‘They thought it would snow forever’: Nuclear waste at Cold War base in Greenland being released due to global warming via Mirror

A top-secret Cold War base buried under the ice in Greenland which was used by the United States is at risk of releasing nuclear waste because of global wamring.

The US used the site – known as Camp Century – as a scientific centre where they would carry out experiments.

However it was also used as the centre for Project Iceworm, where the US hoped to fire nuclear missiles towards Russia from in the event that nuclear war would break out.

But the site was decommissioned in 1967, with the military leaving it fully intact.

Officers were told that the site would remain covered because of constant snowfall.

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The Geophysical Research Letters, a journal of the American Geophysical Union, is now warning that the ice is melting faster than snow is falling.

Liam Colgan, a climate scientist at York University in Toronto, said: “Two generations ago, people were interring waste in different areas of the world.

[…]

“They did take out the nuclear reaction vessel, but they left everything else in place. Buildings, trucks, supplies, waste, all of it. They thought it would snow forever.”

Experts say that in Greenland the ice sheets in the area are melting at a rate of 8,000 tons every second.

There are now fears that the contents of the site could seep into the ocean as a result of climate change.