Part of Phase 5: Rebuilding Technology. The overview is Nuclear Safety.
Radiation cannot be seen, smelled or felt, so this section is organised around what a settlement can do without instruments: keep time short, distance large and mass between people and the source, and keep radioactive dust off skin and out of food. Every dose, half-life, half-value-layer and distance figure is either taken from the overview article or marked as recalled and unverified, and the pages say plainly what an improvised electroscope can and cannot show.
The most important distinction in the section is between irradiation, exposure to radiation from a source, and contamination, radioactive material on or in a person or object. An irradiated person is not a hazard to others; a contaminated person is. Washing helps only the second, and the pages on decontamination, protection and food all depend on that difference.
Radiation Physics
What radiation is, the four kinds, how fast it fades and how it is measured.
- Radiation Fundamentals
- Types of Radiation
- Penetration & Shielding
- Ionizing vs Non-Ionizing
- Half-Life
- Units of Measurement
Health Effects And Treatment
What radiation does to the body, and the narrow set of things that can be done about it.
- Health Effects
- Acute Radiation Syndrome
- Dose Thresholds
- Treatment Protocols
- Chronic Exposure
- Contamination vs Irradiation
Detection And Survey
Finding radiation without a calibrated instrument, and the honest limits of doing so.
- Detection Methods
- Improvised Detectors
- Electroscope Construction
- Biological Indicators
- Survey Procedures
Fallout, Zones And Decontamination
Where contamination goes, how to map and control it, and how to clean what it reaches.
- Contamination Zones
- Zone Classification
- Fallout Patterns
- Weather Monitoring
- Decontamination
- Exclusion Zones
Shielding, Shelter And Personal Protection
Time, distance and mass, worked out as mass per square metre and half-value layers.
Nuclear Facilities And Sources
Reactors, spent fuel, waste and sealed sources, and why the answer to all of them is distance.
- Nuclear Facility Hazards
- Reactor Status Assessment
- Spent Fuel Dangers
- Waste Site Identification
- Signage & Markings
- Safe Distances
Food And Water
How contamination reaches the diet and how to choose what to eat and drink.