US Unprepared for Nuclear Attack

The Washington Post has laid its hands on a couple of government reports that say the US is unprepared to deal with nuclear terrorism. This isn't news to anyone who was alive during the Cold War, when it was Soviet and American policy not to defend their population centers. However, the threat has changed, and it is irresponsible of the government to have ignored the planning and dissemination of information that could save countless lives.

The reports come from the White House's Homeland Security Council (the HSA is not the Heimatschutzministerium, or Department of Homeland Security which is too busy bungling other projects) and the Department of Energy (which has responsibility for American nuclear power plants, among other relevant things) via its National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The two reports posit a 10-kiloton blast that hits Washington, DC. Using different assumptions about wind direction and evacuation success, the two forecast different death rates in Prince George's and Anne Arundel counties in Maryland. The HSC is the more optimistic, suggesting 99,000 to 190,000 dead; the NNSA figure was 300,000.

Ideally, there will never be such an attack, and the best way to make sure it never does is to continue the tight controls on fissionable materials. However, if the worst happens, both reports suggest that a good half mile radius of absolute destruction and severe damage for miles around. The Hiroshima bomb was 15 kilotons, so the experience of August 6, 1945 gives a pretty good yardstick against which to measure this hypothetical attack. And what the two nuclear attacks on Japan teach is that lingering death from radiation poisoning for those in the outlying blast area is preventable.

The trick is protecting the first responders, the firemen and emergency medical technicians who become the most important people in the area. They will have to stay out of the hottest part of the disaster zone, and they will need training to deal with the aftermath. The Heimatschutzministerium proudly states that, 3 1/2 years after lower Manhattan was devastated, 2,200 first responders have had nuclear response training. There are 2 million such emergency personnel in the nation.

Even more depressing is the advice given on what one thought was a joke website, ready.gov. It advises that Americans "quickly assess the situation" if there is a sudden flash and a mushroom cloud in the region. It also suggests gathering official news from the radio, TV and Internet. Of course, the electromagnetic pulse effect of any nuclear blast will fry the electronics in the blast zone. And nothing is said about fleeing crosswind of the fallout. Lara Shane, spokeswoman for the Heimatschutzministerium who runs the site, said, "We decided [advice on fleeing crosswind] as not necessarily the best guidance for the American people" because high level winds may blow different directions from those on the ground. Great, they decided -- for the rest of the citizenry.

Better advice come from the Rand Corporation, which says, "Being prepared for terrorist attacks is similar to being prepared for other disasters, such as hurricanes or earthquakes." The American people need to know what to do, how to do it, and that requires the facts in advance. In a war on terror, everyone is on the front lines, and everyone deserves the facts.

Of course, this same government taught children in the 1960s to hide from a nuclear blast by hiding under their (highly flammable wooden) desks in a crouch position with their hands over the backs of their necks. Presumably, the natural limberness of children made that the easiest posture from which to kiss one's backside adieu.


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
Produced using Fedora Linux.

Home