Transcript – Myth6

[ Music ] ^M00:00:10

[Person 1:] If there was a radiation emergency here, I would pack up my family and get out of town as fast as I can.

[Person 2:] Leave. Just go. Immediately.

[Person 3:] I would be gone. Just drop everything and get out of there as fast as possible.

[Person 4:] I’d probably…Your car probably can’t outrun that radioactive cloud, can it? I might try. I might try to see if it can.

[Vivi:] Armin, your reaction?

[Armin:] Vivi, as we have said in other trainings, in a radiation emergency, protective actions recommended by emergency officials depend on the circumstances of the emergency. In some circumstances, it would be advisable to evacuate. In other circumstances, such as an IND detonation, evacuation could be the wrong choice. After an IND detonation, effectively communicating the need to shelter in place is probably the biggest opportunity to save lives. This map shows the dangerous fallout zone resulting from an IND detonation. People in this zone could receive lethal radiation doses within a few hours. There are two things to note, however. One is that the dangerous fallout zone decays quickly within the first 24-48 hours. The second is that these calculations are based on an unshielded population, meaning people who are out on the street in the midst of the fallout. What the map doesn’t show is the protection people can and will receive from staying indoors.

[Vivi:] How much protection?

[Armin:] Depending on the type of structure you are in, you could easily reduce your radiation exposure by just staying inside. For example, the middle floors of a multi-story building provide a protection factor of 100. That means that your radiation exposure in that part of the building will be one one-hundredth or 1% of what it would be outdoors. So, if you can go to the center floors of a multi-story building, or even better, into a basement, you will drastically reduce your radiation dose.

[Vivi:] Wow. So people who leave a sturdy shelter too early are putting themselves at greater risk.

[Armin:] That’s exactly right. It’s hard to think about staying in your office or in your home for a day or longer, especially if you have kids in school or an elderly parent in an assisted living facility, but leaving a safe structure will put your life in danger. It’s best to get inside, stay inside, and stay tuned after a radiation emergency.

[Vivi:] During emergencies, especially those that are unfamiliar to us, people may rely on their instincts to react. For example, if this happened, I would want to get to my children as soon as I could. But doing that could put my life in danger. It will be critical to clearly communicate what area is affected and what people in those areas should do to protect themselves. People outside of the affected area will also need to know things, like where to avoid and what actions they can take to help responders, even if it’s just keeping roads clear for response vehicles.

[Armin:] And it can take some time for responders to develop that information. The initial protective actions in the early hours will be based on predictive computer models. As the responders are able to collect radiation measurements in the environment, the models will be refined to create a more definitive picture of the affected area.

[Vivi:] That’s something communicators will need to keep in mind. The response picture will change as more information becomes available, so it will be critical to let people know that things may change as we learn more information and then to provide frequent updates. But the first message needs to be “Get Inside, Stay Inside and Stay Tuned.” ^M00:04:01

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