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Safe room · Decide what the room is for and where it goes · secure-24

Plan a refuge for radiation fallout and chemical incidents

After a radiation emergency the advice is to get inside, stay inside and tune in. A refuge with the most mass between you and the outside protects best.

How

  1. US (Ready.gov): get inside the nearest building; brick or concrete are best. Go to the basement or the middle of the building, away from outer walls and the roof.
  2. Stay inside for 24 hours unless local authorities give other instructions, and follow official media.
  3. UK (GOV.UK): go in, stay in, tune in. Close doors and windows, turn off fans and air conditioning, and stay in the middle of the building.
  4. So site the safe room in the core of the house, with the most mass around it, and below ground if flood risk allows (secure-2, secure-3).
  5. Switzerland plans a shelter place for every inhabitant. Where places are short, owners must build shelters in new homes or pay CHF 1,400 per place. Ask your canton or municipality.
  6. Swiss shelters store drinks and non-perishable food and use dry toilets, one per 30 occupants (FOCP). Stock the refuge the same way (secure-10).
  7. Fans can stay off for a short stay, but a closed room still needs fresh air within hours (secure-6 and its CO2 calculator).
  8. If you were outside after fallout arrived, remove outer clothing and wash skin and hair with soap and water (Ready.gov).
  9. This guide gives no shielding thickness figures. For a purpose-built fallout shelter, use your national civil protection rules and an engineer.

Safety: Never keep people in a closed room for long without fresh air; CO2 builds up (secure-6).

Do these first

Sources

  1. Nuclear Explosion (Ready.gov, archived December 2020). US Department of Homeland Security (via UNT web archive), accessed 2026-11
  2. What to do in a radiation emergency. UK Government (GOV.UK), accessed 2026-11
  3. Shelters for the population. Swiss Federal Office for Civil Protection (FOCP/BABS), accessed 2026-11
  4. Shelters: their purpose, construction and utilisation (June 2023). Swiss Federal Office for Civil Protection (via EU Civil Protection Knowledge Network), accessed 2026-11

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