Switzerland has more nuclear bunkers than any other country : NPR

Key Points:

• The Sonnenberg nuclear bunker in Lucerne, built in the 1970s during the Cold War, was designed to shelter 20,000 people from nuclear fallout, representing a third of the city's population at the time.
• Switzerland has maintained and expanded its nationwide network of over 370,000 bomb shelters, ensuring shelter space for every one of its 9 million citizens, despite debates about scrapping the system in the early 2010s.
• Swiss law requires every residential building to have a bomb shelter or contribute funds to a nearby state-maintained shelter, with citizens paying upfront fees for construction and maintenance.
• Swiss schools incorporate civil defense education, teaching children about bomb shelters through activities like drawing, watching films, and spending nights in shelters, embedding the concept of safety amidst external chaos.
• The Sonnenberg bunker’s capacity was reduced from 20,000 to 2,000 in 2002 due to practical concerns, and it has since been repurposed to house refugees, asylum seekers, and the homeless, though this use has faced criticism.