I must politely disagree. I'm an engineer who has studied this topic as a hobby and what was said was mostly* spot on. - If you are in the blast radius, you are toast. Doesn't matter what you do. But, truth be told, that radius is much smaller than you might think. (Here is a tool to help with understanding the scale of things: https://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/) - If you are 100+ miles away (depending in yield and blast elevation), meh. You are completely OK. Just know your prevailing winds, watch the weather patterns, wash your veggies, and take your shoes off at the door. Get your thyroid checked in a couple years, but generally, you'll be completely fine. - But, if you are in the middle donut between these two extremes - then this is good info. This is where this PSA can save lives if everyone did this. It's all about time. You hunker down and stay as LONG as possible. The longer you can stay without exposure, the higher success rate of your long term survival. When you MUST go out, send the old folks out and keep the children inside. Most of the associated cancers are slow growing, so someone over 65 really won't see a significant impact to their life expectancy. But, when the old folks come back, they need to make sure they decontaminate to prevent spreading radioactive dust into the living / eating space. *What they didn't say: you really need to stay in place for a minimum of a few weeks. (Time dependent on yield, blast elevation, winds, cleanup, etc.) The longer you stay away from contaminated dust, the better your long term survival rate. Personally, with my water / food / energy systems, I'm pretty confident I could stay in the house without leaving for a couple months. We'll all be very cranky, but we'd survive. MOST people don't have that option. Most people would be out of food in 48 hrs. If you are in the 48 hr camp, and you are wondering the streets within 48 hrs to get baby formula ... then yeah ... you are pretty much getting cancer. In theory, a competent emergency response would include a bus system (with forced air filtration) to bus people quickly out off the fallout radius. But, yeah .. that's a pipe dream. Your best bet is to hold out as long as you can, then drive out when you must. Oh, and buy a geiger counter and duct tape. Likelyhood of using in an emergency is near zero, but a geiger counter does make for a nifty gadget. And, duct tape has non emergency uses as well. :) Edit: for the record - I'm shocked to find myself saying anything good about that shithole of a city.