Human Response to Nuclear and Advanced Technology Weapons Effects.

The purpose of this study is to help the system survivability analyst estimate hardness requirements for systems exposed to nuclear weapons and advanced technology weapons ATWs. The system survivability analyst is often asked to make quick, order-of-magnitude estimates on the hardness requirements for existing or proposed systems based upon human responses to the effects of nuclear weapons and ATWs. While the analyst may have training in mathematics or engineering, few have specific training in human response to ionizing and non-ionizing radiation. As a result, system survivability analysts have had difficulty answering mission survivability questions that are related to human survivability. The intent of this report is to identity the general range of human survivability to nuclear weapons and ATWs and to provide simple example calcuiations and scenarios that can give the reader rough estimates of the effects of these weapons. While high-powered microwave HPM and laser weapons are considered in this report, the main emphasis is on nuclear weapons and their ionizing radiation effects.