NASA aircraft uncover Cold War nuclear missile tunnels under Greenland ice sheet | Hacker News Reader

NASA aircraft uncover Cold War nuclear missile tunnels under Greenland ice sheet

space.com

126 pointsnullhole40 comments

The Wikipedia entry is interesting. Living there sounds nasty.

‘The sewage sump was 150 feet (46 m) from the nearest building and initially, was not vented. As a result, the odor of sewage became almost unbearable in the nearest quarters after the first year of operation. Subsequent venting of the sump reduced the odor, but did not eliminate the fundamental condition.’

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Century

Nuclear engineer/amateur reactor historian here. Camp Century found here was famously powered by a small Army nuclear reactor called PM-2A. There's a really great documentary about it from the 1960s here: https://youtube.com/watch?v=28NYczAuXl4

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn’t there a similar reactor on the other side of the globe, in Antarctica, around the same time?

You're correct. The one in Greenland was the PM-2A. The one in Antarctica was the PM-3A. List of these, with even more small Army microreactors, with videos for all here https://whatisnuclear.com/slides/reactor-history.html#/2/16!

This is featured prominently in the great movie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenland_(film) with Morena Baccarin, though they filmed the entrance in Iceland, not near Thule. https://maps.app.goo.gl/vxknuDCxRSGtJ4j88

Wait what, a tunnel system in Greenland has an entrance in Iceland?

No. In the in-movie fiction both the tunnel and the entrance was in Greenland.

But in reality they were shooting the entrance scenes somewhere else. In Iceland in this case.

This happens quite frequently in movies. Toronto or Budapest frequently stands in to all kind of other cities for production reasons. (A subway escalator from Budapest even shows up on the space station of Alien: Romulus)

Ah, I completely mis-read the GP. Thanks.

Too bad I already cracked up and upvoted the perceived joke (unless your second comment digs even deeper into layers of irony)

Toronto skyline is often apparent in 'New York' scenes, in many productions, Suits for example. It's like they think only NYC will be recognisable (formerly the twin towers, ESB, statue of liberty, etc.) so any view of Toronto can just sub in for an anonymous bit of NYC. (Except perhaps the CN tower, haven't seen anything that stupid!)

This was the source of humour in "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" S2E3 where Kirk stands in Sankofa Square in front of a large sign emblazoned "Toronto Eaton Centre" and asks "Are we in New York City?"

Lots of film production goes on in Toronto, I especially love how Roy Thompson Hall always shows up in anything vaguely sci-fi. Vaught headquarters in The Boys, U.N. headquarters in The Expanse, it was even in the background of a few scenes of The Handmaid's Tale.

> It's like they think only NYC will be recognisable

Probably more because they look at how much dollars and hassle it would cost to film in NY, compared to the (relatively) cheaper Toronto.

Most likely production tax credits.

"The Ontario Film & Television Tax Credit is a 35% refundable tax credit on Ontario labour for film and television productions by Ontario-based Canadian controlled companies for productions shot in Toronto, Ontario."

Same general reason why a lot of film/tv production is done in the state of GA now, which decided to compete with California, Vancouver and Toronto to attract productions.

I'm not saying they should film in NY, I meant the lack of care to use less recognisable bits or remove them digitally etc. - that they think 'we can't film in NYC, people will recognise it, and this isn't set in NYC' - not that they were trying to film NYC and should do it in NYC. (But I realise now I made that confusing with the Suits example.)

Vancouver filming in the 1990s was worse, there's a Jackie Chan movie supposedly set in NYC where you can see a clear view of the snow capped north shore mountains across the water.

There was a scene in an X-files episode of a secret meeting in some US city ... under the Skytrain monorail with a train whizzing by.

The 'new' Vancouver Public Library also serves as the headquarters of an evil human cloning corporation in "The 6th Day", and is seen in Battlestar Galactica.

Something like the stray palm trees in the background of ads and shows that are supposed to take place in the US Midwest.

I know where you really are!

Halloween, supposedly set in Illinois, has palm trees in the background of many scenes, and classrooms with doors that lead directly outside.

Those classrooms! Exactly.

“Due South” was set in Chicago but shot in Toronto. It was fun to keep track of the recognizable Toronto locations while watching.

Also in the end of "A Danish Girl" the scene contains mountains and large hills, which is a bit funny because those don't exist in Denmark at all.

You're right, but in searching for the highest peak I found this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_hills_and_mountains_in... which is amusing.

Like the big mountain visible in so many parts of Rumble in the Bronx

I've watched that, and don't think it's great. I've also watched https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elevation_(film) , and in the end titles you can see her pointing a telescope ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newtonian_telescope ) with the backside into the sky.

WTFF!? That's like the stock pictures for electronics assembly snd repair, where you can see people holding a soldering iron at the hot tip.

total clickbait title, to the best of my knowledge ZERO actual missiles were ever based at camp century, and the whole rest of the ridiculous concept of using the greenland ice cap to base missiles was obsoleted in the 1960s by rapid advances in land based and submarine ICBMs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Century

I found the title to be correct, reflecting what was discovered i.e. missile "tunnels". I have zero clue about any of this, so it was an interesting read. And yes, a ridiculous idea but that's probably what the Egyptians also thought when the plans to build a pyramid were unveiled ;-)

There were no missiles, erectors, launchers, silo doors, hatches, warheads, fueling systems or solid rockets, launch control systems. Therefore not "nuclear missile tunnels". The whole concept was shelved once they learned what a pain in the ass it would be to build and maintain such a base, and the advances in range and reliability of regular icbms became obvious.

Camp century was built around the same time as the DEW line and other north warning system radars throughout Greenland and northern Canada, which had a more obvious use and necessity.

I think the extend of the US nuclear weapons program for Greenland was limited to bombers stationed in Thule. There is a Danish book written about the whole thing, including the accidents. In it there is a paragraph or two about the US government approaching the Danish government, to hear if they would be interested in a briefing about the activities regarding nuclear weapons stationed in Greenland. The answer given to the US was "Absolutely not!".

The weapons where not suppose to be there, and the Danish government basically took a "don't ask, don't tell" approach to the whole thing.

Still the consensus is that Project Iceworm never really amounted to anything. The shifting ice and snow cover would have made the whole thing a nightmare to maintain.

There is a nuclear bomb somewhere under the ice near Thule, which was never recovered after the crash of a B-52.

Yeah, apparently Camp Century is under an additional 100ft (!) of snow/ice since it was abandoned.

That is a lot of snow shoveling.

> There is a nuclear bomb somewhere under the ice near Thule, which was never recovered after the crash of a B-52.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Thule_Air_Base_B-52_cra...

True and they didnt even mention the small nuclear reactor they used there to power / heat the base...

The project was a pilot and trial for a proposal to stage ICBMs in the Greenland ice sheet. To that extent, the description is accurate: a site whose goal was emplacing nuclear-tipped missiles in Greenland has now been observed by Nasa researchers.

>U.S. government [...] will "work with the Danish government and the Greenland authorities to settle questions of mutual security"

In the end they did no such thing.

Well it's good to know that once they abandoned the project, they cleared the site and left it how it was before they turned up. Oh wait, no, actually they left it with all the waste still there, under the assumption that it would be entombed 'forever' by the perpetual snowfall. Who would have thought it.

1960s US military is the gift that keeps on giving. For millions of years.

Be asbestos as you can be

Hey, at least they didn’t leave the reactor!

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