# Nuclear Shelter



## mexico

I first did this place at the beginning of 08 and had been trying to get back in for better pics for ages. What was going to be a nervy explore turned into probably the scariest moment in my exploring life. I'd been in the building about 10 minutes when a panel on the wall started buzzing, this changed to a full on alarm accompanied by a massive flashing orange light on the ceiling, there was a succession of loud slamming noises from the back of the building and then a massive roar as the standby generator started and every single light in the building flickered into life. At this point I think if I'd needed to I would of filled my trousers, I was about to be busted in a secure building on a live Military base with a camera. After a couple of minutes when no one appeared, the image of me kneeling on the floor in an orange jumpsuit at Guantanamo faded and logic kicked in, I guessed there must of been a power cut. These buildings where built to be fully autonomous, and despite the building having been disconnected from the utilities for years it had sensed that the national grid had been knocked out by a Soviet first strike and brought the standby power on-line. Plus side was I didn't need to light all my shots with a torch like the last one. Unfortunately the place had been stripped of all the interesting 80's signage since I was last there 

This building was built for use as a shelter for a Squadron's ground crew. The military guessed correctly that in the event of the cold war becoming hot war the Russians instead of destroying key airbases with nukes, would rather keep them intact so they could use them in a planned invasion. The plan was to use waves of Tu-160 Blackjack bombers loaded with nerve gas aerosol sprays to 'crop dust' the airfield killing as many people as possible, then send in paratroopers to mop up survivors and secure it. So this building as well as being nuke proof was pressurised to keep the gas out. People would enter the building into a 'dirty area' where they would be decontaminated with fullers earth, cut out of their chemical suits and then pass through an airlock into the clean part of the shelter. The pilots and ground crew where under no illusion that the aircraft once launched were ever coming back, so once inside the shelter, apart from some doing sentry duty, the rest would just wait 90 days for the world to fall silent before emerging blinking into the sunlight to a totally different world. Providing they hadn't been slaughtered by Russian Spetznaz troops before hand.

Main Entrance,





Entrance area with decontamination cubicles on the right,




Comedy mirror,




Corridor from decontam area to the airlocks, the trays are still full of fullers earth and are the powder equivalent of a foot bath.




through the airlocks is the Guard room, the bullet proof windows look out into the entrance way and the decontam area,




Airlock and entry control panel,




Bat Phone,




The main shelter area, 90 days in this room with nothing but a few packs of cards and some dog-eared books, probably with the last page ripped out for a laugh.




Cook hatch,




Hatch down into the ration, ammo & medical store, the area is as large as the rest of the shelter and has an armoury, but the lower floor was flooded 




Toilet area, there were two sinks, two toilets & one shower for around 200 people, they were unisex.









Dormitory No 1, these dorms housed roughly 100 people each, there was no segregation, men, women, officers and privates all shared.









Air scrubbers in the aircon room, used for filtering the nerve gas from the air.




This photos a little blurry due to the genny going at full chat, the noise was immense,




Emergency exit,


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## krela

It's places like this that make me think how crazy this world we live in is.

i mean really?!

Great stuff.


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## flyboys90

Cant imagine what it would be like to be down there after an attack,ace report really enjoyed it


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## Catmandoo

Brilliant report! Fantastic!
This is what exploring is all about!


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## nutnut

Superb report that Mexico!!


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## Lightbuoy

Loverly stuff Mex -well done for getting in and out, and your snaps are nice and crispy!


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## night crawler

Brilliant report though the place would give me the creeps.


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## Mars Lander

Blown away this is the shizzle, love this in all ways, with super shots to boot, have been in some pretty tasty explores but this of all the things have been too, would be the top!

To go inside a genuine relic from the cold war would be the best of all, being a teen of the 80's with the cold war and frequent political bust ups of the time , myself and lot of others from my generation were quite affected by it all, would love to see!! Cheers for sharing


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## zender126

Great report!
Good to see a place like this in good nick


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## King Al

Awesome report mex  I cannot get enough of these places!


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## silentjax

WOW, nice report great pics... I would of filled my trousers when the generators came on


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## basschism

brilliant report and write up too. It makes you realise just how a serious a threat it all was, cuban missle crisis etc! I bet your peice was twitching like a rabbits nose when the genny fired up LOL.


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## krela

basschism said:


> brilliant report and write up too. It makes you realise just how a serious a threat it all was, cuban missle crisis etc! I bet your peice was twitching like a rabbits nose when the genny fired up LOL.



Looking at some of the stuff that's been declassified over the past few weeks the Cuban missile crisis was pretty tame compared to some of the shit that went on!


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## DJhooker

awesomes, i gotta get me one of these!


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## Big Bill

Excellent report!


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## Bunkerkid

This place looks awesome, bet you had hours of fun wandering round. Cheers for posting!


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## fluffy5518

Stonking report mate with top notch pics !! I think i would probably died of heart failure had i been you when those alarms went off !! Thanks for the report-and for staying alive !!!


