Reality Check - How to Survive Fallout 4's Nuclear Blast

Lucy took a break from Fallout 4 to investigate some old and new theories on how to survive nuclear war.

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Reality Check

Reality Check

Airs Thursdays at 12pm PT

Flex those mental muscles and join Lucy James on a journey of discovery in Reality Check, the show that investigates the science behind your favourite games, and spawns a few wild theories of its own.

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kellytyyu

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streamline

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Lucy, don't forget to cover black rain.

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lof93357

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Clasmae

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Donate a nuke for personal use plz!!!!!!!!

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Tekarukite

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I remember doing "duck and cover" drills in the late 70's and into the 80's.

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GrahamZ

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@Tekarukite: I definitely did it in the '60s, but I can't recall when we stopped doing them, exactly. I suspect that they had stopped some time in the late '60s or VERY early '70s, at least here in upstate New York. I know that we did them in the very early grades of elementary school, but not in Jr. High or H.S.

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danjammer69

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@GrahamZ: I was in elementary school in the late 70's through mid eighties and don't remember ever doing them (Long Island, NY). But I have a hard time remembering what I did last week.

I do remember being terrified that we were going to have all out nuclear war right around 1984. That was one of the scariest times I can remember.

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grim0187

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It's scary that we have all of these nukes at our disposal. We should abolish nuclear weaponry.

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Clasmae

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@grim0187: who are we to abolish a weapon worldwide

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GrahamZ

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@clasmae: someone who doesn't want to end civilization, nor to be responsible for its end by doing nothing.

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Clasmae

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Edited By Clasmae

@GrahamZ: Very true, but trying to get countries to throw away their big guns (especially countries who don't like us) is wishful thinking unless they (and we) can be reasonable

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GrahamZ

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@clasmae: Granted it's a difficult proposition, and I'm not saying that I think it's likely that it will happen for the foreseeable future. But that doesn't mean that you do nothing -- support disarmament agreements, support like-minded politicians, and vote your conscience.

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cboye18

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Edited By cboye18

Might just prepare myself, with a possible real Fallout around the corner...

BTW, what you really need to survive a nuclear blast are those firm refrigerators from the 60's.

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Darkreaper_1

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Edited By Darkreaper_1

An interesting website, if this hasn't been covered, is http://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/

From there you can "detonate" nukes, both real and designed, anywhere on the planet and see the blast area and at which distances the fireball, radiation, air blast, etc reach/affect.

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mixedbizness

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mixedbizness  Staff

@Darkreaper_1: Gah! I had this as a note on my doc to put in but forgot! Proper nightmare fuel

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blejk2

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usefull since world war is right around the corner. Thanks Putin and erdogan

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tastemycobra

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Edited By tastemycobra

I accidentally hit upvote button, and can't take it back... and I found the video irritating. Actually I think Lucy is irritating; I don't know why I think that...

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pctech714

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@tastemycobra: You seem irritable. There are medication for that.

Lucy is charming, even though she's just a disembodied voice lately (I know, I know -- new studio soon). :)

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tastemycobra

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@pctech714: It sounds like... your opinion, man.

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mixedbizness

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mixedbizness  Staff

@tastemycobra: yeah me too

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tastemycobra

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Edited By tastemycobra

@mixedbizness: Almost no Ego... Bravo!

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hitmanxmk

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Are you preparing us for WW III ?

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lazerethjones

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Edited By lazerethjones

This Fallout 4 is butt ugly game man. I mean seriously, Bethesda, seriously, you couldn't afford to engineer a new engine with all the hundreds of millions at your disposal??? That's just being lazy because on top of you not bothering with a new engine your go-to excuse probably was "let the modders make it better." Well, you guys suck and are lazy. Sorry, but no excuse in this day in age. You guys could've made this game truly marvelous but instead we got a bland, low-rez, low poly landscape with nasty unsynced lip talking npcs. Look, don't get me wrong the game is fun but you guys dropped the ball big time in the graphics department, like BIG TIME. SMARTIN' UP!!!!

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pctech714

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@lazerethjones: I can't disagree more. Literally -- my Disagree Meter goes to 10 and it's redlined.

There's more to games than just shiny graphics. It's why I'll go back and play Baldur's Gate (minus the fancy mods). Also, to say that they were lazy and that they'll "let the modders make it better" are assumptions with no basis in fact. Even the belief that they had "all the hundreds of millions [of dollars] at [their] disposal" is flawed.

