Feasibility of Active Countermeasures for Thermal Radiation Effects of Nuclear Weapons

Book excerpt: The effectiveness and practicality of active countermeasures to the thermal effects of nuclear detonations were investigated. The use of smoke screens to attenuate the incident thermal radia tion below damaging levels appeared to be the most practical countermeasures for large area application. The investigation included review of available information on active countermeas ures; study of radiation attenuation by individual particles and clouds of particles; study of the theory of smoke-producing reactions; development of preliminary smoke-screen system design proce dures; and preliminary cost-effectivess analyses of several candidate smoke-screen systems. (Author).