The second half of the twentieth century was dominated by the spectre of full-scale nuclear war. But, of course, by the time 2021 came around, humanity discovered that there are far more nefarious disasters than that of a full-on exchange between two superpowers.
Unfortunately, however, the threat of a nuclear detonation or accident still hangs over our heads.
Whether it be a nearby nuclear blast, a terrorist dirty bomb, or a nuclear accident, the steps you will take to be prepared will be similar.
Most of the items you would find in a DIY nuclear war survival kit will be the same as most other disasters, with a few additions specific to the radiation resulting from atomic detonation or nuclear accidents.
Related: The First Thing You Should Do After a Nuclear Attack
Building a Nuclear War Survival Kit
A nuclear war survival kit is similar to any other emergency preparedness kit, with several additional items specific to nuclear events and a few special considerations for the things you would typically have in an emergency kit.
What follows is a few items that we all should have but now need special consideration and a few nuclear war specific items that would make up a DIY Nuclear War Survival Kit.
Water
We should all have an adequate supply of water on hand in case of emergency, but when we prepare to survive through a nuclear war, we need to consider that all water sources will be contaminated by fallout and become increasingly challenging to make drinkable.
The average human needs approximately one gallon of water each day, and to be prepared, you will either have to store enough water to last through a nuclear war and the aftermath.
There are a few ways to filter radioactive particles from water, one of which is building a soil filter and another being a reverse osmosis filter. These filter options are good but still require that you leave the shelter of your home to get the water to filter, so it is better to store as much water as possible to limit your exposure to the outside world.
Food
After an attack, you will not be able to move freely outdoors until the danger of fallout has passed. Therefore, you must keep a good supply of stored food on hand so that you can shelter in place for extended periods.
Unfortunately, this also means that your garden and any livestock will undoubtedly become contaminated.
Bugout Bags
It is almost certain that you will need to evacuate the area in the days or weeks after an attack. It may also be necessary to leave the area immediately after an attack because the blast wave has destroyed your shelter or the attack has caused widespread fires in the area.
Related: Emergency Shelters When You Are On The Move
Being ready to go immediately is essential in your preparations for a nuclear war.
Comms Gear
After an attack, you will be forced to shelter in place, effectively cutting you off from the rest of the world and even the people in your immediate neighbourhood. Therefore, having some essential communication gear is critical to gathering information and being aware of what other people are doing around you. Two-way radios, amateur radios, and AM/FM receivers are all imperative to have available after an attack.
Remember, though, that the grid is sure to be down, and comms gear takes up valuable power.
Related: 10 EMP Proof Items to Hoard
For example, suppose you are a licenced amateur radio operator. In that case, you already have a selection of radios, antennas and other equipment, but you will also need to have a backup source of electricity to power your gear.
Faraday Cage
Nuclear detonations are often accompanied by an electromagnetic pulse which will destroy the power grid and render some electronics useless. To combat this, build a Faraday cage and place a selection of electronic devices that you would not want to be without after a nuclear exchange. Then, seal the cage and tuck it away somewhere only to be opened after an attack.
Faraday cages are easy to make; they can be built out of almost any metal box with a few modifications and additions.
Power
A nuclear exchange will destroy the power grid and leave you in the dark. So you will need to generate your electrical power, whether it be solar, gas or diesil generator, or another means.
Everything you want to use that requires electricity, you will have to generate the power yourself. This will also include fuel storage that is sufficient to run said generator for the duration of the nuclear crisis.
Light
Light is also going to be something that you are going to have to plan for as well. Not only will the lack of an electrical power grid make the nights dark, but the possible nuclear winter dimming the sun will also be a factor you need to consider.
Like a power outage kit, your nuclear war survival kit has to consider a prolonged power outage.
Gas Masks and Hazmat Suits
If you are serious about preparing for a nuclear war, you will need to have a gas mask and several hazmat suits for every family member. Likewise, you will also need a good supply of the appropriate filters as well.
Related: Here’s Why You Should Always Have A Gas Mask In Your House
A gas mask and a hazmat suit are probably the only way you will be able to leave your home in the days after an attack.
Geiger Counter/Radiation Detector
We can not see, taste, or smell radiation, therefore you need to have a device that you can use to detect the presence of radiation in your home and on clothing and equipment after someone has been outside.
Of all the preps for a nuclear war, this is probably the most expensive of these preps, but one could very well be the difference between life and death after a nuclear exchange. These devices also need to be checked and calibrated from time to time to ensure their accuracy.
