Radiation safety

How to protect yourself from nuclear radiation

On Aug. 8, residents of Severodvinsk, Russia, witnessed a tremendous explosion. Experts across the world are still trying to piece together exactly what happened—and Russian media outlets are demanding answers from the Kremlin—but it seems clear the explosion came from somewhere close to the Russian Navy's nearby missile-testing range.
The current theory is that the blast, which killed five scientists and blanketed the immediate region with a still-unknown amount of radiation, most likely involved a missile equipped with a miniature nuclear reactor.
Though the incident doesn’t seem to have involved a live nuclear warhead, submarines armed with such weapons are a key component of Russia’s nuclear deterrence strategy—same as in the United States. And following the collapse earlier this year of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty that limited weapons-testing, the world may see more and more nuclear weapons tests. With them comes the increased likelihood of accidents and exposure to radiation.
As anyone who watched HBO's Chernobyl miniseries this spring can tell you, massive releases of radiation are also possible in entirely peaceful scenarios.