Graphics are a definite improvement over Fallout 3 or Skyrim.

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grim0187

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@lazerethjones: I also disagree. The game looks great, especially with all of the content in it.

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OpenMind23

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@lazerethjones: Disagree -1

I think it looks amazing with so much atmosphere and the music adds to it in a fantastic way too :-)

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samahir01

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@lazerethjones: i agree +1

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hystavito

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Edited By hystavito

A quote from the SAS Survival Guide which I'll never forget

"If you do not have a trench shelter prepared, start digging -- FAST!" :)

It sounds silly but it's seriously talking about ways to reduce your exposure and continues

"As soon as the hole is big enough, get inside it to continue digging, to minimize exposure to radiation if you are caught-out while still digging. Rig up a roof. Even if only of cloth, it will stop dust falling on you. Penetrating rays can still reach you so try to get a meter of earth above you."

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omotih

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dont believe this stuff ( if its ment serious, since its called reality check) u cant survive a nuclear blast becasue it will conterminate the enviornment for hundreds and thouthands of years to come, and nuclear radiation is nothing u can deal with, u cant see it, smell it, taste it, u cant get rid of it from ur body ... we have 5000 nuclear rockets on earth, with multi warheads each 1000mega tons ... all those will be triggered in the Event of a nuclear attack somewere in the world ... it will just destroy the planet, vaporize the atmosphere, boil away all water and melt every structure on the surface ... so basicly we are all living dead People at the Moment ... regards

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvCRkmXV0P0

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BrunoBRS

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@omotih: 1000megatons... while the discussion wasn't even in the 1 megaton scale.

also, you underestimate humanity's stubborness to survive. look at hiroshima for example. they got back in shape pretty fast for a city that was leveled by a nuke.

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Megamoss1984

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Edited By Megamoss1984

@omotih: Not a concern with an air-burst nuclear explosion. There's fallout, sure. But as said in the video the half life is short. Nuclear explosions use up their radioactive fuel leaving little to contaminate the atmosphere/ground. A Cobalt/neutron bomb is different, as its purpose is to spread contamination and make an area uninhabitable at the cost of yield.

Nagasaki and Hiroshima are both fully working, lived in cities with little to no signs of what happened there, aside from what was left by choice.

By contrast, Fukushima and Chernobyl remain mostly uninhabited and are no go areas because the nuclear fuel in reactors is used differently. It's harnessed for the heat a sustained reaction produces and as such isn't 'burned up' in the same way as an explosion. In Chernobyl in particular, the fuel and graphite moderator were exposed to the outside world, leading to massive radioactive contamination and the fire spread it even further.

So, rather strangely, nuclear fuel used in power plants has a greater potential for long term damage and contamination than even the strongest nuclear/hydrogen bomb. This is an aspect of Fallout games that is rather overstated, not that a world scale nuclear exchange would be particularly good, but the aftermath would be more hopeful than what is portrayed. Though there is the prospect of nuclear winter and global dimming etc...

Oh, and a small correction, the strongest bomb ever detonated was 50 megatons, it was called 'Tsar bomba' and it was built/dropped by the Soviets, though a design existed for a 100 megaton bomb. No nuclear missile in deployment today is anywhere near that powerful as it's just overkill. Strategists favor multiple smaller warheads that can be attached to the Minuteman missile you mentioned.

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omotih

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@omotih: I might add, the american versions of these multihead nuclear rockets are called Minuteman, idk if this is a knowen fact or not ^^

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TimberWolf_CLT

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Having been in elementary school in the age of "duck and cover" drills I commend you on your report's accuracy.

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hystavito

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@TimberWolf_CLT: As a kid in the 80s we had tornado drills which were basically the same ideas.

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mixedbizness

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Edited By mixedbizness  Staff

@hystavito: @TimberWolf_CLT - I watched Bert the Turtle no less than three times.

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SoulScribe

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Edited By SoulScribe

Everybody knows all you need is a refrigerator to survive a nuke.

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uninspiredcup

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Edited By uninspiredcup

Could have saved this for Christmas day, throw a montage with the Japanese child's lone bike accompanied by Adagio For Strings.

Pwopa holiday spirit.

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