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| Rescue teams are pivotal in survival after any disaster especially earthquake, tsunami and nuclear explosions. |
The Monster earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan last week has resulted in the damage to nuclear facilities that was neither envisaged on this scale and scope.The tragedy is that the Japanese have built and prepared maximum for the nuclear attack as they were the sufferers of the only twin attacks of Hiroshima and Nagasaki by the United States of America in history. They utilized the nuclear technology to built their power plants and utilize this for their energy needs. The Japanese have built excellent infrastructure as seen by the electricity and utility cables left standing, bridges in good condition and the hospital in Sendai surviving the tsunami and earthquake attack.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2011/03/13/pkg.Sendai.Japan.tsunami.warning.cnn?hpt=C2
The tragedy of biblical proportions has shown the world that nuclear technology can never be safe and friendly even if built for constructive purposes such as use in power generation and electricity.The whole facility and technology is a hazard to humanity. The effects of Hiroshima and Nagasaki continue to this day. The Bhopal tragedy in India also showed us the threat to humans from chemicals.The supporters of using this technology for weapons purpose and even those that support its use for peaceful purpose especially in the Indian sub-continent and the Middle East need to understand that it can never be safe.
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| Fire at Nuclear power plant in Japan. |
If a country as peace loving, extremely advanced in discipline, hazard preparedness, technology is numb with shock at the overwhelming scale of the earthquake and tsunami disaster how can these socially and morally backward countries and peoples prepare and deal with a hazard when such occurs. The facilities in Pakistan and India are clandestinely hidden because they are for weapons purposes. Their preparedness for handling disaster and especially for the surrounding innocent population will always be questionable as the cultures in these backward countries is of conspiracy, linking weaponry with religion, no value for human life and dignity.
In Japan the nuclear power plants were well defined and well placed as all their planning and installation was done with safety as the utmost priority. Safety and hazard containment in Japan is a high priority moral and humanitarian issue. With a society such as the Japanese now overwhelmed in their capacity to deal with nuclear meltdowns, where can the primitive and morally corrupt societies that exist in Pakistan and India stand?
This question needs to be addressed by the Indians and Pakistanis themselves.
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| Japanese nuclear power plants are well mapped out not clandenistine like in Pakistan and India. |
We can only write for awareness of citizens of this fragile world some measures that were written by a kind soul , Mr Barry Popkess in 1980 in his "The Nuclear Survival Handbook"...living through and after a nuclear attack.His interest in Civil Defence and Safety stemmed from the fact that his father was a provost marshal and as he writes in his book "Until 1958 I had not even noticed our lemming syndrome. Then , as a result of a series of chance conversations, I realized that most people really thought World War Three could happen......It was said that from a major modern conflict no victor may emerge but the idea of being among the survivors appealed to me enormously....I got down to finding out not so much how to live with the bomb as to how to outlive it...The individual's chance of survival will depend largely on what he does immediately after the particular situation arises.. what preparations materially and psychologically he has made beforehand.
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| Checking for radiation levels. |
He writes that the power of nuclear explosion produced in the 1980s is more than three thousand times that of used against Japan in August 1945. When a nuclear weapon explodes, in about a millionth of a second a temperature is produced of up to 18 million degrees Fahrenheit, comparable to that inside our sun.About half of this is immediately lost in the close vicinity of the explosion as a luminous white fireball appears , expands and begins to rise. from a ten megaton (1 megaton is equivalent to a million tons of TNT) weapon this fireball is up to three and a half miles wide.For up to a minute energy is in the form of radiation, light, heat, sound and blast is released in all directions.The fireball then ceases to be luminous and begins to cool as its cloud rises many thousands of feet at up to 300 miles an hour. As the cloud billows out into the eventual mushroom shape, it sucks up after it a column of dust from the Earth's surface. This dust is mixed with the residue of the weapon and becomes the radioactive fallout.
Light travels at 186,000 miles per second eyes should be averted even behind tinted glass. Due to the focusing action of our eyes, its reflection alone maybe blinding. Blindness after initial few days may return.
Heat 1/3rd of the energy of a nuclear weapon is emitted as heat which radiates in straight lines at the velocity of light but has little penetrating power and is weakened by haze or mist. Its range (I) however is greater than that of blast or of initial radiation and it may cause injury or death to those exposed and damage to property by staring fires.refuge should be taken away from windows in fire resistance buildings or behind anything opaque and not readily combustible which may absorb the twenty seconds' flash of heat. Even a piece of wood may serve. the thicker the better.Clothing should be thick, loosely fitting, light in color and of wool or other protein fiber such as silk.Not of cotton, poplin, nylon, rayon, Dacron, terylene, Orlon or similar materials which readily burn or melt. the clothing should leave as little skin surface exposed as possible for the most dangerous effect of burns is shock.the area affected is critical to its intensity.
Blast Compressed air at the speed of sound at 750 miles/hour lasting several seconds exerts pressure like wind in its path. The objects such a buildings are pushed over and damaged.Blast may enter buildings and push away the roof and walls as if an explosion occurred inside it. injuries from falling debris, fires, electric cables and shock may occur. Ruptured gas mains,chemical explosions and burns may occur. If on a road find shelter underneath a solid structure.If a gas mask is available it should be donned or face covered and shielded away from blast if possible,. The most suitable buildings are concrete or re-in-forced steel structures.Inside a building ceiling is likely to give way in its center so hide at where the ceiling joists enter the wall. Mr Popkess writes that doors and windows should be left open so that air pressure inside may equal that outside but alternatively they may be left shut as precaution against starting and spreading fires.heat will arrive before the blast . One minute is likely to be elapsed The decision depends on the person making it.A purpose built shelter is ideal with the supplies of goggles,helmets, suits& other supports readily available and in place.
It has been observed from the massive earthquake disaster in Pakistan in 2008 that due to almost zero preparedness for natural disasters the most deaths occurred due to being buried in damaged buildings and structures with no rescue help available. There is a need to heavily invest and update rescue personnel and teams and facilities for nuclear disaster preparedness.Shelters for such hazards need to be built by the governments near all such nuclear facilities to evacuate and shift the vulnerable populations and in larger cities and towns. Preparedness drills and activity should be periodically done with populations and especially with school children.In Pakistan National Disaster Management Authority should take the lead role in planning, mitigation and preparedness.We all should learn from the Japanese catastrophe and fast.
