Best type of nuclear protective housing
If we are going to be submerged in constant radioactive elements wouldn't creating a house or moving to a house that would provide the most protection from it make sense? Would living in a an apartment complex or multilevel home bring better protection than say a single story home. Should we seal our windows with duck tape? (maybe put my house in a big airtight bag would be nice except I would need some oxygen every once in a while - lol)
Unfortunately, our homes
Unfortunately, our homes have been submerged in radioactivity for centuries now, and nothing short of living in a lead cave will provide a lot of protection from radiation. The levels that we see in the air are extremely small in comparison. At our highest measurements (3/24), breathing the air for an entire year would give you .05 mrem -- and that's only if you stopped it from decaying away so that you could keep breathing it for one year! For comparison, the average radon dose in the US is 200 mrem. As some anonymous posters mentioned below, sealing your home would likely increase your radon dose.
Tim [BRAWM Team Member]
Insulating your house from
Insulating your house from drafts is good in that it will prevent dust from coming inside, but will also reduce your energy requirements for heating and cooling. Reducing these costs will lessen dependence on Nuclear energy, and coal as well. Since California gets most of it's energy from gas-powered turbine generation, you will also help to reduce CO2 output.
Had these garbage reactors
Had these garbage reactors been of the CANDU variety this catastrophe never would have been.
We don't know that in a mag.
We don't know that in a mag. 9 earthquake that a CANDU calandria wouldn't rupture, leaking secondary coolant. The heat-sink nature of the secondary coolant is the only real difference in passive safety in the event of SCRAM + station blackout.
Our Planet Earth is
Our Planet Earth is priceless. It is always an unforgivable shame when economics compromise it.
Building materials like
Building materials like cement, cinder blocks, granite, ceramic and glass will give you more external radiation than Fukushima.
There is also about 1000 times more natural radiation in a cubic yard of soil than what has come over from Japan.
If you were talking about sealing the house, Radon is still very effective at pooling in enclosed spaces if you don't seal the foundation and circulate air every day or two.
The issue is not radiation
The issue is not radiation per se, it is the inhalation and ingestion of radioactive particles.
You have more to worry about
You have more to worry about from breathing Radon and it's daughter products (present in most household dust) than you do from man-made sources here in California.
And if you are outside of California, your exposure to Radon is 2-4x what it is here.
This is true. I sealed off
This is true. I sealed off the house for a week during the March Madness and radon levels went up to 7.2. Developed a bad cough and very sore lungs. Now I keep the ventilation system going on high, except during times when there may be large plumes coming over from Japan, like what may happen this next week... small amount of cesium, but the biggest amount of xenon I've seen so far.. according to NILU.
Radon levels in the house are now hovering about 2 - 2.5 with ventilation going full blast, but creep up very quickly when it's off. When radon get above 4, we get to choose between radon or xenon. I choose xenon 133. It decays into stable cesium 133, if I read correctly. Radon is pretty nasty stuff.
Superb website you have here
Superb website you have here but I was curious if you knew of any user discussion forums that cover the same topics talked about in this article? I'd really love to be a part of online community where I can get opinions from other experienced people that share the same interest. If you have any recommendations, please let me know. Thank you!
stop snoring chin strap
Assuming you are using an
Assuming you are using an ionization chamber meter, your measurements are likely in pCi/l, so you would need to multiply by 1000 to get concentrations in pCi/m3. Radon is rather heavy, though, so it will be more concentrated near the floor and in lower levels of structures.
But, for readings of 4 pCi/l you get 4,000 pCi/m3 or 37 Bq/m3. This is just measuring the alpha emissions from Radon, where the daughter products actually produce more radiation in Beta and Gamma emissions. To get the total effect you would also need a Geiger counter with a fan attachment to measure the output from the daughters as well.
All of these products are inhaled and considered internal emitters.
For comparison, the emission from Fukushima that BRAWM detected register somewhere between one million to one billion times smaller that tge 4 pCi/l mentioned above.
Food for thought.