Since Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Europe is on tenterhooks about an impending nuclear war, reports the New York Times.
It adds that bunkers, survival guides and iodine pills are flying off the shelves. An Italy-based company, Minus Energie, fielded no less than 500 inquiries for bunkers in the past two weeks.
As part of its hard-sell, the company conducts a video tour for prospective customers of a nuclear shelter that is “ready to use’’ and comprises an underground air filtration system that “cleans” radioactive particles, nerve gas and other biological agents.
“It is hysteria for construction of bunkers,” a company spokesperson said, driven by the fear of Russian nuclear warheads having ramifications across Europe, which is wallowing in anxiety ever since President Vladimir V. Putin put his nuclear forces into “special combat readiness.”
With its legacy of two world wars, it is not surprising that Europe wants to leave nothing to chance. With that, its recent pandemic focus has shifted from masks, vaccines and lockdowns to the bunkers, iodine pills and air raid sirens.
From Italy to Sweden, Belgium to Britain, the spectre of nuclear war, which had seemed a relic of the past, is permeating a new generation of European consciousness. And it is prompting a new look at defence infrastructure, survival guides and fallout shelters that not long ago were the purview of camouflage-wearing, assault-weapon-toting survivalists or paranoid billionaires, adds the New York Times.
“We are extremely concerned by the nuclear safety, security and safeguards risks caused by the Russian invasion on Ukraine,” the European Union said in statements on Wednesday.
“Picture it like a chalet, but underground,” said Mathieu Séranne, the founder of Artemis Protection, a French maker of prefabricated luxury bunkers with air-filtration systems, which cost at least a half-million euros per shelter.
Almost all of the roughly 650 bunkers in use after World War II in Britain were no longer operational, some were tourist attractions and at least one was now used as a fine wine cellar. The few that still worked served government officials, says the NYT report.
Outside the bunkers, others are seeking protection from iodine pills, which, when taken correctly, can help absorb radiation in the thyroid and help prevent cancer from exposure to it.
