Name: How to survive a nuclear attack
Uploaded: 2008-09-09T01:00:00Z
Duration: 24 min 58 s
Description: The face of nuclear terror has changed since the Cold War, but disaster-medicine expert Irwin Redlener reminds us the threat is still real. He looks at some of history's farcical countermeasures and offers practical advice on how to survive an attack.

Here I say, "So you're feeling the wind — and there's tremendous wind now that you're going to be feeling — and you want to go perpendicular to the wind or downwind," but in fact I meant to say you should go *only* perpendicular to the wind — in other words, crosswind.

Similarly, here I say, "You want to move downwind or crosswind for 1.2 miles," but I meant to say only that you want to move crosswind for 1.2 miles.

The face of nuclear terror has changed since the Cold War, but disaster-medicine expert Irwin Redlener reminds us the threat is still real. He looks at some of history's farcical countermeasures and offers practical advice on how to survive an attack.

How to survive a nuclear attack

Physician, disaster-preparedness activist

The threat of nuclear catastrophe has shifted from superpower standoffs to insecure arsenals and the risk of terrorism. With as little as 75 pounds of stolen uranium, a Hiroshima-sized bomb could be built and smuggled into a city. Although Cold War civil defense strategies were largely ineffective, practical steps today could save hundreds of thousands of lives in a nuclear emergency. Effective preparedness and clear-headed action can mean the difference between mass tragedy and survival.