The “Iceworm” plan was one of the most ambitious designed by the US during the Cold War. It involved the creation of secret missile launch bases under the ice of Greenland, without the consent of Denmark to which the island belonged.
The Americans' goal was to develop mobile medium-range ballistic missile launchers aimed at the Soviet Union. In order to mislead the Danes, but also the Soviets, the Americans created the Camp Century plan which they duly communicated. This plan began to be implemented in 1959 and concerned the creation of a "scientific" base in Greenland.
Great Expectations
The Camp Century base was established on a plateau at an altitude of 2,000 m at a distance of 240 km from the American air base Thule in northwest Greenland. The "Thuli" base was active from 1951 with the consent of Denmark and with the knowledge of the Soviets.
The 'Iceworm' plan envisaged the construction of 4,000 km of tunnels under the ice in which 600 nuclear-tipped missiles aimed at the Soviet Union would be deployed. The Danes gave their consent to the creation of Camp Century without knowing what the Americans were planning.
All they knew was that the base would be powered by a nuclear reactor. The official American justification was that the base would test new construction techniques in an arctic environment , the problems of operating mobile nuclear reactors would be examined and scientific experiments would be carried out.
A total of 21 trenches were created and covered with ice ceilings. The total length of the arcades eventually reached 3 km. Under the ice a hospital, church, theater and store were created for the needs of the staff numbering a total of 200 people. The world's first portable nuclear reactor PM-2A was also used.
However, the plan was abandoned in 1966 as the glaciers were moving faster than anticipated and the entire facility was in danger of being destroyed. Even the operation of the nuclear reactor affected the environment and its operation ceased in 1963.
Disclosure
The secret American plans became known only in the late 1990s. According to them the missile base would have an area of 130,000 square kilometers. The launch sites would have a height of 8.5m. Each year new firing positions would be excavated so that within five years there would be thousands of firing positions ready for the missiles that would be deployed there, a special "double-decker" variant of the Minuteman called the Iceman.
When in 1967 the base was finally abandoned the materials were all left there with the thought that they would be buried forever in the ice. But a 2016 study showed that, under current conditions, by 2100 the entire base will be exposed as ice at the site melts. When this happens the nuclear, maybe even chemical and biological "garbage" that the Americans left behind will affect the environment.
Map of Camp Century.