BusinessPoliticsEnvironment
Peninsula Daily News
Sunday, December 19, 2010
D5
How to survive a nuclear bomb blast New advice as officials rethink the unthinkable By William J. Broad The New York Times
NEW YORK — Suppose the unthinkable happened, and terrorists struck New York or another big city with an atom bomb. What should people there do? The government has a surprising new message: Do not flee. Get inside any stable building and don’t come out till officials say it’s safe. The advice is based on recent scientific analyses showing that a nuclear attack is much more survivable if you immediately shield yourself from the lethal radiation that follows a blast, a simple tactic seen as saving hundreds of thousands of lives. Even staying in a car, the studies show, would reduce casualties by more than 50 percent; hunkering down in a basement would be better by far. But a problem for the Obama administration is how to spread the word without seeming alarmist about a subject that few politicians care to consider, let alone discuss. So officials are proceeding gingerly in a campaign
to educate the public. Officials say they are moving aggressively to conduct drills, prepare communication guides and raise awareness among emergency planners of how to educate the public. Over the years, Washington has sought to prevent nuclear terrorism and limit its harm, mainly by governmental means. It has spent tens of billions of dollars on everything from intelligence and securing nuclear materials to equipping local authorities with radiation detectors. The new wave is citizen preparedness. For people who survive the initial blast, the main advice is to fight the impulse to run and instead seek shelter from lethal radioactivity. Even a few hours of protection, officials say, can greatly increase survival rates. Administration officials argue that the cold war created an unrealistic sense of fatalism about a terrorist nuclear attack. “It’s more survivable than most people think,” said an official deeply
involved in the planning, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “The key is avoiding nuclear fallout.” The administration is making that argument with state and local authorities and has started to do so with the general public as well. Its Citizen Corps website says a nuclear detonation is “potentially survivable for thousands, especially with adequate shelter and education.” A color illustration shows which kinds of buildings and rooms offer the best protection from radiation.
Citizen guide In June, the administration released to emergency officials around the nation an unclassified planning guide 130 pages long on how to respond to a nuclear attack. It stressed citizen education, before any attack. Without that knowledge, the guide added, “people will be more likely to follow the natural instinct to run from danger, potentially exposing themselves to fatal doses of radiation.” Specialists outside of Washington are divided on the initiative. One group says the administration is overreacting to an atomic threat that is all but nonexistent.
But another school says that the potential consequences are so high that the administration is, if anything, being too timid. White House officials say they are aware of the issue’s political delicacy but are nonetheless moving ahead briskly.
A blast, and . . . A nuclear blast produces a blinding flash, burning heat and crushing wind. The fireball and mushroom cloud carry radioactive particles upward, and the wind sends them near and far. The government initially knew little about radioactive fallout. But in the 1950s, as the cold war intensified, scientists monitoring test explosions learned that the tiny particles throbbed with fission products — fragments of split atoms, many highly radioactive and potentially lethal. But after a burst of interest in fallout shelters, the public and even the government grew increasingly skeptical about civil defense as nuclear arsenals grew to hold thousands of warheads. In dozens of programs, the Bush administration focused on prevention but also dealt with disaster response and the acquisition of items like
The Associated Press
A mother and her children make a practice run for their $5,000 steel backyard fallout shelter in Sacramento, Calif., in 1961. radiation detectors. “Public education is key,” Daniel J. Kaniewski, a security expert at George Washington University, said in an interview. “But it’s easier for com-
munities to buy equipment — and look for tech solutions — because there’s Homeland Security money and no shortage of contractors to supply the silver bullet.”
Has anybody noticed the new penny yet? Peninsula Daily News news services
WASHINGTON — You may have noticed a small change in your small change. More likely, you haven’t. Gone from the new Lincoln penny is the reproduction of the Lincoln Memorial, complete with a really tiny seated Lincoln, that has been “tails” since 1959. In its place is a “Union Shield,” a simple acorn of 13 stripes capped with the motto “E Pluribus Unum.” On the “heads” side, the iconic profile of the 16th president by Victor David Brenner remains unchanged. The U.S. Mint has been stamping out the new design since February; presses in Philadelphia and Denver have produced more than 3.6 billion of them. But officials said banks have been slow to request new coins because of the down economy. It will be years, they said, before shield pennies become as common as the tens of billions of Lincoln Memorial pennies now filling sofa cracks and dresser
tops across the country. Mint spokesman Michael White said few comments have come from the public, probably because few have spotted the new design. “It’s a phenomenon of notice — once you see one, they’re everywhere,” White said. “But you don’t tend to examine your change unless you’re a coin collector.”
