Nuclear war survival skills

Assuming you survive the initial blast wave of heat and pressure from the explosion itself (no way to really prepare here... luck of the draw) Your next step then would be have the supplies on hand to completely seal off your location from the outside. You will need to have plenty of plastic sheeting and tape for this. Another must have is a way to filter the air coming in because the air trapped inside of your bubble you have created will not last long enough. You will have to have at least enough food and water stored back to survive this initial time while you let the fallout settle outside.

After the crap quits falling everything will be coated with a layer of radioactive material, so you will need at the very least a respirator or gas mask to filter the particles out of the air you are breathing for movement outside.

I would also recommend a radio so you can get information about anywhere else that may or may not be affected. After you have a good idea of places that have been hit you can use a map to determine the best place for you to go that is furthest away from the blast areas and wind carried fallout particles. This is the point where you are going to have to decide to move from your home, you will not be able to survive close to ground zero there will be too much radiation not to mention lack of food and clean water.

The ultimate setup would be to have a vehicle already setup for this and other scenario's that is stocked with gear and supplies. Plenty of fuel, a large water purification setup that can distill as well, all necessary gear for survival on your own like tents, sleeping bags, guns for hunting and defense, fire making materials, wood gathering tools and other misc items you feel will be needed for your particular circumstances and location. You will of course want a geiger counter for measuring radiation levels, making sure to monitor it as you travel out of the danger area.

If things are really bad and there has been a large number of detonations.. I guess try to head south to warmer climates, as a nuclear winter will undoubtedly set in, and try to ride it out. You will need all the survival techniques you can learn, never know when they might come in handy. Hope some of this helps.

It's hard enough to live in the world as it is and they expect me to want to survive a living nightmare in a post-apocalyptic nuclear ravaged one?

No survival skills for me thanks.
I'll cash in my chips and you all can try and restart humanity.

Good luck.

- Lee

I'm a little confused why people keep saying to use duct tape and to seal yourself off? Air is not radioactive. Nuclear fallout is basically dust - Kind of like snow - whatever it falls on will be contaminated. Additionally the x-ray properties will actually penetrate the objects the fall out falls on. There fore your plastic sheeting wouldn't be much as it is THIN. The key to protecting yourself is to put as much MASS as possible between yourself and the dust.

I currently live in a basement flat in Southeast England - I have no illusions of surviving the initial volley of bombs. I do however like to educate myself and do basic preperations which could save my life in case of Nuclear annihilation ( unlikely to survive even with the best preparations ) or Flooding ( more likely to survive due to basic preparations ) .

reply to post by Merigold


You're exactly correct. The whole idea of the duct tape and plastic sheeting is to protect you from breathing-in or injesting the radioactive dust. That will kill you from the inside out an dthere is no escaping it once it's in there. Putting mass between you and the outside is to attenuate the high energy particles (mostly during the blast but also in the fallout) until they decay enough to make egress possible. The most widespread issue will be protecting against inhalation/ingestion of radioactive dust