. I think there are analogues here between the fear young people in the 1980s felt about the bomb and today's young people feel about climate change. I can't imagine how society would cope if our leaders/media attempted to project the 1980s nuclear threat level onto today's society.

So what are your specific, detailed memories of living through the 1980s?

[kenneal - lagger]

We bought a piece of land about 200 metres from the cruise missile store at Greenham Common in 1982 and moved in the next year on the basis that we might as well get frazzled straight away rather than suffer from radiation sickness for a couple of weeks before succumbing.

Truth be told we didn't think about anything nuclear when we bought the land and it was only friends commenting that made us think about it. Were we bovvered? Not at all. Never gave it a thought.

[PS_RalphW]

I was a student in London in the early eighties. Having been brought up in an Mod family there was a constant low level fear of both Irish terrorism and the communist threat of nuclear war. Being in the middle of London, there was a strong student interest in the supposed secret tunnel network under the campus leading to nuclear bunkers for the great and the good, including midnight excursions into the subsurface utilities tunnels looking for them. I developed agrophobia and would wake up in the middle of the night in cold sweats convinced the quiet was the result of an emp having stopped the traffic, and waiting in fear for the blast wave to arrive. I recovered.

[Catweazle]

I was far too busy with girls and motorbikes to pay any attention to nuclear war, I don't think it bothered me at all.