THE NOME NUGGET
Published Monday, Wednesday and Friday by the
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NOME, ALASKA
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E. P. BOUCHER ...Managing Editor
CLINTON GRAY . Production Manager
Entered as second class matter October 14, 1943, at the
post office at Nome, Alaska, under Act of March 3, 1879.
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_IN DIRECT COMPETITION
-rTTTWirrmnmaif nr - - I w
A Most Opportune Time ...
CECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR Udall has in
formed Sen. Ernest Gruening this week that he
has asked the director of the Office of Saline Water,
C. F. MacGowan to consider the senator’s proposal to
establish a desalinization plant along the northern
coast of Alaska.
This comes at an opportune time for Nome, as
this experiment might ,be worked into the planning
of the water and sewage disposal project for which
Nome recently made application. The two projects
worked together might prove that many communities
in northern Alaska along the coast may benefit from
the experiment, as Philleo Nash, designated recently
as Commissioner of Indian Affairs has stated that
steps should be taken to improve sanitation and water
supply conditions in Alaskan native villages.
■
The size the of community and its proximity to
the Bering Sea should make Name an ideal location
for the first desalnization -plant.
Warning Systems Promise Advance
Notice... Simple Shelters are Needed
(Editor’s note: The notion
that no really effective civil
defense is possible against nu
clear attack, a top atomic sci
entist says, is dangerous non
sense. This second of three
articles discusses the practical
steps in protecting Americans
against blast and fallout.
By Alton Blakeslee
.Associated Press Science Writer
NEW YORK UP> — Dr. Edward
Teller has grave respect for the
aim of Soviet rockets bearing nu
clear warheads.
“They are accurate,” says the
University of California physicist.
They could hit assigned cities
or military targets, unless anti
i missiles or other defenses brought
them down.
Warning systems promise to
sound about 20 minutes advance
notice—time enough for most
people to take shelter.
But—few shelters exist.
Dr. Teller strongly urges a
huge national effort to build pub
lic and private shelters from city
to hamlet.
With them, nine out of 10
citizens could survive, he declares.
Without them, he fears, six or
eight out of 10 will die.
The choice is that stark, in the
eyes of the dark-haired scientist
whose genius contributed to fash
ioning the H-Bmsb.
Millions of people live in the
fatalistic fear that if bombs fall,
each will be directly underneath
—or utterly doomed by radio
active winds and fallout.
■Dr. Teller calls this dangerous
nonsense.
Sketching basic essentials for
shelters, he says many regions of
the country would need only fall
out shelters in basements for pro
tection against radioactive clouds
sweeping downwind from blasts.
The greatest danger would last
only a few hours or a day, since
radioactivity of the cloud de
clines rapidly with time and dis
tance, he explains. Closed win
dows could keep out fallout ra
diation and make a sizeable differ
ence. Fallout striking the ground
or roof could be “hot” for long
er periods. Stores of water and
food could carry millions through
the time of real hazard.
Simple shelters could be made
of wood or sandbags, or dug into
the foundation. Dr. Willard Libby,
former member of the Atomic
Erfergy Commission, built such a
home shelter for about $50.
A prime need, everywhere, is
for really cheap radiation detect
ors to judge hazard’s and for bat
ery-powered radios to hear offi
cial reports.
Suburban homes near big cities,
on or near the fringes of bast
areas, would need sturdier, more
elaborate shelters to withstand
shock and hotter radiation. Direct
hits would wipe them out, but
bombs won’t fall everywhere like
raindrops. Cheap but effective
shelter designs are badly needed,
Dr. Teller adds.
For big cities and towns, mass
shelters are the safest answer,
with enough of them “so people
could walk to them in five to
ten minutes.”
“In many cases, it would be
important that these shelter* have
their own independent air sup
ply. and air filters, but this could
be done at not too high cost. They
must be equipped for radio com
munications with defense head
quarters.
“Besides blast and shock, one
of the greatest dangers would be
firestorms,” such as syept cities
freon conventional bombing in
World War II at terrible cost of
lives. ~ v :
j# “Shelters should be sealable,
with fire dobra. If subways were
used, as in New York City, fire
boors could keep air from being
' ..
sucked out of tunnels and sta
tions. Subways could be equipped
this way in a matter of months
with enough effort.”
Basements of big buildings
could provide shelter for millions
of city dwellers, and future build
ings should be, built “to take as
much over-pressure as possible,”
Dr. Teller says.
“The idea that any shelter
should be able to withstand 200
pounds pressure per square inch
is simply not feasible—it is too
expensive. We have to recognize
there will be some casualties. The
goal is to keep them to a mini
mum. To make all shelters 100
per cent safe would require all
kinds of expensive things.”
The Soviets talk about a pro-,;
j digious bomb equal to 100 million
tons of TNT, and Dr. Teller says
this probably could cave in a
shelter 200 feet deep if the bomb
exploded on the ground close by.
But such a bomb “is not a mili
tarily useful thing,” and he doubts
the Soviets really mean to build it.
A prime requirement, he adds,
is tor a well-planned organiza
tion fov leadership of life in
shelters, and afterward.
“Every man. woman and child
over 10 years of age should be
trained in civil defense, to learn
what to expect, what to be re
sponsible for, and to whom to be
responsible.”
With underground stockpiling
of food and strategic materials—
and above-ground storage in
areas not likely to be hit—the
country would have the starting
tools to get industry going again.
“We have surplus food. We have
some surplus machinery and tools,
we could produce more, and we
could stockpile machinery and
tools which are being replaced
now as obsolete,” Dr. Teller says.
“We can do this, and the So
viets cannot. We could thus re
cover far faster. In three to four
years, we could be strong and
functioning again, and they
couldn’t.”
Next: Kadiation hazards.
NEW SCHEDULE
Effective Se r 18,1961
Monday & Friday Fit. 309/310 I
B.C. and Alaska Have
Too Much in Common to
Be Separated by Boundary
PRINCE GEORGE, B. C. (A L
British Columbia and Alaska have
too much in common to be sepa
rated by a boundary, says Rich
ard Downing, Alaska’s Commis
sioner of Public Works.
Speaking Friday night in an
interview here, Downing said the
futures of B. C. and Alaska are
tied together.
“Eventually a railway will link
Alaska with the rest of the United
States,” he said. “This is bound
to come.”
Downing said a railway into
Alaska would cut prices in the
49th State by at least a third.
The Commissioner said a ma
rine highway linking B. C. and
Alaska through Prince Rupert
and Haines would start operation
in July next year.
One Little Lamb Chop
Starts a Strike . . .
HEREFORD, England (A — A
| lamb chop has started a strike
that threatens to close down a
factory here.
The chop was served to Wini
} fred Cullingworth, 48, a factory
worker, at lunch time in the fac
tory canteen. As do other em
ployes, she gets free meals at the
plant.
As the chop was placed in front
of her Mrs. Cullingworth exclaim
ed sarcastically: “What a fine
dinner!”
The management fired her and
40 of her fellow workers walked
out in protest. Others of the 2,300
workers at the plant are consider
ing a strike too.
The management stood firm.
“No negotiations can take place
until our employes return to
work,” said a management offi
cial.
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