A Cold War ice base left toxic waste behind, and warming Greenland could eventually set it free.

Camp Century was a U.S. Army base carved under Greenland’s ice during the Cold War. It was built in 1959 as a proof-of-concept “city” of tunnels—and a cover for a bigger idea: learning whether the ice sheet could hide military infrastructure.
When the base was abandoned in 1967, workers removed key reactor parts but left major waste behind, including diesel fuel, PCBs, and wastewater, plus low-level radioactive coolant tied to the nuclear power system.
As Greenland warms, scientists are rechecking the old assumption that snow would bury the site forever. New modeling suggests the hazard is long-term, not tomorrow, but it’s real.








