Could you really survive a nuclear blast by getting in a lead-lined refrigerator?

Question

It was in Indiana Jones and I just wanted to know for sure...

Answer 1

Not a chance if you are quite close to the blast.

What the lead lining can do is reduce a little the intensity of the radiation which is mostly Gamma. Lead or any other material to that effect can not totally stop gamma radiation no matter how thick it would be. The radiation attenuates but does not come to zero.

If you are close to a nuclear blast, the heat generated by the blast would vaporize your lead armor including you and the refrigerator, and the pressure wave will scatter your vapor into smitherens.

Answer 2

Let's assume that the circumstances of the movie hold true other than survival.  So, the blast is primarily impact, and there's not enough heat to have melted the fridge or set it on fire.  This also means Indy was likely outside of the serious radiation zone (which is generally smaller than the flash-burn zone for devices of the 1950s), so the lead lining would keep him from getting a lethal dose.  Probably.

However, that still leaves purely mechanical issues.  The fridge was hit hard enough by the shockwave to travel a significant distance, so the acceleration due to the blast would probably have turned Indy into a red smear on the inside of the fridge.

Similarly, just hitting the ground at the speed shown in an unpadded fridge with no safety harness would have broken enough parts to kill Indy even if the launch hadn't done that.

Answer 3

It would depend on the distance to the blast, but it would certainly block a significant portion of the radiation.

Your chances of survival at short range would not improve, but at a distance where the pressure wave was no longer a threat, it would be very helpful for survival.

Answer 4

how about you try it and tell us whether if you survived....