Potassium Iodide
After a nuclear accident or detonation, there will be fallout that may contain radioactive iodide-131, which our thyroid glands will absorb and possibly lead to the development of thyroid cancer. Adding a potassium iodide supply to your preps will help limit the radioactive iodide’s ability to absorb into your thyroid.
Decomtaniamtion
Anyone who exits the home will need an area to decontaminate upon their return. An excellent way to do this is to build a decontamination area outside the house using lumber and plastic vapour barriers.
The idea is to create a series of separated chambers where you remove your gear step by step, limiting the probability that you will bring fallout into your home.
Final Words
If you are already prepared for an earthquake, tornado, power outage or another disaster, you are most of the way towards having a nuclear war survival kit.
All you need to do is consider the unique circumstances that a nuclear war or disaster may pose and adjust your preps accordingly.
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if we have a single nuke exchange….. maybe this works but unlikey. you’re not surviing a total shoot out between the 6 countries with ICBMS…… sorry its over and why would you want to slowly die from radatation.
That’s true, but what about a suitcase bomb? Or in my case, I live less than ten miles from a nuclear facility in one direction and an AFB in the opposite direction. Great location for lower electricity bills and military retiree services, but it does give one pause.
Back in the 80s with the 10,000s of nukes less then 1% of the earth surface was even targeted.
Now, the nukes are all much smaller and there are no where the number of military bases to be hit as there once was. Also, there are fewer targets needing to have ground bursts instead of air burst that produce almost no fallout.
And nuclear winter is a Carla Sagan fantasy.
For the most part, 90% of the population of any country could survive any strike.
Surviving the aftermath, destruction of the grid and economy, will kill of 90% of the population in the USA.
The won’t target military bases. They will go for soft, indefensible targets, like metropolitan areas.
Wrong.
They need to destroy our ability to respond to any attack.
Few cities have any military or strategic value anymore.
There a fewer nukes than ever before, why waste it on targets that will not help your war effort? The aftermath will take care of soft targets.
cites have a a huge value….. the medical and factories and causing damage would draw massive amounts of resources.
The argument about civilian vs military targets is kinda mute. The reality is, most military bases are within spitting distance of built up areas. Even though there are fewer nukes today, modern nuclear warheads are exponentially more powerful. So, the argument is pointless.
agreed…
? worse than pointless, though, is the craving both democrats and rinos have long had for a nuclear war with Russia…giving the USA a first strike option, as well….the USA, we, are aggressors these days (again? Sadly I have a long painful memory about what really went down about wwii)
There will be small compassion for us worldwide when our lights go out. Gratefully, everything does not rest upon world opinion!??
Such is one old lady’s perception…
Meaningful Christmas to all??
“Whether it be a nearby nuclear blast, a terrorist dirty bomb, or a nuclear accident, the steps you will take to be prepared will be similar”
stick your head in the sand and don’t prep for a nuke incident – it’s not like they happen like a pandemic – they have happened more OFTEN ….
speaking of pandemics – besides the common core prep supplies mentioned >> both nuke and pandemic prepping have similar preps in common – don’t accept Covid and it’s paper mask solutions as real the real necessary gear required for a pandemic – go nuke – go pandemic anf you’re covered …..
In college, we noted that a defunct microwave oven with the power cord cut off would serve as a Faraday cage. The reasoning was, if it is designed to prevent HF energy from escaping then it would conversely prevent HF from entering…
Our geophysics instructor had a real Huxley moment from that one.
Just a thought.
Sorry, that don’t work.
Go watch empdoctor on YT and see what does.
now you’re just being mean – next thing you’ll do is tell them there’s no Santa Claus …
the old wives tale about microwaves has been around since they came on the market – it satisfies the ones that don’t really want to prep but want the claims on their resume …
Would I even want to attempt to survive in the aftermath of a nuclear attack? Hell to the no! If it’s gonna happen, I hope they drop one on my house so I go to my eternal home and leave this evil place. Can I get an Amen?
More likely you end your time puking, and other things, your actual guts out.
The land and water won’t be irradiated, no mutants, no nuclear winter.
Instead of being able to handle some dust, you’ll be crawling your way to try and survive.
Hopefully, your not a father.
Your family deserves better.
or perhaps he doenst want to his family to die… a slow death.
If your in the country….. like most people here should be if your preppers. you might be ok.. to a point but due to the fact we all rely on power, fuel and everything that comes from the big cities… your’re going die a slow death of starvation and from sickness.
