Nuclear war.
It's going to happen and you and everyone you know and love are going to die a horrible,
terrible death.
Including your pets.
Well, maybe it's not 100% for sure that the world will go up in nuclear flames, but for
some people having a bomb shelter is as necessary as having a kitchen, and if the worst comes
to pass, it'll be them who are left laughing while we burn in a radioactive wasteland.
Then when the smoke clears, it'll be those prepared who rise up from their shelters to
take back the world from the feral ghouls we've all become.
But today we're going to teach you how to avoid this horrible fate, because today we're
taking a look at how to build a bomb shelter.
First, what are just a few of the ways a one megaton nuclear explosion can turn your day
very, very bad?
Well in the first half of a second of a nuclear detonation, anyone caught looking in the direction
of the blast and within a radius of up to three miles- depending on the yield of the
bomb- will have their eyes seared by a blinding white light, resulting in permanent blindness.
Anyone outside of this radius who happens to be looking in the direction of the blast
may experience everything from temporary blindness to permanent vision loss.
At the same time ultraviolet light will sear all exposed flesh, instantly causing third
degree burns.
In the next nanosecond, deadly gamma rays bombard the body and slam into cells, ripping
them to shreds and penetrating deeper into the body.
In the next nanosecond after that the ambient air temperature has skyrocketed to thousands
of degrees- though not yet as hot as it will very soon get.
This dramatic spike in temperature immediately combusts all clothing, flesh, and other flammable
objects.
At the end of the first second, a heat wave resonating outwards from the explosion point
will slam into everything within a half mile to three mile radius- again depending on the
yield of the bomb- with temperatures in excess of 540,032 degrees fahrenheit (300,000 C).
All flesh and flammable objects are immediately vaporized into atomic dust in the intense
heat, and metal melts and pools along the ground.
A shockwave then resonates out just behind the heat wave, crushing buildings and cars.
If you're within a few miles of the blast, the shockwave can crush your chest cavity
and the superheated air shred your lungs.
Then winds at speeds in excess of 400 mph (644 kmh) slam into anything left standing,
and if you've somehow miraculously survived all of the previous effects, you'll be Fus-Roh-Dah'd
clear across a few city blocks.
A dramatic change in air pressure crushes any remaining buildings, toppling them down
onto any survivors.
For anyone not instantly killed or within the 3-mile death radius, those up to seven
miles away can suffer second to third degree burns, ruptured organs, and shattered ear
drums.
The intense heat can also make breathing so difficult that many will asphyxiate.
The pulse of ultraviolet light generated by the blast can also sear flesh down to the
bone, resulting in the need to amputate entire limbs for those who survive.
Thankfully victims will experience no pain from this, as the burning happens so quickly
that pain nerves are destroyed before they can register the pain.
For anyone up to 53 miles away, the flash of the explosion and its resulting temporary
blindness would leave tens of thousands of drivers blind in an instant and result in
thousands of deadly accidents.
All technology within a potential radius of up to hundreds of miles would be instantly
rendered useless as electromagnetic radiation overloads the circuits inside and makes devices
inoperable.
Power grids across entire states would shut down and never be turned on again, requiring
the total replacement of the complete power grid from the ground up.
For weeks after wards radioactive fallout will pose a deadly risk for anyone within
a few hundred miles of the blast site- especially if the explosion was a ground burst, which
would kick up much more radioactive debris into the atmosphere.
Those affected will die slow, lingering deaths as their dna breaks down at the molecular
level and infection and disease set in to eat their bodies alive.
So, think you need a bomb shelter now?
We thought so.
Unfortunately most people don’t have the room to physically build a bomb shelter for
themselves, as most people tend to live in densely populated cities where the living
conditions are predominantly apartments.
If this is the case for you then all is not lost, and you can still successfully shelter
in place long enough for the worst effects of a nuclear detonation to pass by.
If stuck at home you can dramatically increase your odds of survival by duct-taping all of
the windows, making sure that you seal any possible openings through which radioactive
contaminants could leak in.
If possible you should head to the lowest level of an apartment building, such as a
parking garage, though figuring out a way to stop the airflow in from big garage gates
would be critical to survival.
The deeper you can get, the better your odds of survival, though admittedly they're pretty
slim as is already.
But let's say you're one of the lucky ones and you have your own property and the ability
to build whatever you want there, including a bomb shelter.
Well, in that case congratulations because you'll soon be one of the last of humanity's
survivors, fighting to retake earth from hordes of deathclaws and super mutants.
If you look online you can find a variety of websites telling you how to build a good
fallout shelter, but most of those require an extensive knowledge of construction and
materials as well as many thousands of dollars and specialized equipment.
Today we'll teach you how to build a fallout shelter that may be labor intensive, but even
the poorest vault-dweller-to-be can afford.
We hope you've got a shovel, because you're going to be doing a lot of digging.
And remember, the Infographics Show is purely
First you want to identify a suitable location for your fallout shelter.
