Norway builds 'doomsday vault'
18/06/2006 17:14  - (SA)  

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Oslo - Norway will begin construction on Monday of a 'doomsday vault', a vast top-security seed bank in a mountain near the North Pole to ensure food supplies in the event of environmental catastrophe or nuclear war.

Built with Fort Knox-type security, the three-million-dollar depository will preserve around two million seeds representing all known varieties of the world's crops at sub-zero temperatures.

It will be built deep in permafrost in the side of a sandstone mountain on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, 1 000km from the North Pole.

The thick walls, airlocks and doors mean that even if global warming accelerates badly, it would take many decades for hotter air to reach the seeds.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation is part-funding the project, also known as an agricultural "Noah's Ark".

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg will take part in a ceremony on Monday laying the first brick, together with leaders from other northern European countries.

- AFP

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