‘I’m miss it’ Most visitors to the Lincoln Memorial — where a huge mock-up of the old penny adorns the entrance to an exhibit hall — said they were sorry to see the memorial end its half-century run as the most common edifice in American pockets. “This building has a lot of meaning for me,” said Victor Schubert, 73, a Racine, Wis., lawyer who first came to Washington on a high-school trip and still makes time to walk up the steps to see the giant Lincoln whenever he’s in town. “I stood right by that column on the corner and looked out over this beautiful expanse and decided I
wanted to become a lawyer. “I’ll miss seeing it on the penny.” Janey Hockenhull, chaperoning a group of fifthgraders from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., said she doesn’t like to see perfectly good coins get the flip, as it were. “If something doesn’t need changing, don’t change it,” she said. “What was wrong with the old penny?” Nothing, Mint officials said, but that didn’t stop Congress from demanding a new one, as it has about every 50 years since the Lincoln penny was introduced in 1909 to mark the centennial of the great man’s birth. Just as that first design, with ears of wheat framing the reverse side, gave way to the Memorial penny in 1959, lawmakers directed the Mint to update the coin again this year. (For Lincoln’s actual bicentennial year, 2009, the Mint released four commemorative pennies depicting different phases of his life.) “It really hasn’t made
much of a ripple this time except in coin circles,” said Douglas Mudd, curator of the American Numismatic Association’s Money Museum in Colorado Springs, Colo. “I think it was a bigger deal when the wheat penny went away. Some people got very worked up about that one.” U.S. Mint Part of the reason the The new penny replaces the Lincoln Memorial new penny has dropped without much reaction may with a “Union Shield” on the “tails” side. be a general new-coin ing quarters honoring wasn’t dictated by Congress, fatigue, Mudd said. national parks, including White said. Gary Marks, chairman of Olympic National Park, and Makeover the Citizens Coinage Adviother scenic sites.) After decades when Thomas Jefferson’s nickel sory Committee, a congresalmost nothing on U.S. coins received a face-lift in 2006, sionally appointed body, changed except the year they presenting a full-frontal pro- pushed for the Union Shield, were minted, the past 10 file to cashiers everywhere which he said was quite popyears have seen almost every with an image based on a ular during the Civil War, coin receive a makeover. 1800 portrait by Rembrandt appearing on frescoes in the Starting in 1999, the Peale. Capitol and carved into a lot State Quarter project began Coin buffs gobble up of public marble around replacing the long-standing every tweak, of course, and town. eagle reverse with images Mint officials say it is impor“It was on beer mugs, from each state and, eventu- tant to revisit currency furniture,” Marks said. “For ally, the District of Colum- design every few decades for Americans of the time, the bia. security and aesthetic pur- Union Shield was broadly seen as a symbol of national The quarters initiative poses. proved to be the Mint’s most But they also know that unity.” His commission selected successful program, turning too much change makes conmany thousands of citizens sumers feel funny about the shield design from among several proposals, and the their money. into collectors. The new shield design Treasury adopted it. (The Mint now is releas-
New Washington law aims to protect emergency vehicles, first responders Peninsula Daily News news services
Two of his troopers “had to jump in the ditch” to avoid being hit by Atchison’s car, which was shoved off the road. Atchison’s patrol car was totaled and the driver who hit him was cited for speeding and following another vehicle too closely. The 15-year patrol veteran suffered injuries to his knee and lower back. “I went to the hospital, and I’ve been sore ever
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The law remains the same under the “Emergency Zone Law” but creates the 200-foot zones in front and behind emergency vehicles, doubling the penalty for failing to slow down or safely move over within the zone. In 2008, a year after the “Move Over Law” went into effect, 30 patrol cars were hit by motorists on state highways. Last year, an additional 28 patrol vehicles were hit by drivers during roadside traffic stops and other investigations, Burns said. One of those vehicles was assigned to State Patrol Sgt. Dan Atchison. In October 2008, he and other troopers were tracking an escaped sex offender
Jumped in ditch
since,” Atchison said. But Burns and other officials who attended the news briefing said it’s not just troopers who are at risk from impaired, speeding and distracted drivers. In September, tow-truck driver Tony Padilla, 51, of Burien, was hooking up a disabled vehicle on southbound Interstate 5 in Seattle when he was fatally struck by a vehicle. The driver and passenger both fled the scene but were later arrested. The driver has been accused of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Between April 2009 and Nov. 30 of this year, troopers contacted 2,940 drivers and issued 592 citations under the “Move Over Law,” according to the patrol.
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200-foot zones
and had set up a containment zone on east Interstate 90 near North Bend. When two speeding vehicles came around a bend, one hit the other and then careened into Atchison’s patrol car, which had its lights on and was parked in a median to the left of the highway.
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OLYMPIA — Drivers who speed past emergency vehicles stopped on state highways or fail to give first-responders more room will face hefty new penalties beginning Jan. 1. The state’s new “Emergency Zone Law” builds on the 2007 “Move Over Law,” creating a 200-foot zone around stationary emergency vehicles that have their lights activated — including patrol cars, fire engines, tow trucks and state Department of Transportation vehicles. The enhanced law is meant to offer greater protection to first-responders, said Capt. Steve Burns, commander of the State Patrol’s District 2, which covers King County. Speeding fines in the emergency zones will double, and fines for failing to slow down and safely move over will increase from $124 to $248, he said. “This gives the law a little bit more bite,” said Burns at a news briefing Tuesday morning in a AAA garage bay in Seattle. Under the existing law, motorists traveling on a roadway with at least two lanes in their direction of travel must move over a
lane from the shoulder when approaching a stationary emergency vehicle with its lights activated. They are also required to slow down and proceed with caution. On roadways with only one lane in their direction of travel, motorists must pass to the left of an emergency vehicle if they’re able to safely do so, while yielding the right of way to all vehicles traveling in the opposite direction.
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