Britain's End-of-the-World Bunkers
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- čas přidán 5. 09. 2024
- Made with BBC Brit Lab! See my video with Greg Foot over on their channel: • What Is Nuclear Energy... -- I'm at tomscott.com/ and / tomscott • This video has a correction: "ground burst" and "air burst" were reversed in the script. Ground bursts produce significantly more, and wider, fallout.
Deep in the Essex countryside lies Kelvedon Hatch, and the Secret Nuclear Bunker that's now an off-beat tourist attraction. Inside, I met up with Greg Foot from the BBC's Brit Lab, and discovered the rather optimistic 1980s plans for tracking nuclear fallout, and helping the survivors of a nuclear war... if there were any.
This video has a correction: "ground burst" and "air burst" were reversed in the script. Ground bursts produce significantly more, and wider, fallout.
You‘re correcting an error you made in a Video four years ago? Well... that‘s cool.
tom scott i honestly am in love with you
How does it produce more if it's the same bomb?
huh I thought air burst was worse because the wind carried more
They could make a game out of this a probably bad game but a game non the less
The bunker wasn't actually all that creepy, apart from one moment when, filming on my own, a radio suddenly started blaring out "Attack Warning Red", and all of a sudden I was an extra in Threads. (No, not that extra.)
:15 that wasnt an audio volume fade control at all🙂
I am curious to know if the 'four minute warning' was an urban myth or an actual real estimate of the amount of lead time of an attack. I heard ages ago that there would, in reality, have been virtually no warning at all. Is there any chance you could look into that?
how u gonna be comenting on your own video and only get three replies my guy
Your narrative is wrong. Nuclear radiation is small health hazard. There was a conspiracy to make radiation sound very dangerous but it isn't unless you receive crazy doses.
@@cainabel2553 Are... are you aware of just how much nuclear radiation an exploding nuclear warhead could produce? I believe the amount could conservatively be called 'crazy' at many places and times during the event.
Your response would make much more sense on a video talking about, say, nuclear power generation - in which case, you are partially correct, though it was less a 'conspiracy' and more a 'propaganda campaign' that fueled public fears about nuclear power, regardless of continued improvements to the technology's safety, reliability, and waste-reduction.
This video has nothing to do with nuclear power, though, which makes me wonder if you actually watched it, or if perhaps your response is automated in some way.
I went a few years ago, ironically the there is a sign pointing to the bunker which states "Secret nuclear bunker" :D
***** Cool! I suppose you are protected if the worst happens while you are at school :P
+Anshul Sukhlecha where is that?
Drakotar same at hack green in Cheshire
I'm a bit late to this chain but mine has a website, and signs for a few miles around. www.secretbunker.co.uk/
Drakotar it's a Cold War memorial
i'm working on my own bunker tom but instead of awdrey i have charlotte she makes tea.
Put a jet engine somewhere inside it.
+colinfurze Colin! I freaking love the bunker dude.
+colinfurze
What does charlotte stand for?
+The True Fizz Animal rights & live music.
actually they did it in the past, you can look up for "gadget geeks"
The script would have been somewhat more scary with the "generic" British accent from the 50's and 60's.
TechMantra if it was read out loud on radio nowadays, it would be “yo we iz gettin attacked blud”, BBC gotta have that diversity!
Ngl, I'd totally pay for Troopz to do an emergency broadcast.
@@hamstirrer6882 Yep!
@@hamstirrer6882 this is a trash take based on shitty racial stereotypes
@@markcangila1613 Exactly. Don't know what point OP was trying to make there.
As someone who makes acronyms and is a stickler for good ones, AWDREY is a really damn good one.
No defunct legitimate words, no secondary initials, no inserted letters to try making work. Everything yet few is used optimally and precisely.
Fun fact, Aberystwyth, which Tom mentions as one of the few safe places in the event of a nuclear attack, was used in WW2 to store irreplaceable documents and artifacts from museums and libraries across the UK. They can actually suck all the oxygen out of the storage rooms buried far beneath the National Library of Wales.
Aberystwyth isn't safe precisely due to the copyright library. It's on the soviet targeting list for a counter-value strike.
I have met a few Welsh people who can suck the oxygen out of a room.
And always remember Remain Indoors
Remain Indoors
Remain Indoors
Don’t think of the event
Remain Indoors
Too relevant now.
Wow. I bet you didn't realise how prescient this comment would become eh?
i got that reference
i’m seeing this everywhere, can someone explain?
