Simple Shelters?: Monitoring Radioactive Fallout Across Canada, 1959–63

Authors

Andrew Burtch, Canadian War MuseumFollow

Abstract

During the early Cold War, the Canadian government adivsed public that they could cheaply build fallout shelters in their homes to protect their families from radiation after a nuclear war. Publicly, the government stayed out of the shelter-building business, citing the cost was too high. However, from 1959 to the mid-1960s, the Canadian Army secretly constructed a network of 2,000 fallout shelters in government building: the Nuclear Detonation and Fallout Reporting System. This article explores the origins of this network and the reasons for its decline.

Recommended Citation

Burtch, Andrew "Simple Shelters?: Monitoring Radioactive Fallout Across Canada, 1959–63." Canadian Military History 20, 4 (2011)