Ahh, Radiation

Of all the aspects of nuclear weapons and nuclear power, radiation is the one that causes the most panic and fear. This is because we humans are not happy about dealing with dangers that can't be sensed, anticipated, or quantified. So we over react and get overly hysterical about radiation.

In a nuclear weapon blast somewhere around %20 of the energy is released as radiation, mostly initial radiation, and the rest as persistent radiation such as fallout. This persistent radiation exists because some material was made radioactive by the bomb. It doesn't just hang out in the aether somewhere.

The worst radiation from a health perspective is gamma radiation. Most of this is discharged in the first millisecond or so of the bomb blast itself and is fatal out to a range depending on the size and type of bomb.

Although radiation is scary stuff, it is actually the danger that is easiest to avoid or protect yourself from. If you happen to be near a bomb blast, there is nothing really that can protect you from the initial surge of radioactive particles. Any material made radioactive by the bomb will behave in wind, water, and the environment in predictable ways. You can reason out where it is likely to go and how to avoid it. You can dust off and clean things. There are ways to cope.

Also, radiation has a half life, and most of the worst radioactivity will be over in a a week or so. Not all types of radiation are equally harmful. Time is on your side.

Of course a dirty bomb scenario would involve a greater radiation hazard by design, and the terrorists would probably arrange for the widest radioactive footprint they could get. Still, the hazard is containable, if you know it is there and where it is going- more on that later.

The longer term risks of radiation are harder to counter, because it gets into food and water supplies and works its way up the food chain. This is a vastly more complex problem and one that is not easy to solve short of abandoning food production in the area.

So the best approach to any potential radiation or fallout hazard is to first chill out, use your head, and respond rationally. If you feel the need to build a fallout shelter, then go for it, but barring some sort of nuclear war with many bombs, radiation should be a manageable hazard.