The Doomsday Vault

The Doomsday Vault, as it’s been nicknamed by the media, was created to be the ultimate safety net for the world’s most important natural resource.

The Norwegian government has funded the vault’s construction as a service to the world community. The facility is designed to keep seeds safe from natural and unnatural disasters like global warming, asteroid strikes, plant diseases, nuclear warfare, and even earthquakes.

So far so good. The week before it opened the structure absorbed a magnitude 6.2 quake without a crack.

Svalbard is a group of islands nearly a thousand kilometres north of mainland Norway. For nearly four months a year the islands are enveloped in total darkness. Permafrost and thick rock will ensure that even without electricity, the samples will remain frozen.

To construct the vault, a tunnel was excavated in the side of a mountain. The facility has only one entrance with a strong security door and an airlock to separate the entrance area from the seed vault itself.

To maintain the temperature at a constant -10°C to -20°C, outside air is drawn into the vault. The inside of the seed storage vault is lined with insulated panels (in addition to the thick concrete wall) to help maintain the cold temperatures. Should equipment fail, temperatures in the vault will not rise above -3.5°C, and would take months to warm to even that level.

Gene banks sending seed are required to place the seed in specified, standard-size foil packages inside a standard-size container.

The seed will be stored under what is known as “black box” arrangements, which means that seed packages and boxes will not be opened. Samples will only be released in the event that all other seed sources have been destroyed or exhausted.

Electronic transmitters linked to a satellite system monitor temperature, etc., and send this information back to authorities at Longyearbyen and at the Nordic Gene Bank, which will provide the technical expertise for managing the seed vault.

The remote location and rugged structure of the Doomsday Vault add to the security of the facility, but just in case, it is also equipped with motion detectors. The presence of hundreds of polar bears on the islands is also a deterrent to trespassers.