“We were looking for the bed of the ice and out pops Camp Century,” said Alex Gardner, a cryospheric scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), who helped lead the project. “We didn’t know what it was at first.”
NASA scientists used an Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) to uncover the base. It is similar to a type of radar often used to search for hidden structures and ruins around the globe, reports Popular Mechanic.
Camp Century was built after the United States and Denmark signed the Defense of Greenland agreement in 1951. It was designed “to negotiate arrangements under which armed forces of the parties to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization may make use of facilities in Greenland in defense of Greenland and the rest of the North Atlantic Treaty area,” says the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History.
The camp was made from 6,000 tons of material that had to be transported via heavy bobsleds that reached speeds of 2mph. They were shipped to an army base in Thule before making a 70-hour trip on sled.
Engineers initially dug 1,000ft passageways, which became known as Main Street, deep in the snow and ice before the wooden buildings and steel roofs were built. Then came the PM-2 medium-power nuclear reactor that powered the site.
Scientists at Camp Century made major geological breakthroughs, studying ice cores and soil, while revealing an ancient history of forests and wildlife in Greenland. The research however was said to be a cover-up for the real Camp Century.
While the existence of the base itself wasn’t a secret, its scientific projects were said to be a front for Project Iceworm, a major US nuclear weapon strategy. The camp was used to house ballistic missiles under the Greenland ice.
The United States planned an additional 52,000 square miles of tunnels at the camp, enough to house 600 missiles. It would have required 11,000 more soldiers living under the ice and 60 launch centres.
Project Iceworm never managed to get off the ground and Camp Century was eventually decommissioned in 1967. The nuclear weapon plan was eventually published by the Danish authorities in 1997.
Camp Century has now been left to become buried deep under the ice. And while the reactor was removed, the US Army reportedly left 47,000 gallons of nuclear waste it produced in the camp.
“They thought it would never be exposed,” William Colgan, a climate and glacier scientist at Toronto’s York University told the Guardian. He believes the camp will be exposed by 2090 due to the impact of climate change.