I see an economic diasater coming...

[triffid]

I do mean 2 to 3 inches of solid aluminum.That would take care of your alpha and beta rays too.triffid

[the_big_m_in_ok]

Concrete blocks to build a small room would be a good idea.You really need to worry only about gamma rays.About 2-3 inches of aluminum would take care of most of it.A sheet of newpaper stops most beta rays.Aluminum foil stops most alpha particles so you are left with gamma.triffid

I do mean 2 to 3 inches of solid aluminum.That would take care of your alpha and beta rays too.triffid

http://books.google.com/books?id=Ber3ENERfGwC&pg=PA35&lpg=PA35&dq=gamma+ray+penetration&source=bl&ots=IaNqY3HnF-&sig=pmNIYjsC3GHTxPdjQ7akua-4Tac&hl=en&ei=SOykTajbAYaisAPK-Ln6DA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CFkQ6AEwCDgK#v=onepage&q=gamma%20ray%20penetration&f=false
(The I-book above gives a scientific set of examples on radiation penetration.)

Now, the basement block structure seems okay, but unless you spend money to shield the roof of this structure, I assert that no shielding overhead won't help you.  What you might do is shorten the internal height of walking headroom inside this structure and set blocks on top of the structure walls.  Aluminum plate may not be easy to acquire.  Cinder blocks for walls, and so forth, should be widely available.  You might fill the reinforcing voids in the blocks with dirt, or whatever is similar.

However, space may be cramped inside.

--Lee

[triffid]

Big M,your google ebook is very impressive.Yes cinder blocks ,dirt,bricks,rocks,water,and in general mass of anykind.Lead is best to shield with.I have seen lead bricks at the university of arkansas many years ago.I had relatives in okla who tore lead pipes out of a house they owned.And melted the lead pipes to make fishing weights.So fishing weights and lead weights used to balance tires might be collected and melted down to form thin metal sheets of lead.if the radiation comes from an atomic bomb blast a great deal of those radioisotopes are shortlived(about two weeks).I dont know about the radiation coming from the reactors in trouble in Japan.But I know that dilution of these radioactive elements will protect most of us.
triffid

[the_big_m_in_ok]

... if the radiation comes from an atomic bomb blast a great deal of those radioisotopes are shortlived(about two weeks).I dont know about the radiation coming from the reactors in trouble in Japan.But I know that dilution of these radioactive elements will protect most of us.
triffid

Right.  Atomic bomb radionuclides are short-lived, but extremely radioactive at the same time.  Longer life stuff like the infamous strontium-90 gets into the bones through the diet the same as calcium, since it's chemically in the same elemental group.  A strong causal agent for bone cancer.  Chernobyl was a heavy  producer of Sr-90.

Distance dilutes the radiation, fortunately(!), but still, no one on the West Coast like me can get away from it as long as I have no economic wherewithal to move way north or south.  Think of those who rode out Hurricane Katrina---and didn't live through it.

Otherwise, the fallout between bombs and reactors is pretty much the same.  Same kind of manufacture.

--Lee

[triffid]

here are details of shelters.It seems that three feet of earth on top of a hole in the ground is a good way to go.If you are in a basement you do want sandbags in front of the windows. http://glasstone.blogspot.com/
triffid