What kind of place is the nuclear radiation shelter in the United States?

Recently, new york's large and small radiation shelters have once again attracted people's attention. In the 1960s, nuclear war was imminent. The federal government of the United States invested a lot of money to build many radiation protection stations in new york, but they were soon shut down for lack of funds. Nearly 20 thousand shelters have gradually become scattered urban warehouses, and the New York city government has no right to dismantle them so far.

So what kind of place is a nuclear radiation shelter?

Throughout the cold war, the national defense strategy of the United States was deterrence: maintaining sufficient anti-military forces to prevent the Soviet Union from launching attacks. However, American politicians and others continued to look for civil defense solutions, and their efforts reached their peak in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

The plan got off to a bad start when Mi Leide Caldwell, director of the Federal Civil Defence Administration, casually announced that he would provide shelter for every American. Its cost is obviously unaffordable, so it has been in the planning stage. Later planners realized that citizens would not have nuclear radiation shelters to save their lives in wartime unless they paid the fees.

From 195 1 to 1953, the funds provided by the US Congress for the civil defense plan are pitiful-only 10% of the funds requested by President Truman. The plan focuses on transforming public buildings and underground facilities into dual-purpose shelters, establishing an early warning system for attacks, storing materials and carrying out civic education activities.

1955, the American atomic energy commission announced that when a hydrogen bomb was attacked, everyone within a radius of 140 miles of the explosion site would be killed by radioactive dust. Americans are shocked by this.

Val Peterson, the new director of the Federal Civil Defence Bureau in the Eisenhower administration, proposed to reduce or cancel the previous evacuation plan and was in favor of evacuating residents from the city when the attack alarm was issued. 1955, Peterson said that residents living in most cities have only one choice: "stay and die, or evacuate to survive."

Unfortunately, Peterson's plan has several key mistakes. Even if citizens have time to evacuate, there are places to go, but infrastructure such as roads and bridges cannot cope with a large number of refugees. Peterson also quickly returned to the idea of calling on citizens to build some form of nuclear radiation shelter and store food and water that can last for five or six days. According to the method of "evacuation to shelters", residents should be moved from the target area to shelters located elsewhere. Peterson suggested digging ditches along the road for those who could not reach the shelter in time. American National Housing Policy 1958 focuses on family housing rather than evacuation.

Faced with the high cost, even the elite in the United States lack enough private shelters. Of all the governors in the United States, only the governors of five states have their own nuclear radiation shelters. Among the members of President Kennedy's cabinet, only J Edward Day, the postal secretary, has a family nuclear radiation shelter. However, the US Army Corps of Engineers built a nuclear radiation shelter for President Kennedy at his summer home in Hyannis Harbor, Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and the US Navy also built another nuclear radiation shelter for President Kennedy on Pinat Island, Florida. It takes only five minutes by helicopter from here to Kennedy's winter villa in Palm Beach. The nuclear radiation shelter has a 15 metal bed, which can accommodate 30 people.

However, none of the above-mentioned nuclear radiation shelters can be compared with those of the US Congress. It is located on the ground floor of the Green Rose Resort in White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia. It was built in secret in 1959 according to the order of then US President Eisenhower, and was completed in the spring of 1962. However, its existence was not widely known until 1992 in Washington post, USA.

The nuclear radiation shelter in the U.S. Congress, also known as the bunker congress, covers an area of 65,438+0,000 square meters. According to the plan of the U.S. government, if a nuclear war breaks out, all the more than 500 members of the Senate and House of Representatives and their assistants * * * about 1000 people will be immediately transferred to live in the bunker to maintain the normal operation of the government.

In order to prevent the explosion of nuclear weapons and radiation threat, the bunker is built at a depth of 20 meters underground, and the thickness of cement wall is 1 m to 1.5 m. The gate is a disguised explosion-proof door weighing 25 tons, which can be closed in an emergency. The bunker stores necessary daily necessities and a lot of food. There is an independent power station, water purification system, air filtration system and a medical room with 65,438+02 beds. Even if it is isolated from the world, it is enough for the people inside to survive for 60 days. There is also a TV studio where legislators can address the whole country. ?

