Be apprised that wind can always blow fallout debris into one's shelter. These particles emit gamma rays which are highly penetrating. Keep any vents or openings in the shelter that do not need to be opened, closed when the shelter is occupied.

    Normal passages for ventilation must not be closed, except occasionally. These passages are necessary for survival of the shelterees. But, doors and windows are not vital as they can be closed for long periods and not seriously negate the survival of the occupants.

    This is where you, the Home Fallout Shelter owner, must stay alert and ready to act. When radiation levels reach measurable levels in the shelter, the Shelter Monitor, who is the owner of the shelter, should monitor various areas of the secure area of the shelter regularly. He must move from one area to another taking measurements in the same and different spots in one room, or area as he did when writing down the background radiation from those various rooms and areas and leaving notes exactly what the background radiation was at that point.

    Do the same as radiation is now increasing and the increase may be just a few feet from where it was found to be Background Radiation; however, it may have changed at that spot and has increased in other areas of that room or location. This must be done regularly in the other 'Secure' rooms of the shelter.

    This periodic check will keep you informed of increasing...and, later, decreasing radiation levels.

    Everyone should be wearing a Dosimeter; or, if not enough to go around, hang by a string, two in different places of the various rooms. There's a good reason for this!

    If your meters malfunction, you can figure your Rate, which is what your meters are finding out for you in R/hr or mR/hr.

    This is the way it is done:

1. The Dosimeter Reads In Room One, at the two different spots: 10 R & 4 R Where They Are Hanging.

2. We Add Them & Take The Average: 10 R + 4 R v = 14/2 = 7R.

3. Check The Dosimeter(s), say...Every 20 minutes & Do Similar. Twenty Minutes Is what part of an hour: 20/60 = 1/3hr.

4. Invert And Multiply 7 R X 1/3hr = 21 R/hr. And, if your Ratemeter, CD V-715 is reading at scale 2; then, and each mark = 0.1; add the 2 to the 0.1 mark = 2.1. and turn the Selector Switch to X10 which multiplies 2.1 x 10 = 21.0 R/hr!

    Do this throughout your Home Fallout Shelter 'Secure' Rooms and Rest Rooms and Food Preparation Area.

    Here Are Some Problems For You To Do & Get Practice. Answers are given at the end of each problem. We want you to Live Through This!

---

    Dosimeter Reading = 10 R, for 20 minutes. Ans. 30R/hr. CD V–715 needle will read at 3.0; Set Selector Switch To X10; therefore, 3.0 x 10 = 30.0 R/hr

    Same as above, 10 R, but read at 30 minutes. Ans. 20 R/hr. CD V–715 needle will read at 2.0; Set Selector Switch to X10; therefore, 2.0 = 2.0 X 10 = 20.0

    Dosimeter Reading = 200 R for 10 minutes! Ans. 1200 R/hr! CD V–715 needle reads at 5, with the selector switch at the X100. This is off scale and this means you are in serious danger of radiation sickness and death, because the radiation is going beyond the 5 mark, 500 R/hr—the most your meter can read! Dig Deeper in your Shelter or, pile bookcases, tables on their sides, and get more distance and mass between you and the radiation.

    Remember! Wind and rain, fallout particulate matter fhat has become settled on outside surfaces of roofs, ground and anything not under cover. Hence, fallout on the roof and ground shifts, due to rain, snow, and wind. And, as given earlier, to make sure shelterees stay in the best–protected area, you must check radiation levels in the entire shelter and secure areas periodically!

    As soon as radiation levels become high enough in the shelter to read on a Survey Meter, a check should be made throughout the shelter and secure area,

    Throughout all this, once the radiation levels become measurable in the shelter, determine the safest area in the shelter to hold the shelterees and yourself, keeping exposure (R) to a minimum.

    You should get a Big Berkey with extra filters; a Katadyne (pocket water filter), and/or make the following from the Schematic given. They all remove Radioactive Particulate Matter:

 

Finding & Covering Up "Leaks" in Gamma Shielding:

After the safest locations have been found in Your Home Fallout Shelter, and the people, primarily your family, and maybe one or two guests you have interviewed thoroughly, including extended family members, have moved into the shelter before an imminent attack, use your Survey Meter to make detailed measurements of the radiation levels in and around the area where the people are located. During the first rapid, spread-out survey of the room you may have noticed that your meter readings were higher in certain places within the room.

