Bomb Shelter Outdated, Foley Tells Pentagon

WASHINGTON —  House Speaker Thomas S. Foley (D-Wash.) said Tuesday that he has notified the Defense Department that Congress has no interest in maintaining its bomb shelter in West Virginia.

“I wrote to the secretary, asking him to see if the facility could be put to any alternative government use,” Foley said.

The existence of the shelter at the luxurious Greenbrier resort was revealed last week in press reports.

Foley and other congressional leaders had fought the publicity, saying that once the location was revealed the shelter no longer would be secure.

They also conceded, however, that its original purpose had become outdated.

“This is a relic of the Cold War which probably ought to be mothballed,” House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) said.

The shelter, about a five-hour drive from Washington, was built by the Defense Department more than 30 years ago as part of a system of bunkers designed to keep the government operating in the event of a nuclear war.

One wing of the Greenbrier was specially built to serve as a secure meeting place for Congress, and an underground bunker capable of accommodating 800 people was dug into an adjoining hill.

Although heavily reinforced, the facility is not designed to withstand a direct nuclear blast.

It includes underground dining facilities, an infirmary and a power plant.

Pentagon spokesman Bob Hall, asked Tuesday about the bunker’s future, replied only, “I have nothing for you.”