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Comment by throwaway4good | Hacker News Reader

I remember seeing "when the wind blows" (UK cartoon about an old couple slowly dying from radiation sickness after a nuclear war) when I was kid and that really scared me:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/When_the_Wind_Blows_(1986_film...

I only saw Threads much later - I probably should be thankful for not seeing that as a kid.

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I read the graphic novel version of "When the Wind Blows" as a child about 40 years ago. I don't remember being scared but to this day I still think about how I would improvise a fall-out proof shelter in my own house.

are you going to live in that shelter for the rest of your life? lots of people tend to think of these shelters as a temporary space during the explosions, sort of like a tornado shelter. you seek shelter, and then come back out after the event has passed. only, that fallout isn't going any where any time soon. maybe it'll wash away after a couple of rain storms, but it's also going to soak into the ground. so, that shelter better be prepped for a really long stay.

>that fallout isn't going any where any time soon.

It becomes exponentially less radioactive due to decay. The long-lived isotopes that persist might eventually give you cancer or cataracts, but the short-lived isotopes present in the immediate aftermath of a blast will kill you. The dose makes the poison and fallout shelters vastly reduce the absorbed dose of radioactivity.

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