Nuclear attack in London, and RAF Alconbury

seun · Sep 30, 2013

Little help with this one, anyone. Say there's a terrorist attack in London. A nuclear bomb goes off. Then it turns out there's another bomb in a fictional town about ten miles from RAF Alconbury. Nobody's offically claimed responsibility, and the reveal of the location for the second bomb is an accident by someone in the government. The reveal is the day after the first bomb. Three days later, it hasn't detonated yet.

As this is a short story from a sole POV, I don't need masses of background, just enough to make it realistic. So once it's known where the second bomb is, what would the base be doing? Evacuating the city? Searching it?

Any help appreciated.

ETA: I should mention a lot of people run from the town as soon as the location of the bomb is revealed.

GingerGunlock · Sep 30, 2013

While I don't recall it pertaining to London, but rather a smaller village, there was a movie (documentary? TV episode?) made by the BBC in 1982 called A Guide to Armageddon that gave recommendations and talked about some protocols (or perhaps hypothetical protocols?). I watched it on Netflix, but of course it isn't there now :/ This may or may not be it, on Youtube (I'm at work at the end of my break and haven't the time to watch it): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mb7EO1e62IQ

Hopefully it helps!

Drachen Jager · Sep 30, 2013

I would imagine they'd evacuate and search. Either with drones and such or live people. Three days later, I can't imagine anyone would be left in the area except perhaps a few small teams using radiation detectors (obviously something more sophisticated than a geiger counter, though I don't really know what the technology would look like)

They ought to have the tech to be able to spot something like that from the air, unless it's bunkered pretty deep. Radioactivity is fairly easy to detect after all, and it leaks through normal building walls, ceilings etc.

James D. Macdonald · Sep 30, 2013

You might try the Panorama program, "London Under Attack."

For nuclear-war horrors, other films to look for include Peter Watkins' "The War Game," as well as "The Day After," and "Threads."

ClareGreen · Sep 30, 2013

seun said:
Little help with this one, anyone. Say there's a terrorist attack in London. A nuclear bomb goes off. Then it turns out there's another bomb in a fictional town about ten miles from RAF Alconbury. Nobody's offically claimed responsibility, and the reveal of the location for the second bomb is an accident by someone in the government. The reveal is the day after the first bomb. Three days later, it hasn't detonated yet.

As this is a short story from a sole POV, I don't need masses of background, just enough to make it realistic. So once it's known where the second bomb is, what would the base be doing? Evacuating the city? Searching it?

Any help appreciated.

ETA: I should mention a lot of people run from the town as soon as the location of the bomb is revealed.

Er. On the understanding that I've no idea what the protocols are, one question, one point...

Is this now with the base more-or-less unused, or during the past when RAF Alconbury was USAF Alconbury?

There were a lot of bases in that part of the world, and still are. It was one of the most densely-packed parts of the country for RAF bases. Wyton and Brampton are also around Huntingdon - east and south of Alconbury respectively, but far more important than any of the other Huntingdon bases is Molesworth, all of 8 miles from Alconbury to the west. And for added fun there's the long-defunct Conington all of 8 miles north. Either way, whichever way you go from Alconbury, there are current or former bases within a very short distance.

James D. Macdonald · Sep 30, 2013

See also the BBC docudrama "Dirty War" involving a fictional dirty bomb attack on London.

asnys · Sep 30, 2013

You should look up the Nuclear Emergency Search Team (NEST). That's the group in the US that's tasked with hunting down nuclear bombs in situations like this. I would assume the UK has an equivalent organization, and I'm sure NEST itself would be deployed to assist. There's a book on NEST I haven't read yet called Defusing Armageddon, and also some stuff on them here:

http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/nukevault/ebb267/index.htm

seun · Oct 1, 2013

Thanks for the help, people. Based on all this, I might need to rethink and shorten the three day issue. Not too much of a problem if I have to do that.

I thought Alconbury was still in use. I can always change the location if need be - Molesworth might be a better idea if it's more important than Alconbury.

And Threads is one of the most horrific things I've ever seen on telly.

ClareGreen · Oct 1, 2013

A lot of Alconbury's runway is a container park now, sad to say. It can be used for aircraft, but it's no longer what it was. Functioning-airfield-wise, you're looking at RAF Wyton and Conington (now Peterborough Airport, though that's a bit of a joke).

As for Molesworth, if it ever had a runway, that's long gone. It's one of Those bases.

Nuclear attack in London, and RAF Alconbury

seun

Horror Man

GingerGunlock

paralibrarian

Drachen Jager

Professor of applied misanthropy

James D. Macdonald

Your Genial Uncle

ClareGreen

Onwards, ever onwards