@@jamiel6005 just type Mitchell and Webb remain indoors into CZcams and thank me later
I'll go down to the Winchester and wait for it all to blow over.
ayyyyy
Literally.
Ayyy , good one
And eat a Cornetto
I just say the clip XD
we had a bunker in my old high school as well. Right next to the STEM-related programs section and less then 1 minute from the mechanics and industry education facilities. Poor sods studying esthetics and humanities though, they were at the other end of the school campus, in another building.
Apparently the government had made some kind of prioritization, and they were getting the short end of the stick.
nukes take at least 30 minutes to hit so there are at least 10 minutes to get there...not an unreasonable time to sprint across a school campus
well the liberal arts guys arn't going much good when it comes to rebuilding a country are they? they'll just sit there debating nonsense and using up the scarce resources at our disposial.
Are you sure it wasn't a ww2 bunker?
Only people doing important classes should survive!
Some of those liberal arts students will probably end up working in government payed jobs. Like teaching or tax office. So not so useless.
"This is the BBC Emergency Broadcasting Service. Do not think of the event."
Remain Indoors.
What is that a reference to?
hell yeah.
blessed be the regulations l_l
I lost the game.
A bit optimistic, but still beats "duck and cover".
And always remember Remain Indoors
Remain Indoors
Remain Indoors
Don’t think of the event
Remain Indoors
My dad told me back in his day they had nuclear attack drills in school. Apparently the way to survive was to hide under the wooden desk 🤷♀️
Its painful irony that youtube decided to recommend this now.
I think the animated film called "When the Wind Blows" sums up quite well what would happen and for an even grittier version "Threads". That was fun and educating back in the late 80s being shown that in school.
"What are you doing, Neil?"
"I'm painting myself white to deflect the blast!"
Well that's great isn't it?!
If this video piqued your interest, I highly suggest watching the movie "Threads" from 1984. It tell a horribly bleak tale about how British society would crumble even in a limited exchange, and how ineffectual systems like these would be in the wake of nuclear attack.
Thank you. Looking for a copy now.
CZcams algorithm working at its finest. It know it's the end of the world.
too true
Hahaha, I dream of the world 2 months ago.
I dream of the world 4 months ago
Watching this video in Oregon in September 2020, sounds about right.
Nuclear war is not the end of the world
Ironic how I’m being recommended this now
Harry Faulds ikr
Me too!!
Although airbursts can spread fallout more easily, they actually produce much less of it. This is because fallout is primarily composed of vaporized rock that has been made radioactive, as well as fission products and "unburnt" fissile material. Surface blasts produce a lot because they are so close to the ground, but airbursts aren't close enough to the surface to vaporize the ground, and so they produce much less fallout. The fallout from airbursts is only composed of fission products and "unburnt" fissile material, and so there is much less of it.
My brain read your comment in Fluttershy's voice.
It was strangely dichotomous.
They do produce a more damaging blast though
nowadays salted nukes have completely changed that.
“And someone must of been really proud of that acronym” well hey, I’m proud of who ever came up with it, never mind them being proud themselves
I worked as a site manager in a council building a few years ago. They had a communications bunker there with maps, whiteboards, computers, radios etc. It was is a "sleepy town" in the middle of nowhere. It had it's own back up generator room, comms room, strategic planning room and 2 small bedrooms.
I'm falling in love with this man.
mena3976 same
There's one large on near Bath called Burlington.
however, thereare posts with radiation meters called ROC posts: there are thousands, as in every village parish. They could be mistaken for a drain or something to do with gas, as there is a metal hatch but surrounded by a few oddly shaped pipes and rods.. But there's a lounge size room, with toilet and a ladder- very small. So royal observation corps could take measurements. Most destroyed, welded shut etc. but some have the soviet plane identification posters, food rations and all that in remote places in scotland. The one i went in was filled with detritus and recently discarded beer cans and nothing else.
Can confirm i bore people with that every time I try to spot one!
And it's now time... for the Quiz Broadcast.
*theme music*
Hello, welcome and REMAIN INDOORS.
Don't think about the event.
So that's what a real-life Vault would be like...
Well, time to start cleaning the dust out of those bunkers.
Awdrey seems to be missing some nixies in her minutes display.
+Seegal Galguntijak Yep, the only one that could still work is up in the Yorkshire equivalent of this, in a place called Acomb, near York!
