On June 25, 1960, the United States Navy Ship (USNS) Marine Fiddler departed from Buffalo, NY. It was the first cargo ship of the 1960 shipping season in the Arctic. It arrived at Thule on July 10, 1960, carrying some of the most important cargo the Army would see for years to come.
In three days of uninterrupted operations, the Army’s first small modular reactor would be placed in trailers and shipped to Camp Tuto. It was designated as PM-2A.
Roland Jasmin was one of the service members that were part of Polar Research & Development Center (PR&DC) out of Fort Belvoir. From there, the reactor was transferred to sleds where it would find its new home at Camp Century.
The Camp Century PM-2A reactor cost around $6 million dollars at the time. The 800 pound core was the equivalent to more than a million gallons of diesel fuel (1 pound of uranium equaled around 6,000 pounds of diesel).
