Plutonium 238 on Nanda Devi

[ScottP]

I was watching this ESPN segment about a 60's era spy program whereby the US and India planned to mount a nuclear-powered listening device on the summit of Nanda Devi to eavesdrop on the Chinese. The expediton was abandon and it was decided (according to the CIA guy being interviewed)by the Indian contingent to strap the nuclear powered unit to a ledge until the next year when they could finish the mission. Not surprisingly the plan was then scrapped and the 4 pounds of plutonium subsequently went missing from the ledge. The CIA guy being interviewed said the sherpas liked carrying the 30-40 lb device because it was so warm. In the next sentence he said it was certain that the sherpas who carried the device died as a result.

 

Not a new story, but new to me.

 

Pete Takeda's perspective...

[Serenity]

There is a book detailing the small amount of knowledge that is known.

 

"Spy On The Roof Of The World : Espionage and Survival in the Himalayas" by Sydney Wignall

 

The politic behind the incident, is compelling. China came over the border after Delhi postured about some road, and bitch slapped the Indian Army before withdrawing.

[MarkMcJizzy]

Takeda's book is poorly written, and goes off into many spurious tangents (is this book really the proper place to recount the {erroneous} industrial history of Gore-Tex). It is sadly too much about Pete Tadeka, and not enough about Nanda Devi.

 

A couple of more books that deal with this region

 

 

"War at the top of the world: The Struggle for Afghanistan, Kashmir, and Tibet" by Eric Margolis (2000) Reviews

 

"Spies in the Himalayas: Secret missions and perilous climbs" by M.S. Kohli (2003) Reviews

 

Much of the first book is now dated, as it was written prior to 2001. Never the less, is an excellent primer on the volatile nature of this area, and it's historical chapters are first-rate.

 

The second book recounts the placements of several nuclear powered "listening" devices in the Indian Himalaya, in the early to mid 1960. This book is much better than Pete Takeda's, although there were a couple of minor errors which Pete Takeda points out. Most of the errors were due to the unavailability in internal Indian documents.

 

The participation of civilian American climbers caused much controversy, and the false accusations that the 1975 American K2 Expedition was involved in a similar cause is recounted in Galen Rowells book "In the Throne Room of the Mountain Gods"

Edited August 14, 2007 by Markmckillop

[pup_on_the_mountain]

ESPN Video on Nanda Devi.

[Drederek]

I liked the part on ESPN where the announcer said something like they were patriots who did it for their country. Seems more likely to me they did it for a free trip to the Himalayas!