Fear of nuclear war sparks fury over private bunkers around the world: what they are like

When Bernard Jones Jr. and his wife, Doris, built their dream home, they didn’t skimp on anything. A grotto-style pool with a waterfall for hot summer days. A home cinema to spend cozy winter nights. A fruit orchard to harvest in autumn. AND a vast underground bunker in case a disaster occurred.

“The world is not getting safer,” Jones argued. “We wanted to be prepared.”

Under a discreet metal hatch near the private basketball court, there is a hidden staircase that leads to rooms with beds for about 25 people, bathrooms and two kitchens, all supported by a self-sustaining power source.

With water, electricity, clean air and food, they felt prepared for any disaster, even a nuclear explosion, in his bucolic home in the Inland Empire area of ​​California.

“If there was a nuclear attack, would you rather go to the living room or a bunker? If you had one, you would go there too,” said Jones, who mentioned that he sold the house two years ago.

Global security leaders have warned that nuclear threats are growingafter arms spending rose to $91.4 billion last year. At the same time, Sales of private bunkers are on the rise globally, from small metal boxes to extravagant underground mansions.

Russian soldiers fire a missile at Ukrainian targets on the border. Photo: AP

Reviews

Critics warn that these bunkers create a false perception that a nuclear war can be survived. They argue that people who plan to survive an atomic explosion are not focusing on the real and present dangers posed by nuclear threats, and the critical need to stop the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.

Meanwhile, government disaster experts They say bunkers are not necessary. A 100-page guide from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) on how to respond to a nuclear detonation focuses on getting the public into a building and staying inside, ideally in a basement and away from exterior walls for at least a day. Those existing spaces can provide protection from fallout, FEMA says.

But buyers say the bunkers offer a sense of security. The bomb and fallout shelter market in the United States is expected to grow from $137 million last year to $175 million by 2030, according to a market research report from BlueWeave Consulting. The work indicates that the main growth factors include “the growing threat of nuclear or terrorist attacks or civil unrest.”

Arguments in favor

“People are restless and want a safe place to put their family. And they have this attitude that it’s better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it,” said Ron Hubbard, CEO of Atlas Survival Shelters, amid a shower of sparks and the sound of welding in his bunker factory, which he says is the largest in the world, in Sulfur Springs, Texas.

Hubbard said COVID lockdowns, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas have boosted sales.

On Nov. 21, in the hours after Russia’s unprecedented use of an experimental hypersonic ballistic missile to attack Ukraine, his phone didn’t stop ringing, Hubbard added.

Four calls ended in the purchase of bunkers in one day, he said, and more ended up ordering doors and other parts for shelters they were already building, with which the owners seek to protect themselves against all types of disasters.

“They’re good for anything from a tornado or a hurricane to radioactive fallout, or from a pandemic to a volcanic eruption,” he said, extending his arms toward a huge warehouse where more than 50 bunkers were under construction.

An intercontinental ballistic missile tested by North Korea in 2023. Photo: REUTERS

With a loaded shotgun within arm’s reach and metal mesh shields on the windows to block Molotov cocktails, Hubbard said he opened his business after building his own bunker about 10 years ago. He says that Callers ask about prices, ranging from $20,000 to several million, with an average of $500,000, and for the installation. He said most days he sells at least one bunker.

What security experts say

In Hubbard’s apocalyptic scenario, global tensions could lead to World War III, a situation he is prepared to experience.

“The good part about a nuclear war,” he said, “if there ever was one, is that you can survive it if you don’t get killed in the initial explosion.”

He’s not wrong, U.S. government disaster preparedness experts say.

“Look, this fallout exposure is completely preventable because it’s something that happens after detonation,” said Brooke Buddemeier, a radiation safety specialist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where the U.S. government designs nuclear weapons.

Buddemeier and his colleagues are charged with assessing what might happen after an attack and how to best survive. “There’s going to be a pretty obvious nuclear explosion event, a big cloud. So just getting inside, getting away from where those particles are falling, can keep you and your family safe.”

This expert and others in the US government are trying to educate Americans, who decades ago hid under desks during nuclear attack drills, about how to respond.

After a deadly, deafening explosion, a bright flash and a mushroom cloud, it will take about 15 minutes for the shower of radioactive particles to reach those a mile or more away from ground zero. said Michael Dillon, a scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

“It’s literally going to be sand falling on your head, and you’re going to want to get out of that situation. You should go to your strongest building,” he said. In their models, they estimate that people would need to stay inside for a day or two before evacuating.

The government’s efforts to educate the public were revived after a false missile alert alarm in Hawaii in 2018 caused widespread panic.

The emergency alert, which was sent to cell phones across the state just before 8:10 a.m., read: “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT ENTERING HAWAII. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.”

Russian tanks fire missiles during military exercises, months ago. Photo: AP

For the next 40 minutes there were traffic jams, workers entering and exiting buildings, families crowded into their bathrooms, students gathering in gyms, drivers blocking tunnels, all in an attempt to seek shelter, without having a clear idea of ​​what it really meant.” seek immediate shelter.”

Today, the federal government offers a guide to preparing citizens for a nuclear attack that advises people to find a basement or the center of a large building and stay there, possibly for a few days, until they receive information about where to go. next.

“Gently brush your pet’s fur to remove any radioactive particles,” it says, adding that the 15-minute delay between the bomb and the falling radioactive particles allows “enough time for you to prevent significant radiation exposure.”

Nuclear explosion and radioactive fallout

Jeffrey Schlegelmilch, who directs the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University, said that “nuclear detonation scenarios are not all or nothing.”

If a small number of weapons detonate rather than an all-out war, he said, sheltering inside a large building to avoid radioactive fallout could save lives.

Nonproliferation advocates bristle at bunkersshelters or any hint that a nuclear war can be survived.

“Bunkers, in fact, are not a tool for surviving a nuclear war, but a tool for allowing a population to psychologically endure the possibility of a nuclear war,” said Alicia Sanders-Zakre at the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons. .

Sanders-Zakre called radiation the “particularly horrible aspect of nuclear weapons,” noting that even surviving radioactive fallout does not prevent long-lasting, intergenerational health crises. “Ultimately, the only solution to protecting populations from nuclear war is to eliminate nuclear weapons.”

Researcher Sam Lair at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies says America’s rulers stopped talking about bunkers decades ago.

“The political costs incurred by making people think about shelters again are not worth it to policymakers because it forces people to think about what they would do after a nuclear war,” he said. “That’s something very, very few people want to think about. “This makes people feel vulnerable.”

By Editor

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