# Best place to be in case of a nuclear war? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 2, 2004, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-place-to-be-in-case-of-a-nuclear-war/267139 "2004-10-02T02:55:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Early\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-place-to-be-in-case-of-a-nuclear-war/267139/21 "2004-10-05T14:28:05Z")
Mars. I could then chronicle the whole affair. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-place-to-be-in-case-of-a-nuclear-war/267139/22 "2004-10-05T14:37:35Z")
Well said, Gest. We never know until we are faced with the situation. Let us pray that we never are. ---
**Author:** ![Debaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3da27b/32.png) [@Debaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Debaser)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-place-to-be-in-case-of-a-nuclear-war/267139/23 "2004-10-05T14:44:27Z")
Here are my choices, in order: In a US Navy nuclear powered sub. The international space station. On board Air Force One. ---
**Author:** ![Early\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-place-to-be-in-case-of-a-nuclear-war/267139/24 "2004-10-05T14:49:12Z")
> [@Debaser](#): > > Here are my choices, in order: > > In a US Navy nuclear powered sub. Ever read or see the movie of _On the Beach_? > [@](#): > > The international space station. Not right now - a virtual garbage scow (no shuttle missions to take out the trash), with oxygen supply problems. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-place-to-be-in-case-of-a-nuclear-war/267139/25 "2004-10-05T14:55:57Z")
**Best place to be in case of a nuclear war?** Somewhere else. ---
**Author:** ![5que](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/3bc359/32.png) [@5que](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5que)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-place-to-be-in-case-of-a-nuclear-war/267139/26 "2004-10-05T14:56:43Z")
In Florida, in 1962, they told us we’d be fine hiding under the desk, as long as there was a blanket over it. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Largo62](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/45deac/32.png) [@Largo62](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Largo62)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-place-to-be-in-case-of-a-nuclear-war/267139/27 "2004-10-05T15:10:32Z")
Just one more vote for “Ground Zero.” I have thought about this since the cold war began, and I simply don’t want to live in the kind of world that would be left. Of course, suicide has been hovering in my brain for at least 30 years and I’m still here. Maybe my powerful will to live would overcome my grief at seeing the world change so violently and so enormously. But I doubt it. This is a depressing topic. And it’s my birthday. I think I’ll go to the pit and cheer up. ---
**Author:** ![pyrrthon1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/2acd7d/32.png) [@pyrrthon1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pyrrthon1)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-place-to-be-in-case-of-a-nuclear-war/267139/28 "2004-10-05T15:35:18Z")
I would imagine the best place to be would be Antarctica, or on a ship/submarine in the middle of the ocean. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-place-to-be-in-case-of-a-nuclear-war/267139/29 "2004-10-05T15:36:41Z")
At home, watching it all on TV? ---
**Author:** ![Debaser](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3da27b/32.png) [@Debaser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Debaser)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-place-to-be-in-case-of-a-nuclear-war/267139/30 "2004-10-05T15:44:05Z")
> [@Early Out](#): > > Ever read or see the movie of _On the Beach_? No. But, a sub would have power enough for decades and food enough for years (with rationing). You could wait it out, and travel the globe looking for safe sites to rebuild. > [@](#): > > Not right now - a virtual garbage scow (no shuttle missions to take out the trash), with oxygen supply problems. Compared with the radioactive, smoldering ruins of an apocalypic wasteland? Sounds good to me. Toss the trash out into space. ---
**Author:** ![wolfstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wolfstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfstu)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-place-to-be-in-case-of-a-nuclear-war/267139/31 "2004-10-05T15:48:06Z")
> [@Debaser](#): > > Compared with the radioactive, smoldering ruins of an apocalypic wasteland? Sounds good to me. Toss the trash out into space. Well, you could be posing a hazard to yourself in chucking the trash out; it could come back and bite you in a collison or something. It would hang around in orbit with you unless you took calculated actions to send it somewhere else. Otherwise, I’m with you. Unless my Canadian Wilderness Plan is feasible… anyone have any idea if it’s possible to escape the radiation in this way? ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-place-to-be-in-case-of-a-nuclear-war/267139/32 "2004-10-05T15:55:50Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > In the bank vault. > > With an _extra_ pair of glasses. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-place-to-be-in-case-of-a-nuclear-war/267139/33 "2004-10-05T15:58:38Z")
