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The National Fallout Shelter Survey began in 1961 when the Department of Defense sent teams of architects and engineers across the United States to inspect existing structures and determine which ones met the criteria to serve as public fallout shelters.  Suitable buildings were cataloged into a nationwide database so they could later be marked with proper signage and stocked with supplies essential for survival.  By July of 1965, however, it was becoming clear that strictly relying upon existing buildings would not yield enough shelter space for the American population.  To remedy this lack of space, the concept of “slanting” was introduced. (1)  In architectural lingo, slanting is the process of examining a proposed building during the initial design phase to identify weak points which may leave the occupants vulnerable to outside fallout radiation.  Modifications are then made prior to the construction phase which improve the building's fallout protection capabilities, most commonly by baffling entrances and exits, reducing window space, and moving ground floors below grade.  Successful slanting requires the maintenance of the building's original purpose and design aesthetic and should be manageable for little or no extra cost.  This appropriately titled film, released in 1967 by the Office of Civil Defense, argues the flexibility granted an architect during the design stage allows any building the opportunity to be modified into an effective public fallout shelter. (2)

The film opens with shots of a quarry and a construction site where men work with stone, brick and heavy timbers.  The concept of shelter, explains a narrator with a voice of calm authority, has been to known to man since the dawn of time.  Solid materials have protected against the harshest of climates and all forms of conventional attack.  Geometric patterns, representative of radioactive particles, fill the screen and begin to pulsate.  Man now understands that solid building materials can also block radiation.  The more electrons contained in a material, the more dense it is and the harder it becomes for radiation to penetrate it.  Radiation will easily pass through less dense materials like wood, whereas it will largely be blocked by concrete or steel.  When dense materials can be substituted for lighter ones, a structure’s ability to protect against fallout is greatly improved. The remainder of the film unfolds as a series of brief case studies highlighting buildings which incorporated fallout shelter into the final construction.  A library, a cafeteria and restrooms form the central core of Southeast Polk High School in Ivy, Iowa.   Surrounding outer classrooms protect the core from fallout on the sides, leaving only the roof as a weak point.  The addition of reinforced concrete over the central core creates shelter space for 1,700 people.  At the Somerset County Pennsylvania Home for the Aged, the same design is used in the flooring atop a basement wing turning the underground area into a shelter.