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A Man, A Plan, A Tin Can - Homemade Fallout Meter Could Be the New Duct Tape
The Washington Post ^ | April 13, 2003 | Don Oldenburg

Posted on 04/14/2003 8:59:32 AM PDT by shanec

Edited on 04/14/2003 9:18:47 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]

When Steve Jones carried a curious duct-taped tin can with wires protruding from its clear plastic top into Sen. Rick Santorum's office last month, a wide-eyed Senate staffer remarked, "I'm surprised you got this stuff up here."

So was Jones. But for reasons other than heightened security on Capitol Hill. For more than a decade, the house painter from Salt Lake City has run up against public indifference as he promoted the jury-rigged can he insists would save lives in a dirty-bomb attack by terrorists.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: bomb; detector; explosion; fallout; homeland; homelandsecurity; kearny; kfm; laboratories; meter; monitor; national; nuclear; oakridge; plans; radiation; radioactive; security
I've been working with Steve Jones above, and others, to get the Dept. of Homeland Security to take a look at, and hopefully to embrace, the KFM. It's a fascinating story of how the plans for the KFM were originally designed by Oak Ridge National Laboratories to go up in every newspaper in America on the eve of WWIII. It has the potential to do a lot more good, for more American families, than all the plastic & duct tape that's been stashed away in closets today, IMO.

-Shane

1 posted on 04/14/2003 8:59:33 AM PDT by shanec
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2 posted on 04/14/2003 9:01:03 AM PDT by Support Free Republic (Your support keeps Free Republic going strong!)
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To: shanec
A quick search turned up plans + kit online. Interesting. http://www.ki4u.com/kfm.htm
3 posted on 04/14/2003 9:17:27 AM PDT by Eala (irrelevant (î-rèl´e-vent) 1: The United Nations. 2: France. 3: CNN)
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To: shanec
In a nuclear war, civilians could make it themselves at home and determine whether to stay inside.

This is why God gave us cats.

Put kitty out and see how long it takes him to glow or keel over. Instant dosimeter!

I'm kidding. Sort of.


Tony

4 posted on 04/14/2003 9:17:42 AM PDT by TonyInOhio (The liberty we prize is not America's gift to the world; it is God's gift to humanity. GWB)
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To: shanec
he demonstrated at four Senate offices

Just curious: did he bring his own radioactive fallout source into the Senate building for this demo?

P.S. I think there's too much of this article posted to satisfy the WP folks.

5 posted on 04/14/2003 9:19:33 AM PDT by GovernmentShrinker
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To: shanec
I'll stay with my Ludlum 3-90.
6 posted on 04/14/2003 9:22:28 AM PDT by Tijeras_Slim
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To: shanec
The book mentioned here:

Nuclear War Survival Skills - Oregon Institute of Science and ...
Nuclear War Survival Skills www.oism.org/nwss/index.htm Nuclear War Survival Skills
Email Home by Cresson Kearny This website presents the book Nuclear War ...
www.oism.org/oism/s32p903.htm - 13k - Cached - Similar pages
[ More results from www.oism.org ]

includes directions on building the KFM and IIRC, can be downloaded in PDF format.

7 posted on 04/14/2003 9:29:53 AM PDT by backhoe (Those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it...)
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To: backhoe
Better, more accurate, to-scale templates for making the KFM are linked off of www.ki4u.com/kfm.htm on their copy of the NWSS book found there.

-Shane

8 posted on 04/14/2003 10:09:47 AM PDT by shanec
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To: shanec
Thanks- copied & saved.
9 posted on 04/14/2003 10:16:27 AM PDT by backhoe
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To: shanec
Instructions for making the KFM were prepared at Oak Ridge

And you can buy them at the Museum of Science and Energy, about three miles from my home in Oak Ridge.

10 posted on 04/14/2003 10:17:39 AM PDT by Tennessee_Bob (Dieses sieht wie ein Job nach Nothosen aus!)
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To: shanec
Couldn't I just take notice of "birds dropping?"
11 posted on 04/14/2003 10:35:42 AM PDT by goodnesswins (CNN...the MOST TRUSTED in News......by CRIMINALS!)
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To: goodnesswins
"Couldn't I just take notice of "birds dropping?"