This variance could be the result of uneven piling-up of fallout around and above the shelter; the layout of rooms, walls, and stairways; openings in the walls; and/or the use of lighter-weight construction materials in some places. It may be possible to use the survey meter to locate a specific where gamma radiation is entering or "leaking" into the shelter to cause higher readings. When such an area is identified, any available materials should be used to cover it in order to reduce the level of radiation.

For the measurements you made to find the safest places in the shelter, you held the survey meter out from your body about two feet. and, in crowded rooms, people were asked to sit or lie down, so their bodies woulod cause less interference with the reaqding. But, for finding gamma leaks, you can make use of that bodily interference~!

The survey meter responds to gamma rays almost equally as well from all directions. If gamma rays come in greater intensity from one particular direction, you can't detect the direction just by pointing the instrument toward it. But you may be able to use the shielding provided by your body and others to reduce the radiation coming from the direction where you and others are grouped together; the survey meter will then respond more to radiation coming from OTHER directions than from where you are standing. For example, if a group of people crowd around a survey meter and leave an opening in only one direction, the reading on the instrument will be caused mostly by radiation coming through the opening, providing there isn't a lot of radiation coming down through the ceiling or up from the floor.

Do equal spacing in the room(s) you are testing. Do not just walk here and there in an indifferent manner. The way to do it is to move three or four feet to your right or left. It doesn't matter which direction you go as long as you keep going in the same direction along a wall and mark the location with a sticky note saying time, place, and reading.

Move to the center and do same. You're trying to ascertain how far in is the gamma radiation penetrating and did it lose strength as it went through the last barrier...the wall; it it didn't, or was weakened, the wall has good shielding.

It is important that you take readings in the middle of doorways, windows, other openings or irregularities in construction. You may have to break your pattern of equal spacing between measuring location in order to obtain these special measurements.

As you work your way around your Home Fallout Shelter main area that you prepared, you will likely be taking these measurements while fallout is still coming down.

[Folks! As you can see, many are now getting Survey Meters; but, unless they know this and more, They Are Not Going To Make It; They've got to read and study in depth! There is a lot more to this, as you shall see, than just having a Survey Meter or Dosimeter! For instance, holding the Dosimeter the wrong way will give you a higher reading--we'll discuss all this in the July Issue of Chembio Update July 1, 2018. This is why you, the Radef Officer in Your Home Fallout Shelter, must know something when you 'educate' your shelterees about their Dosimeter!]

More than likely, you will be taking measurements while fallout is still coming down. As you go around the room, the readings will become higher and higher in a fairly regular pattern unless you find a place that appears to be a "leaky" area--then, they suddenly jump higher due to the leak!

As you approach such a place, the readings will increase more between readings than before, and as you go beyond the area, there will not be as much of an increase in the reading; in fact, there may be a decrease in reading. Because the radiation levels will be increasing at a fairly regular rate under most conditions, you should try to Maintain An Equal Time Interval Between Measurements as you go around the room.

A time interval of 20 or 30 seconds may be about right. Don't try to go too fast or you might not be able to keep up with the schedule. If you notice an area that appears to be "leaky," don't slow down. Continue with your measurement schedule around the room, being sure to leave quick notes of time, place, and reading where taking at those spots--use 'Sticky Notes' or tack them to the area of concern. Anyone going in after you trying to be 'Cute' and destroying or shifting the notes around the area, should be 'Kicked Out of The Shelter Immediately.'

You can't have 'People with Problems trying to be Cute and Clever to find out what you would do,' should be dismissed at Gunpoint Immediately who are moving your notes and entries around just to see what you would do! You are trying to save lives: Yours, your families, and the very few guests you may have invited. The latter is not advisable!

