November 25, 2022-In a bid to spread awareness on nuclear conflicts, Professor Jack L. Rozdilsky, York Emergency Mitigation, Engagement, Response, and Governance Institute (Y-EMERGE) member and Associate Professor of Disaster and Emergency Management here at York University, delivered his lecture on Preparedness for Nuclear Conflict: Reuse of Former Nuclear Bunkers in Canada last November 17, 2022 via virtual webinar.
While the risk of nuclear conflict has existed since the 1940s, Rozdilsky argued this old risk is relevant again due to factors such as the threats of nuclear weapons use related to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“In Canada, the risk of nuclear attack is a very low, but high consequence risk. Although Canada is allied with nations having large nuclear essentials, we do not possess one so here nuclear attack preparedness is sometimes considered as relic of the cold war past, rather than a present-day preparedness issue,” Rozdilsky said.
He suggested that reflecting on the country’s civil defense heritage from the mid-20th century, there are only a few cold war era nuclear bunkers remaining in Canada today including the large underground complex near Ottawa known as the “Diefenbunker” which is now being reused as a cold war museum.
“It is geographically located between what was formally the Soviet Union and the United States. The Government of Canada specifically former Prime Minister, John Diefenbaker, took the risk of having a nuclear war in the past between the two countries seriously, and the late 1950s and early 1960s provided direction and authorization for a project to create a bunker to house key representatives of the government in the event of and nuclear war threats,” he shared.
The concept for the Bunker is essentially a large underground complex and has elements that would protect persons inhabiting the bunker from effects of nuclear war. It was decommissioned in the mid-1990s and was reopened to the public in 1998 as a cold war museum.
Rozdilsky also acknowledged York University disaster and emergency management Master’s Degree candidate Christian Faize Canaan whose research includes looking at aspects of the Diefenbunker.
He also shared some areas in the bunker that he found interesting for tourists including blast tunnels, a maze of office, and a number of offices where functionaries of the Canadian Federal Government would be continuing operations of the Federal Government during a nuclear war.
“From a disaster and emergency management perspective, we can see the command and control methods that were established for the operational aspects of the Diefenbunker. We can draw direct lines from past activities and civil defense to how current disaster and emergency management are organized. This provides valuable insights for us to consider actual emergency management strategies that could be used in events like nuclear attack,” Rozdilsky said.
Moreover, he provided data for their qualitative field research project where they are using methods of participant observation. The theoretical context for this work is grounded in subjects of Dark Tourism which tends to be used as an umbrella term for any form of tourism that is related to death suffering atrocities tragedies or crimes. Being the subset of Atomic tourism, and the Luke Bennett coined term, Field of Bunkerology.
“Bennett performed studies of former bunkers in Great Britain and Europe concerning a theory and practice of urban exploration specifically looking at nuclear bunkers which were created for the purposes of defense,” Rozdilsky explained.
In Central Europe he found examples of nuclear bunker sites being used for commercial tourism purposes, as places to stage escape room type live action games, locations for clubs and nightlife, as sites of creative arts, exhibitions ranging from visual mediums to film making to performance art, as storage sites. And in his latest visit in Prague, the bunkers were all still used to this day for their original purposes which is protection of the population during a nuclear attack.
“They appeared to be decaying, some almost appeared to be old or abandoned, but I found that government authorities and the City of Prague have a mission to preserve and maintain these bunkers for some type of situation where citizens of the City of Prague would be threatened by nuclear attack. There could be a space for tens of thousands of people to seek shelter and various nuclear bunkers in Prague.”
In Canada however, his research and progress indicate that there are very few remaining cold war nuclear bunkers existing in Canada. They may be abandoned, no longer used, some couldn’t be found and none of the remaining nuclear bunkers in Canada can be used for their original purpose of providing protection against nuclear attack.
“This raises the question, what type of preparedness efforts would we be able to engage in Canada if that threat were to be realized?” Rozdilsky concluded.
Y-EMERGE Associate Director Eric Kennedy said that the goal of the lecture is, “To conduct a successful virtual lecture on Emerging and Systemic Risks that occurred or might occur in Canada or anywhere in the world that has impact on Canada.”
The said lecture was the pilot talk under the Emerging and Systemic Risks Monthly Lectures Series through the joint efforts of Y-EMERGE, DHEUSeR Research Cluster & CIFAL York.