Project Iceworm was the codename for an American project that included a network of mobile nuclear missile launch sites under the Greenland ice sheet. The project was launched in 1959 and finally closed in 1966. According to the plans of the American military, it was planned to place a system of tunnels with a total length of 4 thousand kilometers in the ice sheet of the island, deploying about 600 missiles with nuclear warheads in it. In accordance with the plan, the location of these missiles in the tunnels had to change periodically, which would complicate the possibility of their destruction.
By the early 1960s, the American military faced a serious problem, by which time the USSR began to massively deploy its intercontinental ballistic missiles. The retaliatory step was to build up their own ICBMs, but in the eyes of American generals, such missiles had drawbacks, which, in particular, included deployment in relatively vulnerable and destructible positions, the main hope was the inaccuracy of enemy strikes. The second problem was not at all obvious and was related to the internal kitchen of the US armed forces. All ICBMs were subordinate to US Air Force Strategic Command, but not to the Army, which felt left out. All missiles were taken from the army and transferred to the Air Force and NASA. At the same time, the budget for this sphere was reduced to a quarter of the previous funding, and all the functions of the army units were reduced to the protection of missile bases. At the same time, the army possessed various options for tactical nuclear weapons, but dreamed of long-range strategic missiles.
Ice Worm Project
The Ice Worm project being implemented in Greenland was precisely an army project. It was proposed in 1960 by the Army Engineering Research Center. The plan was to deploy about 600 Iceman ballistic missiles in Greenland. These missiles were supposed to be an upgrade of the Minuteman missiles (a shortened two-stage version), their flight range was estimated at 6100 km, while they were supposed to carry a warhead with a yield of 2.4 megatons in TNT equivalent. The missiles were planned to be placed in tunnels under the ice, while the ice was supposed to protect the missiles from detection and complicate the process of their destruction. The American army command believed that with this deployment, the missiles would be less vulnerable than the air force launch sites, while having more reliable and secure communications with their headquarters than strategic submarines.
For the first time, the American military settled in Greenland during the Second World War, occupying the island, fearing its possible capture by the Germans. After the end of the war, Greenland acquired a much greater strategic importance, since the island was on the line of air routes between the western part of the USSR and the United States. The Americans used the island to house reconnaissance aircraft, strategic bombers, air defense systems and other military installations. The strategic importance of the island has grown so much that the American government even came up with an offer to buy it from Denmark back in 1946. The Danish government refused the deal, but allowed the Americans to establish military bases. The first regulating this agreement was signed in 1951, while the agreement signed by the countries did not say anything about allowing the storage of nuclear weapons at American bases, this issue was not even raised during the negotiations. At the same time, the territory of Greenland itself was and remains very difficult for any work, 81 percent of the island's territory is covered with an ice sheet, the average thickness of the glacier is 2300 meters. Naturally, the climate on the island is very harsh, mainly arctic and subarctic. At the American Thule Air Base (the northernmost US military base), the average January temperature is about -29 degrees Celsius. At the same time, strong enough winds blow on the island, and in winter the polar night sets in.
It was 150 miles east of the Thule airbase that the new complex was supposed to be located. The researchers expected to build a network of tunnels that burst into the ice shell like trenches, followed by an arched ceiling. The tunnels were supposed to connect launch complexes with rockets located at a distance of at least four miles from each other (about 6.5 km), with at least one meter of ice above them. In the event of a nuclear war, missiles from Greenland could easily reach objects on the territory of the Soviet Union, 600 missiles would be enough to destroy about 80 percent of targets in the USSR and Eastern Europe. According to the plans, between the launch complexes, the missiles were supposed to move on special small trains. The network of tunnels and launch sites was to be managed from 60 command centers. Small nuclear reactors were supposed to provide missile launch sites and command centers, and the total area of the constructed complex would be 52 thousand square miles. This is about three times the size of Denmark.