After you have finished going through the shelter proper and taking and pasting notes; go back through and examine the numbers to find out where there are leaks; and there will be some to many. Then, you must determine whether there are actual leaks or is it the result of gamma radiation scattering which must be focused on.

In the suspected area(s), you must repeat these, such as scattering due to a metal post, or something metal; or measurements starting at the location just before the increased numbers were recorded, and make measurements again at Regular Time Intervals again. This can result from:

Radiation, particularly gamma rays from a nuclear explosion or from fallout, reaching a target from many directions, mostly from, as a result of scattering by air.

Also Basements provide good protection from the sides if they are well below ground and there is earth all around, they may not always provide good protection from "Skyshine" or from radiation from fallout that has settled above the basement or on neighboring roofs. Gamma rays strike especially oxygen molecules and Nitrogen molecules, creating reflection of other neutrons being emitted from those air molecules and these neutrons striking (from being scattered) other objects in the immediate area. They are not as strong as the original gamma rays nor as penetrating, but can cause problems!

Scattered radiation is 'Skyshine'! It can be from rooftops and hillsides above your shelter, If the readings still show an increase as you approach the area and a decrease as you go past it, there is a "Leak" of gamma radiation in the area you are surveying. This leak could come from the area in front of you, or, it could come from above or below you if you are in an above ground shelter.

If the readings no longer show an increase as you approach the area and a decrease as you go past it, the previous reading (without people standing closely behind you) was caused by the pattern of scattered gamma radiation in the room, not a gamma leak!

If you try to find gamma leaks in a room, you may use the "Front-to-Back" approach. Hold the Survey Meter tightly against your stomach and face the area where you expect extra gamma radiation to be coming from. If you are working with the range-selector switch turned to "X0.1," wait a few seconds before taking a reading. The reading will be called a "Front" reading.

Turn around so your back faces the suspected leak, and with the survey meter still held tightly against your stomach, take another reading.

This reading called a "Back" reading. If there is more radiation coming from the direction you faced for the first reading (Front Reading) than from the opposite (Back Reading) direction, the front reading will be higher than the back reading.

As you slowly turn around, in that spot, you may notice that the meter needle goes to the lowest reading slowly. Give it time at the "X0.1" setting to adjust and read! The radiation is now at your backside. Repeat these "Front-to-Back" readings at different places and directions until you have a fairly good idea of where the extra radiation is coming from.

The difference between the front and back readings may be made greater, if the radiation is actually coming from one direction more than another. By having several shelteeres stand alongside and Behind you when you make the measurements, you will ascertain for sure where the leak is coming from...the back or front of you; hence, make reinforcements to the shelter with bags of soil stacked to the ceiling along the floor and run the test again with the shelterees standing as before, and this should show reduction in the reading from the backside when you turn to the front and take its reading...it should be up somewhat compared to Back reading.

In other words, simply put, take the Back Reading; Then, take the Front Reading. Do it again with the shelterees standing in back and to the side of you too. Then, turn around and take a front reading: It should be a little higher because the shelterees blocked some of the gamma rays. Therefore, make repairs to the back of you and then take a front and back read again. The back reading should be lower than the front.

The extra shielding from the shelterees in the above by their bodies will take out more of the radiation from your rearward direction, than the front— which is what you want to do while making this type of measurement to ascertain if the radiation is higher in back, than the front of you. This tells you where to make repairs to shield more against gamma radiation. Because the radiation is higher in the back of you than in front and when the shelteeres stood in back of you and to your side, blocking much radiation. Thus, in this process, you ascertained higher in the back; less in the front. And, to make repairs to the backside of where you were.

And, remember this:

"A dosimeter hung on the wall or a post at eye level or higher will show a higher radiatin exposure than a dosimeter carried on a person in the same area. The person's body shields the dosimeter from some of the gamma radiation.

"If the person wearing the dosimeter is surrounded by many people who are standing up, the reading on that person's dosimeter will be even lower because of the gamma shielding provided by the people's bodies."

And, remember this too:

Holding a dosimeter the wrong way (Vertical) when reading it, can cause it to read higher!

These Are In Our Future:

---

---

---

... To Be Continued ...

---