Overview
- NASA and JPL identified the buried base using UAVSAR aboard a Gulfstream III during an April 2024 flight that imaged subsurface structures.
- Camp Century was built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1959–1960 with 21 tunnels extending roughly 9,800 feet.
- The PM-2 nuclear reactor that powered the camp was removed at closure in 1967, but about 47,000 gallons of radioactive waste remain under the ice.
- Researchers caution that continued ice loss could begin exposing parts of the site around 2090, with no evidence reported of any current release.
- The facility was tied to Project Iceworm, a Cold War plan to base missiles under the ice that was never implemented under the U.S.–Denmark defense framework.