Files E - H

Farm Animals. Farm animals may receive beta contamination from fallout particles landing on hair, skin or fur. Data is available to calculate the recovery time for acute exposures to mice, swine, dogs, sheep, goats, burros & primates but not for domestic cows. Symptoms include feed refusal, loss of weight, depression, diarrhoea, bloody haemorrhages either orally of on the actual skin of the animal. With the exception of mice there is no dependable recovery model as the rate of recovery is species dependent.

MAFF Circular No E1/77

Feeding. The emergency feeding equipment allocated to Essex county council in 1985 was:
600 Soya Boilers, 260 field kitchens, 950 milk churns, 36500 blue plastic feeding bowls & 38300 plastic spoons. (The population of Essex at the time excluding refugees from London was 1.5 million)

Fire. The fire equipment to put out the fires caused by a nuclear attack on the UK to be issued countrywide during the “Transition to War” phase was. 1079 Green Goddess emergency pumps. 142 Land Rovers. 369 Bedford Trucks. 78000 lengths of 75ft fire hose. 2321 lightweight portable hose pumps. 87000 lengths of 16ft steel hosepipe. 666x 20000 gallon circular steel water dams.

Fire Service Circular 6/1984.

Fish. The published MAFF guidance on fish consumption post-nuclear attack concludes. Fish is only a minor food source in UK. Fish is very perishable & processing & distribution through organised cold stores MAY prove difficult in the post strike period. Contamination of fish flesh from radionuclides may include iodine-131, cerium-141, cerium-144, zirconium-95, strontium-89, ruthenium-103, caesium-137, strontium-90 & ruthenium-106. One of the determining factors is the depth of the oceans or the depth to the bottom in shallow inshore waters. Contamination assumptions have been collated from data received from weapon test data gathered in the Pacific. Fish even assuming the fisherman have received an acceptable whole body dose of gamma radiation are unlikely to provide a significant contribution to the nuclear survivors diet.

Food. The strategic stockpile of foodstuffs held for distribution to the population surviving an attack includes, flour, yeast, sugar, fat, biscuits, tinned meat & cake mix. In excess of 200.000 tons of goods are stockpiled.

Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries & Food 1995.

Gold. In the 1969,s the government stated that a 10-megaton bomb dropped on London may not destroy the gold at the Bank of England but render it unavailable. It was suggested that sufficient gold reserved to meet the needs of the nation could be evacuated prior to a nuclear war & any further gold required could be dug out as required. In 1963 there was some 400000 bars of gold wieghing some 5000 tons. It was calculated that 150 lorries could move approximately half of the bullion reserve in 3 days.

Greater London Council. As to a reasonable estimate of the costs of NFZ (Nuclear Free Zone) activities by the council including full-time staff, grants, overheads and indirect or hidden subsidies. I have concluded that the total burden on public funds of all these GLC activities could not be less than £3 million for the period 1981-85.

Simon Turney. Chairman of the GLC Public Services & Fire-Brigade Committee 25th June 1985.

Ground Shock. Hack Green Bunker can survive a sustained ground shock of an acceleration force through the ground of 80 meters per second. This is the vibration the bunker is subjected to by the pressure wave propagating through the ground.

Handy Hints. Action on Attack Warning. Check you have sent the children to the fall-out room. Check you have turned off the gas & electricity. Check you have shut all the widows & closed all curtains. Check you have remembered to push in any aerial on your radio.

HMSO Protect & Survive Pamphlet.

Home Defence. A likely estimate by military strategists in the event of a nuclear war is that about 200 megatons of nuclear weapons would be detonated over the UK. The effect would be heavy damage over 5% of the UK land mass, moderate damage over 15% and the remainder would suffer light damage. The strike would cause about 20 million initial deaths with about 36 million survivors although many of these would die within days or months. However if a strike came “out of the blue” with no warning or time to make preparations the number of survivors would be halved. It is our belief & policy that an effective home defence organisation to prepare & warn the general public could save millions of lives and would be of invaluable help to survivors during the recovery phase.

Conservative Party Policy Centre. London 1976

Files L - P

Law & Order 1. Control of violence is vital. You have the right to act under common law. A peacekeeping force is illegal in peacetime. If the police arrive you must place yourself at their disposal. Avoid harsh & ruthless action. When dealing with violence, weapons should be restricted to a strong staff of similar device. Use of firearms is to be avoided.

Wiltshire Emergency Planning. Guidance for community leaders in the event of a nuclear war 1981.

Law & Order 2. Punishment should be a matter of communal opinion. The most serious crime is murder. If faced with a serious case of murder the community leadership should try to contact a higher authority. If this is not possible it is a matter for the entire community to decide. Any extreme action by the leader will be upheld if: “ There was no likelihood of contacting a higher authority. The action taken was imperative and the decision was made in consultation with others.The leader acted in the best interests of the community, he acted responsibly and in good faith and that no lesser action would suffice.”

