Slashdot Mirror


Nuclear Bunker Houses World's Toughest Server Farm

Lanxon writes "Deep inside the Swiss Alps, a former nuclear bunker is now the ultimate hiding place for the world's most sensitive secrets — the Swiss Fort Knox. In a lengthy feature, Wired gains access to the server farm designed to survive a full-scale military attack. From the article: 'As we punch our codes at the checkpoint, the yellow door opens into what looks like a city of server towers, their green LEDs flickering as a technician in a white jumpsuit runs diagnostic checks. [Later], we are in a dimly lit tunnel next to what looks like a metal oven door carved into the side of the rock. "These are expansion rooms in case you have an atomic explosion outside," Christoph Oschwald, a retired Swiss paratrooper turned contractor, says. The thinking behind the rooms, he explains, is that if there were a nuclear explosion, the rush of high-pressure air would fill them through vents in the opposite side. Then, the vents would snap shut, trapping the air before it had a chance of damaging the fortress. "There is a lot of protection you can't see," he says. We stroll past an intricate network of insulated pipelines that carry water up from the underground glacial lake to the cooling system.'"

2 of 152 comments (clear)

  1. What secrets do the Swiss have? by orphiuchus · · Score: 5, Funny

    So is this where they store the schematics for their Swiss Army Knives?

  2. Way down on my list by paiute · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If things get so bad that Switzerland is getting nuked, then my data will be one of the least of my worries.

    --
    If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine