Talk:Kearny fallout meter

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Hopelessly optimistic

The article lead section claims the Kearny fallout meter can be built "using common household items". Even a cursory scan of the online instructions shows this to be false. It would be a rare family or individual that would have all the needed materials on hand during or after a nuclear attack. Moreover, even if one had the materials, being unfamiliar with the plans might mean precious hours to days of study and gathering of the "common household items" to even begin construction. If radiation contamination were present, the delay could mean the difference between life an death. — Quicksilver (Hydrargyrum)^{T @} 18:21, 9 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

This is the complete materials list, summarized from Nuclear War Survival Skills, App. C: A Homemade Fallout Meter, the KFM:

8-ounce tin can
2 square feet of aluminium foil
6 inches of insulated wire
insulative thread (unwaxed dental floss, fishing line, or degreased hair)
4mil vinyl or polyethlene sheeting
cloth-reinforced duct tape
Scotch-type transparent tape
gypsum wallboard
pencil, matchstick, or toothpick
rubber bands or string
transparent sandwich bags
hard plastic and dry paper (for generating static electricity)
a clock, light, a pencil, and paper (for recording and calculations)
a bucket, large enough to fit the can inside

Assuming you were willing to tear apart an interior wall for dosimeter materials (and many would be, given an impending nuclear disaster), the only thing that might be an issue (to most people I know) is the insulative thread, as it might require collecting and testing multiple materials. Do you think the materials list should be added to the article? What materials did you think a typical house[hold] would lack? Also, the book the instructions were included in advocates building the devices, or at least familiarizing yourself with the instructions and stocking your shelter with the necessary materials, before an emergency. It does not suggest leaving a likely-safe shelter to gather materials. However, it does state that many shelter locations (including the basements of buildings marked as fallout shelters, and the few public shelters built by the US government) do not provide significant protection against heavy fallout. "If radiation contamination were present...", without this (or a calibrated commercial device), you wouldn't know either way.

ʍ w 13:31, 10 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The complaint also shows no sign of exactly what roles the KFM would be useful for. For example, if you wait until a crisis looms, it's not what you build first, so that it fallout reaches you, you'll know it'll be deadly in N hours. Rather, you build your shelter first, a KFM then can tell you when it's safe to venture out, for how long, etc., instead of you're having to use over-conservative metrics.

And don't forget that all his group's stuff was tested with real people, and one interesting thing came out of the KFM tests, the greater the formal education of the builder, the less likely he was at successfully building it.... Hga (talk) 00:00, 15 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]