What to do if a nuclear weapon is used

Official updatesLU-Alert · RTL, 100.7 · 112

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Take cover at once. If you are outside, lie flat behind anything solid and protect your head, then get into a brick or concrete building as soon as you can.
Go to the cellar or to the middle of the building, away from the roof and the outer walls. A car, a tent or a garden shed gives almost no protection.
Close the doors, windows and shutters, and switch off ventilation, heating and air conditioning. Fallout, the radioactive dust that comes down after the explosion, often takes Status: Verified or more to arrive outside the blast area: use that time to get in and close up.
If you were outside, take off your outer clothes and shoes, put them in a closed bag away from people, and shower or wash with soap, hair first. Removing the outer layer takes away up to Status: Verified of the contamination.
Stay inside for at least Status: Verified hours unless the authorities tell you otherwise. Do not go out to collect children: schools and crèches shelter them.
Switch on a battery radio, Status: Verified, and watch for LU-Alert messages. Text rather than call, and call Status: Verified only if someone is hurt.
Eat and drink only packaged food and water stored indoors, never water from open sources. Take iodine tablets only if the authorities tell you to, and never go outside to look for them.

The danger from fallout is highest in the first hours and drops sharply over the next few days. Sheltering is especially important during those first hours.
The warning would come through sirens, LU-Alert and the radio. Learn the signals on Alerts and sirens, and what to do when one sounds on Siren is sounding.
For an accident at a nuclear power plant, follow Nuclear alert: the current Luxembourg advice there is that you do not need to go down to the cellar. For a nuclear weapon, the Latvian and US guides advise the cellar or the centre of the building.

At home and at work, pick the room with the most walls and floors between you and the outside: the cellar, or a central room on a middle floor.
Stock water, Status: Verified per person per day for Status: Verified, and food in tins and packets that needs no cooking. See the emergency kit checklist.
Keep a battery or wind-up radio, a torch, spare batteries, your medicines for at least Status: Verified, and a first-aid kit.
Keep strong bin bags for contaminated clothes, wide tape to seal gaps, soap, and wet wipes in case the water stops.
Keep the iodine tablets handed out to households, check the expiry date, and read Nuclear alert on who should take them.

Come out only when the authorities say it is safe. If they order an evacuation, follow their route and see Leaving home.
Keep eating tinned, packaged or stored food. Do not eat anything from your garden, and do not drink rainwater or water from streams, until the authorities say you can.
For as long as the advice lasts, limit your time outside, especially in the rain. Change your clothes after each time out and shower.
Restock what you used, and replace iodine tablets that were taken or have expired.
Talk to people you trust about any fear or grief you feel. If distress does not ease after Status: Verified, see a doctor or a psychologist. See Coping with a crisis.

Stay where you are and let schools and crèches look after the children inside. You can reunite once the authorities say it is safe to move.
At home, keep them in the safest room with something to do, and give iodine only if the authorities say so, at the dose for their age.

Keep your medicines and any equipment you depend on in your safe room, and agree with a neighbour to check on each other by phone or text rather than in person.

Keep them inside with you. If a pet was outside, wash it before you let it into the room.

Avoid the top floor and the outer walls. If you can reach a central corridor or a flat on a middle floor without going outside, go there.

A car gives very little protection. Leave it and go into the nearest solid building.