Sunday, March 21, 2010

The Radioactive Weirdness On Nanda Kot

Wiki:
Nanda Kot is a mountain peak of the Himalaya range located in the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand state in India. It lies in the Kumaon Himalaya, just outside of the ring of peaks enclosing the Nanda Devi Sanctuary, 15 kilometres (9 mi) southeast of Nanda Devi itself. The name Nanda Kot literally means "Nanda's Fortress" and refers to the abode of one of the sacred forms of the Hindu Goddess Parvati who in legend has made her sanctuary amongst the ring of lofty mountains in the region.

In 1965, a covert mission was launched by an Indo-American team with the goal of installing a surveillance device on the top of Nanda Devi mountain to monitor Chinese nuclear and missile activity in Tibet. Shortly after delivery to the mountain, the thermonuclear generator designed to supply power to the sensor was lost during a storm and threatened to become a source of radioactive contamination to the area. Following upon at least three futile attempts between 1966-1968 to locate and recover the lost apparatus, it is said that in 1968 a similar device placed only the year before on Nanda Kot was dismantled. After more than a decade of secrecy, this story hit the Indian news media in 1978. There is still debate over these expeditions and whether any remnants of the radioactive materials remain in the vicinity of Nanda Kot to this day.

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