I want two of my main characters to be involved in a bombing incident where many die but they don't. The thing is it is crucial to the story line that they breathe in some of the radiation so how could they do that and survive? Note: I am expelling the idea that they get sick from the radiation like everybody else, they are effected in a different way which does not result in them dying. I am wondering if I had them at the heart of the explosion would they be spared the worst of the shock waves? They need to be harmed slightly but nothing major. They need to be close enough so that they can breathe in more of the dirty air than anybody else, thus creating a different side effect. If you have any ideas that I could work on as a premise please reply
Mabye you could have them in some sort of shelter but have the shelter not be air-tight. Or have the bomb go off and leave how they survived a mystery.
Well they would definitely have to be in a shelter to survive. The thing is most shelters have an air purification system to filter the radiation. If their is a problem with the system then radiation will come into the shelter in small doses.
Being at the heart of a typical nuclear bomb blast will undoubtedly kill anyone. I think if you were going to go with that idea, you'd maybe have to set up some sort of new, terrifying nuclear weapon that would have some sort of 'safe/hypernuclear zone' at the blast's epicentre? [/geek] Sort of like the 'eye' of a tornado where the wind is completely calm.
I quite like the idea of having a shelter where the fumes come in, would it be suitable if it was installed near or at a school? It would only be very small and would've be installed to keep the leader's children safe.
Actually if you have a small town the three likely spots for a town shelter would have been the hospital, town hall, or the local school.
Be distant from the epicenter and away from windows. It worked for some Hiroshima/Nagasaki survivors.
bomb shelter Do we even know for sure that a bomb shelter would work? I mean, that all of the systems in place would continue to function in case of a nuclear bomb. I mean, how much testing on whether or not these shelters would work took place? Also, how much time would your characters have to wait before coming OUT of the shelter. It's not like you sit in there a week or even a year and everything's hunky dory. I think that you need to consider these things before introducing this plot element and consider changing from a nuclear bomb to some other threat that is more manageable.
Along these lines, I would suggest the bombing (traditional explosives) of a nuclear reactor to be a better scenario if you truly need radiation to be involved. It is a much smaller explosion that will be involved and radiation levels will be very high but survivable for a short time, plus the radiation will be caught by the wind and scatter fallout all over the place. Study the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters for more ideas on how that takes place.
A nuclear blast emits several types of radiation. The first one which kills instantly (to anyone that is close enough) consists of high energy radio waves. The differing frequencies of these waves also have names that you may recognize as x-rays and gamma radiation. These rays are relatively harmless in small doses but are the cause of the long range damage as they pass through solid objects(gamma radiation can pass through the lead walls and tonnes of rock before eventually stopping). These high energy radio waves combined with large amounts of visible spectrum radio waves constitute the flash that you may have seen on films. The other forms of radiation are alpha and beta radiation. Beta radiation is basically electricity that is traveling close to the speed of light and will travel several feet or through about an inch of aluminum before stopping. Again it is relatively harmless. Alpha radiation will only travel a few centimeters but it will quickly react with anything it touches and is lethal. The actual blast will kill anyone who gets too close but the most damage will come from the dust that is spilt out from blast area as this dust will be radio active itself and will remain so for many years after. This dust will kill slowly. So with regard to your story your best bet is about 10 miles away in a bunker and then for your MC to then go for a walk in the dust cloud. Hope this helps.
To survive a bomb follow these steps: (Thanks TED talk) 1. Don't look at bomb, you'd go blind. 2. Run opposite wind(downwind) to avoid harmful radiation. 3. Get out of the area. OR 4. Get at least 8 stories in a building, or a basement.
Hi, First you need to describe your bomb. If its a conventional nuclear missile, then being anywhere near to where it goes off is likely to be lethal. If its very close think vapourisation and the human shadows on the concrete walls of Hiroshima. Further back think burns and concussive injuries. Remember that for the three types of radiation as given off, alpha, beta and gamma, distance is always going to be your best protection. But its not always going to be enough. Nuclear bombs, and dirty bombs, both have another more insidious way of killing, stirring up dust clouds which themselves are highly radioactive, and which because they are carried by the wind, aren't dispersed in the same inverse square ratio as other types of radiation. Breathing in these dusts can be deadly or not, depending on your exposure, level and time. As for shelters, if its designed to take a nuclear blast, then I would imagine it would have an enclosed air system. Cheers.