Wiltshire Emergency Planning. Guidance for community leaders in the event of a nuclear war 1981

MANCHESTER. Manchester City Council 5th November 1980

Motion made that this council in the light of it’s pre-determined policy concerning the dangers of nuclear weapons calls upon Her Majesty’s Government to refrain from the manufacture or positioning of any nuclear weapons of any kind within the boundaries of our city. We believe that it is not in the interests of our people to be either the initiators or the magnet of a nuclear holocaust and firmly believe that such unequivocal statements would clearly indicate the overwhelming desires of the people we represent and could lay the groundwork for the creation and development of a nuclear-free zone in Europe.

(For the motion, 55 against the motion 16. The motion was carried & approved)

Meat-on-the-Hoof. The flesh of cattle, poultry, sheep, pigs ect will be safe to eat provided the animals are slaughtered before they become sick with radiation sickness.

Nuclear Handbook for Staff Officers (War Office 1963)

Megatons. It is thought that in a nuclear war the UK would expect 200 megatons of nuclear weapons to be delivered against approximately 80 targets.

Central Office of Information 1980

Mobile Bakeries. The 1950’s plan for feeding the survivors of a nuclear attack called for the provision of 250 mobile bakeries. 15 were purchased, by 1970 there were still only 15 in store. 14 of these bakeries working 24 hours a day could produce 1300 tons of bread per week. The projected need for bread based on giving each of the 42 million expected survivors a three-quarter pound loaf each per week was 12250 tons.

Nuclear Terrorism (see Sellafield file).
The willingness of terrorists to sacrifice their lives to achieve their evil aims creates a new dimension in fight against terrorism. Now we are alerted to the potential of terrorists targeting nuclear facilities or using radioactive sources to incite panic, contaminate property & even cause injury & death among civilian populations.

Mohamed El Baradei (Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency)

Oppenhimer. “If atomic bombs are to be added to the arsenals of a Warring world then the time will come when mankind will curse the name of Los Alamos & Hiroshima. The peoples of the world must unite or they will shurely perish”

J Robert Oppenheimer 16th Oct 1945.

Pigeons. The Regional Government Controllers powers under the Emergency Powers Act included:
“ The power to cull all homing pigeons”.

Pindar. Project Pindar is the Whitehall Strategic Command Centre for the Ministry of Defence. Operational in December 1982 the bunker cost £126 million of which £66 million was spent on the construction & £60 million on systems installation.

The Times 1996

Politicians. Commenting on Government statistics on the effects of nuclear incidents & war the Leeds City Council, Peace & Emergency Planning Sub-Committee said “ A politician uses statistics like a drunk uses a lamppost-for support rather than illumination”.

Potatoes. For a meal consisting of meat & vegetables about 2cwt of potatoes would need to be peeled for 400 meals. (1 ton for 4000 meals) Allowing for wastage, which varies according to the type of potato and the season, this provides about a 6oz portion per person. It is estimated that the time taken for four people to peel 1 cwt of average quality potatoes is about 1 hour.

Metropolitan District Emergency Feeding Plan 1985

Protective Measures. Suitable clothing for use in a fallout area includes: Well clothed denim overalls. Gumboots or strong leather boots. Strong plastic or fabric gloves to prevent direct ingress of radioactive material into the body. “Scarf” or sweat rags around the neck to stop radioactive dust getting in. If no respirator is available a simple lint or “smog” face mask (a handkerchief over the nose & mouth could be used in an emergency) A closely fitting helmet or hat such as a beret, which will keep radioactive dust out of the hair, since the head is more difficult to de-contaminate than the rest of the body.

Civil Defence Instructors Book HMSO 1960

Files Q - T

Queen Elizabeth 11. “Their awesome destructive power has preserved the world from major war for the past 35 years. So far nuclear weapons have served as a deterrent. But for the bomb to remain a threat, politicians must be seen to be prepared to use it. There are no winners in the nuclear arms race. What happened at Hiroshima should serve to remind the world of the nightmarish consequences of nuclear war. If the memory of that city’s suffering will prevent a future Armageddon, then the children of Hiroshima will have not died in vain”

Speech by Queen Elizabeth 11 1980.

Sellafield (see nuclear terrorism file). The number of fatal cancers produce by the Chernobyl incident was 30000.
United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Nuclear Radiation (UNSCEAR)
If all the caesium-137 in just one of the 14 full tanks at Sellafield in Cumbria were to be released, the radioactivity would cause approximately 170,000 fatal cancers.

