TL;DR: How could one sensibly prep if they live close to an aging nuclear reactor? Thinking about getting a cheap detector for a cell phone, thoughts?
I live within a 30 mile radius of a power source that back in the '50s promised energy that would be too cheap to measure. Not only did that not happen, but the NRC just re-upped the operating license for another 20 years on this 60-year-old plant. If it's not the oldest, it's probably in the top ten. Combine that with other recent events and it's time to have a plan. What sort of plan?
Potassium Iodine?
As I understand it, this is really only good in some scenarios and that type of exposure is over in a week. I'm not sure I'd be smart enough to know when to take them, what the dosage should be, or that the government would be timely/truthful about it (I could see them not advising people to take them because they know most won't have them and they wouldn't want to start a panic - similar to their initial
masks aren't needed Covid advice so as to not cause a shortage of masks for hospital workers).
An App for that
Last week I loaded the
GammaPix app on my cell phone. This app requires you to "black" out your camera, then it counts up the white dots that represent the gamma ray hits. It's not very accurate, but studies showed for first-responders that it was good enough to let them know if they were in a hot spot. I loaded it on my phone a week ago and forgot about it. The other day I got a radiation alert telling me to move to safety.
It was obviously a light leak through my pants, but I had forgotten about the app and didn't realize it was running. But that's what got me to thinking - if there was a real emergency, what should I do?
Geiger Counters
There are a number of these and prices are all over the place. Generally, you get what you pay for. There are ~$30 devices
that plug into the earphone jack of your cell phone (video). I believe these are photodiodes, but not sure. The specs say +/- 30%, so not all that accurate, but that's probably good enough to let you know if it's dangerous. |  |
Anyway, figured first-responders and smart people might have some ideas for you what you're average Joe could do.
Update:
Link to thread summary
As a prepper and science nerd, I think I can help you.
There is absolutely NOTHING you can do about fallout from a nuclear power plant, except to run away. The fallout is permanent and will render the area uninhabitable in human time frames. On the upside, most of the fallout is also low level stuff so you're probably not going to die next week because it took you a few hours to pack up and leave the area.
Power plant fallout releases its energy slowly, but does so over stupidly long time frames measured in geological numbers. Nuclear weapon fallout is mostly very short lived and releases its energy quickly, and that's a problem because if you get caught in it and can't find immediate shelter, you're not going to survive.
As for radiation detectors.. You don't need to worry about alpha and beta, its only neutron and gamma that are of any real concern, and of those two, neutron radiation is basically unstoppable by any practical means.
To stop gamma radiation, you need mass.. Doesn't matter if the mass is lead, concrete, or pillow feathers, you need about 250 lbs per square foot between you and the source in order to provide any reasonable level of shielding, and if you plan to bee there for a while, then 350 lbs is preferable.
Gamma radiation can't be practically stopped, but it can be attenuated to such low levels as to render it inconsequential. Each material has what is known as a "Halving Thickness". What this means is that one having thickness will cut your exposure by half. So if the environment is showering you with 100 rems per hour, a single halving thickness of any given material will cut that 100 rems to 50 rems per hour. A second layer halving thickness will cut the 50 to 25, and a third will cut it from 25 to 12.5, and so on.
For fallout protection from nuclear war, FEMA's minimum requirements are PF40, which works out to roughly 5.5 halving thicknesses.
The halving thickness of Concrete is 2.4 inches, for lead it is 0.4 inches, for sand is is between 2.8 and 3 (depending on the type of sand).
So a 12 inch concrete room will cut your radiation dose by approximately 40 times. For long term protection, like a place you can't leave, you'd want a PF1000 (10 halving thickness layers)
Of course, for the low level nuclear fallout from a power plant, you don't even really need to worry about shielding, you just need to run away, preferably up-wind.
As for Geiger Counters, most of them are absolute garbage.. there are no regulations for selling these devices so there are a lot of scams out there.
If you're looking for a relatively cheap solution, you could pick up a GQ Electronics GMC-500, which is made in Oregon or Washington state I think. At least its made in the USA.
The GQ GMC-500 is accurate enough at radiation levels you're concerned with, but it fails at giving accurate readings for higher levels. Of course, if you encounter higher levels, you need to get out of there anyhow so it really doesn't matter. The GMC-500 is about $175 and I just got done testing one of them. Nice little unit, takes an 18650 replaceable battery and runs for a very long time on it.. like a week or more.. It has an upper limit of just 42 mSv (42,000 uSv.), but if you see anything even approaching 100 uSv, you need to get the heck out of there.. Take a couple hours, pack up everything you can carry and either find shelter or leave the area.
If you want a quality Geiger counter, you need to spend at least $500... and preferably about $800. But these kinds of meters are designed to be accurate at both high level and low level radiation.. and if you're concern is just "run or stay", then anything that's relatively accurate at low levels will work.
If you're 30 miles away from the plant, the next thing to do is to assess your statistical probability of being in a relatively high fallout area under a worst-case scenario. If you're normally upwind, then your probability drops considerably.
It would be a good idea to create an evacuation plan for your family.. one that assumes you can never return. Figure out what things you have that are important or highly valuable, and make a list so you don't forget them. If there's a serious accident at the plant, you will have time to pack up a trailer or the pickup truck. Even under the worst case, being 30 miles away means you're most likely going to have several hours before you get any dose you need to be concerned about. Knowing which way the wind is blowing at the time of the event could allow you to extend your time limits to several days. In this case, a Geiger counter will clue you in.
Like I said, it is important to understand the effects of radiation at various doses and dose rates. If the plant has an accident and your Geiger counter starts warning you that its seeing 10 uSv/hr, you don't want to get in your vehicle, panic, and race down the road at 100mph.. Take your time, pack up your valuables, and leave...
On the other hand, if the area was seeing 500 uSv/hr, the authorities might tell you to remain calm and evacuate in an orderly fashion.. in this case, you want to get into your truck and race the hell out of there as fast as you can.. and if that means leaving valuables behind, so be it..
It is important to know, and comprehend, exactly what danger you're in. Even in the case of nuclear war where the environment is producing 1000 mSv/hr (1,000,000 uSv/hr), leaving your shelter for 60 seconds to turn a valve or flip a switch, is not going to cause your life to be in danger because your dose was only for 60 seconds.. In this scenario, you'd get about the same does as a medical scan.
Hope that helps.
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