Reaction to radiation.

Symbol of Nuclear bunkers

Written by Conner Simmons

The 100, Battlefield, Call of Duty, Fallout. Were all aware of Nuclear weapons and have grown up with pop culture that plays with the concept of Nuclear War. We understand the effects better than anyone before us. We take for granted that the pop culture of Nuclear worlds is of fiction and not reality.

Today we almost laugh about the tweets, the President-Elect Donald Trump makes about using Nuclear weapon in North Korea, the whole idea seems nonsense to us. But for the generations that precede us, the dark clouds of Nuclear Fallout seem to loom overhead and show no signs of clearing. No threat was to be taking lightly.

The 1960s saw a movement like no other, an international effort by the people to ban Nuclear weapons; known as, “Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament” (CND).

As millennials living almost in an entirely different world to that of the '60's’. Consider the question. Were people of the 1960’s paranoid or justified in their fear?

By the 1960s the scars of WWII had yet to fully heal. Many still held in their minds the sobering reminder the effects nuclear weapons had on a place and population, (Nagasaki and Hiroshima). The idea of an all-out Nuclear war was one that sent shivers down the spine and chilled you to the bones. 

On the 30th October 1961, the most powerful nuclear weapon the world had ever seen was denoted. A hydrogen Bomb with the blast yield of 50 Megatons. To date, this remains the most powerful to have been denoted. Codenamed Ivan by the Soviets, known as Tsar Bomba in the west. Tsar was the name for Russian King, and this was a bomb worthy of that title. To put into perspective the sheer might of this weapon, the Atomic Bomb used in 1945 by the USA on Japan had a blast yield of 15 Kilotons. The Atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed an estimated of 130,000 people and injured many thousands more[1]. It’s safe to say this left many countries with their trousers down reaching for the toilet paper. 

Illustration of family sized bunker 

So, what was the 60’s reaction to radiation? Aside from the above mention of anti-nuclear campaigns. Fallout shelters were constructed, many by the hands of ‘preppers’. These were ordinary average ‘joe’s’, people who wanted protection for themselves and their loved ones. Some invested thousands and spend hours constructing shelters that they would never use.

Governments themselves also constructed shelters to house, VIP’s and the civilian populations. In 1961 Plans by Nelson Rockefeller, Edward Teller, Herman Kahn, and Chet Holifield for constructing a complex network of concrete underground shelters, sufficient to shelter millions of people throughout the United States in the event of nuclear war, were

outlined in Fortune magazine.[2]

Similar projects were undertaken in Finland and Norway. The USSR and Eastern Bloc designed their underground mass-transit and subway tunnels to serve as fallout shelters in the event of an attack. Germany has protected shelters for 3% of its population, Austria for 30%, Finland for 70%, Sweden for 81% and Switzerland for 114%.[3]

Paranoid or justified fear? The jury is still out. It seems no one escaped the fear frenzy of the 1960’s, not even the decades that followed. Today we often make light, the possibility of Nuclear war. A very real threat that still looms over our heads. Nuclear weapons still exist and global tensions between nations are on the rise. Remnants of the fear present in the 60's still linger in today’s world.

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[1] Atomicarchive.com. ‘Hiroshima -- August 6th, 1945’ atomicarchive.com, (2017) http://www.atomicarchive.com/Docs/MED/med_chp25.shtml (Last Accessed 23 Nov. 2017).

[2] Burck, G. (1961). Fortune, pp.112-115.

[3]Mariani, D, ‘A chacun son bunker’. SWI swissinfo.ch, (2017), https://www.swissinfo.ch/fre/a-chacun-son-bunker/7485678 Last Accessed 23 Nov. 2017).