What about radiation entering your house? Even with all this nuke gear are you going to be safe inside your home?
Yes.
Radiation is not a poison gas. It doesn’t poison the air.
Cover all vents, build a simple shelter.
Read “Nuclear War Survival Skills” free online.
Nuclear war is actually easy to survive, if your not in a blast radius.
Where did you get this info. A nuclear war will contaminate the whole planet. Everything will be radiated. Bombs go off then the power plants melt, it will be hell on earth.
I read an article a couple of years ago about Nuke War Planners running computer simulations on ‘Ring of Fire’ attacks. Instead of a single big airburst over a city they would simultaneously detonate a half dozen smaller nukes around the perimeter. The shockwaves from the bombs would reflect off of each other, bouncing back and forth destroying buildings and exposing a tremendous amount of fuel resulting in a firestorm that would trap the population like rats and spread in towards the center, burning everybody to death. Gives me the willies.
I used to think that I would be protected from fallout if I sealed all the windows and doors with plastic and sheltered in place for 2 weeks, sadly it turns out the damaging particles from fallout don’t even see walls, windows, or the roof and go streaming through your house and body doing especially bad damage to the tissue in your leg bones that produces white blood cells. Your immune system is made useless, worse the radioactive particles mutate cells in the bones that turn into blood cancer and kill you within a couple of years. Nuclear war sucks. Shelter recommendations are to stack sandbags or boxes of books in a wall around the dining room table, put a couple of mattresses on top of the table and get under the table with another mattress covering your legs, and stay there for a week or two. Or build a fallout shelter with 3 feet of soil overhead and 2 inch concrete walls and ceiling. Even in a basement with no above ground wall exposure you need the overhead cover.
Best thing about ‘duck and cover’ in school was getting out of class for a while and trying to duck down beside a girl you liked. What in the world were the teachers thinking walking the halls seeing us with our little butts in the air, heads pressed to the floor, our puny little hands shielding our necks?
Actually, even your house walls will offer some protection, mattering what they are made of.
It all matters how much fallout you get. 1/2 a Rdad an hour? Not much threat there, as the rate drops quickly. A 100 Rads, then yeah, you need shelter. But it not just mass that helps but distant.
Fallout doesn’t come through a house. Radiation does. And no, Cancer will take much long than a few years unless you actually breath some fallout into your self.
Was your school made of straw or concrete?
?The Nuns forced us to do this from time to time, too. But I thought we were the only ones that had to participate in such stupidity. However, unlike Public School girls who could wear slacks, we had to wear uniforms with skirts, and we inveribly got stuck next to a doofus who tried playing “itsy bitsy spider” up our legs the entire time.?
Judge,
I remember those “duck and cover” drills. The desks offered zero protection from anything, particularly with the number of windows that most classrooms had. I think that those drills were just to keep us in fear. A fearful populace is easier to control. After the “duck and cover” drills had played out, schools began telling us not to have children because the world was overpopulated and that we’re all going to freeze in the coming ice age. The system has always been to keep us peasants under control by keeping us in fear. That’s why this site is so great. There are so many solutions for many of the negative situations out there but to not cower under our desks in fear.
the duck and cover drilll was to over protection from the debire blast from killling you. Imagine all the glass and trash hurling at you at hundreds of miles per hour. The idea was to make a smaller target under something that could take the brunt of it. It had nothing to do with the initinal blast, which everything is fried in anyways.
There is some truth in this but it sounds more like the 70’s preparedness guide to nuclear war
Nuclear Bombs are not as dangerous as they used to be in respect to their radiation most of the seriously bad radiation is gone now in the first 24 hours with like cesium 137
after that iodine 131 which can last up to 2 months is about the only serious thing you have to worry about which can be treated pretty easy with a good iodine
most of the bad radiation is down to 45% in the first 6 hours (depending on the study) some say 5 hours and down to 1% after 24 hours
Now thing thing you have to worry about is the 60 nuclear reactor in the U.S. which are far far worse than any nuclear bomb and like Chernobyl will contaminate the land for millions of years with very dangerous radiation clouds and hot spots which are best avoided
even our dirtiest nuke’s don’t compare to reactors
Many of those of us who live near nuclear power plants, or within a 50-100 mile circumference of one, have put together a nuclear accident emergency kit years ago. I don’t put my faith and trust in the analysis of the engineers, energy experts, scientists or government officials to take care of me and my family should these systems fail. Look at what recently happened in Japan. Look at what happened in Russia just north of the Ukraine. Look at what happened at 3 Mile Island in Pennsylvania. Quite frankly, I’m not as concerned about a foreign actor dropping a bomb as I am our own government’s ability to provide adequate security at these sites given the current situation at our border.
about to refocus my concern!
