• Question: If there was nuclear fallout what would you do/where would you go?

    Asked by Dylon to Ed, Kerrianne, Nina, Oli, yoyehudi on 4 Nov 2017.
    • Photo: Yo Yehudi

      Yo Yehudi answered on 4 Nov 2017:

      Yikes. It sort of depends how much notice I have and what tools I have available to me. For example, if the global political climate got really scary, I could consider moving to NZ, which might be out of the way if I’m lucky.
      If things were a lot more sudden, international flights might not be a thing anymore 🙁 in that case I’d have to figure out where is safest. It’s hard to say beforehand since you don’t know where will be hit / affected! In worse scenarios, the internet is down so I can’t even get word about what remote locations are like. I suspect the more remote areas of the UK might be safer than Cambridge (where I live), so maybe I’d end up fleeing to northern Scotland?

    • Photo: Nina Jordan

      Nina Jordan answered on 4 Nov 2017:

      I might try to get as far away as possible! You’d definitely want to be upwind to avoid the worst of it. Check online what the authorities recommend?

    • Photo: Kerrianne Harrington

      Kerrianne Harrington answered on 5 Nov 2017:

      Fallout radiation decays exponentially so I would try to quickly get far away from the source if I was dangerously close (within sight of a mushroom cloud), avoiding the direction the wind is blowing materials and dust towards, and then try to get underground. Heavy and dense materials provide better protection, such as thick walls, concrete, bricks, books and earth. If I was on campus, it would probably be extremely likely I would hide in a vault somewhere in the library! I would try to shower, to wash material off of me.

      I’d probably be thinking about the ‘Fallout’ game series a lot during all of this, and start collecting bottle caps just to be safe 😛

    • Photo: Oli Wilson

      Oli Wilson answered on 6 Nov 2017:

      If I was anywhere near a nuclear explosion, I think one of the first things I’d do is find my wife and have a bit of a cry! Then, if we could, I think I’d follow any instructions we could get about staying safe. Evacuating seems sensible, but I don’t know how I feel about living in a bunker for years… I could potentially imagine living out on the edge of the country or somewhere like Canada, but if the fallout’s from a massive nuclear disaster that’s affecting the whole world then it doesn’t seem to matter much where you go! 🙁

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