Preparing for Uncertainty and Self Reliance

[Smitty-48]

Just FYI, the target in western North Carolina is not Asheville, it's Balsam Grove, Rosman Station; satellite tracking and NSA SIGINT during the Cold War.

Officially, the NSA moved out of there in the 90's, but back in the Cold War, it was an ultra high security complex, priority strategic target.

Looking at your map there, the purple triangles seem like they are flexible response targets, for limited nuclear war, decapitation strikes. The black dots, those look like counterforce targets, particularly the all out strike against the Great Plains.

Interesting. Balsam Grove is pretty far away. It's out past Brevard. Great area. I saw the eclipse out that way.

Still, I think I am far enough away from that. That has to be almost fifty miles away from me.

Still close enough to have radiation have an affect.

FVEY at Balsam Grove in a Soviet first strike decapitation; that prolly would have been hit with SLBM on depressed trajectory from the Yankee Box, so likely an R-27 Zyb (SS-N-6) with a single warhead; 1 megaton yield.

According to the NUKEMAP, that puts Asheville right in the red zone for fallout downrange; 1000 rads per hour.

[Penner]

Interesting. Balsam Grove is pretty far away. It's out past Brevard. Great area. I saw the eclipse out that way.

Still, I think I am far enough away from that. That has to be almost fifty miles away from me.

Still close enough to have radiation have an affect.

FVEY at Balsam Grove in a Soviet first strike decapitation; that prolly would have been hit with SLBM on depressed trajectory from the Yankee Box, so probably an R-27 Zyb (SS-N-6) with a single warhead; 1 Megaton yield.

According to the NUKEMAP, that puts Asheville right in the red zone for fallout downrange; 1000 rads per hour.

Well, I am familiar with that map (and I have played around with it in the past to see what would happen) and I put the city as Balsam Grove, with a Topol (Russian SS-25) and for it to have a surface blast and Asheville is in the fallout zone.

http://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/

[Smitty-48]

Still close enough to have radiation have an affect.

FVEY at Balsam Grove in a Soviet first strike decapitation; that prolly would have been hit with SLBM on depressed trajectory from the Yankee Box, so probably an R-27 Zyb (SS-N-6) with a single warhead; 1 Megaton yield.

According to the NUKEMAP, that puts Asheville right in the red zone for fallout downrange; 1000 rads per hour.

Well, I am familiar with that map (and I have played around with it in the past to see what would happen) and I put the city as Balsam Grove, with a Topol (Russian SS-25) and for it to have a surface blast and Asheville is in the fallout zone.

http://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/

Well, like I said, it's not a target anymore, the NSA moved out of there 25 years ago, and the Russians only have about 2,000 warheads available, whereas the Soviets had 20,000, so it wouldn't be the same sort of nuclear war now as it would have been in the 1980's, so I use the 1980's Cold War peak for my scenario, as that's the scenario from that declassified map wherein Rosman Station was a FVEY target, but the Russians now, they wouldn't waste a Topol on Balsam Grove.

[Penner]

FVEY at Balsam Grove in a Soviet first strike decapitation; that prolly would have been hit with SLBM on depressed trajectory from the Yankee Box, so probably an R-27 Zyb (SS-N-6) with a single warhead; 1 Megaton yield.

According to the NUKEMAP, that puts Asheville right in the red zone for fallout downrange; 1000 rads per hour.

Well, I am familiar with that map (and I have played around with it in the past to see what would happen) and I put the city as Balsam Grove, with a Topol (Russian SS-25) and for it to have a surface blast and Asheville is in the fallout zone.

http://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/

Well, like I said, it's not a target anymore, the NSA moved out of there 25 years ago, and the Russians only have about 2,000 warheads available, whereas the Soviets had 20,000, so it wouldn't be the same sort of nuclear war now as it would have been in the 1980's, so I use the 1980's Cold War peak for my scenario, as that's the scenario oin the declassified map wherein Rosnan Station was a target, but the Russians now, they wouldn't waste a Topol on Balsam Grove.

Yeah, you have a point. But I was arguing with StA over Asheville.

[Smitty-48]

If the Russians were to launch a first strike in the near future, they'll likely be using their quietest SSBNs, which is Borei class, the missiles would be RSM-56 Bulava, so that's 6 x MIRV at 150 Kt yield each

The Russians wouldn't use SS-25 Topol for a target that small. Topol is MICBM survivable second strike weapon for countervalue retaliation against major urban centers.

So even if Balsam Grove were still a target, adjust your NUKEMAP yield down to 150 kt, as nobody is going to drop 800 Kt's on a target like that in this day and age, these days, if the Russians are using 800Kt warheads, they're using those on New York, LA and Chicago, not Balsam Grove.

[Smitty-48]

When it comes to fallout, the Chinese are actually worse than the Russians now, the Russians have switched to the American style high accuracy moderate yield warhead model, but the low accuracy Chinese are still using multimegaton yields, so you'd actually be getting over a 100 rads per hour in Asheville NC, from a Chinese DF5 ICBM hitting Atlanta.

[heydaralon]

Just buy some iodized salt to decontaminate the water and eat canned rations for two weeks and you are fine. I read that 3 feet of concrete stops a nuclear blast, so a simple cinder block shelter will do wonders. Normally, after a natural disaster, the government sends out people from the power company to clear fallen limbs from the road, so if you need more supplies, wait 24-48 hours before going to Wal Mart as there may be trees or downed powerlines blocking the lanes. People have a tendency to blow things out of proportion, but a nuclear blast would not keep businesses from staying closed for long. After all, they need to make money too. Plan smart, and stay indoors, and you will survive a nuclear explosion, unless its a Cat 4 tropical storm. Then you just find a nearby shelter to stay at until its safe to go outside.

[Smitty-48]

Just buy some iodized salt to decontaminate the water and eat canned rations for two weeks and you are fine. I read that 3 feet of concrete stops a nuclear blast, so a simple cinder block shelter will do wonders. Normally, after a natural disaster, the government sends out people from the power company to clear fallen limbs from the road, so if you need more supplies, wait 24-48 hours before going to Wal Mart as there may be trees or downed powerlines blocking the lanes. People have a tendency to blow things out of proportion, but a nuclear blast would not keep businesses from staying closed for long. After all, they need to make money too. Plan smart, and stay indoors, and you will survive a nuclear explosion, unless its a Cat 4 tropical storm. Then you just find a nearby shelter to stay at until its safe to go outside.

That's the spirit, no need to cry Nuclear Hitler about preempting the North Koreans, even on the off chance they get a couple ICBM's through to the CONUS, the sun comes up the next day, and outside the immediate effects area, Walmart will be open, but I'd say you're better off going to Costco, as, prolly gonna wanna buy in bulk, for a nuclear war.

[heydaralon]

I've heard after 70 years a sheet of paper is enough to block radiation, so making a hazmat suit out of thick sheaves of printer paper would keep you nice and safe. Worst case you end up like Bruce Banner. I'm not sure that radiation is really something to worry about, since the radiation from the sun that hits the Earth at any given moment is far more than a single nuclear blast. Even microwaves emit radiation, and no one is scared of that.

[Smitty-48]

The main threat in fallout is strontium-90, but the radiation it emits is very short ranged, only a few millimeters in fact, it's not likely going to kill you unless you injest it, the way it actually kills you, is that it bonds to calcium, structurally it's similar to calcium, so it just attaches itself to the calcium, then you injest it, then the radioactive calcium goes into your bones, then the short wave radiation effects the bone marrow, then you die of rapid onset acute myeloid lukemia.