Prepping for Nuclear attack

[ChedderGorgeous]

The ultimate preparation question. But is there any point? I would suggest no.

This is an incredible book, my favourite author

Powerful ending but devastating

Excellent post

This terrifies me!

Actually I could be totally wrong! I have never been more hopeful to be. Krakatoa was a huge, huge volcanic explosion - four times the size of the largest nuclear bomb ever to be used - and while it did affect climate and kill huge numbers of people (and would more, today, due to vastly greater population density and food requirements) it wasn't as lethal as that. Life went on for most.

We can gauge how many bombs countries have as an estimate, but not how powerful they all are, for obvious (intelligence) reasons. So it's impossible to know if Krakatoa would be a fraction of the combined force of a full-scale nuclear war, or a similar event.

What we don't know is how many bombs would be unleashed for mutually assured destruction levels of attack, and across how wide an area - or whether the impact would be as severe as claimed.

Thanks to Threads, I spent almost every night as a kid in the early 80s worrying myself to death about this. Thanks for reminding me, OP…

how come containers are better than bottles?

What does your husband think? About the whole thing. Is there going to be a n war? And if so what happens? Be interested to know opinion of those with more knowledge of that kinda thing (n power I mean…know no one can have a clue what’s going on in Putin’s head!)

As with most things in life it all starts with "It depends".

It depends if you think a nuclear weapon will be detonated near where you will be.

It depends on how big / number of nuclear weapons you think will be used near where you live.

It depends if you think it is worth surviving after another nuclear war.

So distance, when it comes to explosions, bigger does not mean the lethal zone grows in size. If you double the KL the lethal zone does not double. It often means more damage is done on a small area. Is the UK worth a blanket bombing? After all nuclear weapons are expensive are there are a lot of important targets in the world.

Remember WWII was technically a nuclear war and during the 50s and 60s there was a lot of above ground test detonations.

I know some people who intend to stand outside with a glass of wine and be vaporised in the blink of an eye. The fact the live miles from a target of any value, to the stage I doubt they would get a sun tan in the blast has not entered their heads.

Personally I think more damage could be done to the UK with a cyber attack, a small dirty bomb is the most likely, possible a cruse missile type strike is possible on a target of opportunity. But the big stuff? Is anyone even sure it will make it out the silo after all these years knowing what know about Russian maintenance?

Threads was about as realistic as Day of the Triffids and no where near as entertaining.

But the big question, how to prepare for a nuclear detonation? Well at my age Iodine is not necessary. So my preps are put as much density between myself and the mushroom cloud as possible and plan to stay in shelter as long as possible.

This was always my understanding. So why are people worried or prepping?

I would imagine it's the talk of national conscription that has heightened awareness

Red wine.

Red wine against radiation

Tap water has chlorine in it so it will last for around a year. Bottled water doesn't and once opened is only safe for a day or two.

In the early days of the Ukraine war he was very worried and buying bags of earth in case he needed to quickly build a bunker. Now he's using them up in the garden. So I guess he's not as worried, although he still has measuring equipment and radio gear stashed in the basement.

What a cheery thread I've stumbled across at bedtime 😂

I'm running towards them, not away from them. I have enough trouble living with all the home comforts, I'm not interested in surviving a NW.

All I ask is that if it happens can it happen in the morning/middle of the night so I don’t have to go to work

I live very rurally, I don’t think there are any strategic targets that close to me, but I think the best way to prep for a large nuclear attack is having a good way of killing your self and your family.

I prep for snow as the nearest shop is too far to walk to and I have pets. I prep for us both getting flu or Covid or just not wanting to leave the house for a few days. But there is a huge difference between those situations and a nuclear attack.

There is something nice about being snowed in when you have plenty of supplies, I can’t imagine the said could be said for a nuclear attack

I have a stockpile of morphine!

Don’t read ‘on the beach’ unless you want to cry a lot and have it stick in your mind for eternity.

Just so you know, there's poster stating she's wanting to discuss plans to kill her children before anything actually happens - on this site, possibly somewhat triggered by this kind of thread.

So how do preppers prep for a spouse planning family annihilation or for somebody tipping over the edge? What's the plan for your husband/mother/eldest child deciding you're all better off dead?

Well I’ll take that as a reassuring sign! Thanks - didn’t know that about tap water!

Yes there's loads you can do to prepare and unless you live in the very centre of a busy city there is a good chance you will survive and be faced with "and then what do I do?". This "we're all doomed" mindset was great as a deterrent and to exert political pressure on decision makers to get them to step back from MAD in the 80s but we've moved on a lot from there, we're a lot more powerless to make our voices heard, and we have a lot more knowledge and understanding of nukes. For your psychological wellbeing the best thing you can do is educate yourself and be prepared (as much as you can).

