Scientists have recently revealed that Australia and New Zealand are best placed to survive a
Australia and New Zealand best placed to survive nuclear apocalypse, study finds. The lucky country can count on one more piece of good fortune, with researchers finding Australia – followed by neighbour New Zealand – best placed to survive a nuclear winter and help reboot a collapsed human civilisation.
GET INSIDE: After a detonation, you will have 10 minutes or more to find an adequate shelter before fallout arrives. If a multi-story building or a basement can be safely reached within a few minutes of the explosion, go there immediately. The safest buildings have brick or concrete walls.
Here's a fun fact that's nice to know, but we hope you never, ever need to use: the best place to hide during a nuclear bomb explosion is in a strong, concrete structure, researchers at the University of Nicosia in Cyprus say in a January 2023 study published in the journal Physics of Fluids.
The resulting inferno, and the blast wave that follows, instantly kill people directly in their path. But a new study finds that some people two to seven miles away could survive—if they're lucky enough to find just the right kind of shelter.
Scientists have recently revealed that Australia and New Zealand are best placed to survive a nuclear apocalypse and help reboot collapsed human civilisation. The study, published in the journal Risk Analysis. These countries include not just Australia and New Zealand, but also Iceland, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.
Beta particles travel appreciable distances in air, but can be reduced or stopped by a layer of clothing, thin sheet of plastic or a thin sheet of aluminum foil. Several feet of concrete or a thin sheet of a few inches of lead may be required to stop the more energetic gamma rays.
Some estimates name Maine, Oregon, Northern California, and Western Texas as some of the safest locales in the case of nuclear war, due to their lack of large urban centers and nuclear power plants.
Irwin Redlener at Columbia University specialises in disaster preparedness and notes that there are six cities in the US that are more likely to be targeted in a nuclear attack – New York, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington DC.
Can one survive a nuclear blast hiding in a basement? The basement is the safest place to hide for this type of emergency. The radioactive dust will settle over the roof and outer walls when the fallout occurs. The belowground position of the basement provides protection, thanks to the solid-packed earth around it.
Recovery would probably take about 3-10 years, but the Academy's study notes that long term global changes cannot be completely ruled out. The reduced ozone concentrations would have a number of consequences outside the areas in which the detonations occurred.
For the survivors of a nuclear war, this lingering radiation hazard could represent a grave threat for as long as 1 to 5 years after the attack. Predictions of the amount and levels of the radioactive fallout are difficult because of several factors.
For its part, Switzerland is well prepared, but not even Swiss bunkers will be enough in the event of a large-scale nuclear war. Writes about the impact of new technologies on society: are we aware of the revolution in progress and its consequences?
I would feel safer in places like SE Asia, the Philippines, South and Central America, New Zealand, along with southern regions of Africa and India. Those areas are generally not places where intercontinental nuclear missiles would be headed if World War 3 breaks out.
The Smart Survivalist named the Nordic country as the safest place in the event of a nuclear war. “Because Iceland is isolated from the rest of the world by the North Atlantic Ocean, it would be very difficult for a nuclear missile to reach Iceland without being detected first,” it said.
Hyping up a then-new hypersonic nuclear-capable missile, Russian state TV said the Pentagon, Camp David, Jim Creek Naval Radio Station in Washington, Fort Ritchie in Maryland, and McClellan Air Force Base in California, would be targets, according to Reuters.
Get inside a building right away. If you can get to a brick or concrete multi-story building or basement within a few minutes, go there. But being inside any building is safer than being outside. Once inside, go to the basement or the middle of the building.
It would take a land- based missile about 30 minutes to fly between Russia and the United States; a submarine-based missile could strike in as little as 10 to 15 minutes after launch.
A Primary Target for Annihilation
But from there, as counterforce evolves into counter-value, Russian missiles would begin targeting larger cities, including New York, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. (Note that Washington, D.C. would most likely have already been hit in the first wave of attacks.)
Packed earth insulates against radiation and blast waves, but don't go deeper than 10 feet; if your exits (make two) become blocked in the blast, you may need to dig yourself out.
A “nuclear winter” would be the result of a chain reaction that would go something like this: Nuclear warheads striking cities would cause firestorms and send huge amounts of soot into the stratosphere. That soot would block out much of the Sun for up to a decade.
Lead has long been considered "the element of choice" for radiation shielding due to its attenuating properties. Lead is a corrosion-resistive and malleable metal. Lead's high density (11.34 grams per cubic centimeter) makes it an effective barrier against X-ray and gamma-ray radiation.
Shielding: Barriers of lead, concrete, or water provide protection from penetrating gamma rays. Gamma rays can pass completely through the human body; as they pass through, they can cause damage to tissue and DNA. and x-rays.
Lead aprons, lead blankets, and various other types of lead shielding for radiation are the most effective material to fight off x-rays and gamma-rays.