Located at least 13 feet from the surface with walls more than 3 feet thick, locks, ventilation, a warehouse, a bathroom and a first-aid post. Plus one living room for all. These are the standard requirements for a nuclear explosion protection bunker.
Meanwhile, the media write that luxury bunkers are being sold having multiple studios, cinema halls, armories, dining rooms, rooms for classes and games and a multi million dollar price tag. Sounds impressive but is it necessary to survive the apocalypse?
Supercomputer prediction about the end of the world
The end of civilization is near. The “Word One” Supercomputer predicted the death of mankind by 2050. This machine was developed to analyze global problems while Its algorithms have calculated that in the next 20 years, environmental pollution will become so powerful and toxic that it will start killing people.
Many have already begun to prepare for the apocalypse. Demand for bunkers has grown by more than a thousand percent in six months.
Second ark – underground village
Canadian electrician Bruce Beach was so carried away by the idea of saving mankind that he quit his job and began building a second ark. So he called the underground village – for himself and his neighbors. The main building material is old school buses. Their metal frames proved to be excellent load-bearing structures for a dugout. The enthusiast dug a foundation pit and filled them with a thick layer of concrete.
“I placed the buses in such a way as to create a full-fledged underground complex in which you can wait out any threat that occurs on the surface. We have seven separate entrances with a decontaminating shower. Inside are residential areas, a chapel, a hospital, a mortuary. And a prison for those who will violate the rules of residence,” said electrical engineer Bruce Beach.
At first glance, a homemade bunker seems reliable. But will it save from the end of the world?
You need to look at what protective and hermetic doors are there, you need to look at what kind of filtering and ventilation equipment is there. First you need to understand what a person wanted to protect himself from in general. It is quite possible that he just wanted some beautiful wine cellar and an explosion resistant reinforced design.
A Southern California company is offering a turnkey bunker. A huge pipe is buried to a depth of twenty feet. An installation is placed nearby with an electric generator and air purification system. At the entrance to the shelter is a decontamination compartment. Inside there are water tanks, bunk beds, a kitchen and a toilet.
“Due to the very cramped conditions and other restrictions inside, living in such a bunker will not work for a long time but it will allow you to wait underground for the peak of the disaster for a day or two. If the consequences of the emergency can be quickly eliminated, then the bunker will be able to save the lives of family members,” Simon Whistler explained.
Luxurious US Congress Bunker with TV Studio Café
You need to seriously go underground and for a long time. In the US, this was understood during the previous bunker boom in the midst of the Cold War. While ordinary Americans were acquiring concrete bags in their backyards, luxury shelters were being built for the government.
The bunker in West Virginia was built in 1962 to evacuate the US Congress in the event of a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. The shelter was equipped under the fashionable Greenbriar Hotel. In terms of luxury, the underground part is not inferior to the ground. There are 53 rooms with private shower, toilet and small living room. There are also a hospital, café, conference rooms and TV studio. 60 people are able to hold out here for about two months without leaving the surface.
“The project cost $14 million. There are four entrances. 25-ton airtight doors and decontamination chambers. Three tanks to store 25,000 gallons of water, a purification plant. And three 14,000-liter tanks to store diesel fuel,” journalist Andrew Smith said.
But only the elite will be able to sit in such a bunker. To save millions, you need to build an underground city. Will he be able to save himself from the end of the world?
The largest bunker in the world
A giant shelter codenamed “Project 816” in Chongqing, China is today the largest bunker in the world. Its area is more than a million square feet. The shelter was equipped in a mountain at a depth of one thousand three hundred feet. It consists of 9 levels and it is a system of 18 caves connected by passages and roads on which cars can drive.
“The work began in 1966. It took 60,000 people to do it. They even started building a plant for the production of nuclear weapons underground but they didn’t have time to finish it. After 17 years, the project was frozen due to the changed international situation,” said columnist Jian Shi.
Most of the work has been completed. So the bunker can be used for its intended purpose. This will protect not only from poisoned air, the shelter will be able to withstand a close detonation of a nuclear warhead with a yield of up to one megaton or an earthquake of magnitude 8.
A seismic blast wave is the most destructive thing that can ever be for underground shelters. You have to dig very deep: we are talking about many tens, rather even two hundred or three hundred feet.
Secret underground skyscraper for the American elite
One of the most high-tech bunkers is located in the US state of Kansas. The exact location is classified. This is the most secret hideout in the US. Here are the American elite plans to save themselves if the world ends. It’s not even a bunker but an underground skyscraper. Reaching 60 meters deep, it was equipped in a Cold War missile silo. It was bought by millionaire Larry Hall in 2008 and converted into a shelter.
“Each of these armored doors weighs 8 tons. The walls and shafts are made of epoxy hardened concrete. They can withstand a direct hit from a nuclear bomb,” said the owner of the bunker, Larry Hall.
The air in the underground tower is purified using a complex system of filters. Drinking water, which comes from an artesian well, also goes through several stages of purification. Energy is generated by autonomous diesel generators. Shops, a hospital, a school and a cinema are equipped on 15 underground floors. There is also a zoo and a swimming pool. To prevent people from going crazy from a long stay underground, they even made windows – they are imitated by plasma screens.
“There is Internet here. Of course, it’s quite difficult to get real Wi-Fi into such a facility, so we created our own search engine. And we immediately uploaded all the pages that might be of interest to the user by keywords,” said Larry Hall, the owner of the bunker.
There is enough food in the Kansas bunker for 5 years. But, even when they run out, starvation does not threaten survivalists. The underground tower has containers for growing fish and hydroponics for organic vegetables. You can live in complete safety in a Kansas bunker for years. But is it necessary?
Even in the most difficult scenario, in a day, two and three, you will be completely calm and able to walk on the surface in a light respirator without any health risk. That is, bunkers are not needed for a long stay, so some comfortable conditions in underground protective structures are not required.
The smallest apartment in the elite underground complex will cost one million dollars and only 70 people can accommodate the fancy bunker.
Bunker village
A really massive bunker exists. More specifically, a bunker village in North Dakota. Up to 10,000 people can escape the apocalypse here as an extensive network of shelters was equipped on the territory of a former military base. Previously, ammunition was stored in these concrete dugouts.
“People choose their finishes. They decide whether to put in an air filtration system – nuclear, biological or chemical. And how to use solar, wind or diesel generators,” said Robert Vicino, head of the bunker building company.
Such a do-it-yourself bunker will protect against cataclysms, and will cost relatively inexpensively. You will have to pay an amount equivalent to thirty thousand dollars. But this is for a shelter in which up to 30 people can hide, that’s a thousand for each prepper.
But is it worth believing in the end of the world?
But do not rush to draw up a contract of sale. The end of the world is delayed. The supercomputer, the news about which was recently replicated by all the world’s media, was made back in the 70s, thus issued its apocalyptic forecast 50 years ago.
The machine predicted that humanity would face an insoluble crisis but it won’t die at all. This was announced at the University of Massachusetts, which houses the rare supercomputer.
