With Mickey's explanation, the group arrived at the seed bank, about three kilometers away from the city.

The seed bank stands on the hillside of Svalbard Mountain opposite Svalbard Airport, with a very sci-fi atmosphere. The appearance of the seed bank gate is very similar to the corner of the alien spacecraft that invaded the earth in the American sci-fi blockbuster "Independence Day".

Led by Mickey, the group walked along a winding mountain road to the front of the seed bank. When they got closer, Yang Jing felt the grandeur of the seed bank.

The section of reinforced concrete building exposed outside the mountain is just the gate of the seed bank. This section of the building is more than twelve meters high and about four meters wide. A heavy gate divides the inside and outside world into two parts.

At the entrance of the gate, there stands a statue of a polar bear.

Gege asked Mickey curiously, "Why is there a statue of a polar bear here?"

Mickey smiled and said, "There is an interesting story behind the erection of a polar bear statue here. The Norwegian government was planning to build a seed bank here, but this place was dominated by polar bears. There were many polar bears wandering around the mountain and on the mountain every day. Faced with these powerful polar bears, the builders had to use both kindness and force, such as feeding them and guarding them with guns, before they could live in peace with them and finally built the seed bank. Then, after the seed bank was built, these polar bears became the natural defenders of the seed bank. In order to express their gratitude to the polar bears, the Norwegian government erected a polar bear statue at the entrance of the seed bank."

Everyone in the group smiled.

Mickey continued to explain: "This seed bank is built on the hillside at an altitude of 130 meters. This height is high enough to ensure that even if a nuclear war breaks out in the future and all the glaciers in the world melt, the sea water will not flood here. Moreover, this place is located in a high-latitude area and is extremely cold all year round. The seed bank is built in the permafrost zone, so even if the air conditioning equipment inside fails completely, it can remain in a low temperature state all year round. In this seed bank, seeds of important crops such as wheat, barley and peas can be preserved for up to 1,000 years, and sorghum seeds with the longest survival ability can be stored for about 19,500 years."

Yang Jing asked curiously: "What is the structure inside?"

Mickey shook his head and said, "I haven't been in there either, but I've heard about the structure from others. This seed bank is more than a hundred meters deep into the mountain, and is built entirely of reinforced concrete one meter thick. Its core area is three side-by-side independent cold storage rooms at the end of the passage, each 27 meters long, 9.5 meters wide, and 5 meters high. The metal door of each cold storage room is covered with frost."

"Currently, only one of the three cold storage rooms is in use, and the other two are still empty. But this cold storage room is also equipped with three keys, one of which is worn by the director of the seed bank, one is in the hands of the Norwegian government, and the remaining key is held by someone unknown. I am afraid that only the Norwegian government knows the true identity of the wearer of the last key. Only when all three keys are gathered together can this cold storage room be opened."

Chris laughed and said, “This level of security is comparable to the vault in Fort Knox.”

Mickey nodded and said, "It's about the same. Even if it's not as good as the vault in Fort Knox, it's probably not much worse. This seed vault was built to withstand nuclear bombs and magnitude 7 earthquakes. I don't know if it can withstand an atomic bomb, but what I do know is that a week before the seed vault was completed, a magnitude 6.2 earthquake occurred here. Many buildings in Longyearbyen collapsed, but nothing happened here."

Chris nodded and said, "This seed bank is really solid."

Mickey said, "Of course. In addition to being able to resist external attacks, this seed bank is also absolutely commendable in terms of internal security. From the entrance to the three cold storage rooms in the core area, there is a 100-meter-long tunnel in the middle, with five explosion-proof steel doors. Without the corresponding keys and passwords, outsiders can't even think of breaking in violently. And in this passage, there are people patrolling with guns 24 hours a day. Especially the three cold storage rooms in the core area, it is impossible for outsiders to enter."

After a pause, Mickey smiled and said, "Less than half a month after the seed bank was built, the Crown Prince Magnus of Norway came here in person and asked to see the cold storage room in the core area, but was rejected. Some time later, former US President Carter also came to visit the seed bank. He also asked to see the cold storage room in the core area, but was also rejected."

Gege asked in surprise: "Is the security here so strict?"

"Yes, it is so strict. After all, this is where the last hope of mankind is stored, and not everyone can enter casually. Here, everyone agrees on a saying, which is 'Whether mankind will perish or not is decided here.' There are now more than 800,000 plant seeds stored here, and there are no genetically modified plant seeds stored here, which ensures the purity of the species. Therefore, this is an extremely important place for all mankind, so it is natural that the security is so strict."

Yang Jing asked: "Have the seeds stored here been used?"

"Yes." Mickey nodded affirmatively. "The Syrian civil war in September 2015 caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and forced about 11 million people to become refugees. In the war, the main seed bank in the Middle East located in Aleppo was destroyed and could not be used. The Syrian civil war forced the Middle Easterners to take out seeds from the 'Doomsday Seed Bank' for the first time. The Middle Easterners first applied, and after the application was approved, they took out nearly 130 boxes of the 325 boxes previously stored here, totaling 116,000 backup copies of crop seeds. This is the first time since the establishment of the World Seed Bank."

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