I like Jack Bauer, but â€¦

I admit it.

I'm totally hooked on this season's "24."

I've seen them all, but this story line, about a "dirty bomb" threat to Manhattan, offers up one of the best action scripts in the history of the show.

But, there is a big problem with the story.

Over and over again, week after week – hour after hour if you use Jack Bauer time – the threat of an imminent "dirty bomb" attack is hyped beyond anything remotely scientific.

We're told if the bomb goes off, the blast zone might be uninhabitable for 100 years.

Another character in the White House threw out the possibility of life in the area not resuming for 10 years.

It's all nonsense to anyone who understands the very real danger of nuclear radiation and the big difference between a nuclear bomb and a radiological device like the one constructed by terrorists in "24."

While a nuclear bomb actually uses nuclear material to create a devastating explosion, a radiological bomb is very conventional. The blast will only be as big as the explosive materials uses – dynamite, plastique, some kind of military ordnance. When the explosion occurs, the radioactive material is dispersed as far as the conventional blast carries it.

That can only be as far as the conventional explosives used. There is no "mushroom cloud," which is an effect caused by the powerful nuclear explosion in an actual nuclear bomb.

Yet, in "24," the top experts in the script talk as if all of Manhattan would be destroyed somehow by this dirty bomb. There have been mentions of a 40-square-block area that would be destroyed, with hundreds of thousands of deaths.

It makes for a scary and suspenseful TV show, but it's not accurate and honest and is bound to lead to even more confusion and hopelessness about any kind of nuclear or radiological attack in the U.S., something the real experts keep warning us is virtually inevitable at some point in our future.

But surviving a radiological attack, or even a nuclear attack, is not hopeless at all – if people understand the potential, prepare for it and take simple, time-tested steps after such an event.

You want proof?

Nagasaki

Look at Hiroshima and Nagasaki today. Just 65 years ago, these cities were leveled by actual nuclear bombs – the only ones ever dropped on populated areas. Today they are bustling metropolises. In fact, they have been for decades.

That's because while radiation is deadly, very deadly, it actually dissipates quite quickly – even in the first 24 hours. The main damage is caused by the blast. If you survive the blast, you have an excellent chance of surviving the radiation – if you can limit your exposure in a shelter or upwind from the detonation.

A dirty bomb is much less devastating because the blast is limited to the size of the conventional explosive device. Compared with an actual nuclear bomb, it's a piece of cake. Again, the main threat is to those affected by the blast itself – and maybe those within a block or two.

Of course, most Americans don't know this – including, I have to assume, the "experts" writing the scripts at "24." The reason most Americans don't have this information is because they were misinformed and miseducated to believe one cannot survive a nuclear event – or, at least, any life that survived would not be worth living.

The reason we were taught this unscientific nonsense is because there was a political agenda behind it – a political agenda called disarmament and appeasement.

For years, a political movement determined to disarm America had persuaded the public there was no use in trying to save lives during a nuclear war. We were all going to die. We might as well be vaporized. There was no point in trying to prepare, no point in defending ourselves, no point in living if we were attacked.

This movement ultimately won out politically and became official national policy during the Clinton years.

America once boasted an admirable civil-defense system. Some time during the first Bush administration, the last vestiges of that structure were dismantled. It had eroded quite badly during Jimmy Carter's administration, when the Federal Emergency Management Agency took over as the lead agency for civil defense. In other words, the real "defense" work – protecting the American people from attack – was removed from the Defense Department. That is when the Defense Department became the "Offense Department."

Hiromshima

It got worse during eight years of Clinton. FEMA's meager efforts to maintain equipment needed for saving lives in a future nuclear attack were cut from the budget. The equipment was destroyed, lost, sold or abandoned.

But the movement is based totally on lies. People do survive nuclear blasts. Most people survived the initial blasts on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Many emerged from the rubble unscathed – only to die a miserable and unnecessary death from fallout. There were dire predictions the two islands would never be inhabited again – or at least for 75 years. Today those cities are much bigger, more prosperous and more healthy places to live than they were before the blasts.

There is no question that properly constructed and stocked shelters can and do save lives during nuclear attacks. The proof? Russia has built them. China has built them. The Swiss have built them. All of them, by the way, built based on technology developed by the U.S. government and paid for by U.S. taxpayers – who remain defenseless.

There's more proof. Not all Americans are left defenseless. Your federal government has used your tax dollars to build shelters for itself and its key people – tens of thousands of them. They will survive an all-out nuclear attack on the U.S. You, the taxpaying public, will not.

It's sad to see this propaganda continue today – even on one of the best TV entertainment shows around.

Someday, especially in this age of terrorism, it is likely there will be a nuclear event in the U.S. People need to know how to deal with it – and that there are practical and simple steps Americans can take to protect themselves and their families, despite the government's policy to leave civilians defenseless and ignorant.

You can find out more thanks to the great work of scientist Art Robinson, who has made it his life's work to save lives rather than indulge in fear-mongering and instilling panic.