It was the area of the complex that was its protection. Missiles located under the ice cap at a distance of 4.5 miles from each other would require the enemy to use a huge number of bombs and missiles to destroy all positions. The technologies of the late 1950s and early 1960s simply did not allow detecting the launching positions of missiles under the ice, which led to the fact that the USSR would be forced to retaliate practically over areas, spending precious missiles and bombs on this, which were not then available. so much.
In total, it was planned to use 11 thousand people to service the complex, including Arctic rangers and operators of air defense systems. Air Force and Navy officials considered the project clearly redundant. It was planned to spend $ 2.37 billion on its implementation, including an annual cost of $ 409 million (in 1960 prices). It was believed that such a base would be vulnerable to a possible Russian landing, but the army command had its own counterarguments. In particular, it was noted that the facility is located at a great distance from large settlements, which reduces the loss of civilians in a possible nuclear war. At the same time, the launch complexes themselves would be constantly in touch, communication via a wired telephone network would provide greater security than radio. In addition, the new missiles had to be more accurate. In the end, the project was indeed given the green light, and the military began to work.
Implementation of the Ice Worm project
In the spring of 1959, the site was chosen to begin work, and a research station was established 150 miles from the Thule airbase, the starting point of the entire project, called "Camp Century". According to the project, the camp was to be located under the ice at an altitude of 2000 meters above sea level. The necessary construction equipment was delivered to the construction site of the camp, including powerful rotary installations designed for digging trenches.
Tunneling for Camp Century
In the process of work in the camp, 21 tunnels with a total length of 3000 meters were laid; in a small town in the snow, all the infrastructure necessary for life and work was created. While the process of driving some trenches was going on, inside others there was a process of assembling trailers-buildings from a wooden frame, which was sheathed with prefabricated panels. All buildings were placed on a wooden foundation to maintain an air gap between the floor and the snow base of the tunnel. A similar layer was maintained along all the walls in order to avoid thawing them. In addition to these measures, for additional heat removal, special ventilation holes were made to the surface. All communications were carried out - water supply, heating, power supply, while the pipes were covered with a thick layer of thermal insulation.
In July 1960, a year after construction began, a small nuclear reactor PM-2A, weighing 400 tons, arrived at Camp Century. The snow-covered hall, intended to house the reactor, was the largest of all built; its construction began immediately after the construction of residential buildings. From above, the hall was crowned with a frame made of metal beams, which, like the reactor, were delivered to the camp from the Tule airbase. The PM-2A reactor was specially designed and built by ALKO specialists within the framework of the Army Nuclear Energy Program, it generated a capacity of approximately 1.56 MW. The reactor contained 37 fuel rods that were housed in 49 cells. The fuel rods contained a mixture of beryllium carbide and highly enriched uranium dioxide, which was enclosed in a stainless steel housing. Five rods were regulating and consisted of Europium oxide. In addition to the reactor, the rest of the necessary elements of the power plant were brought to the base - a generator, a turbine, and control panels.
It took 77 days to assemble and install the reactor on site, after which it delivered the first current. In March 1961, the small-sized reactor reached its design capacity, having worked in the camp for a total of 33 months, excluding the downtime for its maintenance. The peak power consumption did not exceed 500 kW per hour, which was only 30 percent of its capacity. During the operation of the reactor, about 178 tons of radioactive water was generated at the base, which was poured directly into the Greenland ice cap. In addition to electricity, the reactor gave the camp 459 kg of steam per hour, the steam went to melt ice in a special well, which gave the camp 38 tons of fresh water per day.
Tunneling for Camp Century
After the completion of all construction work, up to 200 people lived in the camp annually. The construction costs of this facility amounted to $ 7, 92 million, another $ 5, 7 million cost a small-sized reactor (in 1960 prices). If we translate into today's rate, then the work cost the American taxpayers 57, 5 and 41, 5 million dollars, respectively. At the final stage of the project implementation, under the snow, the development of the infrastructure was located: residential houses, a kitchen and a dining room, showers, toilets, a recreation room, a library, a store, a theater, a 10-bed hospital and an operating room, a laundry room, a cold store for food, a scientific laboratory, a center communications, a nuclear power plant, an office building, a hairdresser's, a diesel-electric power plant, water storage tanks, and even had its own chapel.
