Cold War-era US nuclear missile base discovered beneath Greenland ice

Camp Century, a secret Cold War-era underground US military base designed to house 600 intermediate-range ballistic missiles, was discovered beneath Greenland’s ice sheet in the spring of 2024. 

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report reveals that the facility was far more than a missile depot—it was an entire subterranean complex.

NASA scientists found the long-abandoned base in April 2024 during a survey of the Greenland ice sheet. Originally powered by a nuclear reactor, Camp Century was built in 1959 and operated for several years before being abandoned in 1967. Since then, the structure had been gradually buried under snow and ice, now lying approximately 30 meters below the surface in northwestern Greenland, near the American space base Pituffik.

The WSJ published detailed plans of the base, revealing a comprehensive complex that included a theatre, a chapel, a gym, a library, a mess hall, a command room, and various technical facilities. These facilities included a reactor room (which also housed hot nuclear waste), a backup power station, a cooling system chamber, fuel storage tanks, and research rooms. A long corridor linked all sections of the facility and led to a surface exit hidden under a small snow mound.

Photographs published by the outlet show snow-covered interiors, with some walls effectively made of solid ice. The base’s entrance from the surface is barely distinguishable in a low, snowy hill.

Camp Century was initially conceived as part of a top-secret project to test the feasibility of deploying nuclear missiles under Arctic ice. The plan required the construction of an intricate network of tunnels beneath Greenland’s ice cap. However, due to the constant shifting of the ice, the project proved unworkable and was ultimately abandoned.

Although American personnel removed the nuclear reactor and its research chamber, they left behind thousands of tons of waste, including radioactive materials. At the time, US authorities assumed the waste would remain permanently entombed under the ice. However, with the acceleration of glacial melt due to global warming, this assumption is now being reconsidered.

A 2016 study, as reported by Politico, warned that the remnants of the base could surface completely by the end of the 21st century. That prediction was later revised in 2021, with scientists concluding the base was unlikely to emerge by 2100.

By Tamilla Hasanova