Protective Gear during a Nuclear Attack

12.31.eighteen | Mon | Nofit Amir

"We cannot expect that the defensive measures we take to forestall terrorists from infiltrating a nuclear device into our country volition succeed indefinitely in a world where more and more nations—some reliable, others less so—learn the capabilities to build the bomb. Like the levees around New Orleans, sooner or later the rising tide of nuclear weaponry will break through those barriers." James E. Goodby, Foreign diplomacy specialist nether five presidents and Distinguished Visiting Young man at Stanford University'due south Hoover Establishment.

When radioactive material and flop-making components were establish in an apartment about Tampa, Florida, last year – as role of an unrelated homicide investigation – the growing trouble of readily attainable blackness market radioactive fabric was brought to the fore. Four men in their early on 20s, members of a Neo-Nazi terrorist grouping called Atomwaffen Division ("atomic weapons" in German), may have been planning to carry out a mass casualty radiological attack. The presence of weapons, explosives, radioactive cloth and a framed photograph of Timothy McVeigh (the Oklahoma Urban center bomber) in their apartment suggested their intentions. Yet it was a deadly dispute among the men that led law enforcement to discover the radioactive fabric before an attack could be executed.

According to many nuclear experts, information technology'south only a matter of fourth dimension until a plot to detonate a nuclear or radiological device is able to skid past intelligence and constabulary enforcement officials. Avenues for attaining radioactive material are growing and include the black market place and countries that loosely guard their nuclear textile. Radioactive material has been stolen from numerous medical facilities in the Us co-ordinate to a Homeland Security study. In add-on, terrorists such as the abovementioned members of the Atomwaffen Division aspire to cause nuclear havoc by damaging nuclear reactors. Coupled with the threat of existing nuclear capabilities of hostile strange countries, there is a existent crusade for business concern nearly mortiferous radiation exposure and a need to fix for the day when prevention fails.

The 3 forms of radiation emitted in a nuclear or radiological incident are known as alpha, beta and gamma. The means to protect against these radiation types are:

How to foreclose radiation exposure:

Heavy clothing and even the outer layers of the peel prevent internal damage from alpha and beta radiation types (along with a respirator to forbid inhalation). Gamma radiation, however, is much more hard to deal with. Gamma radiation involves loftier energy photons that easily penetrate the body, even from dandy distances.

StemRad's solution to the gamma radiation trouble is to selectively protect the nearly vulnerable cells in the body, thus avoiding the need for heavy material. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and numerous medical studies, the immediate cause of serious injury and death due to exposure to gamma radiation is damage to stem cells. Without them, the body cannot produce blood or fight disease.

In addition, stem cells are crucial for the body's rehabilitation post-obit radiation exposure. Thus, StemRad's solution, which shields stem-cell rich parts of the body (such as bone marrow in the pelvic area), both reduces the chance of firsthand death at loftier radiations levels and helps the body'south natural recovery. The table below shows results of product testing, verified by the U.Southward. Section of Free energy.

Lethality from gamma radiation is a remote possibilityusing StemRad's shield  while it grows to 95% at a very high dose without the shield. Figures tin can alter depending on radioisotope.

Read nearly how StemRad's engineering is being used to protect NASA astronauts from large bursts of space radiations.