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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is one of the most insane threads I've ever read on DCUM.

All you paranoid folk must know nothing about nuclear war!!

Mutually Assured Destruction means just that.[b] No one will survive. The planet will not survive. Everything and everyone on the planet will die.
[/b]

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Sorry, but that’s just not true. Lots of people will still survive. The planet will absolutely survive. The most dangerous radioactive materials in fallout are essentially gone after about 4-8 weeks. A few types of long lasting isotopes will remain but they aren’t nearly as radioactive as the other materials in fallout. You can read about this stuff on wiki. I did a lot of reading about this stuff last night. The radiation is very high in the first few days, then starts to reduce quickly. There’s a mathematical formula for it called the 7-10 rule. Google it. [/quote]

Where did you read this?

A large scale nuclear attack between the USA and Russia would mean a nuclear winter that would kill most of the human race. If that wasn’t in the materials you read, they aren’t reliable. Period.[/quote]

Sorry. You’re misinformed. Physics just doesn’t work out that way. Nuclear bombs aren’t magic. They’re just bombs - with some interesting side effects that subside on an entirely predictable mathematic timetable. 4-8 weeks is entirely correct in terms of fallout. Iodine 131, Cesium 137 and Strontium 90 require more time but are produced in far smaller quantities relative to the more energetic isotopes produced in a fission cycle, which are the primary dangers from fallout. Localized neutron activation in otherwise stable elements is another source of intermediate length contamination, but it is very localized, confined to the area of neutron flux at the moment of the fission/fusion cycle.

“Nuclear winter” was a term created by Carl Sagan and embraced by Hollywood script writers. It has no basis in reality. A large scale exchange would put enough soot, smoke and dust into the air to cloud skies for a short time, but that’s all. Many volcanic eruptions in the last millennia have put far more ash into the atmosphere than every nuclear weapon on earth possibly could.

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The most recent guidance that the government puts out now is so different from just 10 years ago and of course from back in the 1980s.  They used to suggest plastic sheeting and taping up your home and planning to shelter for several weeks. Now they say just move to the center away from windows and stay inside for 48 hours.

I tend to think the guidance was updated based on better knowledge so while I think there are still tons of unknowns, there guidance sounds more grounded today.

But if the pandemic taught us anything it's that the government would seriously scramble in an emergency and it would take them years to get a place of reasonably being able to offer citizens help.

Also supply chain disruptions would be way more impactful than we all realized and of course we hoard stuff and we are mean to each other.  I think we have very little hope. [/quote]

Plastic sheeting still makes sense, because fallout is basically airborne dust that emits radiation, either as a Gamma ray, neutron, or an Alpha or Beta radiation. Plastic can’t do anything to stop neutrons or Gammas, but it will definitely block Alpha and diminish Beta penetration. And if you can keep the dust out in the first place, you have much less “hot” stuff in your area of shelter. Running a hepa filtering device inside will also help - as long as you have extra filters on hand and can dispose of the filters that have absorbed contaminated dust. And 48 hours isn’t long enough to stay inside. At 49 hours, radiation is down to about 10% of the level it was immediately post-blast. But that could still be highly dangerous if the initial level was lethal to begin with. For example, during testing of hydrogen bombs in the 60’s, the level of radiation in the crater created by the explosion tested 1-hour after detonation was about 30 rads per hour. 5 rads of exposure over a short period of time is generally considered lethal. So even a 10-minute exposure to radiation of that strength would be enough to kill most people. After another 48 hours, the levels are down to 3 rads per hour - 10% of what they were initially - but after just an hour and 20 minutes, you will have still received a lethal dose of radiation. Staying sheltered for another 21 days will allow for levels to fall to a fraction of the 3 rad per hour figure, since the decay rate falls exponentially over time. At 8 weeks radiation levels for Gammas, Alpha and Beta are mostly down to background levels again, with the exception of iodine, cesium and strontium, and any activated neutron sources. But those are relatively insignificant compared to the really highly radioactive stuff in the hours/days immediately post-blast. The more unstable an isotope is, the more radioactive it is. And really, really radioactive stuff doesn’t stay that way long because it’s decaying so fast -which is why it’s so radioactive to begin with. And that’s why it’s so important to be prepared to shelter for a minimum of 3-4 weeks in an area of moderate contamination, and up to 7-8 weeks in a place with severe contamination. But if you can do that your odds of survival are very, very high. Like 99th percentile-high. But supply chain disruptions and lack of basic infrastructure, utilities or food will be an enormous problem that will likely kill even more people than the blasts or after effects themselves. [/quote]

After 8 weeks, then what? No animals will be left alive to eat. You'll be fighting for scraps with the MAGA preppers. [/quote]

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