Depending on the strength of the radioactive fallout you might not notice anything, at that time, while you are absorbing a dangerous dose. Also, many that might contract a lethal dose could survive for days or even weeks before succumbing to it, again possibly without noticing anything till after they had already accumulated that lethal dose.

The following can be seen at www.radmeters4u.com and is compiled from FM 3-7. NBC Field Handbook, 1994, FM 8-9. NATO Handbook on the Medical Aspects of NBC Defensive Operations, 1996 and FM 8-10-7. Health Services Support in a Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Environment, 1996. It is instructive in outlining the levels of radiation and their delayed health effects...

Expected health effects for an adult assuming the cumulative total radiation exposure was all received within a weeks time. For children, the effects can be expected at half these dose levels.


TOTAL EXPOSURE			ONSET & DURATION OF INITIAL SYMPTOMS & DISPOSITION

30 to 70 R	From 6-12 hours: none to slight incidence of transient headache and nausea; 
		vomiting in up to 5 percent of personnel in upper part of dose range. Mild 
		lymphocyte depression within 24 hours. Full recovery expected. (Fetus damage
		possible from 50R and above.)

70 to 150 R	From 2-20 hours: transient mild nausea and vomiting in 5 to 30 percent of 
		personnel. Potential for delayed traumatic and surgical wound healing, 
		minimal clinical effect. Moderate drop in lymphocycte, platelet, and 
		granulocyte counts. Increased susceptibility to opportunistic pathogens. 
		Full recovery expected.

150 to 300 R	From 2 hours to three days: transient to moderate nausea and vomiting in 
		20 to 70 percent; mild to moderate fatigability and weakness in 25 to 60 
		percent of personnel. At 3 to 5 weeks: medical care required for 10 to 50%. 
		At high end of range, death may occur to maximum 10%. Anticipated medical 
		problems include infection, bleeding, and fever. Wounding or burns will 
		geometrically increase morbidity and mortality.

300 to 530 R	From 2 hours to three days: transient to moderate nausea and vomiting in 50 
		to 90 percent; mild to moderate fatigability in 50 to 90 percent of personnel. 
		At 2 to 5 weeks: medical care required for 10 to 80%. At low end of range, 
		less than 10% deaths; at high end, death may occur for more than 50%. 
		Anticipated medical problems include frequent diarrheal stools, anorexia, 
		increased fluid loss, ulceration. Increased infection susceptibility during 
		immunocompromised time-frame.  Moderate to severe loss of lymphocytes. 
		Hair loss after 14 days.

530 to 830 R	From 2 hours to two days: moderate to severe nausea and vomiting in 80 to 
		100 percent of personnel; From 2 hours to six weeks: moderate to severe 
		fatigability and weakness in 90 to 100 percent of personnel. At 10 days to 
		5 weeks: medical care required for 50 to 100%. At low end of range, death 
		may occur for more than 50% at six weeks. At high end, death may occur 
		for 99% of personnel. Anticipated medical problems include developing 
		pathogenic and opportunistic infections, bleeding, fever, loss of appetite, 
		GI ulcerations, bloody diarrhea, severe fluid and electrolyte shifts, capillary 
		leak, hypotension. Combined with any significant physical trauma, survival 
		rates will approach zero.

830 R Plus	From 30 minutes to 2 days: severe nausea, vomiting, fatigability, weakness, 
		dizziness, and disorientation; moderate to severe fluid imbalance and headache. 
		Bone marrow total depletion within days. CNS symptoms are predominant at 
		higher radiation levels. Few, if any, survivors even with aggressive and 
		immediate medical attention.

-Shane

12 posted on 04/14/2003 11:10:03 AM PDT by shanec
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To: GovernmentShrinker
"...he demonstrated at four Senate offices..."

"Just curious: did he bring his own radioactive fallout source into the Senate building for this demo?"

Yes, but it was just a common smoke detector.

-Shane

13 posted on 04/14/2003 11:46:11 AM PDT by shanec
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To: shanec
"A man, a plan, and a tin can."

Love that headline.  Do you remember the palindrome...?

A man, a plan, a canal, Panama!
14 posted on 04/14/2003 1:46:29 PM PDT by gcruse (If they truly are God's laws, he can enforce them himself.)
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