Surviving Nuclear War: How Possible?

[grant555]

I would be interested to hear how (if at all) anyone would survive a nuclear war?

 

[Cyrus]

Be on the side launching the nuclear weapon.

 

[mathman]

It depends very much on how many weapons and what yield. One extreme would be (going back to the 1960-1990 period) a US-USSR war which could have ended up killing most life on the planet. On the other hand a war between India and Pakistan, although disasterous to both countries, would be less catestrophic for the rest of the world, except possibly for its immediate neighbors.

 

[Mallignamius]

I don't like the idea of two formerly powerful nations in ruins, especially in an area thick with terrorists.

 

[robphy]

Be out of town.

(That's how I happened to miss H.Katrina.)

 

[Astronuc]

What prompted this cheerful topic?

Best not to be in the vicinity of a blast.

Beyond that, consider that if there had been a full scale exchange of nuclear warheads between nations, most of the infrastructure would have been knocked out - and that means no energy/electricity, no clean water, no food or food storage, no access to medical care or medicine - unless all of that was stored underground. The government had plans and facilities for those who were in public office, but the vast majority of citizens would likely have perished within several weeks of a nuclear exchange.

If it had been confined to the northern hemisphere, there were better chances of survival in the southern hemisphere.

Now - I would prefer to dwell on ways in which we think of ways to prevent]/i] war in the first place.

War is stupid and unnecessary, and why various populations periodically allow vain, selfish, greedy, egotistical and otherwise small-minded individuals to prompt people into war is beyond my comprehension.

Just say NO to war.

 

[moose]

Living in Arizona, I really have no easy way of obtaining water. Strangely, I think about this topic quite a bit. I always imagine scenarios in which I may not survive another day...

 

[dontdisturbmycircles]

When you say nuclear war I am assuming you mean the full use of each respective country's nuclear arsenal in a sort of retarded game of battleship. In such a case I really would have to question my will to live throughout the aftermath of such an event. I think this is why it hasn't happened yet, everyone realizes that life in such a world would be so bad that it wouldn't even be worth living. Of course this is assuming a US vs former USSR type scenario.

I might consider trying to survive but I would be tempted to just enjoy the light show. ( I am young and have no kids, if I had a family that depended on me my views would be different, keep in mind that I am speaking about the most extreme of situations. lol)

But as I said, the likelyhood of such an event is so minutely small in my oppinion. Not even worth considering it. In the case of a small nuclear attack say by North Korea, just fill a huge container with water, grab everything in your pantry/fridge, and head as far out of town and as far under ground as possible. Grab a radio and batteries, too.

 

[J77]

Wouldn't the "fall-out" be potentially more damaging than the explosion -- I would think it a very minor chance to die from the blast, unless you lived in the targeted city. However, clouds of radiactive dust, following the explosion, could travel 1000s of miles, causing all types of nasties.

 

[dontdisturbmycircles]

Yup, even if you are within 10km of the blast there are chances that you will survive in the end. Assuming an average yield, I know that Russia designed some really big bombs, I don't know how large their blast radius is.

 

[Ki Man]

Wouldn't the "fall-out" be potentially more damaging than the explosion -- I would think it a very minor chance to die from the blast, unless you lived in the targeted city. However, clouds of radiactive dust, following the explosion, could travel 1000s of miles, causing all types of nasties.

thats why you take http://saratogatradingcompany.com/iosat.html" pills

then you get in your http://approvedgasmasks.com/suit-responderA.htm" and look for survivors

then you pitch a bunch of http://www.quakekare.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=32" just in case they send another strike.

no I'm not advertising. I've just done my research.

 

[Cyrus]

You forgot duck tape to your windows. You didnt actually buy all that crap did you?


If there was a nuclear war, I want the first bomb going through the window of my house...painted with shark teeth on the front for that vintage effect.

 

[Ki Man]

haha no. I just have too much free time.

having solar panels would be nice too, generators are only good if you have fuel

 

[Cyrus]

All that junk would be useless when you die from radiation poisoning and puke up green stuff.

 

[Ki Man]

thats why you have KI pills

 

[Pythagorean]

War is stupid and unnecessary, and why various populations periodically allow vain, selfish, greedy, egotistical and otherwise small-minded individuals to prompt people into war is beyond my comprehension.

Just say NO to war.

That's what they're taught to do, that's how they get where they are :/

I don't like it either, I have a perverse interest in seeing what would happen if musicians and scientists were the leaders of society.

 

[Cyrus]

thats why you have KI pills

Taking a KI pill isn't going to save your life in nuclear fallout.

 

[robphy]

"Duck and Cover" http://www.archive.org/details/DuckandC1951
"Survival Under Atomic Attack" http://www.archive.org/details/Survival1951
"Atomic Alert" http://www.archive.org/details/AtomicAl1951

more stuff at
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=atomic AND mediatype:movies AND collection:prelinger

 

[Ki Man]

first link doesn't work for me. do you mean this film http://youtube.com/watch?v=C0K_LZDXp0I

 

[robphy]

first link doesn't work for me. do you mean this film http://youtube.com/watch?v=C0K_LZDXp0I

Yes, that one.
Note the archive.org page has a clickable-video (which requires javascript),
as well as the video in various formats on the left column.

 

[Cyrus]

http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=214

Despite the cloudy weather, the flash of light was visible as far as 1,000 kilometers distant, though the sound of the blast would not reach that far for forty-nine minutes, in the form of an indistinct, heavy blow. The giant fireball reached from ground-level to about 34,000 feet into the air, violently releasing 3800 times more explosive energy than the Hiroshima bomb– equivalent to fifty million metric tons of TNT. One hundred kilometers from ground zero the heat would have inflicted third degree burns. Atmospheric focusing produced areas of destruction hundreds of kilometers from ground zero, including wooden structures which were completely destroyed, and some shattered windows in Finland. The explosion's atmospheric shockwave traveled around the Earth three times before it dissipated.

Good luck with those pills, tent and shovel.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/0a/TB0063.jpg

Note that it was scaled down in half because of fear from too much fall out.

 

[Ki Man]

that is why you duck and cover first

 

[Mk]

set aside your spare electronics in an EMP shield for six months.

You mean a Faraday cage? Wiat... six months? After the blast or before it?

 

[Astronuc]

EMP = electromagnetic PULSE - which implies a transient phenomenon, which lasts fractions of a second - not hours, days, weeks or months.


KI is simply used to saturate the body (particularly the thyroid gland) with non-radioactive I, so as the mitigate uptake of radioactive I in the event of a release of fission products from an accident or nuclear explosion. It does nothing to prevent the impact of other elements.

 

[click]

Probably cockroaches

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Survive? I intend to prosper. I suggest you read the book "How to profit from the coming boom in nuclear technology" by Holotta Shakin.