Semi-Solid Foods. Food of a semi-solid nature such as meats, fats & cheese are reasonably safe to eat if previously wrapped in wax paper. If in doubt to render them safe remove a layer of about 15mm from the outside. On the other hand fresh butter & cheese from cows grazing on contaminated land must be destroyed.

Nuclear Handbook for Staff Officers. (War Office 1963)

SHEFFIELD. The multitudinous grants to NFZ (Nuclear Free Zone) activities made by the City Council include:

£10000 for producing an up-dated version of the BBC film “The War Game”
£500 for producing an anti-nuclear scenario for Sheffield.
£250 for presenting the scenario.
£100 for affiliation fees to the “Anti Trident Campaign”.
£915 for a research project on Civil Defence.
£500 for office equipment for Sheffield Peace Shop.
£200 for a production of “ When the Wind Blows” by the Skylight theatre company.
£200 for printing postcards saying “Sheffield a Nuclear Free Zone)
£4000 for mailing every household in Sheffield with the leaflet “ You & the Bomb”
£1000 to SANA for “Nuclear Winter Initiatives)
£1000 to Sheffield peace liaison committee
£1000 to the NFZ steering committee.
£510 to “Various individuals” to make anti-nuclear films & videos.
£2673 to “Various individuals” in connection with NFZ &CND conferences.
£850 for the production & £1115 for the purchase of anti-nuclear videotapes.
£793 for the “Sheffield Peace Film Group”
£200 for the purchase of cassettes of “One World Peace Song)
£90000 1982-85. Salary for Mr Jim Coleman. Sheffield Peace Officer.
£20000 Sheffield Peace Shop rental subsidy.

Shelters. The risk of war is at present considered so slight that the enormous expense of providing shelters to every family in the land cannot be justified.

Civil Defence Booklet 1985

Southport. The Regional Centre of Government at Southport in Lancashire, flooded every time the rain came in. A stock of extra wellingtons was purchased but the RGHQ was abandoned and it’s responsibilities transferred to RGHQ Hack Green in Cheshire.

Spaghetti Junction. If a 1-megaton nuclear device exploded at Spaghetti Junction (the intersection of the M6/M5/A38 in Birmingham) a crater 300 metres wide and 200 feet deep would replace the motorway interchange.

Surprise. A surprise attack of which we would receive only 4 minutes warning, whilst not impossible is considered unlikely.

Civil Defence Plan 1990

Tax. Expenditure necessarily incurred & commercial undertakings in, making civil defence arrangements can be classed as “revenue expenditure” and may be regarded as admissible as a deduction in computing trading profits for income tax and corporation tax purposes.

Industrial & Civil Defence Bulletin No 4 1967

Toilet Shelter. In 1985 Somerset council was given £20000 towards the cost of re-furbishing it’s Civil Defence HQ. When inspected by the Home Office it was found to have an outside toilet!

The Treasury. The treasury had 2 principle roles during a nuclear war. 1 the provision of currency post war. 2 the funding of overseas operations, this meant the funding of overseas embassies, bulk purchase of foodstuffs to ship back to England ect. It was planned to centralise these treasury responsibilities using our embassy in Washington USA. UNTIL someone in planning pointed out that Washington was an even more probable target than London. The plans were abandoned.

Files U - Z

Water. The water authority target is that by 14 days after a nuclear attack, they will provide 5 litres of water per person per day. (The peacetime domestic usage is 120 litres per day per person every effort must be made to conserve water post-strike. After the first heavy downpour of rain & when reported as safe to do so by the mobile radiac reporting teams, water must be collected from rooftops. This can be stored in either containers issued to each feeding centre or by improvised containers on-site.

Metropolitan District Emergency Feeding Plan 1985

Who invented nuclear weapons?

1898 Marie Curie discovered radium gave off tiny particles. This energy wads called “radioactivity”

1905 Albert Einstein invented the theory that all energy was “locked up” inside the atom.

1919 British Scientist Ernest Rutherford discovered that atoms could be split into their constituent parts.

1932 British Scientist James Chadwick identified the neutron.

1938 Two German Scientists Otto Frisch & Rudolf Peierls flee Nazi Germany having thought of nuclear fission to make a bomb.

1939 Two German Scientists Otto Hahn & Fritz Strassman discover nuclear chain reaction.

1940 American Scientist John Dunning identifies Uranium 235.

1942 Julius Robert Oppenheimer leads the “Manhattan Project” at Los Alamos in the USA.

WMD & the USA. Weapons of mass destruction in the possession of hostile states and terrorists represent one of the greatest security challenges facing the United States. We must pursue a comprehensive strategy to counter this threat in all its dimensions.
US National Strategy to Combat WMD 2002
Comment: Apparently in the Strategic Review the Pentagon has prepared contingency plans to use nuclear weapons pre-emtively against 7 or more countries, including China, Iran, Libia, Iraq, Russia & Syria.