US Fallout Shelter
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Stanford Univ., CA (United States)
Being indoors (sheltering) reduces radiation exposures resulting from nuclear fallout or a power-plant accident. However, most US building types, particularly non-residential buildings, lack quantitative estimates. We provide here a high-level modeling analysis of modern US building protection based on a novel radiation protection building attribute taxonomy, a new building protection model, compilation of prior experimental results, and nationally representative building survey data. This approach provides a consistent, quantitative understanding of US building protection and, when combined with the distribution of people among different buildings, can assist in selecting emergency response strategies. We find that indoor radiation protection varies by orders of magnitude. Most people in non-residential buildings are adequately protected, particularly below ground or in the building center. Residential buildings are less protective and those with lighter weight walls lack adequate, above ground protection. This work also highlights key areas where further investigation will improve the current results. These include the improving the understanding of residential basement protection, additional experimental data on non-residential buildings (particularly schools and industrial buildings), and the frequency of brick veneer and stucco exterior residential buildings.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA); USDOE Office of Science (SC); US Department of Homeland Security (DHS. Science and Technology Directorate, National Urban Security Technology Laboratory; US Department of Defense (DOD). Defense Threat Reduction Agency; Science Undergraduate Laboratory Internships Program (SULI)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC52-07NA27344; NA0003996
- OSTI ID:
- 1880931
- Report Number(s):
- LLNL-TR-832679; 1048238
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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