How to build a nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) safe room in apartment or house

Thought this was interesting, i myself don't plan on building one, but thought some people on here would be interested ... click the link for the full article the stuff i posted on here is just a basic overview/introduction ...

A nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) safe room protects its occupants from inhaling harmful or deadly airborne toxins such as very fine particles of radioactive fallout, biological toxins, and chemical agents. In the past, the United States Government has poured extensive resources into providing the best information (at the time) for the protection of its citizens from NBC warfare agents. This is not the case today.

For protection of the U.S. population we have the government website: www.ready.gov. It suggests duct tape and plastic, then wait for further official instruction. Although the tape and plastic method would offer some immediate short term protection from low level toxins at low concentrations, it would be, at best, a short term solution. Most governments tend to only recommend emergency procedures that can be afforded by all their citizens.

As a contrast to most governments, both Switzerland and Israel require, and subsidize the cost of, NBC safe rooms in apartment buildings. They have strict standards in place governing both the construction of the room and the ventilation equipment protecting the room.

For protection of some of our military personal and government officials, the U.S. Department of the Army - Corps of Engineers has standards by which NBC airborne toxic free areas must comply. These standards dictate the differential pressure in the safe room (protected space) as well as the design of the NBC filter/ventilation system.

The main reasons why an un-pressurized room will not protect the occupants for very long is that the room "breaths" - in other words, it leaks air both in and out through the cracks as the external atmospheric pressure fluctuates - due wind or other atmospheric variables like temperature, and barometric pressure swings due to approaching weather fronts. Air constantly tries to normalize its pressure and temperature between different variants - as it does this, it brings with it whatever that air contains. Also, in a sealed room, there is no accommodation to replenish oxygen and expel the exhaled carbon dioxide of the occupants.

In order to create and maintain overpressure as well as give the required air exchanges to support the air supply needs of the sheltered occupants, a safe room must be equipped with true positive pressure NBC filter/ventilation unit and a means of a metering the exhaust air out of the protected space.

American Safe Room filter/ventilation equipment and related components are designed and manufactured specifically for this purpose.

Full Instructions Here

The government just tells you to duct tape your windows to make you feel safer and be less worried about death. If you actually DID manage to seal off your house from the outside and prevent any biological/chemical substances from entering, you would also have sealed your house off from oxygen, and you would suffocate and die.

It's akin to how in the cold war, the government would tell children to "duck and cover" under a school desk in the event of Nuclear war. It was only to make them feel safer, and be less worried about dying and less likely to panic. The honest truth is, if a 1 megaton nuclear bomb is going to go off next to the school, it's not going to really matter if you duck and cover underneath your desk.

reply to post by TheGovernmentLies


true, but this is for if you're not near in the general blast vicinity of the nuclear bomb ... and if you scroll down on the link they make it so you have oxygen, etc.

Another new development is the third generation, nano-crystal titanium dioxide.

In the presence of UV light, (direct sunlight, indirect sunlight, or fluorescent light) every surface becomes self-sanitizing, and self-purifying. All microbials, including anthrax, are molecularly disassembled.

A "walk-off" room or two near unsealed entrances could go a long way toward intercepting and destroying microbials. Strips of coated 6-mil polyethylene can be suspended from the ceilings, giving a greatly enhanced surface area, and acting as a microbial barrier.

The TiO2 will not wear out or be used up. It's just the catalyst.

My company (indoor air quality) is licensed to apply these coatings, and we have prepared "pre-coated" strips, and larger sheets to be stored until required. While we also have large numbers of commercial HEPA air scrubbers, the power requirement is a concern.

Thus, the advantage of the TiO2, which requires zero energy, would be as good as it's going to get.

Overpressure can be accomplished by pumping HEPA filtered air into a structure, but is going to require power. The machine stays outside the containment area, and all the HEPA scrubbed air is pumped inside.

Thus, even in an average home, we can have a positive pressure of 5-7 pascals.

Good point though. This is something most folks never think about.

Full face respirators (3M) with P-100 organic gas filters will likewise last a long time and get you through a number of problems.

Originally posted by external source
For protection of the U.S. population we have the government website: www.ready.gov. It suggests duct tape and plastic, then wait for further official instruction.

This is how a mother in the US accidentally killed herself and her two kids- Fearing an imminent terrorist biological attack after one of the many CNN terror alerts went one stage too far, she sealed herself and her kids in the room, did the duct tape and plastic thing, and sure enough, their oxygen ran out and they suffocated to death.

[edit on 19-4-2009 by star in a jar]

reply to post by star in a jar


When did that happen? It's the first I've heard of it, how sad. Do you have links or can you remember anything about it that I can google?

Yea the without oxgen thing is kinda freaky.
I worked for the DoD and was told it is a easier way to keep count of the dead. If itwas widespread attack or whatever all they would do is spraypaint the door with the number of dead.