BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF PRESSURE PHENOMENA OCCURRING INSIDE PROTECTIVE SHELTERS FOLLOWING A NUCLEAR DETONATION

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Abstract
In two series of experiments 277 experimental animals, including 66 dogs, 52 rabbits, 52 guinea pigs, 63 rats, and 44 mice, were exposed under selected conditions in six different general types of instrumented above- and belowground shelters to blast produced by nuclear explosions. The distance of the several structures from Ground Zero ranged from 1050 to 5500 ft. The most severe alterations in the pressure environment occurring inside the structures followed the detonation of a nuclear device with a yield approximately 50% greater than nominal. The highest overpressure to which animals were exposed was 85.8 psi, the rise time of which was 4 msec. The overpressure endured for about 570 msec. Overpressures ranged from this maximum downward in 15 other exposure situations to a minimum of 1.3 psi enduring for nearly 1346 msec but rising to a maximum in about 420 msec. The latter pressure occurred inside a reinforced concrete bathroom shelter, which was the only surviving part of a house otherwise totally destroyed, at 4700 ft where the outside incident pressure was about 5 psi. Following the nuclear explosions, all animals were recovered, examined, sacrificed, and subjected to gross and microscopic pathological study. All lesions were tabulated and described.more » The results of pressure-time data, documenting the variations on the pressure environment, are presented and analyzed, and an exploratory attempt is made to relate the alterations in the pressure environment to the associated pathology observed. A critical review of selected material from the blast and related literature is presented. All data are discussed, and the several problems related to the design and construction of protective shelters are noted and briefly, but analytically, assessed. The most outstanding contribution of the field experiments and the related study of the literature was the unequivocal demonstration that the provision of adequate protective structures can indeed be an effective means of sharply reducing casualties which would otherwise be associated with the detonation of modern large-scale explosive devices. (auth)« less

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