Arctic seed bank readied for 'doomsday' scenario

Norway will begin construction 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 $A4 million depository will preserve around two million seeds at sub-zero temperatures, representing all known varieties of the world's crops.

"This facility will provide a practical means to re-establish crops obliterated by major disasters," Cary Fowler, executive secretary of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, said in a statement.

He says crop diversity is imperilled not just by a cataclysmic event, such as a nuclear war, "but also by natural disasters, accidents, mismanagement, and short-sighted budget cuts".

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

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

A metre of reinforced concrete will fortify the chamber walls.

Arctic permafrost will act as a natural coolant to protect the samples, which will be stored in watertight foil packages should a power failure disable refrigeration systems.

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