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Original poster

To want to build a nuclear bunker in our garden.....

101 replies

peppep · 09/08/2017 16:17

I'm genuinely contemplating it.

DH says isn't sure he wants to survive a nuclear war, and I think he thinks I'm joking, which - to be fair - I was when I said it on the day of Trump's inauguration.....

OP posts:
pongoismyhero · 09/08/2017 17:42

I would want my family to survive because I enjoy life, As a family we are self reliant so apart from a few weeks in the basement I don't see a downside to survival.

You can be as self sufficient as you want but nothing would grow.

DeannaTroika · 09/08/2017 17:45

I would want my family to survive because I enjoy life, As a family we are self reliant so apart from a few weeks in the basement I don't see a downside to survival

A few weeks in the basement? First of all your basement won't shield you from either the blast, or if you survive that, the radiation. And even if you somehow managed to survive both, how are you going to deal with the nuclear winter? How are you going to eat?
You enjoy life; but what about when every single aspect of the life you enjoy is gone?

milliemolliemou · 09/08/2017 18:09

Let's all move to NZ and share the mega bunkers recently bought (allegedly) by US moguls.

Or just wait this panic out (while quietly buying food and storing it in rat-proof barrels).

We've been through all this before but JFK and Kruschev were fairly intelligent and had served in wars and knew their history. Alas the current incumbents seem to be deficient in all three.

Then there was Chernobyl with fall out drifting over Northern Europe and Scotland ...

Interestingly volcanic eruptions seem to have much more influence on the shape of the world

www.eh-resources.org/volcanic-eruptions-and-european-history/

Off to dig in my garden.

milliemolliemou · 09/08/2017 18:16

@Deanna

You mean my kindle won't work? OMG. And my DCs won't be able to watch the first female Dr Who on catch-up? And my DP won't be able to buy whisky or wine?

Seriously - you'd have to be a specialist gardener to be self sufficient on less than an acre, even if the ground wasn't contaminated/weather didn't change (acid rain/no sun)/no heating for greenhouses etc. And you'd have to be fighting off people who knew you had food.

I recommend Day of the Triffids (John Wyndham) for what happens when catastrophe happens, communications are lost and people get hungry. Or just watch Eden - total breakdown.

Kursk · 09/08/2017 18:17

DeannaTroika, pongoismyhero

I dont live anywhere near a nuclear target. (Rural USA). So blast isn't a issue it would just be fallout, which a concrete basement and soil would protect us from during the decay period of the radioactive products.

Survival in the nuclear winter, authough hard is likely to be possible with an expected temperature drop of 20C. We would resort to growing crops in a greenhouse.

We have food, water and firewood stored. We deal with snow and cold in the winter anyway so not concerned about that.

Anyway, it's worth a try.

LurkingHusband · 09/08/2017 18:20

Without access to (currently illegal) firearms, (and the training to use them) how would you protect yourself against people who have got such things ?

I recall an old joke where the punchline is "as long as I have one of these, I can have as many of those as I want"

It could apply perfectly to an AK47, and a well stocked preppers larder...

BabsGanoush · 09/08/2017 18:21

My MIL's house is a bugger to get into (when she lost her key...), and the windows haven't been opened for years. Maybe we should all head there.

DeannaTroika · 09/08/2017 18:24

Survival in the nuclear winter, authough hard is likely to be possible with an expected temperature drop of 20C. We would resort to growing crops in a greenhouse

With contaminated soil and water? You'd need a bloody big greenhouse anyway. What about protein and fat? Where will you get your drinking water?

TheSconeOfStone · 09/08/2017 18:24

The Kraken Wakes is another John Wyndham sci fi post apocalyptic novel describing the fight for survival (rising sea levels in this case). Having read Z for Zacharya as a teen I do not want to survive. I'm close enough to Devonport dockyard to go early on I reckon (yes there is a target in Devon).

Kursk · 09/08/2017 18:25

LurkingHusband

What you say is very true, you will have to be prepared to defend you home/stash.

Difficult to do in the UK without firearms, secondly a rifle is useful for hunting food

Kursk · 09/08/2017 18:30

DeannaTroika

Surface soil could be contaminated where we live (we have a Geiger counter to check) So worst case you would have to scrape off the first couple inches then you are good to go. We wouldn't have a big greenhouse, several smaller ones would be more manageable.

We would continue to hunt for meat as we do now. Meat isn't contaminated, radioactive material is absorbed into the bones.

We have our own well for water

DeannaTroika · 09/08/2017 18:32

We would continue to hunt for meat as we do now. Meat isn't contaminated, radioactive material is absorbed into the bones

Meat isn't contaminated by radiation. That's nonsense.

Stormyseasallround · 09/08/2017 18:33

'The Last Children', 'Brother in the Land' and 'Z for Zachariah' were my childhood reading materials. I'm with the gin and opiates brigade.

DixieNormas · 09/08/2017 18:41

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Kursk · 09/08/2017 18:41

With meat the main risk is Iodine 131 and cesium 137. If you are careful you will be ok.

Deer around here are radioactive due to the amount of blueberrys they eat. So we normally take precautions.

Again our choice of location means that the chances of contamination is minimal.

Kursk · 09/08/2017 18:43

DixieNormas

Yes society would brake down so you would be best to go live in the woods as a hermit!

witchofzog · 09/08/2017 18:46

Luluuuu Dont forget the cat . She survived too before she got squashed by the man who suffocated due to dodgy air filtration Shock

orlantina · 09/08/2017 18:49

Global dimming. Sunlight reduced. Plants die. Whole ecosystem fails.

That's how the dinosaurs died.

agedknees · 09/08/2017 18:52

I am caravanning near Hack Green nuclear bunker, Cheshire. My master plan is to drive over their and commandeer it.

Only fly in the ointment is that the bunker was decommissioned years ago.

Easilyflattered · 09/08/2017 18:52

I've seen first hand the chromosome damage done to someone who was in the vicinity of Chernobyl at the time of the accident.

I think radiation sickness would be a horrible, horrible death. I'm sure I read once that if one nuclear bomb landed in the UK then at least 250000 people would need high dependency hospital beds, I think there's only 100000 beds in the entire UK NHS.

Seriously, it's a scenario that I hope those two meat heads can fully grasp.

Kursk · 09/08/2017 18:58

Easilyflattered

DH's company has been studying the radiation effects in wildlife in the Chernobyl exclusion zone. It's pretty interesting how life is thriving there

PickAChew · 09/08/2017 18:59

DH has promised to drive us all to Hartlepool power station and get it over with.

PickAChew · 09/08/2017 19:01

Now if we had a long earth and could all step east or west.... Probably wouldn't take them two wankers long to ruin the lot of them, mind.

CouldWouldaDidnt · 09/08/2017 19:02

As a child who was traumatised by reading Children of the Dust and watching Threads I am a complete geek when it comes to all things Nuclear war. And the current situation is giving me anxiety.

The thing is, as much as I'd want to die in the immediate strike like the majority on this thread, the likelihood is - as someone rural, not close to any major towns or targets - that wouldn't be the case.
Instead we'd die a long, horrible death from radiation, which can take weeks.
If there was a slim chance at survival I'd try -I have a ZA plan afterall!
But to stockpile and build a shelter for several months, you need money and I don't have any!

There is a tool somewhere online I'm sure where you can type in where you live and if you'd survive if a bomb strike I think if someone has a link for anyone interested?

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