DC. New York. Some place where I can count on evaporating in the first half-hour of the war so I don’t have to live through the aftermath. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-place-to-be-in-case-of-a-nuclear-war/267139/34 "2004-10-05T18:00:52Z")
Where I live was a prime immediate-vapourisation location in the cold war. There was all sorts of military stuff around here. Unfortunately, we can’t rely on a quick death any more. ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-place-to-be-in-case-of-a-nuclear-war/267139/35 "2004-10-05T18:36:26Z")
> [@Estilicon](#): > > Argentina or Chile would be a safe bet. We donn’t have nuclear weapons therefore we are not a “fair target”. Incidentally Tierra del Fuego is a beautifull place, one of Argentina’s (I really don’t know much about chile’s side) best places to live. Sure it’s colder than hell but its’ lovely. Sorry, but “best place to live” and “colder than hell” are mutually exclusive unless you’re a penguin or a polar bear. ---
**Author:** ![FilmGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@FilmGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FilmGeek)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2004, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-place-to-be-in-case-of-a-nuclear-war/267139/36 "2004-10-05T22:49:35Z")
Another ground zero for me. ---
**Author:** ![PaulFitzroy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/2acd7d/32.png) [@PaulFitzroy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PaulFitzroy)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-place-to-be-in-case-of-a-nuclear-war/267139/37 "2004-10-06T03:26:52Z")
> [@](#): > > No, not quite. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear\_winter](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_winter) That article uses “hypothetical,” “predicted,” and “possible” all in the first _sentence._ Nothing in it convinced me it’s anything but a theory. ---
**Author:** ![wolfstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wolfstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfstu)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-place-to-be-in-case-of-a-nuclear-war/267139/38 "2004-10-06T07:21:46Z")
> [@PaulFitzroy](#): > > That article uses “hypothetical,” “predicted,” and “possible” all in the first _sentence._ Nothing in it convinced me it’s anything but a theory. To be fair, they can’t really test this hypothesis to prove it… ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2004, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-place-to-be-in-case-of-a-nuclear-war/267139/39 "2004-10-06T20:55:56Z")
> [@PaulFitzroy](#): > > That explanation is two measley paragraphs long (and the second paragraph is almost irrelevant.) I’d expect more than two paragraphs on such a cosmic topic from someone like Cecil Adams. And it doesn’t even attempt to provide a thought-out, strategical analysis of the situation: it only assumes that in the event of a nuclear war, every single country in the world will be destroyed, and you’ll be screwed no matter where you are. Why assume that? Why assume that Russia would nuke Africa if it were attacked by America? Why assume that after two or three cities nuked leaders wouldn’t come to their senses and end further carnage with some kind of agreement? Why assume that all the nuking would happen all at once? And do all possible forms of international nuclear conflict fall under the blanket term “nuclear holocaust?” > > I was hoping for a better answer. You aren’t thinking like the sort of people who have massive numbers of nuclear weapons at their disposal. These guys run tests to make sure soldiers won’t fail to fire the missiles when ordered, because of some namby-pamby ‘feelings’ about the civilian casualties. They use terms like ‘mutually assured destruction’. The point of having these weapons is to threaten to \*\*utterly destroy \*\* the opposition (hopefully only in retaliation, otherwise we are all f_ck_d). **Of course** you nuke Africa when attacked. You don’t want to ‘lose’ to some ‘third world’ country. After the first 100 million casualties, what is the point in stopping? Are you going to apologise? :rolleyes: And of course you launch all your missiles as soon as possible. The enemy has targeted all your launch sites. If you don’t launch, you will look ‘silly’ when the rest of your missiles are destroyed on the ground. I was hoping for a better question… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-place-to-be-in-case-of-a-nuclear-war/267139.md?page=1)