# Building question



## TNmedicman (Nov 8, 2009)

Hello all. I am new here but a long time believer in what this site is about. Here is my question. I live very close to several Nuclear Reactors and need to know some info about fall out. I am in the planning stage of a new house. I want the basement of it to be able to serve double duty as a SHTF shelter/fallout shelter. I am making the walls double layer of concrete blocks and providing for all of the other required items. The question is I know I need 3 feet of earth on top of the structure but what would that equate in concrete. Would the floor need to be poured 3 feet deep or would some other shallower depth work. If you have any insight I would greatly appreciate it.
And yes I am planning it to be completely off grid. Thanks in advance.


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## NaeKid (Oct 17, 2008)

Copy-n-paste:



Wikipedia said:


> *Shielding*
> A basic fallout shelter consists of shields that reduce gamma ray exposure by a factor of 1000. The required shielding can be accomplished with 10 times the amount of any quantity of material capable of cutting gamma ray effects in half. Shields that reduce gamma ray intensity by 50% (1/2) include 1 cm (0.4 inch) of lead, 6 cm (2.4 inches) of concrete, 9 cm (3.6 inches) of packed dirt or 150 m (500 ft) of air. When multiple thicknesses are built, the shielding multiplies. Thus, a practical fallout shield is ten halving-thicknesses of packed dirt, reducing gamma rays by 1024 times (210).
> 
> Usually, an expedient purpose-built fallout shelter is a trench, with a strong roof buried by ~1 m (3 ft) of dirt. The two ends of the trench have ramps or entrances at right angles to the trench, so that gamma rays cannot enter (they can travel only in straight lines). To make the overburden waterproof (in case of rain), a plastic sheet should be buried a few inches below the surface and held down with rocks or bricks.


Having a combination of concrete 5" thick plus dirt / grass / plants above the uppermost point of the shelter should provide you with sufficient protection.


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## TechAdmin (Oct 1, 2008)

Can you post pics of what your doing? I'm in the pre- preliminary stages of building a shelter and I need ideas.


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## TNmedicman (Nov 8, 2009)

I have just started the earth work but will post pics as I go. I will try to download some JPGs of the blueprints that I made for this project and some of the specs. Maybe I can get some feed back and suggestions on things that I have not thought of.


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## NaeKid (Oct 17, 2008)

Are you planning to do your own concrete-forms / pouring or are you thinking about using premade industrial-systems (concrete-piping)? How deep are you planning to dig?


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## bunkerbob (Sep 29, 2009)

Let me know what questions you might have, I'am building my second shelter, presently under the slab of my workshop, my first shelter was a earth sheltered concrete structure at my last home. If you look under my posts you will see a few photos. Yesterday I broke into the sewer line to gain access for a manual pump-up style toilet. Today I'm hooking up the 4" steel pipe intake air supply, which will go to a 4" cast iron/stainless steel knife valve, then to a filter/UV light assembly, on to a in line fan, then to a large hand cranked air pump. I have done a lot of research, including designing a refillable scrubber filter for CO2, that uses pelletized carbon and Sofnolime pellets. Post a few photos maybe I can help, or exchange ideas. Here are some photos...the filter system shown is for the house, a smaller version is for the shelter.


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## TNmedicman (Nov 8, 2009)

NaeKid the plan is to build the shelter out of 1-possibly 2 separate layers of concrete blocks that get back filled with concrete. I am wanting to make it just deep enough to be effective yet not so deep that it can not be used as a usable living space.

Bunker Bob I thank you for the offer of the assistance. As of now the plan is to install a Macerating unit for all of the waste produced that is backup powered off of a generator that is going to be placed into a vault off of the main living area. I plan to install a 500 gallon water tank underground at the same level as the shelter with a hand pump at this time for water supply. 

As for air intake and exhaust I am planning a 4-6 inch pipe running out to a steel custom built box to house some type of filtration system. I have priced ball type shut off valves I was planning on putting into the filtration boxes that are 12 volts to shut off the airflow when needed. 

I do appreciate any and all information you are willing to share. 
This is my first and hopefully last shelter I am going to build. I have just purchased 23 acres in north georgia that I hope to make very defendable should I have to.


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## bunkerbob (Sep 29, 2009)

I have a 12vdc macerating pump also, but, the plan is to make this shelter as manual as possible. http://www.jabsco.com/products/mari...lets_copy_29090_and_29120/iid_4268/index.htmI this toilet will feed directly into my existing septic tank and system. I will also have a bank of 6vdc T-105 batteries, charged from my existing off-grid power system, these will be wired to produce 24vdc, which will feed a Trace SW4024 to provide more than enough AC power. The propane genset I use will be wired in also and enabled to be turned on either manually or automatically from inside the shelter. I'm planning to have all valves and filters in shelter so they can be serviced within without going outside. I just got 2-300cf 3000psi air cylinders to pressurized the shelter if necessary.


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## TNmedicman (Nov 8, 2009)

Now that sounds like the direction that I am wanting to go. Thanks for the site


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## Dflyin1 (Jan 2, 2010)

*You and I must live very close*

I live close enough to Watts bar to see the steam off in the distance and Sequoyah is not far away either. I downloaded an old Fema document printed during the cold war that told what the specs were for building such a room for max protection. It was very interesting if I find it I will post a link to it here.


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## sailaway (Mar 12, 2009)

I live close to Davis Bessie, 16 miles and am more interested in a SHTF location far enough away from a Nuke that I don't have to worry about it going up. Does anybody know what a safe distance away would be? 50 miles? up wind or down wind?:scratch Sail


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## NaeKid (Oct 17, 2008)

sailaway said:


> I live close to Davis Bessie, 16 miles and am more interested in a SHTF location far enough away from a Nuke that I don't have to worry about it going up. Does anybody know what a safe distance away would be? 50 miles? up wind or down wind?:scratch Sail


According to the wiki:



wikipedia said:


> According to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, 20 states in the USA have requested stocks of potassium iodide which the NRC suggests should be available for those living within 10 miles (16 km) of a nuclear power plant in the unlikely event of a severe accident.[14] Iodine is a fission product in a nuclear reactor, and in the event of a severe accident a fraction of that iodine is expected to leak from the fuel and out of the containment building. If ingested, this iodine would tend to be accumulated by a person's thyroid. Potassium iodine pills are intended to flood the body with normal iodine, making it less likely the radioactive variety would be absorbed.


I believe from that information that if you are greater than 10 miles upwind of a nuke-plant you would be in the safer-zone if you have notice to evacuate soon enough. If you read the information about the blast-zone of Chernobyl, that blast-zone was close to 18 miles and that the residents of that zone were not informed of the problem for a day and a half (36hrs).

The greatest after-effect of the blast is thyroid cancer with many children of that general being diagnosed with thyroid cancer since the blast. It is believed that if an evacuation happened immediatly and if the children did not drink contaminated milk (local cow-milk) the chances of thyriod cancer could have been significantly lower.

If you have your own geiger counter and with that tool, have early enough notice of radiation, you could possibly be on the road away from the blast-zone before the radio has a chance to let the rest of the masses know that they should get outta dodge.

Where I live, we have no nukes to worry about, but, the provincial government is trying to put one in the north-end of the province far away from population and then run a super-conductor power-line from the north to the south to provide power to the entire province. Currently, the majority of the province is against that nuke and the super-conductor power-line.


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