Keep away from these lighthouses

Posted on 1/8/2009 by Younghusband

Imagine steering a ship along the desolate northern Russian coast; an endless succession of rocky outcroppings, half-hidden by polar fog. Worse yet, imagine manning one of these frozen outposts, hundreds of miles from civilization and technology. The Communist party of the Soviet Union found a solution to avert the latter fate: self-sustaining nuclear-powered lighthouses. From “English Russia”:http://englishrussia.com/?p=2198:

bq. … special lightweight small atomic reactors were produced in limited series to be delivered to the Polar Circle lands and to be installed on the lighthouses. Those small reactors could work in the independent mode for years and didn’t require any human interference, so it was very handy in the situation like this. It was a kind of robot-lighthouse which counted itself the time of the year and the length of the daylight, turned on its lights when it was needed and sent radio signals to near by ships to warn them on their journey.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union the lighthouses lay abandoned, looted by fearless robbers looking for precious metals. They are also apparently a tourist attraction. “See all the photos”:http://englishrussia.com/?p=2198.

Russian nuclear lighthouse (outside)

Russian nuclear lighthouse (inside)

_Via_ “Warren Ellis”:http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=6901

For more spooky architecture of the past see “WWII AT-ATs”:http://cominganarchy.com/2008/09/28/wwii-at-ats/

About Younghusband

Sir Francis Edward Younghusband (1863-1942) was a British explorer, army officer, military-political officer, and foreign correspondent born in India who led expeditions into Manchuria, Kashgar, and Tibet. He three times tried and failed to scale Mt. Everest and journeyed from China to India, crossing the Gobi desert and the Mustagh Pass (alt. c.19,000 ft/5,791 m) of the Karakoram mountain range in modern day Pakistan. Convinced of Russian designs on British interests in India, Younghusband proactively engaged in the nineteenth century spying and conflict over Central Asia between the British and the Russians known as the Great Game. "Younghusband" is a Canadian who has spent a number of years bouncing back and forth between his home country and Japan. Fluent in Japanese and English with experience in numerous other languages from Spanish to Georgian, Younghusband has travelled throughout Asia. He graduated with an MA from the War Studies Department at the Royal Military College of Canada, where he focussed on the Japanese oil industry and energy security issues. He has recently returned to Canada from Japan, and is working in the technology sector.
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2 Responses to Keep away from these lighthouses

  1. Pingback: Codex Politicus Farurile nucleare din Rusia

  2. Jon Claerbout says:
    1/8/2009 at 6:18 pm

    In the deep recesses of my mind, in the early days of the internet I did a search on the word “threnody” and came up with a story of the cold war era. The Soviets had used some such small nuclear power plant in antarctic which ended up killing all their staff.