Nuclear war survival skills (1987 Edition) | Hacker News Reader

Nuclear war survival skills (1987 Edition)

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37 pointsMikeCapone15 comments

This book is filled with expedient nuclear war survival technology and techniques, developed at Oak Ridge and all tested for real (e.g. the instructions for shelters were handed to a semi-random family who'd then try to follow them, with the researchers video taping the whole thing, using this sort of process to iterate the instructions and designs). Some of the stuff has been tested in simulated nuclear blasts, others in suitable radiation fields, and the shelters are simple X feet of dirt provides a Y protection factor.

These are expedient, for people who have ~ 24-48 hours of warning before the heavy fallout hits (although there are also blast shelter designs, but it's best to get far enough away that that's not likely an issue).

There's also a lot of good advice that's useful for other types of emergencies, like where you might have to survive on mostly wheat for some period of time (how to prepare it, how to sprout it to get the vitamins you need, etc.) As Bruce Clayton said in his own survival book (which advised getting this one first), if you're prepared to survive a nuclear war you're pretty much prepared for any lessor threat.

Highly recommended.

Thanks for the overview. This is one of the things I love most about HN. Sometimes I see something that seems interesting linked, I click and see it's very long and I'm not sure I should read it. Then I go check the comments and there's usually a comment like this one that helps me decide if I should or not.

Might not be worth reading the whole thing, but the first couple of chapters are interesting enough.

I've never been sure why so many people make fun of the old "Duck and Cover" campaign. Sure, it won't help those within the immediate vicinity of the bomb much, but there's a certain donut-shaped area where you're a hell of a lot better off ducking and covering than not ducking and covering.

Well I know that the thing that I'm making fun of is 40 years of schoolkids, including myself...IN AUSTRALIA, no less...reminded frequently in school to live in fear from terror falling from the skies of bullshit enemies designed exclusively for their ability to provide 50+ percent of our tax dollars to the military complex.

That's quite a funny joke if you think about it.

IN AUSTRALIA, no less...reminded frequently in school to live in fear from terror falling from the skies

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylab

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drop_bear

It's easy to trivialise things after the fact, but it is not irrational to fear nuclear war or authoritarian states.

Australians are taxed far too much, but have never been taxed at 50% in a time far I know of. Perhaps during wartime.

What do you mean when you say 'designed exclusively'. Surely not that nationalist authoritarian states with nuclear weapons and decades of stand-off are the result of an Australian government conspiracy to give night terrors to children?

"provide 50+ percent of our tax dollars to the military complex."

I think he meant that a lot of his tax dollars went to the military (or maybe he was talking about Americans?), not that he was taxes at a rate of 50%.

The top Australian tax rate is near-as-dammit to 50% (47% last I checked, plus 1.5% "because we can" levy). I think the great-grandparent was implying that 50% of his taxes went to the military though, which is completely false; it's closer to eight percent.

I am also American. Americans spend more than 50% of their taxes on the military, and I pay taxes here.

I am not trivializing the danger of nuclear war or authoritarian states. My point is to clarify that humor does not imply triviality, in my case on this subject it implies anger.

I want to give credit where credit is due; I found this manual because it was linked on Michael Anissimov's blog:

http://www.acceleratingfuture.com/michael/blog/2010/04/dispe...

Here's a link to a pdf and another pdf guide from FEMA since you probably won't have reliable internet access in a nuclear attack.

http://www.nukepills.com/docs/nuclear_war_survival_skills.pd...

http://www.nukepills.com/docs/FEMA_Nuclear_War_Survival.pdf

Be very careful with anything that was written by bureaucrats inside the Beltway instead of the results of the research at Oak Ridge (this book). Much of what came from there will get you killed, as detailed in NWSS, e.g. through inadequate ventilation resulting in too great a heat buildup.

But your general point is well taken; get hardcopy today, and it's a very good idea to get the official NWSS book since the scaling from a copier or electronic printer will throw off the calibration of the Kerney Fallout Meter (a electroscope radiation meter that you make out of aluminum foil (for the electroscope leaves) and a can (plus desiccant and a few other odds and ends)).

Not exactly something I was expecting to find any humor in - but have a look at "Night scene in a trench shelter without light."

This in chapter 11.

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