Arcane History: the Silent War on Terror

Arcane History

May 21, 1964 - 1st lighthouse begins nuclear-powered operations (Chesapeake Bay). It was a test site of a STRONTIUM-90 FUEL CELL using a 60-watt radioisotope nuclear generator (RNG), 345 inches high, weighing 4,600 pounds, supplies continuous power for 10 years before refueling. Currently, the old (built 1908) lighthouse amid the cheapeake is SOLAR POWERED.

In November 2003, Two Strontium containing Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators (RTGs) used to power navigation beacons and lighthouses were ripped to pieces by unknown vandals in the area of Russia's Kola Peninsula. Damage was so severe that Murmansk Regional officials designated the incident as a "radioactive accident." The strontium-90 cores—with a half life of 26.5 years— were left at the sites of the navigation devices. They are highly radioactive—emitting some 1000 roentgens per hour—and local police officials and officials from the Murmansk Regional Federal Security Service, or FSB, said in interviews with Bellona Web that the suspects could well be dead or seriously ill.

In 2004, NTV reported that Murmansk authorities are removing all nuclear-powered lighthouses and replacing them with solar energy by 2005.