In the series and the games of Fallout, the Vaults are important bunkers that are supposed to last for several years. However, in real life, such bunkers were actually not designed for this purpose, as a nuclear historian explains in a video.
The games and the series of Fallout usually start in a Vault. These are special bunkers that protected certain people from the atomic weapons fired during the Great War. There are Vaults where people spend several decades without even checking what it looks like on the surface.
In a video, the science historian Alex Wellerstein answered various questions about nuclear weapons and nuclear wars. He was also asked about Fallout Shelters, i.e., nuclear protection bunkers.
One should not linger there too long
What does he say about the bunkers? In a YouTube video from WIRED, Alex Wellerstein answered various questions about nuclear wars. He is a science historian who deals with nuclear technology. He has discussed the topic in 2 books and various papers.
In the video, he is asked how long one would stay in a nuclear shelter after a nuclear war. He first mentions that many people think of the bunkers they know from the series and games of Fallout (there they are called Vaults). So, that one would stay there for a long time, about 100 years. However, he directly refutes this: That is not what they were built for.
The time one would spend in such a bunker depends on the radioactive radiation. According to him, these bunkers in the real world were built to accommodate people for 2 weeks, perhaps even less. He even shows a sign that was used in the 1960s to mark suitable locations.
He also explains that nuclear bunkers were not built to protect people from the impact of a nuclear weapon, but from the radiation:
It is supposed to be a place that brings mass, ideally concrete or earth, between you and the outside world, so that when radioactive particles fall on you, something lies between you and [the particles] to reduce the amount of radiation.
He compares it to lead aprons that you receive during X-ray examinations. The American Red Cross also explains that it is about the distance and the layers between the radioactive particles and oneself. The greatest danger from radioactive radiation exists during the first 2 weeks and would decrease to about 1 percent of its original radiation level
after that time.
You can watch the entire YouTube video from WIRED here:
The bunkers in Fallout are not built for the benefit of humanity
Why are the bunkers in Fallout so special? The majority of the Vaults in the games and the series of Fallout were not built to protect humanity from annihilation. They were mostly part of insidious and crude experiments (the harmless Vaults were mostly just control groups).
Sometimes they were societal tests about the behavior of people with different backgrounds, but there were also inhumane experiments to test viruses. If you are interested in the stories of such Vaults, we have selected some for you:
- Fallout has a “Vault 69” and it is just as bad as you think
- Fallout has a Vault that has a really dark ending
- Fallout 4: One of the nastiest Vaults played with the addiction of its residents
On December 17, 2025, Fallout returns with season 2 on Amazon Prime, and fans are already looking forward to the appearance of monsters like the Deathclaw. But before that, you can also deal with another atomic creature: Astrophysicist explains why Godzilla could never exist in the real world: “He would just be a lump”