+Tom Scott York had its wiring mangled so it would not be able to work again without major repairs. The RGHQ's never had AWDREY fitted, only 13 of the ROC Group HQ's had them.
+Tom Scott I live nears there just outside York and I've been told it would probably never work again.. But they may have been mistaken.
I used to be a volunteer in the Royal Observer Corps at Dundee where a similar bunker had overall control for all of Scotland.
Mike McBey - Same here! - NO.2 Group ROC/UKWMO Met Sector Control at Horsham.
I've been there, it's an incredible place ... some fascinating original equipment!! they have videos playing from secret broadcasts you cant even find on CZcams! Something completely different from every other attraction, no queues and pay at the end
I remember how he got the idea to do this in an episode of citation needed.
I have stayed the night in this bunker a number of times! They let scout groups use it as a ‘campsite’ but instead of camping in a tent you use the actual beds in there
Why didn't they have some kind of automatic mechanism to retrieve the photograph of the blast so that poor guy didn't have to risk radiation poisoning?
Work experience kid has to do something..
because the blast might take those out and if its stuck inside the mechanism you might not be able to get it anymore.
Weirdly in such extreme situations the _least_ falliable part of the whole system is actually a well trained human, who can quickly think their way around a problem such as bashing the detector housing off the mount it's got stuck on without further exposing the film inside (so making it useless), and getting it back down into the bunker before the sixty seconds they're allowed to spend topside each day runs out, all whilst wearing a heavy radiation suit.
I don't see how getting out is risky.
Being in the rain OK, but simply getting out?
@@mspenrice Heavy suit? Radiations are an extremely minor hazard. Only a large scam conspiracy made people think otherwise.
This would make an incredible story: the concept of being part of a small group that measures the blast to help others, and go on runs to other bases to exchange info, etc.
CZcams -
Hole in the ground .
peace to all
I've been to Kelvedon Hatch about 15 times, love the place. Highly recommend a visit.
it's notable that the pinhole camera was made by kodak from a bread bin (prototype) as an ROC preserver told me. a grid shows direction and distance of the blast. It's one of my favourite tech in these bunkers, so simple
Fallout 5 confirmed?
#Fallout4Hype
Yes!
Nope.avi
A Fallout set outside of the US would be lit
MisterFister Sadly Bethesda stated long ago there would be no Fallout that takes place outside the US. It sucks because I'd like to see a Fallout set in Asia, or Russia.
I like how there's a spitfire model hanging from the ceiling.
I think it sums everything up, really. No matter the dangers, or the costs, we can always win.
scary how applicable this is now
Stay Indoors and welcome to the Quiz Broadcast!
watch the movie Threads.
its about nuclear attack in the UK and the whole progress of survival, including what you talked about, afterwards.
All of the houses near the Docks in Devenport are fitted with instructions as to what to do during a nuclear accident/ attack and are given potassium iodine tablets to help minimise the radiation abosorbed- this is because we sometimes get the Trident submarines visit
Schools in that area also have said instructions along with the fire bell instructions. I went to Mount Wise Primary School and then Parkside Community Technology College. Both times my parents had to sign consent forms during enrolment for those tablets to be given in case that happened.
we have a remote bunker on our land its hardly 10 feet deep and is very small inside and used to be fitted with a periscope to look round from inside
Aberystwyh with its copyright library was a top priority soviet counter value target.
I had a passing involvement with the CEPO organisation in the 80's.
I still have one of those mechanical teleprinter/telex machines, from one of the bunkers.
I think the biggest problem could be the destruction of you antenna/transmission tower.
I think the broadcast script is used by Keyboard Choir in their haunting track "Bugs". Another excellent video Tom.
The best place to be in the event of an atom bomb exploding, is within one hundred yards of the explosion. At least death would be rapid and painless. Surviving an atomic explosion would result in a slow, lingering, painful death.
John Benton many people have survived atomic explosions. Tens of thousands actually.
That was my though during the video.
You can't drink water, food is limited. What a way to go...
@@terrencedayton2788 One thing is an atomic explosion. Another is WORLD war III. There wont be a world after it, that's the point.
Rapid? That's like saying Trump has a few mild issues with blacks and liberals. I think the phrase you're looking for is 'virtually instantaneous'?
@@TheQuark6789 Many ppl "survived" explosions and had a healthy life
Reminds me of the film "When the Wind Blows."
