On your way into the Bunker, you passed through the Blast Tunnel, which was designed to deflect a nuclear shock wave and protected the front doors. The Bunker itself can protect, water, and feed 500 people for 30 days, including the governor general, the prime minister, and the War Cabinet. Plus, the essential government, military, and civilian staff necessary to keep the daily operations of the Bunker running.

If a nuclear bomb had dropped, you wouldn’t see any families in here. Activities in the Bunker were top-secret, and only designated people would have been allowed in. No friends. No family. No children.

Personnel arriving through these doors checked in with the security desk, and received a colour-coded security badge. Depending on the colour, personnel could access specific sections of the Bunker. Mike Green, a teletype technician in the Bunker between 1968 and 1972, explains how:

“About 85-90 percent of the place I wasn’t allowed to go… if you had no need to be in a hallway or in an area, you didn’t go there. And, the badges indicated by different coloured stripes whether you were allowed in an area or not. And every time you came to a door, if you didn’t have the right colour to go in through that door, you didn’t go.”

Following a catastrophic nuclear attack, anyone arriving at the Bunker might have had deadly radiation on their skin and clothes. Please enter the decontamination passage to find out more about the process.