Radiation levels of fallout are extremely high in the first few hours after
a nuclear burst.
Avoiding exposure is essential to avoid casualties.
Exposure can be avoided by relocating units or providing shielding.
Any
fallout which contaminates vehicles or personnel must be removed to avoid a
high radiation dose.
Personnel contaminated by fallout, neutron-induced radiation, or
any
radiological contamination use dosimeters and RADIACmeters to detect
and
measure the contamination. If detection equipment is not available, and
the
hazard exists, decontaminate.
When contamination is removed, most of
the
hazard is removed.
PART B -- DECONTAMINATION PRIORITIES AND USES
The first priority for all decontamination is personnel.
Personnel will
decontaminate themselves and their individual equipment immediately upon
contamination or as soon as the tactical situation permits. See Appendix A.
According to the priorities established by the commander, those pieces of
equipment and the areas that are needed for the mission must then be
decontaminated.
A general guideline in establishing priorities for
decontamination is that those items needed first will be decontaminated
first.
When individual decontamination is finished, and within priorities
established by the commander, contaminated surfaces should be decontaminated
as quickly as possible. Radiological contamination decays over a period of
time, and decontamination of those items, that are not needed immediately,
may be delayed to reduce the hazard, before beginning decontamination by
other methods.
Decontamination, especially for radiological contamination, should start
with the easiest method and proceed to the most difficult. In initiating an
operation, the easiest job should be done first; and then the progressively
harder jobs should be accomplished in order. This allows a relatively small
portion of time to be spent in removing a relatively large fraction of the
contamination. The dosages to which individuals are exposed are reduced as
contamination is removed. The hazard from fallout will decay with time and
present a lesser hazard. As a result of these two factors, when the harder,
more time-consuming portions of an operation are carried out, the exposure
of an individual is kept to a low level.
Following a nuclear attack or the completion of fallout in a unit area,
personnel, equipment, food and water are likely to be radiologically
contaminated and should be monitored.
The purpose of this monitoring is to determine decontamination requirements
and also to determine decontamination requirements and also to determine if
supplies of food and water must be destroyed. Acceptable or safe levels of
remaining radioactive contamination
CM5206
6-6
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