Editing Fallout shelter (section)

==== Switzerland ====
[[File:Sonnenbergtunnel.jpg|thumb|The [[Sonnenberg Tunnel]], in [[Switzerland]], was the world's largest civilian [[Nuclear warfare|nuclear]] fallout shelter, designed to protect 20,000 [[civilian]]s in the eventuality of war or disaster ([[civil defense]] function abandoned in 2006).<ref name=SWI/><ref name=Frammery/>]]

[[Switzerland]] built an extensive network of fallout shelters, not only through extra hardening of government buildings such as schools, but also through a building regulation requiring nuclear shelters in residential buildings since the 1960s (the first legal basis in this sense dates from 4 October 1963).<ref name=Frammery>{{in lang|fr}} Catherine Frammery, [https://www.letemps.ch/suisse/2016/08/15/entrailles-sonnenberg-monstrueux-temoin-guerre-froide "Dans les entrailles du Sonnenberg, monstrueux témoin de la Guerre froide"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171006110917/https://www.letemps.ch/suisse/2016/08/15/entrailles-sonnenberg-monstrueux-temoin-guerre-froide |date=October 6, 2017 }}, ''[[Le temps]]'', Monday 15 August 2016 (page visited on 15 August 2015).</ref> Later, the law ensured that all residential buildings built after 1978 contained a nuclear shelter able to withstand a blast from a 12-megaton explosion at a distance of 700 metres.<ref name=wsj4>{{cite news|last=Ball|first=Deborah|title=Swiss Renew Push for Bomb Shelters|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304231204576405700994655570|access-date=December 18, 2012|newspaper=The Wall Street Journal|date=June 25, 2011}}</ref> The ''Federal Law on the Protection of the Population and Civil Protection'' still requires that every inhabitant should have a place in a shelter close to where they live.<ref name=SWI>{{in lang|fr}} Daniele Mariani, [http://www.swissinfo.ch/fre/a-chacun-son-bunker/7485678 "À chacun son bunker"], [[Swissinfo]], 23 October 2009 (page visited on 5 August 2015).</ref>

The Swiss authorities maintained large communal shelters (such as the Sonnenberg Tunnel until 2006) stocked with over four months of food and fuel.<ref name=wsj4/> The reference ''[[Nuclear War Survival Skills]]'' declared that, as of 1986, "Switzerland has the best civil defense system, one that already includes blast shelters for over 85% of all its citizens."<ref name=NWSS1>{{cite book|last=Kearny|first=Cresson H|title=Nuclear War Survival Skills|year=1986|publisher=Oak Ridge National Laboratory|location=Oak Ridge, TN|isbn=0-942487-01-X|pages=6–10|url=http://www.oism.org/nwss/s73p911.htm}}</ref> As of 2006, there were about 300,000 shelters built in private residences, institutions and hospitals, as well as 5,100 public shelters for a total of 8.6 million places, a level of coverage equal to 114% of the population.<ref name=SWI/>

In Switzerland, most residential shelters are no longer stocked with the food and water required for prolonged habitation and a large number have been converted by the owners to other uses (e.g., [[wine cellar]]s, ski rooms, [[gyms]]),<ref name=wsj4/> but a legal obligation to ensure that the shelters are properly maintained remains in effect.<ref name=SWI/>