And where exactly are all the old spent rods? We never hear about storage of them anymore. To many youngun’s don’t remember….sigh
most sit in a bunker in neveda and the rest are at the plants…. the safest power on earth and we stopped building nuke plants like idiots.
potassium iodide is for starters, but this link will give you other things to protect the body-https://www.webplaces.org/radiation/Countermeasures.pdf
hi there
With IOSAT pills (a thyroid blocking medicine that is used in a nuclear radiation emergency) is becoming harder to find and the price has gone from $4 before Fukushima 2011 – $21 in 2022 and I even saw $200 per packet on ebay!
If you were smart, you bought some when the price was cheap and no global anarchy was going on. And there was a surplus on the market.
So, if you can not find IOSAT pills or the price is un-affordable. I’m going to tell you a little secret. You can make your own liquid “super saturated KI (SSKI)” at home.
The active ingredient in IOSAT pills is Potassium Iodide (KI). Like all over-the-counter drugs, potassium iodide pills are labeled with an expiration date, usually five or six years after manufacture. But their active ingredient (KI) is very stable, according to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and it is safe to take them way-past the expiration date.
According to the Food and Drug Administration, studies confirm that none of the components of KI tablets, including the active ingredient, are significantly reduced when stored according to labeled directions. Therefore, KI tablets are naturally stable, do not lose their effectiveness over time, and remains usable.
SSKI, is a safe, effective cough expectorant routinely prescribed by doctors in the last century to open up the airways in the lungs to help clear deep coughs. It was also used for minor cases of asthma. Conventional medicine has all but forgotten about it because it is inexpensive to make with no opportunity for exclusive patenting rights. Old-time pharmacists regularly filled prescriptions for SSKI although today, most pharmacists less than about 60 years old would likely scratch their heads should such a script be requested.
How to make your own “Super saturated KI Solution”
I bought 100 grams USP grade potassium iodide (it looks like coarse sea salt, not powder), and divided it over 10 dropper vials of 10ml. Keep it in dry form and only add water in case of radiological emergency. 9 of these will find their way to selected people, for their families. When needed, 7-8ml water is added to each vial, resulting in saturated KI when fully dissolved, 2 drops per day of which is an adult dose of emergency iodide for 10 days. 1 drop for children and ½ drop for infant. The vial with content cost me less than $3 instead of $90 for pills, and it has an “infinite shelf life” in dry form. Feel free to spread this “recipe” to any survival communities you are a member of.
A 10ml brown glass dropper vial containing 8-9 grams USP potassium iodide, with instructions on the label to add water in case of radiological emergency. A 10ml solution will yield 200 drops, 2 drops a day for an adult, 1 for a child, 1/2 for an infant, for 10 days of most intense fallout, with an infinite shelf life, enough for 10 adults, or 16 children or 32 infants for the 10 day period give or take.
Each drop of this solution contains approximately 30mg total potassium iodide SSKI. Ingredients are potassium iodide and distilled water. Add drops of SSKI in a small glass of water or juice at breakfast time 1x/daily.
Anti Nuclear War Protest Poster NOTICE
ca 1970
22 x 28 inches ~ (55 x 71 cm)
$270
Unbacked
Notice
Office of Civilian Defense Washington DC
Instructions to Patrons on Premises in Case of Nuclear Bomb Attack
Upon the First Warning:
1. Stay Clear of all Windows.
2. Keep Hands Free of Glass, Bottles, Cigarettes, Etc.
3. Stand Awar From Bar, Tables, Orchestra, Equipmet and Furniture.
4. Loosen Necktie, Unbutton Coat And Any Other Restrictive Clothing.
5. Remove Glasses, Empty Pockets of all Sharp Objects such as Pens, Pencils, Etc.
6. Immediatly Upon Seeing the Brilliant Flash of Nuclear Explosion, Bend Over and Place Your Head Firmly Between Your Legs.
7. Then Kiss Your Ass Goodbye.
Pres. trump made the following statement during an interview” I DO NOT UNDERSTAND WHY WE OWN NUCLEAR WEAPONS IF WE ARE AFRAID TO USE THEM?”