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Melting Greenland ice could expose Cold War waste

CCTV.com

09-28-2016 14:51 BJT

A snow-covered former US army base in Greenland could leak nuclear waste into the environment as the climate changes. That's according to a study published in August in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

The secret US base to deploy nuclear missiles was built in 1959 and then abandoned eight years later. The US army removed the nuclear reactor but allowed waste -- equivalent to the mass of 30 Airbus A320 airplanes -- to be entombed under the snow. The study now warns by 2090, the amount of ice melting may no longer be offset by snowfall, meaning the toxic chemicals could start leaking into the environment.

Since excavating the site would be hugely expensive, leader of the study believes a clean-up operation would have to wait until the camp has been uncovered by the melting ice.

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