Denmark: US must clean up military waste in Greenland

COPENHAGEN: Greenland is calling on Denmark to clean up an abandoned under-ice missile project and other US military installations left to rust in the pristine landscape after the Cold War.

The 1951 deal under which NATO member Denmark allowed the US to build 33 bases and radar stations in the former Danish province doesn’t specify who’s responsible for any clean up.

Tired of waiting, Greenland’s local leaders are now urging Denmark to remove the junk that the Americans left behind, including Camp Century, a never-completed launch site for nuclear missiles under the surface of the massive ice cap.

“Unless Denmark has entered other agreements with the United States about Camp Century, the responsibility for investigation and clean up lies with Denmark alone,” said Vittus Qujaukitsoq, Greenland’s minister in charge of foreign affairs.

Camp Century was built in 195960 in northwestern Greenland, officially to test sub-ice construction techniques. The real plan was top secret: creating a hidden launch site for ballistic missiles that could reach the Soviet Union. The project was abandoned in 1966 because the ice cap began to crush the camp.

The US removed a portable nuclear reactor that had supplied heat and electricity, but left an estimated 200,000 litres of diesel oil and sewage, according to an international study published in August.

Scientists are warning that as global warming melts the ice cap, the waste could surface and pollute the environment. The US military was interested in Greenland during the Cold War due to its strategic location in the Arctic. Under the 1951 agreement, the US also built four radar stations as part of an early warning system to detect incoming Soviet bombers. — AP