Tom, didn't you burn that hoodie?
The one he burnt had the word nordics on the front
+Ethan Powell I thought it was "Noroics"
+Adrian Moisey He's like Seth Brundle in 'The Fly'; has a whole wardrobe of the things.
I'm curious about something: Are there special nuclear bunkers for high-level government people and/or royal family? I'd be very surprised if 10 Downing Street or Buckingham Palace etc didn't have underground safe havens
They had one in the English countryside that still exists but was decommissioned and put up for sale. It is assumed that some replacement may exist but if it does the details are secret as far as I know.
very likely
Yes. They also have secret tube stations for this exact use. Also, most of the important buildings in London are linked via a massive network of underground tunnels usually running parallel or near to tube lines.
The one for 10 Downing Street would have also been the one at kelvedon hatch.
Well I mean the White House has that so they probably do
It's good to know that even when faced with the end of the world itself, when it comes to acronyms we do not falter.
I have to disagree with you on a nuclear war being an extinction level event and the nuclear targets list developed in the early 1970s.
Most of the studies that conclude that the climate change from a nuclear war would be massive are based on work done in the 1980s be Sagan et al. The studies are garbage and rather than address the numerous issue with the them the same group of authors keep republishing them with slight revisions to push a (somewhat admirable if naive) agenda.
Just some of the issues include weapon targeting (weapons are used with the aim of suppressing the enemy's nuclear capabilities - primarily ICBMs - and targeting of cities is incidental), weapon numbers (multiple weapons are aimed at the same target to increase kill probability), the ability of cities to firestorm (the models almost exclusively use firestorm models based on 1930s Japanese cities, and ignore modern fire codes and construction), the fuel loading of cities and how much turns to soot (the authors use some very creative and outlandish calculations to figure out how much fuel is in a city), and how high the smoke lofts and how persistent it is (given that dozens of cities were firebombed in WW2 - a number that some studies have purported would have an effect on the climate - without noticeable effects is probably incorrect on top of wild/bush fires that regularly firestorm with very heavy fuel loading to no effect). The problem with any model is if you feed garbage into it you get garbage out of it.
Unfortunately the original study was carried by the weight of Sagan and the study's various iterations are carried by citations with the name Sagan in them. The authors continuously fail to address the various criticisms of the work.
As for weapons targeting, in the 1970s nuclear weapons with the introduction of Minuteman III became accurate enough to target enemy ICBM silos. With this came the desire to minimize the damage done by the enemy to ones nation through the targeting of enemy nuclear weapons. The deliberate targeting of cities was unlikely to happen due to the mutual hostage effect. The topic (among others) is discussed in the book Managing Nuclear Operations by Carter et al (who happens to be the same Carter who is the current US Sec Def). The book is unpleasant... but covers nuclear operations in considerable detail and is probably one of the best university level books on the topic.
Very interesting thank you for sharing this info
You know, I think that I might make Aberystwyth university my firm choice after all...
"It's safe to say not many people would have lasted a day..." focusses on Portsmouth. I live dead centre of that shot!
I'm not sure that Brighton is so remote. Never mind a badly co-ordinated nuke destined for London, no doubt Gatwick would have been a target. That's only 20-odd miles away.
I don't think Brighton would be further enough away from Portsmouth
Reminds me of an old docufilm called 'Threads'
That was so bleak. Terrifying really
Now the bunker is used for when steam goes down
him reading that script gives me chills and makes me almost cry,
Our capacity for madness is terrifying. Nurture good, plant seeds, be better everyday and we’ll walk into the future. I pray
Thanks for this awesome video Tommeh
Good old home-town of Brighton. Well done on being inconsequencial
I live in Brighton too. Nowadays it's just a target for the Green party XD
Well, we might need these soon...
Talking about extinction level events in a pastel hoodie with a British accent is PEAK TOM SCOTT
Few years ago I visited a nuclear bunker in Berlin. There were few of those, built for sheltering some few thousands of west berliners in case of a nuclear war. If in use, they would be extremely crowded, hot, smelly and in general, ridicoulsly uncomfortable. It is just hard to imagine who would want to go one of those places. In case of a full nuclear warfare, there would be no rescuers and after two months of torture, supplies of the bunker would be finished. You couldn't stay and you couldn't return above the ground. Being consumed by the nuclear fireball on the first strike would be a mercy compared to living on those hell holes. Those bunkers were probably built more for morale reasons, than truly saving people in case of a full blown WWIII, but they were still a ridicilous idea. Those were chilling, but at the same time fascinating times. Although living in a neutral country during the CW and nowadays, I still remember those times well and how I felt about all that stuff. For example, as a kid, me and my friends sometimes added the nuclear aspect when playing "war" like it was the business as usual.
