How to Survive* a Nuclear Blast

If a nuke goes off and you make it past the first few milliseconds, is there anything you can do? Where is the “safest” place to be? A new study answers that question.

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[hummerskickass]

It’s very important to mention the original reason behind duck and cover. Various studies and casualty reports from World War II determined that shrapnel from things like glass and wood splitters when parts of buildings are hit by explosives are often what does the killing, not necessarily the blast itself. By ducking under your desk or huddling up against the wall, you were making yourself a lower and smaller target for any flying debris that could potentially shred you. It’s the same reason you huddle up against the wall during a tornado drill. Duck and cover is often derided for being ridiculous when in fact, it’s an incredibly valuable piece of life-saving advice.

[TheZolon]

Growing up in Alaska in the 80s was wild... I got in trouble for asking my teacher what good it would do to hide under a desk.

[classifiedveteran]

The problem I have with this being used effectively is human nature. Just about everyone will investigate the bright flash, not take cover. _Let me explain:_
When every dashcam in Russia recorded the Chelyabinsk meteor on February 15th, 2013 it injured 1491 people _(no deaths)_ most of which were for a single reason.
When the meteor streaked across the sky, it airburst at approximately 400 to 500 kilotons. The extremely bright flash instinctively made everyone in their homes run to their windows to see what it was.
Then the shockwave blew out everyone's windows while they were looking straight out of them. And, if we are being honest with ourselves, every one of us would do this in the same situation, even after reading this. Myself included...

[Sintry]

One thing that has me curious is that the likelihood is that none of those walls would remain standing, so it's unlikely you wouldn't be crushed or killed either way.

[WilliamAndySmith-Romaq]

Many people, particularly in the mid-west, have far more training and practical experience with tornados. I'd plan on not knowing the direction of the blast, or necessarily having my head about me to grasp what direction, and instead "do what comes naturally in the event of expecting a tornado." That would mean heading for the house bathroom and, if there's time, dragging the mattress or blankets to protect from the shrapnel.

[KillerAceUSAF]

So as someone who works as a CBRN expert, one of my primary jobs is nuclear defense and planning. You're extremely close. If possibly, you want to be st the back of the building, so you have as much building between you and the blast. You still want to be against a sturdy wall that's towards the blast.

Also, of you are outside in a field, lay down on your back, feet towards the blast with your eyes closed and mouth open. If you are in a trench or other depression, fold your legs over your chest and hold them there with your hands. Keep you eyes closed and mouth open.


Finally, after a blast, and the debris is done falling. Carefully, and gently brush debris off of yourself. When you get a chance to decon, you high volume, low pressure cold water. If you use high pressure, you risk chasing micro lacerations that could push radioactive material into your body. You also want cold water because hot water will open your pours and let the material inside. Finally, do not use soap or conditioner, especially conditioner. Conditioner will bind radioactive particals to the hair.

[Simple_But_Expensive]

Overpressure followed by underpressure. The signature is that buildings close to the blast are knocked down pointing inward towards the blast. This isn’t common knowledge because for years the rest of the films were classified. It is still hard to find complete videos.

[Daswhereimatt]

I live in Hawaii and we had that nuke alert scare a while back. Me and my brother just sat together in the kitchen because we thought it was the end and we had nowhere to hide.

[novibes]

One of the saddest stories I’ve ever heard is of a family that lives near nuclear silos and would be on the first strike list. The father of the single child in that family told his son that if the sirens go off to go stand next to a tree and wait for the father to pick him up. That father came to the most likely correct conclusion that it would be better for his son to die a painless and quick death than slowly die of radiation poisoning.

[cbsboyer]

When I was a kid near the end of the cold war, nuclear strikes were still a concern. I lived near a fairly critical NORAD installation (as in buried 600+ meters underground in solid granite critical). Since I lived within walking distance, and the facility was engineered to survive a direct hit of up to 5Mt, I was guaranteed to be inside the fireball, thus my best option was really to just grab a chair and watch the ICBM on it's way in. For others further out, it was basically find cover, wait for the worst of the blast to subside, and either sit tight until your food and water ran out or walk into the wind away from the disaster as best you could.

[kocres]

I grew up helping my dad, a NASA engineer and Civil Defense contractor, plot potential nuclear bomb targets and the radiation fallout of each, throughout the US. I also helped him build a fallout shelter that a family of four could construct using household items and survive an attack, provided they were located outside of the blast zone. Pretty sobering for a middle school kid.

[scooper]

Going to the closest corner to the closest opening makes sense (based on the model)....the underlying assumption is that the building can withstand the blast wave pressure. If you're going to stand on the other side of the wall that is experiencing the highest blast pressures though, you better hope the wall holds up.

[ZechsMerquise]

At CBRN (Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear defence) defense training at basic training, they taught us that if you see a nuclear explosion to just find any cover within reach. Even a 1-meter wall offers a chance at survival at certain distances. And if there absolutely no cover whatsoever, to turn your helmeted head towards the blast and lay face down, while trying to cover as much of your body as you can.

[vis_viva]

By the time I was in school (I'm 54) they'd abandoned "duck and cover" but the cold war was still very much underway. The Berlin wall didn't come down until I was in college. I grew up during a sliver of time when full scale nuclear war was a very real possibility, but everyone knew (heck teachers would say to students) the lucky ones would die in the blast. Maybe that's why Gen-X is so fatalistic, and didn't ever believe they could make a difference in the world. We thought the humanity could be wiped out at any instant and the best you could hope for was a quick death.

[mcseforsale]

I'm 52 and remember doing these "duck and cover" drills in elementary school. It was just a way to get the kids to action so there was no panic. Plain and simple. Kids like me knew that it was futile. Being in central Ct., I pretty much knew we were fooked anyway from the fallout of Boston and NYC hits.

[doomakarn]

There's a problem with this, it doesn't account for the structural integrity of the building, yes this works if the building you are in is strong enough, but if you really get into a corner, you'll be bombarded with debris. So, I would imagine find that safe corner and then take a few steps back from it & duck/take cover. In this simulation, this zone would still be okay.

[seldoon_nemar]

2:30 A note about how terrifying "a few PSI" can be. A standard entry door in north American is 36"x80", or 2, 880 square inches. This means that for every PSI difference between one side and the other, there is 2, 880 Lbs of force created against the frame. A 3 psi overpressure wave will kick a door in with 8, 640 pounds of force.... Like it's instantly supporting a delivery van

Wow, I worded that bad, fixed it

[JasonLihani]

As someone who lives in a downtown skyscraper with floor-to-ceiling windows, it's fun to pretend I'd last longer than 4 milliseconds in a nuclear attack :)

[NickWrightDataYT]

"Duck and Cover" was for kids in classrooms.
It was meant to keep them out of line-of-sight with windows should a blast ever happen.
It was effective *for the application it had.*

But I definitely like the "closest opening, closest corner" info for the more general case!

[ninjabiatch]

I always assumed the safest place was right under or beside the window you saw the explosion from, but wasn't sure how to articulate why. So this was neat.
I do think however it goes without saying that this won't work if the building isn't sturdy enough to resist being blown to pieces.