Individual bunkers for survivalists have existed since the early days of the Cold War, but I’d never heard of large-scale vaults for civilians until today:
Yadan will be riding out any apocalypse in Vivos’ most ambitious project to date. The company has more than five 200-person shelters in the U.S. that are in various stages of construction, but this facility outshines them all.
The bunker, which is being built under the grasslands of Nebraska, is 137,000 square feet – bigger than a Wal-Mart – can house 950 people for up to one year, and can withstand a 50 megaton blast. Once completed, it will boast four levels of individual suites, a medical and dental center, kitchens, bakery, prayer room, computer area, pool tables, pet kennels, a fully stocked wine cellar and a detention center to place anyone who turns violent.
Will Vivos also duplicate the, uh, interesting sociological experiments that Vault-Tec is famous for? Tune in after the apocalypse to find out!
There was some detailed analysis of the finance and logistics of it when this story was first released, and no one could figure out how it would work based on the plans provided so far.
There’s also a company that makes pre-made inflatable bunkers you put in a hole, pipe concrete in, then bury that seem a bit more realistic but I can’t for the life of me find it again on google.
Incidentally, I grew up in a small village outside of London, one that happened to have a cold war bunker that served as a regional command centre for the RAF then civilian government. Within 5 minutes BMX ride (its the 80s after all) was a huge microwave relay tower used by the RAF and which then became part of the national telecoms backbone. What I didn’t realise at the time was my fears of surviving a nuclear winter were unfounded as my house was quite high on the Soviet priority list.
The road signs to the “Secret Nuclear Bunker” have turned into somewhat of a meme and even turned up on Top Gear. I’ve been back locally a few years now and I still haven’t visited, which is ridiculous seeing my interest in bunkers and the Cold War.
No, no. The Clevian ubermensch revels in its solitary mightiness. It would never associate with lesser mortals in a communal bunker. Grimoire will only be distributed to those with the iron thews necessary to survive alone!
I read about these a couple of years back. Not sure if it’s the same company or not but they had a bunker located near LA in the desert. It doesn’t surprise me, every time there is a impeding hurricane or something, people go in panic mode. I guess it isn’t any different for rich people.
I remember seeing a website a few years back for a company that modified those giant pipe sections (10 foot diameter or whatever) and used them to create a fairly simple pre-fab bunker. You just had to dig a hole in the ground and they would bring however many of the pipe sections needed. It was geared towards smaller, family-sized, shelters.
I always wondered about the effectiveness of “matter displacement” for nuclear weapons. I think back to the underground blast tests that we held, and yet the craters left behind were never as large as I would have imagined. I’ll bet there’s a study out there, someplace.
There is one of these in the city of LA that the Mayor and staff would use if the shit hits the fan. Its a fully functional command center too its pretty neat to see.
Yeah, but it’s a sales claim that you don’t have to back up, because it’s not like your customers are going to be around to demand their money back should you be proven wrong.
IIRC they weren’t really that great at it. Explosions take the path of least resistance so generally they explode up and out, not down.
You could probably have some sort of penetrator and do more damage, but its not like Cheyenne Mountain is made of sand or has all the facilities located near the peak.
Nor can Consumer Reports grab a 50 megaton nuclear device and go test anything.
Plus it doesn’t mention at what range it can survive the blast. I’m sure the structure would be perfectly fine past a certain number of miles.