Aberystwyth still has fallout shelters and tunnels under the town and the national library.
*Good evening, welcome and remain indoors!*
I’ve been in kelvedon hatch and it’s a really good insight into what life was like during the Cold War and the fear that people had while also being very interesting and creepy
Two films that given an idea of how the data was collected for the bunker, youtube search 'The hole in the ground (1962)' and 'Sound an Alarm 1971'.
If you want to know, This bunker was used as the semi final location for the 2003 BBC murder Mystery show “The Murder Game” which was set as two places, the living quarters and the operational zone. The whole part is there on CZcams for the killer’s game part with Andrew and Nick trying to survive.
Fallout: England.... actually seem like a pretty sweet idea for a game.
Play up on some 1950's England stereotypes + gratuitous doctor who references
No one from those regional headquarters would have left the bunker in order to fetch the film from a flash detector. This was supposed to solely be the task of the staff from the local control points.
There’s Hack Green. RGHQ for my area. It’s a visitor attraction now, with a full on decommissioned nuke.
That was extremely interesting. You constantly surprise me with your videos. Thank you again.
Threads is a pretty accurate movie depicting this, it even has something similar to the board for logging the blasts in the video, highly recommended.
Stayed in the bunker once with the scouts, freakiest place ever! Nice rope swing place next-door though!
Yes! Brighton forever!!!! Either way great video Tom, very interesting
Reminds me of the old nuclear bunker at Wawne in East Yorkshire - I visited it before it was sold for housing some years ago and it was still fully stocked up
In 2004 I worked at an IT company that had its office in the topside guard building.
'Big Board' - neat Dr Strangelove reference !
I'm doing the York Royal Observer Corps Group 20 HQ bunker for my gcses, cheers for this video. This will go good for my revision as to how the bunkers were operated. Oh and that can with the hole in is called a Ground Zero Indicator.
3:02 Hey! Aber!
Shame no picture or mention of "the bungalow". A very distinctive look to it, once you've seen one you will instantly recognise others if you go past them.
This isn’t too far from where I live. It’s the place the “secret nuclear bunker” signs points to
One up for Aberystwyth!!
They say only a lucky 10 percent of people will make it to there bunker in time to survive a nuclear war, warning time for us will be about 15 mins or less, most of us will be working with family scattered in different places. If your whole family is home when it happens then you have a chance. 15 mins that's it.
I've been here as a child with my parents. It's a fascinating place to visit
At least Colin Furze will be safe.
If anyone wants to see what these bunkers would be like in attack, I recommend the documentary If the Bomb Drops by the BBC in 1980. The programme is about Britain's nuclear preparedness in general but filmed an exercise of the bunker outside Hull.
Tom, visit the York Cold War Bunker. It's slightly similar but just as fascinating!
Is that the place Chris went?
+George Jordan Nope - he was at the York bunker!
+Tom Scott okay, I should probably re watch the Citation Needed's them...
+George Jordan Who's Chris?
***** Chris Joel from Citation Needed,
I spent a night there once as a scout a few years ago
For anybody wondering you can go to a secret base like this in Scotland near St Andrews just search secret nuclear bunker St. Andrews
2:26 Who remembers the old Telex machines. They got phased out in the '80s as fax machines took over.
So, people in Aberystwyth would survive. I think the living would envy the dead in that scenario.
I live quite near Kelvedon, how dare I not know you were there!
Live so near this
This is something I already knew! There's a command and control base under Tunbridge Wells.
Unrelated, but wow, what camera was used to film this? The handheld effect combined with a nice shallow depth of field made it feel very cinematic. Same with the greenish color grade. Wonderful job!
This, and the the prime ministers letter of last resort make for a very chilly drama. Thank goodness that never happened!
Extra kudo's for filming the BBC PPM (Peak Program Meter)! and very interesting map displays. worth a visit next time I am around
There's a Cold War era continuation of government bunker near my home. It's on the site of a collection of WW2 ordnance bunkers, with two converted to survive a nuclear blast.
Looks incredibly similar to the government's office in the nuclear-apocalypse film Threads (1984)