Ice drilling was constantly going on in the camp. The results of the work were published in scientific journals, this was the official cover for this object, which was known as a science station. But in fact, the camp was investigating the possibility of building and operating the infrastructure of the Ice Worm project. The dimensions of the tunnels laid and the installed power system were as close as possible to those that should have been included in the project for which everything was started. Moreover, small wheeled trains were even launched through the tunnels - prototypes of carriers of future ballistic missiles. For the first time, data on this American project were announced only in 1997, when they became available to the Danish parliament.
Camp Century lasted until 1966, its work showed that the Iceworm project was impossible to implement. It was not common sense that defeated him, but the Greenland ice. Already in 1962, it became obvious that the ice movements on the island significantly exceed the calculated values. To maintain the dug tunnels in working order, trimming and snow removal were performed monthly. At the same time, the volume of snow and ice removed reached 120 tons per month, and this is for a system of tunnels with a length of only 3 thousand meters, while the Ice Worm project envisaged the construction of 4 thousand kilometers of tunnels, which would entail the monthly removal of millions of tons of snow. The deformation of the walls of the tunnels began from their upper part, which moved inward, trying to clamp down all the erected structures. The identified features and the reduction in funding for Arctic projects led to the fact that in 1963 the reactor was shut down and dismantled, and in 1966 the military left the camp completely. For several years, they continued to monitor him, until in 1969 ice and snow almost completely absorbed all the erected premises.
Possible environmental problems
The Ice Worm project was safely forgotten for decades, until the ice of Greenland began to melt. In 2016, researchers found that the effects of global warming led to the thinning of the ice sheet and the slow melting of those tunnels built by the US military. Melting ice in this area poses a threat to the ecology of the island. Radioactive waste may be on the surface. They are the ones who pose the greatest danger. For a long time, the United States kept silent about the information that during the implementation of the Ice Worm project, about 200 tons of radioactive water was produced, which was discharged directly into the Greenland ice cap. For the first time this became known only in 1997.
Camp Century Specialist in the Nuclear Reactor Section
The British newspaper Daily Star wrote about the fact that the American military base Camp Century, which was the launching pad for the "Iceworm" project, is thawing from ice and poses an increasing danger and threat to the environment in 2018. Experts believe that within a few decades, radioactive water and other waste from the base may end up in the atmosphere and ocean. It is believed that melted ice could potentially produce about 200,000 liters of diesel fuel, a similar amount of wastewater, and an unknown amount of toxic organic pollutants and chemical refrigerant that will enter the atmosphere. Environmentalists believe that if nothing is done, by 2090 the negative impact of harmful substances inherited from the Ice Worm project will no longer be reversed. This could happen earlier if the scale of climate change on the planet accelerates.
At the same time, the ice in Greenland continues to melt, this process has only intensified due to global warming on the planet. This is evidenced by the observations of scientists and the temperature statistics of the island - the summer of 2017 was the warmest in many years. In the capital of Greenland, Nuuk, in June, the air temperature rose to +24 degrees Celsius (the average June temperature for this city is +4, 1 degrees).
It seems that there is nowhere to rush, scientists give tens of years until the melting of ice becomes the cause of a possible chemical or radiation disaster, but the process of cleaning up the remaining legacy of the base may also take a fairly long period of time. At the same time, the United States and Denmark have not yet agreed on a work plan. Formally, the base currently remains the property of the US military, but it is not completely clear who exactly should collect the waste. So far, both countries refuse to allocate budget funds for a labor-intensive project, and also do not take on the risks of its implementation.
Photos of Camp Century
