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We think of Antarctica as a place to protect. It's "pristine", "remote" and "untouched". (Although a recent discovery reveals it's less isolated from the world than previously thought.)
But it wasn't always this way. Between 1961 and 1972 McMurdo Station was home to Antarctica's first and only portable nuclear reactor, known as PM-3A, or "Nukey Poo." The little-known story of Nukey Poo offers a useful lens through which to examine two ways of valuing the far south: as a place to develop, or a place to protect.
[...] "Nukey Poo" began producing power for the McMurdo station in 1962, and was refuelled for the first time in 1964. A decade later, the optimism around the plant had faded. The 25-man team required to run the plant was expensive, while concerns over possible chloride stress corrosion emerged after the discovery of wet insulation during a routine inspection. Both costs and environmental impacts conspired to close the plant in September 1972.
https://phys.org/news/2018-07-antarctica-nuclear-nukey-poo.html
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(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @03:58AM (2 children)
The PM-2A reactor at Camp Century in Greenland was also termed a "portable" reactor. However, it was shipped in in pieces. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_Nuclear_Power_Program#List_of_plants [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 24 2018, @04:04AM
story about Camp Century: https://soylentnews.org/article.pl?sid=16/08/08/081225 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Tuesday July 24 2018, @06:19PM
And as the AC article points out, the Anarctic station however playfully named was officially "PM-3A" and part of the Army Nuclear Power Program. That it was Anarctica is notable but it wasn't the first in a hostile cold climate.
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