Project Iceworm
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Operation Iceworm was the code name for a top secret US military project during the Cold War (project started in 1958) with a purpose to study a possibility of building a major military base with nuclear missile launch sites under the ice shield of Greenland.
The project site was called "Camp Century" and was located at elevation of 2000 m in North-West part of Greenland next to the US Thule Air Base.
The prospect was to build a system of tunnels with total length of 4000 km and deploy around 600 nuclear missiles there, which would be able to reach USSR in case of a nuclear war. Missile locations were supposed to be periodically changed.
Total of 21 tunnels with total length of 3000 m was built, containing also a hospital, shop, theater and a church. Total number of inhabitants was around 200 persons. Since 1960 the electricity supply was provided by means of world's first mobile nuclear reactor "Alco PM-2".
Still, it was discovered, that the ice is moving much more intensively than it has been anticipated and would destroy tunnels and launch stations in a timespan of around 2 years. Therefore in 1966 the project was closed.
Nevertheless, the project has generated valuable scientific information and has provided scientists with some of the first ice cores still being used by climatologists today.
References
- Article "Aukstajā karā uzvarēja ledus" ("Ice won the Cold War") (in Latvian) in magazine "Ilustrētā zinatne" ("Science Illustrated"), issue No. 34, September 2008, page 85. ISSN 1691-256X. Published in Riga, Latvia. Part of "Bonnier Publications International A/S", Copenhagen, Denmark.
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