A BRIEFING ON CIVIL DEFENSE

stand by on the floor five seconds stand by ready to fade up on camera two ready to kill him ready to open his mic fade up on camera two cue open his mic john foreman here today we have with us a man who has something very important to tell us how we as members of a community may protect ourselves from radioactive fallout in case of a nuclear attack fred uh you told me before about your experience now would you uh tell the audience a little bit about your background well jack i have been associated with the nuclear experiments for perhaps 10 to 15 years both in nevada and in the pacific and mostly with an eye toward the effects of nuclear experimentation on human life and other life but mainly human life and building construction with an eye toward protecting the american people from fallout and this has been my primary goal for now approaching 15 years probably uh and you brought with you today a film which will expand this idea and show us some of the things we should know about radioactive fallout right uh you've also brought with you this sign which many of us see every day on our public buildings i hope that everybody sees it on the public well perhaps you're right that many of us pass it without seeing it uh would you tell us a little bit about this sign of this meeting yes this is the uh symbol the sign from the office of civil defense which you'll find posted on uh public buildings commercial buildings generally and this identifies the fact that inside this building is a public fallout shelter and when i say public that means simply that it's a shelter that'll accommodate a relatively large group of people this shelter then will be fully stocked with all the necessary supplies and uh everything that you need to survive a fallout attack and the shell the directions will be in there to lead you to the shelter now this is only one thing jack in the the entire program there are many other facets of uh protection from fallout and i think you mentioned that i brought a film and i think if we look at that film that in more detail will expand on these things and clarify it for the right we'll see that film right after we hear the latest news it's different watching television here with people in the room at home all the time it drives me nuts i've got to have a football baby come on please a he's a nice boy but you still can't go do better than that guy okay good luck finally where have you been home at a time like this well i was your wife is having a baby sleeping man i agree this guy is cool i've been pacing before you're supposed to maybe six or seven well i see you at least brought her some flowers what happened to them yes i forgot to put them in water come on at least thank god you're here why don't you just watch television okay i have a ready light on the projector ready to fade to black news for this hour fade to black come up on the film how'd you do glad to see so many of you could make it our purpose here as you know is to find out how we members of a community may best protect ourselves against fallout radiation in the event of a nuclear attack now we have three objectives first we want to understand the threat posed by a nuclear attack and its aftermath secondly we'll see how studies conducted by the department of defense essential civil defense is to our nation's total defense program and lastly we'll look at the civil defense program in action now to begin with it may surprise you to know that radiation is something we all live with every day it's always with us like each of our millions of stars our own sun is a nuclear furnace that shoots out showers of tiny particles along with invisible rays that we call radiation in an average lifetime a person might expect to accumulate radiation equal to about 10 rankings not enough to affect his health we don't worry about these small amounts of natural background radiation to protect against higher radiation levels we must do two things keep our distance and shield ourselves for as the amounts increase so do the dangers the amount of energy generated by a nuclear explosion is enormous near the crater area there is almost total destruction from blast and heat and now large amounts of pulverized debris and molten earth are pulled up into the mushroom cloud the radioactive atoms produced in the explosion join with the particles of earth and debris the mushroom-shaped cloud forms and climbs higher it now contains billions of highly radioactive particles we call them fallout the winds of the upper altitudes blow on the cloud sending it in one or more directions some of the very light particles may remain suspended in the atmosphere for years and travel thousands of miles before landing but the heavy particles drop to the ground within 24 hours these are the most hazardous because they emit the largest amount of nuclear radiation a hundred miles from the explosion they're about the size of table salt or fine sand within an hour after a nuclear attack fallout would begin to be a serious problem in the vicinity of any ground burst within a few hours the threatened areas cover more and more of the country as prevailing winds expand the fallout in downwind patterns 24 hours 48 hours without shelter millions would face dead many people have difficulty understanding how silent invisible rays which cannot even be felt could be so damaging our bodies are made up of millions of cells they're the building blocks of our blood and tissues when radiation penetrates the body the cells are injured most of them can repair themselves if the total exposure over a period of time is not too high but if radiation continues the cells will be destroyed beyond repair we measure radiation exposure in renkins if people received more than 200 renkins within a few days many would be sick and some might require medical care 300 renkins would cause severe radiation sickness or possibly death and as we go beyond 300 the danger increases rapidly but we are not without personal weapons of defense one is distance the greater our distance from the fallout particles the less radiation exposure we receive radiation from particles 50 feet away for instance would not affect us as much as particles from a few feet away you'd receive less radiation exposure in the middle of a tall building than on the top or bottom floors because there would be more distance and physical barriers between you and the sources of radiation the fallout particles which would cover the roof and the ground around the building only an insignificant amount would get inside undamaged buildings unless windows are left open and there's a strong wind and along with distance we have the most important defense mass you