If you look at Nuke Map you can see your chances of being caught in various different situations based on the size and location of any given nuke that's deployed. From Slough, the most likely target would be London so you are unlikely to be caught in a direct hit. Nukes are expensive and heavy, they won't waste big nukes on small targets.

Research "potassium iodide" and you'll find the strength and dosage you need. I got some in the correct dosage for £10 on Amazon about a month ago as the ones I bought five years ago were a lower dosage and wouldn't be so effective. You live and learn.

These videos from the Provident Preppers might help (but take the medical info with a pinch of salt, the guy doesn't know his iodine dosages at all, much better advice on that front from the NHS, below):

If you want to be mentally prepared for the very worst case scenario, and you've got a robust mindset, do also watch Threads but I suggest you immediately make a nice cup of tea and contrast it with The Day After (the US one was made first with a verrrry similar set of plot points). The Day After is on Youtube and the full original Threads is on the Internet Archive. The version of Threads on Youtube is edited to make it look like a documentary. Threads is a drama not a documentary. It is based on the outdated concept of a "nuclear winter" which doesn't fit our current understanding of the impact of a major nuclear war. Current theories are that the impact will be much less severe or shortlived and a lot more survivable.

The Protect and Survive videos from the 1980s are fucked up but you can watch those as well, just bear in mind a lot of the advice is utterly useless and designed to make it easier for them to find the bodies (there was a poem about that, which is probably no longer covered in GCSE English but was when I was at school 20 years ago). The US produced some much more life-affirming videos and I strongly recommend one from 1970, linked below.

Once you have absorbed it all, look up prepping info about how to start planning/preparing.

The more people who educate themselves instead of being paralysed with fear, the better our society will be in the aftermath if this happens. Survivors will rebuild instead of regressing if they can stay alive in the short run and maintain strong communities in the long run.

Resources:
NHS Info on Potassium Iodide: https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/supply-of-potassium-iodide-65mg-tablets-v2.00b.pdf
US video from 1970:
The old protect and survive videos:
Threads (fictional) https://archive.org/details/threads202007
The Day After (fictional)
NukeMap: https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/

Edited to add NukeMap to resources.

Who wants to survive in a post apocalyptic world. It wouldn't be worth living

. From Slough, the most likely target would be London so you are unlikely to be caught in a direct hit. Nukes are expensive and heavy, they won't waste big nukes on small targets.

TBH unless you have insight into the planning that would have gone on into this it's anybody's guess what would be targetted.

In some circumstances/scenarios somewhere like High Wycombe would more likely be a target than London...

The best advice I could give anyone on surviving a nuclear incident, would be get a large-scale map or road atlas and plot likely targets. Use coloured sticky dots to represent high, medium, and low probability targets.

High probability would be transport hubs, command and communication centres, large storage facilities, repair centres for what little navy we have.

Medium probability could be airfields used by nuclear carriers (but only if they could strike before the weapons can be deployed), what manufacturing industry we have left that would help the war effort and targets with a high psychological value.

Low probability are likely to be targets of opportunity, things that suddenly become worth the expense.

Remember in the “Cold War I” targeting systems were very basic, a lot less accurate than even google maps. This meant that bigger or multiple war heads were used to ensure the target was hit. Today the guidance systems used, war heads can of course be smaller.

Once you have marked likely targets, use the online nuclear warhead calculator to see how far you are from danger zones to calculate the likely damage to your property.

I know a lot of people believe living after a Nuclear War is pointless. But I would put forward two arguments. One, there are a lot more things that knock us into the dark ages than just war, have you considered a Carrington event for example? Two, if only one or two low yield weapons are used on the UK you might not suffer any of the radiation effects.

If I was asked, I believe the UK will ramp up the use of nuclear energy in the next few years anyway, it could be we will need to prepare for an industrial accident rather than a deliberate attack.

@K9medic2

I can see your logic but I think the problem with trying to draw up any sort of hypothetical target list, and then planning to avoid, is ( from what's in the public domain) it's clear that target priority depends on what the aims of any such strike are - Selective release? Counter force? counter Value? or just all out Thermo- nuclear war..

TBH though I'd have airfields as always being top of the list - and that's anything with a decent runway more than maybe 8000 feet long so I'd be careful about thinking escaping to the country would make you safe.

I certainly think prepping on the basis of a simple model that works on the basis that, for example, London gets just one big city buster, so you just guess a yield , draw the relevant safety distance radii centred on Charing Cross and use that to work out if you're likely safe outside the M25 or the North Circular is likely to be horribly incorrect.

Fundamentally unless we're talking about selective release of a single/small number of weapons and a strike got limited to that, the population is ultimately probably screwed in any scenario but in some scenarios more rapidly in some than in others.