Shelters and Their Role in Reducing Human Vulnerability in the Nuclear Accidents in Switzerland

After development, the probability of attack on the countries which has critical situation, such as Iran, has increased. Passive defense is an appropriate method in order to reduce vulnerability against nuclear threats. Shelters are one branch of passive defense which in this paper has tried to address different types of shelters as well as the experiences of pioneering countries in this regard. This study reviews domestic papers and documents in addition to those of foreign countries such as Switzerland and uses their experiences, and finally sums up existing documents and studies. This paper discusses necessary rules for constructing a shelter especially in Switzerland and tries to find key points to build a shelter to reduce vulnerability of human settlements against this incident; finally architectural suggestions are made in this regard. According to surveys of sheltering in Switzerland, it can be concluded that to reduce vulnerability of settlements against nuclear incidents, should construct shelters. To build a shelter should pay attention to several factors such as duration of residence, type of attack weapon, type of the materials used in construction, the number of people that are going to live in the shelter and the possibility of its multifunctional; and each of these is used depending on the circumstances.