You ideally want to find somewhere semi-remote but that you can realistically get to in time
to save yourself from a nuclear bomb, with a thirty minute flight path from Russia to
the US, you want to plan on having no more than 15 minutes travel distance from where
you live to your shelter.
You'll also want to make sure there's no underground pipes or wires where you plan on building
your shelter.
Digging into one of these by accident can result in you getting drenched by fresh sewage,
getting the electric shock of your life, or with a very hefty fine from your local city
government.
You need to call ahead to your town hall or local utility and inquire on the location
of any underground infrastructure before you start digging to save you the pain and worries
later.
Now that you've chosen your spot, you're going to want to start digging downwards at a fairly
steep angle until you reach a depth of at least twelve to fifteen feet- this is going
to be your primary entry point into the shelter, though you'll end up building two.
Next, you want to start digging straight ahead for approximately three to four feet, and
then angle sharply up for another three to four feet.
The end result will be an entry shaft that plunges down into the earth, levels off for
a few feet, and then begins to rise up a few feet again.
The point of this is simple- without expensive entryway materials and technology, you're
going to have to rely on the same techniques that the Viet Cong used in Vietnam to protect
your home under the ground from blastwaves and water leaking in from the outside.
Unlike in vietnam though, the water that does leak down into your shelter will be radioactive,
and so you want to create an area where the water can pool and soak into the ground without
ever flooding your living space, hence the slope upwards.
Your upwards shaft should stop at a total depth of about ten feet though, and this is
because you will need at minimum three feet of solid earth between you and the bomb above
to protect you from the burst of gamma radiation, so at a depth of ten feet you'll be able to
carve out a comfortable seven foot ceiling shelter and maintain adequate overhead protection.
You're not quite ready to start digging your living area though, as you have another major
hazard to worry about in the aftermath of a nuclear explosion, and that's radioactive
particles being carried by the wind.
In order to protect yourself you'll once more take inspiration from the Vietcong, who built
their tunnels to protect from napalm and gas attack by American troops.
At a depth of ten feet you want to dig straight a few feet and then make a very sharp right
turn, dig straight a few more feet and make a very sharp left turn.
Dig ahead a few feet and make another sharp left turn and you've essentially made a U-bend
in your tunnel, As wind from the outside rushes down into your shelter, the bend will severely
weaken the strength of the blowing wind and help deposit the heavier radioactive dust
and other particles on the floor before they reach you.
To be safe though you're going to repeat this construction one more time, so in total your
entry shaft should have two U-bends in it made up of very sharp right and left turns.
Once those are complete, congratulations because you're finally ready to start building your
actual living area, although we warn you- it's not going to be a palace.
You'll want to make sure your shelter is as small as possible in order to keep it strong
enough to withstand the initial blast, but you'll need at least twenty square feet per
person who plans to inhabit the shelter for their personal needs and supplies.
If you're handy you can craft beds for everyone to occupy, but piles of blankets can make
do in a pinch.
You'll also want to make sure that you have a toilet area which is easily accessible and
can store a few weeks worth of waste- an underground poop closet if you will.
The toilet should either be a shaft a few feet deep or a hole lined with plastic which
can be sealed up and stored away until it can be safely disposed of later.
It's not going to smell very nice in there, but better to breathe in your best friend's
poop fumes than radioactive wind.
Congratulations, you've built yourself a fallout shelter on a budget which will give you a
better than zero chance of survival.
To top it off you want to make sure you store at least three weeks worth of food and water,
as this is when the danger of radioactive fallout is at its greatest.
After this initial period it should be safe enough to exit your shelter as long as you
keep your skin covered and wear a breathing device- most military surplus stores sell
gas masks which are more than adequate at keeping out fine dust and other particles.
You'll also want to line the entry point to the underground living area with many heavy
blankets, creating layers of protection against any remaining wind that makes it past your
double U-bends.
You may not be living in luxury, nor living in the most secure bomb shelter ever made,
but in your tiny self-made shelter you'll have a far better chance of survival than
us non-mole people too proud to dig for our lives.
Then again though as with any fallout shelter owner you really have to ask yourself one
question: is it worth surviving a global thermonuclear war?
With climate change turning the earth into a giant snowball for at least a few decades
and disease and starvation rampant, your odds of survival even after the bombs fall are
nearly nil if the world decides to go all-in on nuclear destruction, and that's before
the global radiation superstorms that will poison every square inch of land and water
on the planet.
In our humble opinion if the US and Russia decide to let loose with their hundreds of
high-yield nuclear weapons, it's probably just best to step outside and perhaps call
a few loved ones on your cell phone before it and you are atomic dust.
You can reflect on the fact that from our observations of the universe intelligent life
is astonishingly rare, if not impossible outside of earth, and as the bombs scream down around
you, you can laugh at the fact that we dodged gamma ray bursts, asteroid impacts, and all
matter of interstellar phenomenon to beat the odds- but couldn't survive each other.
So stop worrying and learn to love the bomb.
Think you could build a shelter and survive a nuclear war?
Which Vault experiment would you run?
Let us know in the comments!
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