Haya Diving Bell

I was studying 2012 threats, and I started to think: where are the dangers? Where is it safest to be? If I am British, and some sort of apocalypse was starting to happen, where should I go? What should I do?

You don’t want to be where there are too many people: human density calls for virus propagation and unstoppable pandemics.

You don’t want to be near nuclear power plants or nuclear waste disposal: during serious military conflicts these are potential deadly targets. Even in normal times a simple failure can be dramatic (remember Chernobyl).

You want to be in quite a high altitude, because of sea level rise, tsunamis and sea-based military conflicts. Mountains are cool, if not too subject to seismic activity.

So in the UK, there are not that many places left. With just these criteria, we can already narrow down our choice to Scotland… But in Scotland, again, there are places where there are too many people... pandemics.

You don’t want to be on the ocean front where tsunami could severely strike.

You don’t want to be near military bases: war is not nice to be in.

Scotland is a beautiful place, there are places notorious for fishing! Being in the water almost means being in food! There are even numerous places where water is so pure that you can drink directly from the river!

If you superimpose all these maps and criteria, you find quite a small area suitable for sheltering: Aviemore; a village in the Scottish Highlands famous as a skiing station.

Aviemore has a small population of 3000. It is also host to Loch Einich: a stunning natural site that is only reachable on foot. Even if a one megaton nuclear warhead was dropped in there, Loch Einich offers you a relatively safe position.

So I'd found my location. Now it was time to find the technology.

I needed something low cost and easy to build. I also needed it to provide:

- Low visibility shelter,

- Protection from nuclear explosion, light, wind and fallout,

- Access to food and water.

I became very interested in diving bells...

Diving bell technology has existed for centuries. In the past they've been made out of heavy, impractical material but nowadays it's a lot simpler. After whipping up a few sketches, I managed to buy everything I needed from a DIY shop on the corner. Then I was ready to start my adventure...

I took a bus from London to Aviemore. Here, I made a small scale version of my chosen design, quickly followed by the real thing. This was my "Haya" diving bell ('Haya' means 'life' in Hebrew). I packed up my things and headed up the mountain...

The weather was terrible. It was icy cold, with heavy snow. Most of the paths on my journey had turned to rivers. Eventually, when I reached the Loch, I found that the surface had frozen over. In such conditions, diving alone could have cost me my life (a man had died of cold just a week before, in exactly the place where I was standing)... With this in mind I headed back down the mountain again!

I tested my bell in a warmer loch. There were still difficulties; the wind was too strong and the bell nearly flew away! Cables started snapping and eventually I decided to halve the size of my design, to keep it stable. The sun started to set so unfortunately I have no nice photographs of the bell immersed in the water.

Back in London, I tested a much smaller 1 person diving bell under the supervision of a swimming pool lifeguard. The individual diving bell is extremely simple: just a space blanket and some duct tape. In about 40 litres, one can stay protected from weak nuclear light radiations for a little while, suspended in the water in their own little bubble of air.

Not ideal at all but this is a start. With every attempt that helps us develop the innovations required for survival, we're one step closer to a real solution...
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