Accessing the "Doomsday" Vault

The Syrian Crisis has led to the first ever opening of a “doomsday” seed vault.  For those that do not know what this is, or that it even existed in the first place, the Arctic Seed Vault in Svalbard Norway is an underground facility that has seeds from thousands of plants from around the world.  These plants found in the facility are the ones like wheat or rice that are necessary for humans to survive.  The facility is located deep underground in a layer of the earth called permafrost.  This is where the land is frozen year-round, which is good because it means that even if the power fails, the samples are calculated to be able to stay alive for almost 200 years in their frozen state.  The seeds, however, used to be in a vault in Syria, because that was the region was in greatest risk of drought and famine, but in 2012, 87% of the seeds were moved to the Arctic because war was imminent.  Currently all of the seeds are safe though and they are ready in case they are needed to replenish the global food supply.