The Blast:

The blast wave travels more slowely than the heat waves. After the light flash has been observed and the heat wave has been felt, several seconds elapse before the blast wave arrives. It is like the lag between a flash of lightning and the ensuing thunderbolt. If caught in the open during a nuclear explosion, you can use this interval to find protection against the blast wave. If a person is for example 20 km’s from the point of the explosion, the blast wave would take 35 seconds to reach him.

The greatest danger in a building struck by the blast, lies in the flying pieces of glass, bricks and other objects. Up to 30 km’s from the point of the explosion, people are exposed to this type of injury. There would be few survivors within a radius of 4 km’s from the centre of the explosion. The greater the distance from the centre, the lower the percentage of people killed and injured.

The danger of a hydrogen bomb with the explosive power of 50 million tons of dynamite could do to buildings will be as follows:

• up to 6 km’s – complete destruction
• 6 to 10 km’s – irreparable damage
• 10 to 20 km’s – Major repairs would be required
• 30 km’s – Slight damage

A nuclear bomb with an explosive power of 200 Million tons of dynamite increases the approximate ranges of damage as shown above to 10, 16, 32 and 48 km’s respectively.

As the strength of buildings is not uniform, these figures are only approximate. Concrete buildings offer the most, and wooden structures, the least resistance.

Life Saving Reactions:

Stay flat on the ground.

Wounds are caused by being bodily tossed or being struck by flying and falling objects. If you are inside a building, flatten out next to an inner wall or duck under a bed or table. Avoid windows. Protect your face within your folded arms, and most important, DO NOT LOOK UP TO SEE WHAT IS COMING!

Radiation :

When an atomic bomb explodes on or near the ground, large quantities of matter like soil, rocks and bricks, melt or evaporate and are sucked up by the fireball and carried high into the sky. In its ascent the fireball also sucks up soil, rocks, bricks and other matter in their original form. All this becomes radio-active. The heavier objects later fall back to earth around the point of explosion. In the cooling, the vaporized matter forms minute particles and dust which are driven by the winds until they drift back to earth. This is called radio-active fall-out. Each particle forming the fall-out, gives off radio-activity like a miniture x-ray machine.

The radio-active fall-out can sometimes be seen, but the radio-activity which it radiates cannot be seen, felt or smelt. It is impossible to judge from below where the fall-out would settle because of the changeable winds at various levels above the earth. It may settle hundreds of km’s from the explosion site.  

A nuclear explosion causes both immediate and lingering radiation. The former is released at the time of the explosion, lasts for only a few seconds and is dangerous only in the immediate vicinity of the explosion. Radio-active fall-outs emits the lingering radiation.

The radio-activity of the fall-out diminishes rapidly after the explosion. After eight hours about 90% of the radio-activity is lost, and after 2 days 99%. After 2 weeks 99.9% of the radio-activity is spent. The remaining 0.1% could nevertheless still be dangerous if ingested or inhaled.

Injuries and treatment:

Nuclear warfare has much in common with conventional warfare in the sense that large numbers of people sustain wounds and injuries differing in no way from those sustained in conventional warfare.

These injuries would include the following:

• Suffocation from crumbled masonary
• Head injuries of varying severity
• Chest, abdominal and trunk injuries.
• Open wounds with or without bleeding
• Burns unassociated with radio-activity
• Fractures, compound and simple
• Injuries to the eyes, ears, nose and the throat.
• Shock

The injuries which nuclear explosions can cause and the recomended first aid treatment will be outlined in Part 3