Glad you like the 7-10 rule. As a physicist, you would totally understand the relationship of how hot (decay rate) something is to its half-life. And yes, a wooden frame single dwelling structure would not cut it no matter how much duct tape and plastic was used. (well only if you wrapped the house to a depth of 40 feet or so I guess. )

It wasn’t plastic sheeting per se that I was so annoyed by, but by them tacking it on the windows and doors and saying, “Hey, we’re fine now.” As you point out, you need shelter from the gamma rays, and being above ground in a regular house won’t help you much there.

Yes, you have to shield from Gamma however, even a shelter structure with a 90-degree bend from the open end will do just fine since gamma is basically a very high-energy photon and propagates in a strait line. But you will need the sheeting to prevent the fallout from blowing into your survival space.

You also need to protect from the far lees energetic beta and alpha. Yes skin stops alpha, but if you leave it on the skin you get alpha burns. This is another reason to use sheeting to keep the stuff out of your survival space.

There are actually two things that do the trick in defense against fallout; shielding, (dirt and concrete being the most expedient) and distance (air gap). Why the center of large structures such as office buildings would make due for an emergency shelter.

Also you only need to stay in your shelter for about 2 weeks max. There is something called the 7-10 rule for fallout. Since it is so “hot” (that means the isotopes are decaying rapidly) for every seven time periods since the event radiation levels from fallout is divided by ten. E.g., one hour -> seven hours -> 49 hours -> two weeks equals roughly 1000th of the initial radiation at the first hour. This decreases fallout to unshielded survivable levels (other than hotspots) in the surrounding environment.

Side note – a really basic EMP protection device is water. Take your emergency radios, solar panels, and or other stuff you need to protect (don’t forget an extra alternator for your mechanical ignition vehicle) put them in a water tight metal “can” and sink them in 15 feet of water (a swimming pool would work in a pinch).

Sorry for the long post – its been a while since I pontificated on this stuff.

Alpha particles are the most dangerous, but penetrate poorly. Gamma rays penetrate well, but do less damage. The only way the alpha particles can do much damage is if you inhale or ingest them. So sealing the house isn’t a terrible idea.

A better way to explain it is to pass off most of the bad science as bad science from the townsfolk (although I can understand this frustrating a lot of people). After they emerged from their shelters, the Geiger counters weren’t showing any radiation, so I assumed that there wasn’t any fallout carried by the bombs. It was more about the paranoia and terror of the townsfolk.

If you’re curious about these things, I’d also recommend reading about the downwinders in Utah.

Oh, and watch “When the wind blows” too. It’s ace!

Hawkins’s claim about what fusion bombs do was clearly not a case to show what average citizens think. The show took great pains to set up Hawkins as a character who knows what he’s talking about and is hyper-competent. To turn around and have him spout nonsense about nuclear weapons undercuts that. That makes his dialog fail both factually and dramatically. But nice try! Also, you might want to look up what a double entendre is, since you don’t even seem to have a single one in your rant.

I’d also love to hear your take on my assessment of Stanley’s iodine swigging. From the logic you’ve displayed so far, I imagine your explanation will be extremely entertaining.