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## Swampster

Nice report, and mostly fairly accurate... just thought I'd fill in with a bit of additional info, and offer a few corrections 

The bit about disappearing into one of those 'colpro' (collective protection) hardened shelters for 90 days is not correct and the notion that aircraft were launched on missions of no return also isn't correct (at least not for the RAF). While obviously some likely wouldn't return.. the basis on which the RAF operated and exercised was that aircraft would return, and required looking after... repairs, refuel, rearm etc.

On a standard NATO HAS (Hardened Aircraft Shelter) site there were usually 2 colpro shelters, one would be for the Aircrew, and their flying/survival equipment the other for the support groundcrew. And frequently the wider station on which the squardons were based had an additional one or two shelters on the station itself often referred to as the WoC & AWoC.. WoC.. being War Operations Centre (A being Alternative), from which the station would be commanded in times of war.

Groundcrew were generally rotated through colpro for some respite of varying hours, depending on the NBC state.
However for simplicity.. imagine a 16/8 rotation, that's 16 hours outside the colpro.. either in a HAS, carrying out their on aircraft duties or as mentioned outside on sentry/other duties. The other 8 hours would be, decontaminating, eating, sleeping etc inside the colpro.

These facilities were still heavily used well into the 90's for their primary purpose, especially during exercises but since the end of the cold war the doctrine of 'Fortress UK' is pretty much defunct, so while still standing, they're generally in 'mothballs'.

While there were indeed lots of beds inside, there wasn't enough for everyone.. thus a hotbed system was frequently utilised, 6 hours to a man (or woman).

Oh and in pretty much every shelter that I've had the misfortune of sleeping in, the beds were usually equiped with mini curtains for a modicum of privacy though they didn't help with all the snoring and farting! :/

While the shelters were hardened, they're above ground and not impervious to direct hits (see numerous photos of 'busted bunkers' online).. and certainly not nuke proof. Had a nuke gone off anywhere near one, if it managed to remain standing, most likely everyone inside would have been roasted where they slept... something nice to think about while trying to sleep! Though in my experience it was more a "I wish this f***** exercise would hurry up and end!"


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## smiler

This has to get a gold star Mex, I love your report and pics, many Thanks.


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## mexico

Cheers for the info 



Swampster said:


> so while still standing, they're generally in 'mothballs'.



This one has been welded shut now, the plan was to demolish it but after demolishing another on the site, which took over four times as long as they estimated and cost as much as they'd planned on spending demolishing all of them they decided the cost would be more than the land was worth so have just left it. I explored another on the same site that was some sort of ops room. Might get round to posting it up one day.


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## perjury saint

*Brilliant!! Well done that man!!*


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## Swampster

Sad to hear they're demolishing some of these buildings after knowing what a hive of activity they often were.. the photos bring back lots of memories!

Also surprised they're demolshing them too, as a good portion of these were actually funded by NATO (meaning mostly US cash). 

I think if I remember correctly, most bases had 2 distinct and independant HAS sites at least one of which I think would have been funded by NATO.. I think these were signified by a smallish NATO emblem on the doors.

The OPS room shelter that you're talking about was probably the Aircrew Shelter I mentioned previously.. assuming these are actually on the HAS site?

Edit:'
I'll just add, when entering one of these buildings when they were being used for their primary purpose.. assuming the 'NBC state was RED once you had gone through the entire decontamination routine, you were given a new NBC suit which you had to wear inside.. and in the event of an 'air raid', you had to don full gear including respirators even while inside these buildings with their solid concrete windowless walls and scrubbed pressurised air!l And youd sit and wait.. exercises were frequently based around long periods of tedium and discomfort :/


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## Potter

Great stuff, and an interesting way to find that the systems still work!


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## Ace5150

Not a lot scares me, but I'll readily admit that I'd have had heart failure at the alarms going off and generators kicking in.
FANTASTIC report and pics. Amazing.
When you see the 'advanced technology' of its time, you appreciate it was totally ineffective against a nuclear attack


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## josh101

great pics looks like a a wicked site well done be hard to beat that


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## AgentTintin

What a waste of money! Great location and report as well!


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## Pixcypants

Reminds me of fallout 3 vault tech lol. Superb pictures though proper eerie.


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## URBANMYTH

great report and great pics cant beat a live site


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## AgentTintin

Looks like a fantastic explore but I too would have crapped myself at the sirens going off. Great photos


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## trebort5050

These pictures are amazing. Thanks for sharing. I'd have has a panic attack in there with alarms going off.


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## spaceburge

Quite something, great photos too


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## urbexdad

What a find....top top stuff !!!!!


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## Blackps

This is very similar to the one at Kelvedon Hatch, thats open to the public though. What area of the country was this one in? There are more of these cold war relics around than you even know!


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## krela

Blackps said:


> There are more of these cold war relics around than you even know!



Doubt it, the people here who are interested in them have all the lists and do all the research.


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## Onmyown

Great report, thoroughly enjoyd.


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## ZeaJane

Really interesting report! Thanks


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## steveT

Great shots! Is it for sale? Be a great place to ride out the end of it all!


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## upright_ninja

Brilliant report! Makes very interesting reading. No stranger to NBC suits myself in the 90's so this brings back memories. Great pics too, thanks for sharing!


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