how do we protect ourselves in the event of Nuclear explosion????? God forbid.?

Question

lets assume country X and country Y are both super powers...country x or country Y bombarded the other country with a nuclear weapon...How do those people who are not dead protect themselves from the radiation caused by the bomb????

Answer 1

There's just one simple set of instructions:

1. Put your head between your knees
2. Kiss your a** goodbye

Answer 2

One nuclear explosion might not be too bad. But a 'nuclear war' could kill everyone on earth, so there's not much you can do.

A nuclear explosion puts out a burst of radiation. If you're miles away, far enough that the blast doesn't kill you, that blast of radiation can still kill you. You won't die right then but you'll get sick and die days or weeks later.

Assuming you are far enough away to avoid that, the next problem is fallout. The bomb lifts tons and tons of dust high into the atmosphere. This dust drifts downwind and settles slowly. If it rains, a lot of it comes down. Otherwise it just lays around like regular dust, but it is very radioactive. If you breathe in a speck of this dust it gets stuck in your lungs and could eventually give you cancer. It might happen 30 or 40 years later.

So you want to stay out of the path of the dust. In the 1950s people built fallout shelters with enough food and water for up to 3 months, to allow the dust to settle out of the air. But that's not a complete solution since some of the dust is still blowing around. (Also if you're fairly close to the blast, being underground will protect you from that big burst of radiation. If you know it's coming and get down to the shelter before it goes off!)

But that's in the case of one or two nuclear weapons. If there were, say, 100 nukes set off, the thought is that all that dust in the atmosphere would change our global climate, causing a 'nuclear winter' that might last two or three decades. And those who weren't killed by the radiation would starve to death.

This is one reason there's never been a nuclear war. No national leader can imagine a scenario by which he could gain by using nukes, so nobody uses them. Before Reagan came into office, the USSR and the US had a sort of agreement called 'Mutual Assured Destruction', they both realized that a nuclear war was unwinnable so neither would use them. Reagan began talking about a 'winnable' nuclear war and scared a lot of people. Countries like North Korea and Iran and China want them mostly for defensive purposes, to keep western powers from attacking them. And so far they've worked well for that.

The worry is that terrorists might get their hands on a nuke. They don't care how many people die, and we can't exactly retaliate against them the way we can against a country (as we're finding out now in Iraq).

Answer 3

In the days when fallout shelters were a fad, about 50 years ago, it was thought that thick, concrete block walls on all sides of the shelter, and plenty of dirt on top would be sufficient. BEST though, would be a to have a shelter you could duck into that was lead-lined,and contained water and provisions for at least 2 weeks. And a VERY efficient air-filtering system. With *no* shelter, though, and enough radiation to give a full-body dose of over 600 rads over a few days -- it's ta-ta.

Answer 4

Serious answer: There's not much you can do, depending upon your distance from the detonation site. It's like this...

If you're close enough (though sheltered) to have survived the explosion, you may still receive a lethal dose of radiation, In that case, it only a matter of time before you die. At greater distances, you may receive a less than lethal dose, but may still suffer from "radiation sickness" and either die later, or survive...but with a risk of numerous cancers for the rest of your life.

Afterwards, if you've survived, them your into searching for food, and water, etc., that isn't irradiated and dangerous.

Good luck.

Like I said, there really isn'y much you can do.

Answer 5

Well you'd have to know the direction of the fallout, which would be dictated by the prevailing wind. Once you know that, just avoid it and hope you weren't exposed initially.

Answer 6

Living underground is basically the only way, and even then, you'd have to filter all the air you breathe.

Answer 7

Have you ever seen either of the movies entitled, "On the Beach" (?)

There's your answer.

Answer 8

Duck and cover

Answer 9

turn into a cockroach. It's the only way!