Way to Survival

THE ATOM Way to Survive Haunting many minds in the Atomic Age is the dark thought that an H-bomb or H-missile attack would be so devastating that survivors, if any, would be reduced to Stone Age primitiveness. Not necessarily, says Budapest-born Nuclear Physicist Edward Teller, associate director of the University of California's Radiation Laboratory, and sometimes called (he modestly disclaims the tag) "father of the H-bomb." Writing on "The Nature of Nuclear Warfare" in this month's Air Force, Teller argues that a nuclear attack on the U.S. need not be "cataclysmic" and casualties need not be "much greater than the casualties that have been experienced in past wars"--if the nation is defensively prepared.

Back in Business. Teller's "if" is enormous--but practical. To save lives and limbs under nuclear attack, the U.S. needs "deep underground shelters [so numerous] that in any densely populated area in this country people can walk to a shelter within 15 minutes." Stored in the shelters would be food, medicines, communications equipment, decontamination devices, and mining machinery for digging out through blast-blocked entrances. "These shelters," he writes, "could provide protection, not only against the radiation hazard, but also against the biggest immediate hazard, the fire-storm."

But immediate survival is only the beginning. "In an all-out attack, we can save all but a relatively few unlucky people, but we cannot save our industrial plant." Reconstruction would be "exceedingly costly" but not impossible. "Today we have food surpluses. We are complaining that our food surpluses are too great. We could store these surpluses in such a way that ... we still could feed our population for, say, two years. In two years we would have time enough to find out where food can be grown again, where contaminated areas can-be cleaned up."

"The Main Point." "Our system of railroads is likely to be completely knocked out, at least for the moment. Our system of roads will stand up [except for] vital spots such as bridges." So the U.S. should store road-repair equipment near the vulnerable points "in such a way that transportation throughout the country will not even lag. We can be back in business within a few hours of any attack." Similarly, the U.S. could store fleets of trucks, gasoline supplies, power units ("nuclear energy might be the best"), spare parts, machine tools.

"These things will be extremely expensive ... I am not sure that it can be done. But I think there is at least a chance that it might be done." Russia, cramped by shortages, definitely cannot now make such preparations. "Even if we would be so prepared," says Teller, "an attack would be terrible. But the main point is this: if we so prepare ourselves that a terrible attack could hurt us but could not destroy us, then such an attack, I believe, will never come."

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