Surviving a Nuclear War, Part One: Can It Be Done?

The Unthinkable…

(Spoiler Alert: You Probably Won’t Survive)

Are you prepared to survive a nuclear detonation near you, get away from the area, and then avoid the resulting fallout after? Probably not. And the simple fact is that, for many, it probably won’t matter. That being said, there is no harm to be done in getting ready just in case you happen to end up as one of the so-called “lucky” ones.

Given the recent world events, and their potential to spiral even further out of control, I figured now was as good a time as any to broach this particular subject. As with other types of preparation, there is already quite a bit of solid information available out there for consumption, but let’s go over it anyway, and perhaps add a few tidbits.

There is some good news. It’s actually pretty unlikely that you’re going to get caught in a strike during a nuclear war. Most likely there will be a lot of escalation and buildup you would be monitoring before things get that far, and if you have been following along with the rest of the class then you are already doing most of the work by being prepared for all the other ways the world can come apart around you. That means you will already have an action plan in place to GTFO of whatever urban environment you are in and bug out to some remote location far away from any nuclear targets… right?

There is some even better news too. If a nuclear strike does hit, you don’t necessarily have to die in it. A whole lot of people would die, of course, I mean it’s a nuke, after all. But there are some things you can easily do that might just save your life from the most vicious weapon ever created. Oh, and by the way, the answer to that ain’t “Duck and Cover.”

Because guess what? Nuclear bombs aren’t really as deadly as you might think.

There’s a minor misconception going around that if some sort of nuclear war kicks off, we are all basically burnt. That such a nuclear war is essentially like a biblical apocalypse, where we are all just going about our daily lives, and then, boom! Everybody’s dusted.

Well, take a look at where it actually happened before. In Hiroshima after it was struck by an atomic bomb, within the first 1000 meters of the blast radius, the death rate was 93%. That’s not very good, but it’s also not 100%. This means that hundreds of people who were only a few blocks away from a nuclear detonation ended up surviving through it.

They were in places like basements, inside thick concrete buildings, and behind reinforced barriers of various sorts. And they lived. There is quite a bit of good information to be gleaned from their stories, and I highly recommend seeking out such accounts to read.

Here’s what immediately kills you in an atomic bombing: The initial flash from the explosion roasts or vaporizes you. Thermal effects close in could ignite everything around you. After that comes a shockwave that blows away your house or crushes you with debris.

But here’s the thing: if you’re far enough away from a nuclear explosion, none of those things have to kill you.

Although it usually seems unlikely, a nuclear strike is always a possibility in our modern world, and one that seems to be getting more likely every day. A full-out nuclear exchange between nations is much less likely. However, the latter becomes a real possibility should the former occur.

How could it happen?

There are surprisingly many ways that such a thing could happen, too many to list here. And besides, the “why” and the “how” will be quite irrelevant if it does happen. The bigger picture of how it would reshape the world in every scenario from a limited regional exchange to an all-out nuclear apocalypse is a staggering amount of doom and gloom. I am not going to get into all that here, at least not much, but I will list some good resources in the conclusion of this article for those horror-genre fans who are into torturing themselves mentally.

The purpose here is, like the rest of this blog and website, saving your own ass and those of your own family. So that is what we will discuss.

Nobody really wants to contemplate a future that includes a nuclear detonation event and the resulting fallout. And certainly, the idea of a nuclear holocaust as a result of a full MAD scenario is not a great idea to contemplate.  However, such a thing is a very real possibility. Several nations with unstable governments and a deep dislike for other countries are developing nuclear weapons. Some others already have a few, and a couple nations have enough on their own to wipe out the globe several times over. Terrorist groups and rebel warlords in tumultuous regions could also gain access to the materials needed to make them. In addition, nuclear power sites may not be as safe as most people believe them to be, with terrifying examples of such from the past.

Go ahead and google “how could a nuclear war happen.” Feel free to sift through the hundreds of millions of search results at your leisure.

What are the Odds?

Lately, the threat of nuclear war feels closer than it has in quite some time. The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists recently updated their Doomsday Clock to 100 seconds to midnight, which is convenient because that would be about how much time you would have to either react to an incoming threat or kiss your ass goodbye, depending on where you were at the time. Here in the U.S. the President has been issuing increasingly ominous statements about how the conflict in Ukraine could ensnare the West into conventional war with Russia. And as we know, once direct conflict begins between nuclear powers, the use of nuclear weapons becomes inevitable.

And so eventually, as many fear, there will be an exchange of nuclear weapons. because war between the leading world nations is the historical norm, not the exception. It is a nightmare that has haunted people since the Cold War days. Movies from “Threads” to “The Day After” have depicted an almost uninhabitable world, a wasteland if you will, filled with areas of lethal radiation, horrific destruction, and very short on things like food and water. As our power and telecommunications grids collapsed around us, survivors would resort to looting and other violent methods to survive. There would be little choice involved in the matter as morality will quickly take a backseat to the prospect of starvation. A hungry belly has no conscience. The disruption of society and the damage to civilization during the COVID-19 pandemic would be nothing compared to the anarchy and devastation that would follow nuclear war.

Yet all this time, living under the threat of nuclear annihilation has produced a broad amount of knowledge about what a nuclear war might do to Earth, and to the creatures that inhabit it. If even a “little” nuclear war were to break out, many millions of people would die just in, and immediately after, the blasts. A blanket of ash would block out much of the Sun and end up causing a nuclear winter, destroying crops all over the world and plunging all of humanity into famine. In the northern hemisphere, there would be such severe damage to the ozone layer that living organisms would suffer increased exposure to ultraviolet light, damaging them tremendously. While things would not be as bad in the south, even well-located nations like New Zealand would face many of the effects of a small nuclear war in the northern hemisphere, and even other types of failures due to its interconnectedness with the global community.

Not a Pretty Picture

No matter how you slice it, a large exchange of nuclear weapons would create not only widespread destruction but an incredible amount of radioactive fallout which in turn would kill billions, if not everyone. That’s right, everyone. There are some scientists who believe the fallout alone could lead to the extinction of humanity and maybe even all life on Earth. But there is still a great debate on this issue of how severe such an event would be. While radiation sickness from fallout would certainly be a serious issue, weather patterns and wind speeds at the time of the detonations would send radioactive debris in some directions but not others.  While pretty much all modern technology and electronics would be destroyed around the world due to the electromagnetic pulses, there is still plenty of reason to believe that humanity would still survive.

This is a grim vision of a future that could be waiting for us, but one thing to keep in mind when thinking about it all is that, in this case, the bigger picture doesn’t really matter. There will be nothing you can do about it. What you should be concerned about is what you can do something about. And in that case, all that matters immediately are the detonations that occur within your own area. The rest of it can wait.

Actually, preparing for such an event is surprisingly simple, and most of it is already covered by general preparations that would already be in place for a societal collapse on a global scale. Really, other than the fireballs, mushroom clouds, and radioactive fallout, that is about what we are looking at anyway.

Although few could hope to survive a nuclear blast at close range, if you do make it through that particular part far enough away to remain intact, there are ways to survive the fallout and reduce the damage to your body. Many of the methods are easy and economical, and the majority should already be part of your bugout plan in the event of any kind of mass chaos or disaster resulting in the collapse of society around you.

So, let’s just take it step by step. This part is just a quick primer on some of the basics, and we have answered the question set forth in the beginning of this article. Can you survive a nuclear war? And the answer is yes, you can. Part two of this article will examine the direct effects of a nuclear strike near you, what variables exist that could affect your odds of surviving, and what you need to know about those variables to stack the odds In your favor.