The "anti-nuclear bunker congress" has been on standby, and the US government has specially arranged 70 people to take charge of its daily affairs, such as changing the food inside in time. The relevant operating agencies have worked out detailed procedures in advance to transfer members of Congress from Washington, D.C. to this bunker by road, rail or plane. Once instructed, members of parliament can get there within four to eight hours.

This bunker has never been used, although it was on high alert during the Cuban missile crisis. Whether members of a family will hide in the shelter together depends on when they are attacked. When the critical moment comes, family members are likely to be scattered in factories, schools or other places except at night.

Congresswoman Martha Griffith (Democrat of Michigan) pointed out to the Los Angeles Times that most public shelters are located in the city center. "If bombs fall at night, these shelters may not save anyone except beggars, drunkards and a few staff members who work at night in hospitals or local newspapers."

President Kennedy set a goal-"to provide every American with nuclear radiation protection as soon as possible". Government officials say those who can't afford commercial shelters can dig a hole in their backyard and use wooden boards and sandbags as ceilings to store emergency water and canned food.

Because of the money to be earned, the civil defense industry in the United States rose almost overnight. More than 40 different manufacturers sell nuclear radiation shelters made of reinforced concrete, corrugated metal, aluminum and other building materials. Some of these nuclear radiation shelters cost more than $4,000, which is equivalent to the average income of Americans 1960.

One of the biggest problems in shelters is morality. The space and reserves of a private shelter can only meet the needs of a family. What should the owner of a private shelter do if his neighbor wants to enter the private shelter and share the food when he is attacked by a bomb? Many people's answer is: drive them away and use deadly force if necessary.

The title of an article published by Time magazine in the United States is "Dealing with Neighbors with Guns". A Chicago resident said, "When my bomb shelter is completed, I will put a machine gun at the entrance and exit. If a bomb falls, my machine gun can stop my neighbors from coming in. " One observer speculated that neighbors with nowhere to hide might block the vents of the shelter with plastic bags as revenge.

Billy graham, a missionary, told The New York Times, "I think I should take the main responsibility for my family, but I don't believe I will stay in the shelter without any protection from my neighbors." The director of civil defense in Jefferson County, near Denver, Colorado, has no such hesitation. He equipped his private residence with various weapons to stop the intruders.

The above problems also surprised President Kennedy. Arthur Schlesinger, a historian of the Kennedy Administration, said: "President Kennedy said in dismay that he wished he had never said this, so there would not be so many problems. He hopes to cool down this fanatical movement as soon as possible. "

The prosperity of American shelters is over. 1963165438+1On October 22nd, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, and lyndon johnson succeeded the President of the United States. After the new government came to power, the priority of civil defense decreased. The official historical document on the civil defense plan of the United States wrote, "This topic began to gradually disappear from the public's sight, and President Johnson allowed the attention to this topic to further decline. When passing the shelter incentive plan bill, President Johnson did not put pressure on Congress, and Congress proposed to provide financial compensation to non-profit organizations that built shelters. "

The total number of nuclear radiation shelters built in the United States is unknown. Many shelters are built in hidden places, hoping to avoid the attention of neighbors. It is estimated that there were about 200,000 shelters in the United States in 1965. A writer named Kenneth Ross wrote in his related article that shelters for American families only accounted for a small part of them-there was only one shelter for every 266 families.

Part of the reason for the depression of the shelter movement in the United States is the emergence of arms control agreements and the reluctance of the US government to provide funds for shelter projects. However, the main reason is the lack of public interest.

Nevertheless, the American civil defense plan managed to survive. After several renaming and organizational restructuring, the plan was assigned to 1972 National Defense Readiness Bureau, and it was also responsible for writing several pages of the annual report submitted by the US Department of Defense to Congress.

1982, the U.S. civil defense plan once again made headlines-U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense T.K. Jones declared that nuclear war is not destructive, "as long as there are enough shovels, everyone can survive." He said. Dig a hole with a spade, which is covered with two doors and 3 feet of soil. "What really works is the soil." .